BA miles on LAN - what did you book?

JFK-SCL-IPC(layover)-PPT; PPT-IPC(layover)-SCL-JFK. Mileage in coach is the same for both AA & BA, but BA allows the free stop in IPC (BA would have allowed additional stops in SCL/LIM/EZE if I had more time). This was before LAN added LIM-IPC, which is discussed upthread.

I got 3 business class tickets for 80K each SFO-LIM-GRU-LIM-SFO in July for parents and daughter. Used the BA website for redemption. Only issue has been after redemption trying to enter the passenger security information - the BA site just doesn't like the data I enter.

Was that an 80k coach ticket?

Do you mind sharing which month you booked the ticket? I found no availability on BA for several months (mainly for IPC <-> PPT). Lan does show availability on Wednesday flights but it asks for 64000 LAN points instead of the published rate of 40000. I don't know if that's the reason why BA can't get those tickets. TIA!

I'm not the person you asked your question, but I will give you my guess. The reason BA can't see it may be because LA doesn't have it for "low" miles. This happens a lot in other frequent flyer programs. For example, only sAAver domestic awards (those at 25k R/T) are available to book with BA miles, not the AAnytime ones (those at 50k R/T). Additionally, there is anecdotal evidence that LA doesn't make all its award seats available to partners (ex. AA). Frustrating for sure! I'm just repeating what I read, and have no firsthand knowledge with this, although I hope to book within the next year.

JFK-SCL one way and MIA-SCL one way, both in J: 40000 points each. This gets us to a SCL-FLL cruise for $140 all in ($95 BA visa annual fee + $45 for 2 booking fees) vs. ~$2000 for one way coach tickets!

So, we have been playing with the BA award availability. (DH has BA miles, I have AA) Would an open jaw be permissible in addition to the stopovers? (We would like to take a cruise SCL-EZE). So, we'd be looking at: LAX-SCL-IPC-SCL (destination) <open jaw for cruise> EZE-CUZ (stopover)--LIM-LAX. Would this be allowed?

BA allows booking to be "one-ways" with stopovers along the most direct routing ("direct" is open to interpretation). An open jaw would be permitted for one outbound and one return, which would be the same as two one-ways.

It looks like your itinerary above would be priced as 4 one-ways, but here are a few ideas:

I don't think backtracking is allowed on a one-way, which would make LAX-SCL-IPC-SCL an outbound (LAX-SCL-IPC) and return (IPC-SCL). If they're flying LIM-IPC on your dates, you may be able to have LAX-LIM-IPC-SCL as one one-way (rather than two one-ways).

Even if you tried LAX-LIM-IPC-SCL-EZE-CUZ (without an open jaw), that would be a hard sell as direct routing. Secondly I don't see EZE-CUZ as a route (see LAN route map) as CUZ flights are shown as going through LIM (unless this is new service and the route map is out of date). You may consider is EZE-LIM(stopover)-LAX & then have LIM-CUZ-LIM as another ticket (award or paid). If you have SPG points you can redeem then 1:2 (or 1:2.5) for LAN km which you can use for intra-peru award (LAN award chart) LIM-CUZ-LIM is 16000 km or only 8k SPG (or your buying two award tickets transfer 20k SPG into 50k LanPass)

Another data point. This week I booked JFK-LIM-IPC (dest)-SCL-EZE/AEP-GRU-LIM-JFK for 80k in business class (except SCL-EZE and AEP-GRU were only avail in coach around my desired travel days). $240 all in taxes/fees per person for Sept 2012.
Stopping everywhere except LIM on the return leg since doing that on the way down.

P.S. Any way I can get business class if becomes available on the two legs that are now coach? If so, how?

Another data point. A friend and I booked the following two awards in April 2010 for Sept 2010 travel. Thanks Chase! LAN Business class was better than I expected.

SFO - LIM - SCL (stop) - IPC (business class - 40k)
IPC - SCL (stop) - MDZ (stop) - AEP (to avoid the reciprocity fee in EZE) (coach - 12.5k!)

The unlimited stopovers using the most direct routing approach really made the award generous. Granted, it took a little time to build/research the flights with the horrendous BA website, along with the hassle of phoning agents -- but it was all worthwhile.

Note that the BAEC offices are based in the east coast and close at a pretty early time. A few times I called after dinner they didn't pick up or told me to try back another time because they were closed.

We booked for March-April 2012 LAX-SCL(stopover during which we'll take a cruise through the Chilean fjords to Buenos Aires and environs and then fly back to SCL on our own nickel)-IPC (dest)-LIM-CUZ (stopover to visit Machu Picchu)-LIM-SCL-JFK. As of now, can't find a return to the West Coast, so we'll visit some family on the East Coast and add a return home some way. 80K miles each in Business Class. Really looking forward to this trip for my birthday!

JFK-LIM-EZE-SCL-IPC booked in biz for 40k on LAN.

Not much tax at all, now looking into my return

No, but this routing seems to leave you with ~300 in reciprocity fees, if I understand correctly.

What exactly does that mean? And i assume its not possible to fix now...?

Okay just did a little research. From what i understand the reciprocity fee is charged upon entering Argentina, no matter which airport one enters from. It is also a fee that's paid one time and is then good for 10 years.

This is just my understanding.

My understanding is that LIM-IPC-SCL does not lead to a reciprocity fee for Chile. And SCL-MDZ-AEP avoids the same in Argentina.

Someone said in paticular that they had paid a fee for entering AEP.

That's right - it's because AEP was the point of entry into the country. Whereas above its MDZ that is the POE, with a domestic connection to AEP.

Aha, alright so I may have messed up a little then

With BA is it free to refund and retry?

I assume not.

Also is it free to change dates (but not routes) of award tickets?

<edit> What would the most direct route from IPC to MPN be on LAN? Like what should I be asking British to check?

For a while, Argentina only collected reciprocity fees on arrival at their biggest airport EZE, so flying into the domestic airport via MDZ meant you could bypass the fee.

Not sure if it has changed since Sept 2010, but I do know for a while they did redirect all AEP flights for EZE for airport renovations last year.

Your

I believe most changes on BA awards will cost you the standard $70 fee. YMMV depending on agent reached.

Honestly if you ever plan on going back to those countries the fee isn't so bad. Chile's is good for life of passport and Argentina's from ten years.

Honestly your itinerary is pretty hard to obtain so if there's any risk to messing it up I'd suggest living with the fees. The value you are getting from a redemption using LAN & stopovers is amazing.

So I can get from IPC to SCL or even PUQ, but I can't get from there to MPN, should i be checking routings other than

IPC - SCL - MPN
and
IPC - SCL - PUQ - MPN ?

Where does BA fly out of South America (after my trip I'm thinking of heading over to asia, hopefully with a free stopover in LHR)?

It looks like they may have EZE - Rio - LHR, then i could do LHR - HKG - BKK or something like that.

http://www.flightmapping.com/maps/SouthAmerica/

Not sure if this is adding up correctly or not.

Will BA allow me to go from South America -> EU -> Asia? Or am I going to have to use 2 awards?

Does it make a difference if i fly CX for some of it instead of BA all the way?

One of my favorite things to do is to play around with the OneWorld network map:
http://onw.innosked.com/?show=MAP

If you are curious of where you can go from, say, IPC -- click on that dot and check "Non-stop flights only". Optionally filter by your preferred airline -- useful for BA awards where the best redemptions are on the same carrier.

Note that LAN Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, etc all fall under LAN so you shouldn't have issues mixing and matching.

Are Lima, BA and Santiago all stop overs?