How To Redeem Miles For LATAM Business Class

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…

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.

Alaska Mileage Plan awards on LATAM

Alaska Mileage Plan has a partnership with LATAM, and offers the best redemption values on that airline that you’ll find through any program. Until recently, Alaska didn’t have access to business class award availability on LATAM, though that has changed, and I’d consider that to be great news. Below you can find the Mileage Plan award chart for travel within the Americas.

For example, a Miami to Lima business class award will cost you 35,000 miles.

Meanwhile a New York to Santiago business class award will cost you 50,000 miles.

That’s excellent pricing, and best of all, you’re even allowed a stopover on a one-way award.

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 one of the better values 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.

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 Alaska Mileage Plan, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, or Qatar Airways Privilege Club. Alaska Mileage Plan has by far the most attractive award pricing, though the catch is that the miles aren’t necessarily as easy to accrue as some other currenecies.

If you’ve redeemed miles on LATAM, what was your experience like?