retiredinflorida

Can I travel from Miami to Tahiti with a stop in Easter Island and Saintago (one in each direction) on one award ticket flying with LAN?

Thanks in advance.

Patty

With the All Partner award rule changes, you can no longer have a stopover outside of North America so it would require a series of one way awards.

I think you could do this for less mileage on a Oneworld award but you need an additional carrier (other than AA). Perhaps something like MIA-GRU-EZE-SCL-IPC-PPT-IPC-SCL-MIA with GRU-EZE on BA (does that work?). Or after Mexicana joins, maybe MIA-MEX-SCL-IPC-PPT-IPC-SCL-MIA.

I'm waiting for someone to come along with better ideas.

Gardyloo

Tahiti is regarded as being in the southwest Pacific, so it would require two all-partner awards, North America < > South America and South America < > SW Pacific.

The Oneworld award Patty mentioned would work but depending on class of travel might cost more miles than the two separate awards. The Oneworld awards require the use of two Oneworld airlines in addition to AA (if AA is used at all.) Lan is one, and there are two routes involving South America that qualify for the second carrier - the British Airways Sao Paolo - Buenos Aires flight, and Japan Airlines' JFK - Sao Paolo flight.

Patty

<i>Tahiti is regarded as being in the southwest Pacific, so it would require two all-partner awards, North America < > South America and South America < > SW Pacific.</i>

Could you stopover at IPC this way? I thought that wasn't possible anymore?

Gardyloo

Your NA - SA award would terminate at IPC; your SA - SWP award would begin and end there, so you could "stop over" between awards. Stopping over at SCL would be okay on the NA < > SA award as I read the rules.

Award 1 - MIA-oSCL-oIPC-xSCL-MIA
Award 2 - IPC-PPT-IPC

Patty

IPC is considered South Pacific (even though it's part of Chile) at least as of late last year. Has that changed?

As far as the stopover rules, I'm reading it to mean that the stopover can only be at the NA gateway.

<i>Q: Do one-way awards include any stopovers?
A: Awards between North America and Europe, India, Asia, and Central / South America allow a stopover at the North American gateway. However, other one-way awards do not allow stopovers.</i>

Gardyloo

Oops - my day for misteaks I geuss.

I believe you're right Patty - IPC is in the SWP for award purposes, in S. America for RTW and airpass purposes. So finagling a stopover in both IPC and Tahiti might be difficult. It might trigger the need for a third award, this one for intra-regional travel (i.e. IPC-PPT-IPC as an intra-SWP award.)

Patty

I <i>think</i> you could string together 4 one ways at the following mileage in order to stop at all 3 locations.

Something like NA-SP(37.5/62.5), SP-SP(20/30), SP-SA2(37.5/50) and SA2-NA(20 or 30/50) or vice versa for a total of 115K Y off peak or 125K Y peak or 192.5K J.

If one could do the OW award with the BA GRU-EZE segment at the 14,001-20,000 mile level (and I think it just barely squeezes by) it would be 100K Y or 130K J.

retiredinflorida

Thank you Patty and Gardyloo for your feedback.

Now I'm even more confused. I've read the feedback three times, for what I can understand in that only the One World award makes this possible but I need to add more destinations so I can fly on another airline.

Sorry, not good with understand airline lingo.

Very confused.

Why does AA like to make things so complicated for me. I'm too old for this.

Gardyloo

Yes, it's confusing. It's a puzzle that some of us enjoy solving, but it can be very frustrating to many travelers.

Basically, the airlines divide the world up into zones for mileage redemption, and charge different rates for award routings between the various regions. Southern South America (Chile) is in one such zone, Easter Island and Tahiti are in another ("Southwest Pacific.") Using AA's "all partner" award scheme sometimes requires that you redeem miles for two (or more) separate awards if your trip touches three of the regions (in your case, N. America, S. America and Southwest Pacific.)

By wanting to stop over in both Tahiti and Easter Island using Lan airlines (which only flies to those places from Santiago) you're not only wanting to fly between South America and the Southwest Pacific, you're wanting to fly <i>within</i> the Southwest Pacific.

American has another award scheme, called the Oneworld award, which only allows travel on Oneworld alliance members, but requires you use two different Oneworld airlines besides American in the course of your trip. That's difficult in South America, because Lan is the only Oneworld airline based there, so you need to find a third airline (besides Lan and AA) to make that award work. If you do, then the "regions" mentioned above don't apply; your mileage "cost" is based on the total miles flown. The only allowed routes touching S. America flown by another airline besides AA and Lan are JFK to Sao Paolo (Japan Airlines) and Sao Paolo - Buenos Aires, flown by British Airways.

Patty has suggested an "all partners" itinerary that capitalizes on AA's new one-way award scheme. I believe she's suggesting you fly from Miami straight to Tahiti (via Los Angeles) using AA's partner Air Tahiti Nui (which is <b>not</b> a Oneworld member, thus can't be included in a Oneworld award.) Once you're in Tahiti you'd fly with Lan to Easter Island, then later to Santiago. Then you'd fly home to Miami.

This would involve four separate one-way awards, (1) MIA-(LAX)-PPT, (2) PPT-IPC, (3) IPC-SCL, and (4) SCL-MIA. The total mileage required for that trip would be 115,000 miles in economy in the off-peak months, 125,000 in peak months, or around 192,500 miles in business class.

If you wanted to stay with Lan the whole way, my estimate is that the total mileage would go up to 130,000 or 150,000 in economy or 230,000 or 250,000 miles in business class, because you can't "transit" a third continent en route to Tahiti under the "all partners" award rules.

By comparison, flying Miami > Sao Paolo > Buenos Aires > Santiago > Tahiti > Easter Island > Santiago > Miami using a <u>Oneworld award</u> would "cost" 100,000 miles in economy or 130,000 miles in business class. In other words, the Oneworld award is the better deal, especially in business class.

Patty

Sorry

GRU=Sao Paolo
EZE=Buenos Aires
SCL=Santiago
IPC=Easter Island
PPT=Papeete
Mex=Mexico City
NA=North America
SP=South Pacific
SA2=South America 2
Y=economy
J=business

AA has two different award structures. All-Partner awards are zone based with Papeete and Easter Island belonging to the South Pacific zone and Santiago belonging to the South America 2 zone. One way awards are now possible. However stopovers outside of North America have been eliminated. You can combine a series of one ways to get to the destinations on your list. The zones and mileage amounts (economy/business) I gave as an example above are from this chart http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?...ward_Chart.jsp One other difference with the All-Partner award is that your Miami-Papeete portion would actually route via LAX on Air Tahiti Nui (not a Oneworld member).

The other type of award is a mileage based Oneworld award that counts the distance traveled instead of zones. The distances, mileage amounts and rules are listed here http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?...s/oneWorld.jsp You need a minimum of 2 carriers other than AA (you can also fly AA but it doesn't count toward the 2 min). The only intra-South America option I can think of is the BA Sao Paolo-Buenos Aires flight. As Gardyloo mentioned there's also the Japan Airlines JFK-Sao Paolo flight but that bumps up your mileage further. Once Mexicana joins you'll have more options such as routing through Mexico City.

Hope that helps.

Patty

Gardyloo beat me to it!

retiredinflorida

Thank you Gardyloo and Patty. No I understand.