Latam started an excellent sale a couple of days ago, as reported on Flyertalk. The deal is much more interesting than it appears at the beginning, and I’ll explain why.
Basic rules are:
- Tickets are issued by Latam
- Some intercontinental segments are operated by Iberia
- Applies to itineraries between Madrid and Bogota
- Valid either one-way or return, (~£500 each way)
- You can route via many South American cities, such as GRU / UIO / SCL / LIM
- Add stopovers for free!
As can be seen on Google Flights, availability is great from now till end of the schedule. Cheap non-stop flights are relatively more difficult to find, but they are definitely there.
The price we see here is excellent. I flew London-Sao Paulo-Lima for just over £1000 back in 2018, and I’m grateful to see the same fare to South America in the current market.
The biggest selling point however, is free stopovers which can be added at seemingly all Latam’s hubs. The drawback is, Latam operates almost no business class cabins for intra-continental flights, but only premium economy. Their premium economy concept is very similar to the “business class” in Europe: blocked middle seat in the front, priority boarding and a meal. At least they’re being honest not calling it business class.
Note that for multi-city itineraries, you need to choose Premium Economy instead of Business when searching. The Madrid segment will be in business.
Madrid-Sao Paulo-Lima-Bogota, 18/12
You can visit multiple cities in one ticket. If your final destination is Sao Paulo, building a similar trip (but with fewer stops and cheaper) and leave after the first leg.
You can actually create an itinerary with a different de-facto destination than Bogota, thanks to their very generous routing and stopover rules. Here is an example where you fly direct to Lima, then come back via Bogota.
Madrid-Lima-Bogota-Madrid, 25/08
Booking.com seems to the best travel agency to issue such tickets, and if they don’t show up on Skyscanner’s search results, visit their website directly. Regarding miles accrual, I checked only one ticket and am not sure if all tickets have the same fare class.
- Business (I): BA 125% / DL 150% / AS & LH 200%
- Premium Economy (W): BA & AS 110% / DL & LH 150%
Caution: You will earn no BA tier points flying Latam.
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