The schedule for American Airlines’ Miami – Santiago flight AA957 switches on April 14:
Schedule Change Causes Fantastic American Airlines Premium Cabin Award Space to South America
Oddly we never see Sunday or Monday departures from the US, or Thursday/Friday returns to the US available.
(In early November the late AA957 becomes a 767, and a second earlier flight on an unreconfigured 777 is added to the schedule.)
Dallas departures to Santiago become wide open in first class on Wednesdays and Fridays only during the summer months… while return availability from Santiago to Dallas is wide open pretty much every day except Thursday and Friday.
Using the most common miles for this route:
- American charges 62,500 miles per person each way for US-South American in first class. You can add connecting flights onto this on both ends as-available at that price point.
- US Airways charges the same price as American.
- British Airways charges 75,000 miles per person each way in first class for just this segment. There are no fuel surcharges.
For reference here’s the Ultimate Guide to Constructing an International Award Ticket Using American Miles.
(HT: kd5mdk at Traveling Better)
- You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
![](http://viewfromthewing.com/2014/10/21/one-last-hurrah-americans-first-class-flagship-suite/" target=_blank>with first class</a> and older angled business).</ul>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://viewfromthewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Switchover.jpg">
<p>I reviewed the American Airlines Flagship Suite product in October <a href="http://viewfromthewing.com/2014/10/21/one-last-hurrah-americans-first-class-flagship-suite/" target=_blank>flying New York – Buenos Aires</a> and <a href="http://viewfromthewing.com/2014/11/03/american-airlines-first-class-review-buenos-aires-new-york-jfk" target=_blank>Buenos Aires-New York</a>.</p>
<ul><img decoding="async" src="http://3rjfy21znlo631twxe405qqvzc4.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/IMG_7728.jpg" height="360" width="480"></ul>
<ul><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://3rjfy21znlo631twxe405qqvzc4.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/IMG_7765.jpg" height="360" width="480"></ul>
<p>When this switch happens, <U>first class award space</u> on the route opens wide up. And availability continues in a similar fashion through end of schedule (which is presently creeping out towards mid-December). </p>
<p><span id="more-30078"></span>Here’s what non-stop first class searches for Miami – Santiago for two passengers look like:</p>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://viewfromthewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AprMayAvail.jpg"></p>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://viewfromthewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/MayJuneAvail.jpg"></p>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://viewfromthewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AugSept.jpg"></p>
<p>Returning from Santiago offers similarly-generous first class award availability.</p> <!-- /1019006/BoardingArea_DynamicContent -->
<div id=){kind=link}
Is DFW-SCL-LIM a valid routing for the 40k South America zone 1 pricing?
Gary– This is actually in relation to your earlier National Rental Car post, but since the comments on that entry are raffle entries, it didn’t seem appropriate to get this to you via a comment there. You suggested, as does the World Elite Mastercard site, that a WEM comes with National Executive status. But when I go to the relevant National page ( https://www.nationalcar.com/index.do?action=/hotDealsTemplate&msg=national-mcworldelite ) and click through to upgrade my membership, it says the deal is expired. Is the deal expired? Do you know? Do you have a suggestion as to whom I should contact? Thanks in advance.
@nikdro – no, you cannot connect US-South America 2-Central/South America 1.
@Rose interesting, where does it say expired? have you called them?
@Gary If you click the link that says “Enroll Now or Upgrade your Emerald Club status” it takes you a page saying that “Unfortunately,” the offer is expired– though this might be an IT glitch? Who would you call, National or World Elite Mastercard?
Nice, over 50% of the dates have availability for two. Also, at least out of my connection city, I am finding a reasonable amount of connecting flights to Dallas to get onto the SCL flights.
Finally been able to book one of these trips in F, and only $117 in tax’s for two..
the downside: you’d have to fly American Airlines! I’m half-kidding, but the food on AA in my experience is just terrible. So much worse than Delta or United. They’d have to pay me 62.5k miles to eat that stuff!
Can I still use USDM to travel to South America on partner airlines because it may cost less than using AA miles? Or is it better to use AA miles to travel to EZE, SCL and IPC? Am I better off booking two separate segments since only LAN will fly between SCL and IPC? If USDM costs less miles, then it probably makes more sense using Avios to fly to and from IPC correct? Thanks
US Airways has the same price as American for travel on AA to South America
Hello Gary,
Do you know the routes of the reconfigured AA planes (767 and 777)?
Gary,
Lima is in South America, so nikdro’s routing of LAX-SCL-LIM should be valid.
@Jimmy, American places Lima in a different zone from SCL so nikdro cannot connect in SCL enroute to LIM.
@Rafael, sure —
The reconfigured 767 routes are:
New York – Zurick, MIlan, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, São Paulo/Campinas, Rio
Miami – Paris, São Paulo/Campinas
Chicago – Paris
I believe next up is Miami – Rio.
I’m not as positive on the 777 routes, I believe Miami – Barcelona and Madrid and Miami- Buenos Aires next.
Gary:
Thank you so very much for the “heads-up”!!
Chile is high on my travel bucket list.
Found CLE-DFW-SCL-DFW-CLE, for two, all four flights in an AA 772 F (250k miles) for late October travel.
Billiken
Gary – why are they swapping out the new product for the old product? Seems like a step back.