Panama City-based Star Alliance airline Copa, which used United’s MileagePlus as its frequent flyer program until this summer, is getting up and running.
They’ve been aggressively status matching especially United elites and folks with Latin America mailing addresses and with status in competitor programs.
They’ve handed out free miles just for joining. And they have reasonable award charts.
The program was set up by Russ Hinckley, who used to run Northwest Worldperks (pre-Delta merger) and US Airways Dividend Miles (under Fern Fernandez, who had worked for him at Northwest, before the American merger). So it doesn’t surprise me they’re being aggressive.
I much like this new promotion for actually flying Copa.
You can earn successively more bonus miles for flying to Copa’s ‘new destinations’.
Here’s the earning table:
And here are the qualifying destinations:
Terms and Conditions Apply
1. Exclusive offer for ConnectMiles Members.
2. The member must register for the promotion before 03/31/16 at 11:59 pm (CT).
3. Travel or travels must be completed before 03/31/16 at 11:59 pm (CT).
4. The promotion is valid only to flights taken after the registration.
5. Promotion applies only when flying Copa Airlines and Copa Airlines Colombia.
6. The bonus does not apply to credit points/miles to any other loyalty program.
7. The miles obtained with the bonus do not qualify for a preferential status (PreferProgram).
8. Each subscriber can only earn one bonus. In case the member travels to a number of destinations located between the ranges defined in above graph, the bonus of less mileage will apply. Example, if the member flies to 7 destinations, only the 5 destinations bonus will apply.
9. Not applicable to repeated flights to the same destination.
10. Only the destinations stated in this communication will qualify for this promotion. 11. Schedules and destinations are subject to change.
12. The bonus will be credited in your ConnectMiles account 4 to 6 weeks after the promotion ends.
13. Promotion subject to change without prior notice. Other restrictions may apply.
14. All ConnectMiles terms and conditions apply.
Did I miss something in the terms, or would a round trip between two of those destinations “count” as having visited 2? This would theoretically require less than ten trips, right? I haven’t yet looked up the flight schedule to see if that’s possible, obviously. Do they have to be round trip flights? Or does a 1-way to those destinations count?
Since the flights have to be on COPA metal, it would seem that you’d have to be at or fly through a COPA hub each time to reach these destinations. Six of the destinations, for example, are in North America and the only way to get to them would be by going to Latin America (most likely Panama) first. I don’t see how most U.S. based flyers are going to be able to take advantage of this promotion. I’d be intrigued if lived in Panama, but living where I do I can’t see a logical way to approach this. There are lower tiers, but those aren’t lucrative at all. Are there strategies I’m not seeing?
Yes you are missing the fact that each time you go to Panama, you can visit a brothel. Depending on your budget you can get a hooker with low miles or high mileage.
Hmm. 3 destinations per ticket (2 in the US, 1 elsewhere via PTY). I’d assume they publish routes between all US destinations and all non-US destinations via PTY at this point. And they price super aggressively. So 3 round trips and a one-way, perhaps, or 4 r/t. Maybe $450 average per ticket; call it $1800 + transit expenses. 150K miles plus flown, maybe another 20K. I presume they’d status match me from AA EXP, so upgrades possible on some or all of those flights. Likely enough flying to retain bottom tier status. I’m tempted. I can think of worse things to do in January than fly back and forth across Central America for a week.