oneworld member LAN will be flying Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile (where they have a whole route network beyond to elsewhere in the region) 3 times a week between October 16 and March 25 operated by a Boeing 787.
The aircraft offers 2-2-2 fully flat seats.
Per One Mile at a Time award availability is wide open. He points out as many as 7 business class seats per flight.
I didn’t do a search for 7 seats, but had a look at 4 business class seats and see availability in both directions for November and through mid-December. Here’s November:
Award prices:
- You can use American Airlines miles to connect through Los Angeles, to Santiago, and beyond to elsewhere in ‘South America 2’ for 50,000 miles each way in business class. Note that AA.com does not show LAN award space. Search using the British Airways or Qantas sites then call American to book.
- You can use Alaska Airlines miles to fly from Los Angeles, or from any city where Alaska airlines flies to Los Angeles, to Santiago, and beyond to elsewhere in South America for 45,000 miles each way in business class.
- You can use British Airways Avios with no fuel surcharges. Since the flight is 5569 miles, that puts you into the 5501 to 6500 mile band that costs 90,000 Avios each way and of course that only buys you the one flight segment.
American lets you put an award on hold for up to 5 days, so you can lock in the award you want and then buy points you need with the current discount offer or even in many cases transfer from Starwood Preferred Guest.
Man, these typos! “does does” should be “does NOT”, I assume?
IAD-LIM also has pretty good availability, sometimes 7 seats in Business and 7 in Economy. LAN begins flying this route sometimes this summer.
Husband and I flew LAN business last week – EZE-SCL and SCL-MEX and much to our surprise and relief, we loved it. Was more than pleasantly surprised, and would fly them again without hesitation.
Feel sorry for all those Brits who are tied to BA as they clearly got massively shafted when Avios devalued. 90k one-way when everyone else is charging 45-50k is absurd. for US based flyers Avios are basically useful only on the 241 Chase voucher and maybe for ultra short haul though that sweet spot is/has disappeared.
This is a great deal – Chile is a fascinating country and a good jumping off point to Argentina as well. And perfect to visit in summer (northern hemisphere winter).
The Zika outbreak is probably why families are not flying to S Alerica in these seats.
Sure, hurry up and catch Zika.
@Gary – Strange, when I search BA site I find the avails you mention through 2016 but….when I search in 2017 I get:
Error British Airways and its partners do not fly this route. Please consider alternative destinations or call your Executive Club Service Centre.
Is that just some weird glitch?
@Howard the route isn’t a permanent one (yet?)