LATAM is the largest airline in Latin America, and I’ve recently flown the airline twice in business class. In this post, I wanted to take a look at the best options for redeeming miles & points for LATAM business class. It’s not all that straightforward, so I figure this is overdue…
In this post:
Why you should care about LATAM business class
When people think of world class airlines, regions like the Middle East and Asia probably come to mind. However, for those looking to travel to or from Latin America, LATAM might just offer the highest quality business class product you’ll find.
The airline has a solid new business class on many of its aircraft, and I’ve reviewed the carrier’s 767 business class and 787 business class. LATAM has its biggest bases in Lima (LIM), Santiago (SCL), and Sao Paulo (GRU), with flights across the Americas, plus to Europe, the South Pacific, Africa, and beyond.
Best ways to redeem points for LATAM business class
Redeeming miles & points on LATAM isn’t nearly as straightforward as it used to be. Back in the day, LATAM was part of the oneworld alliance. However, Delta then swooped in and purchased a stake in the airline, causing the airline to leave oneworld.
However, LATAM hasn’t joined another global alliance, but instead currently has a lot of strategic, reciprocal agreements with other airlines. So there’s a rather random collection of airline loyalty programs that let you redeem on LATAM.
In this post, I wanted to take a big picture look at the best programs for booking LATAM business class. This is intended to be simple and practical, rather than a deep dive. That’s simply because many of the programs that let you redeem on LATAM don’t have award charts, and for that matter, award pricing changes constantly. So I’ll be sharing my general observations, more than anything else.
I’m also going to be emphasizing programs that have points that are easy to accrue through transferable points currencies, since that’s how most people earn points. That’s also why I won’t even be including LATAM Pass, which is LATAM’s own frequent flyer program, but not useful for anyone collecting other rewards currencies.
With that in mind, let me share the programs that allow you to redeem on LATAM, roughly in the order in which I think they’re useful. 
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club awards on LATAM
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a partnership with LATAM, and I’d say that on balance, the program represents the overall best value for LATAM business class redemptions. You can book these awards through Virgin Atlantic’s website, and Virgin Atlantic also partners with all major transferable points currencies, making the points easy to accrue.
Flying Club publishes an award chart for travel on LATAM. First there’s a one-way distance based award chart, which you can find below, for itineraries of up to 4,000 miles.
Then there’s also a one-way region based award chart for longer haul flying between specific regions.
For example, a Miami to Lima business class award will cost you 50,000 points.
Meanwhile a New York to Santiago business class award will cost you 95,000 points.
That’s some pretty decent pricing, especially when you consider that we frequently see transfer bonuses with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club awards on LATAM
Qatar Airways Privilege Club has a partnership with LATAM, given that Qatar Airways owns a stake in the airline as well. Privilege Club publishes a distance based award chart for travel on LATAM, which is pretty straightforward, and quite lucrative.
For example, a Miami to Lima business class award will cost you 38,750 Avios.
Meanwhile a New York to Santiago business class award will cost you 120,000 Avios (since it clocks in at just over 5,000 miles). As you can see, in some cases Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will have better pricing, while in other cases Qatar Airways Privilege Club will have better pricing.
Avios are quite easy to earn, both through transferable points currencies, and also through transfers between the various “flavors” of Avios.
British Airways Executive Club awards on LATAM
British Airways Executive Club also has a partnership with LATAM. There’s no award chart, and I find that on average pricing is a bit higher than through Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Since you can transfer Avios between British Airways and Qatar Airways, there’s really no reason to book this way, but I’ll cover it anyway.
For example, a Miami to Lima business class award will cost you 50,500 Avios, only marginally more than through Flying Club.
Meanwhile a New York to Santiago business class award will cost you 123,500 Avios, quite a bit more than through Flying Club.
Delta SkyMiles awards on LATAM
Delta SkyMiles isn’t exactly known for its amazing premium cabin award pricing, and LATAM is no exception. Well, sort of. Delta SkyMiles offers horrible value when you’re traveling to or from the United States.
For example, a Miami to Lima business class award will cost you 130,000 miles, way more than you’ll pay through other programs.
Meanwhile a New York to Santiago business class award will cost you 290,000 miles, also way more than through other programs.
However, once you take the United States out of the equation, pricing gets much better. For example, a Mexico City to Santiago award will cost you 77,500 miles…
…which is even less than you’d pay through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
So if you can avoid flying to or from the United States, then Delta SkyMiles could be a good option.
Alaska Mileage Plan awards on LATAM
In theory it’s possible to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles for travel on LATAM. The catch is that Mileage Plan doesn’t seem to have access to LATAM business class awards anymore, but rather only has access to economy awards. At least that’s the case in a vast majority of situations.
That’s unfortunate, and I have to imagine that Delta is behind that, given the carrier’s contentious relationship with Alaska.
LATAM award availability & how to search
Pricing aside, what is award availability on LATAM like, and what’s the best way to search award availability?
When it comes to there being award availability, I’d describe LATAM’s patterns of releasing business class award availability as being pretty hard to predict. Here are a few observations:
- Availability is often best close to departure, though sometimes you’ll also see a good amount of award availability in advance; however, the airline doesn’t just consistently release award space when the schedule opens
- Sometimes there’s one or two business class award seats, while other times there are seven or more award seats, so it’s not impossible to find availability for a larger group
- I generally find that business class award availability is best through Lima, followed by Santiago, followed by Sao Paulo
Given LATAM’s inconsistent approach to releasing award availability, the good news is that there’s an easy way to search award availability across a large period of time. Even though I don’t generally recommend booking LATAM awards through Delta SkyMiles, Delta’s website is the best for searching availability across a large variety of dates.
Just go to delta.com, and search award availability for a route served nonstop by LATAM (and ideally a route not served nonstop by another Delta partner). Then select “Shop with Miles,” “My dates are flexible,” and put “Delta One” as the cabin.
Then when you get to the results page, click on “Price Calendar” and “Non Stop,” and then you’ll see all the dates that have nonstop award availability. You can click the arrow to the left or the right to search an entire year of availability in a minute or so.
So while award availability may not be consistently great, at least it’s easy to search. Then you can go to the website of the program you want to redeem through in order to book.
Bottom line
LATAM is the largest airline in Latin America, and the airline offers the best business class experience in the region. LATAM doesn’t belong to one of the big alliances, but rather has partnerships with lots of individual airlines, based on the markets it serves.
In general, your best bet for getting a good value on a LATAM business class award is to book through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. While you’d think Alaska Mileage Plan would be a great partner, unfortunately the program doesn’t seem to have access to LATAM business class awards anymore.
If you’ve redeemed miles on LATAM, what was your experience like?
We live between Santiago de Chile & California so the Latam LAX-SCL flight is our local long haul. Since we travel with our kids we use points to leverage. British Airways has been the easiest way to book flights and has good economy availability. In business class, it really depends on the dates. Low season to Chile runs from June - September so I have booked us in those dates easily from anywhere from 60...
We live between Santiago de Chile & California so the Latam LAX-SCL flight is our local long haul. Since we travel with our kids we use points to leverage. British Airways has been the easiest way to book flights and has good economy availability. In business class, it really depends on the dates. Low season to Chile runs from June - September so I have booked us in those dates easily from anywhere from 60 days out to 8 months. In high season (November - March), you need to be doing it 10+ months out for business in my experience. The Latam product overall has improved and business class service excellent (on par with Swiss or Austrian business). The lounge in Santiago is fantastic, too.
Thank you for the article. Unfortunately none of these airline sites show any flights available from Lima (PER) to the US (Austin, Dallas, Miami, etc.) - do you also see that? There is a LATAM flight I'm trying to book for early Jan but it doesn't look possible? Would love some help :)
Good article. When the schedule opened, we were able to book 6 biz tix between Santiago and Easter Island using BA points for a trip in May 2025.
Where I struggled to use points was LIM to MIA or LIM to ATL in biz. Plenty of coach, but no biz when the schedule opened.
I guess I lucked out. I booked non-stop, roundtrip LATAM J class LAX-GRU on AS back in August for November travel for 60K miles each way. A quick check on seats.aero shows no J class available through AS for the next 5 months, so it must be the case that they are no longer making J class available AS. Virgin has availability but at much higher redemption rates, 95K each way.
The information re LATAM Pasa is inaccurate - it does have transfer partners in Marriott as well as various credit card products. I often toy with the idea of getting a status match there and crediting the odd flight on IB etc.
* LATAM Pass , not pasa!
I've been so confused by this whole process with LATAM so I greatly appreciate this article! It seems then the best way to go about finding availability is using DL's calendar tool, finding some dates with "saver" level awards, then comparing across other programs on the same dates to see who has the best pricing. Mostly because the other programs only let you search day by day.
Hi Lucky,
As someone who just went through all of this booking an Easter island trip 2 months ago, I have some interesting insights you missed…
1.) Virgin Atlantic’s distant chart trumps its regional chart. You alluded to it, but I can confirm it. I was able to book Santiago to Cancun for 50k in business class because it’s 3950 miles but Santiago to Mexico City is 95k miles.
2.) Only certain partners have...
Hi Lucky,
As someone who just went through all of this booking an Easter island trip 2 months ago, I have some interesting insights you missed…
1.) Virgin Atlantic’s distant chart trumps its regional chart. You alluded to it, but I can confirm it. I was able to book Santiago to Cancun for 50k in business class because it’s 3950 miles but Santiago to Mexico City is 95k miles.
2.) Only certain partners have access to Easter island awards. I don’t know the entire list but I know virgin Atlantic does not while Alaskan and British Avios do.
3.) It was difficult to find business class award availability on Alaskan but there was wide open availability from Mexico City to Santiago for 50k. Also, even though there was availability from Mexico City to Santiago to Easter Island… Alaskan would not allow me to book online all on one ticket. I also called and they were not able to put it all on one ticket. This is where things get interesting… I was able to book the ticket with a 3 day stopover in Santiago for 60k points all on one ticket. This didn’t work for my schedule though… but once I booked the stopover ticket on Alaskan, I was able to change my award ticket to a normal ticket with a few hour layover in Santiago. It’s a weird unnecessary workaround, but it’s the only way to book a normal ticket to Easter Island all on one ticket.
4.) There was a massive devaluation of British Avios miles for Lagan around 2 months that none of the blogs posted on. I had to use British avios to book Easter island to Santiago because i couldn’t on virgin atlantic, but when I booked 2 months ago it was significantly cheaper than it is now.
Hope that helps!
And to book the stopover you have to use the multi city tool online!
DL & AS are the easiest for redemptions. Yes, there are "valuable" redemptions with DL points from the West Coast, USA. Not just MIA. BA is a potential HUCA, in my experience. Most CSR's don't know that they're partners or know how to book anything. Same with AS but since you can book online, the only reason to call is for a stopover.
Timely post as I've been tracking this exact redemption for a future trip with my wife, however when monitoring availability for next July/August, there has consistently only been 1 business class seat per flight. Do you find this changes when looking for more near future (a couple weeks ahead) vs ~11 months in advance? Or just total luck. Thanks.