LATAM Pass

[MarkM]

Just booked flights for September to Easter Island from Santiago and will be booking at least another internal flight while we are there. Using a companion voucher to get there.

Is there any value in the LATAM Pass points we will accumulate?

Also has anyone bid on an upgrade on their website before, it’s the a strategy for the best value?

Thank you!

[gtellez]

Latam points are not very worth it, you can only use them for latam flights or partners if connecting in Latam. However you can credit the flights to BA or IB (no tier points) to get some Avios.
Regarding the upgrade, few months ago I paid 80 usd to match my status (not sure if still open) with Latam. I received Platinum status that comes with 8 upgrades in South America plus 2 for intercontinental trips. So far I have flown 3 times with them and every time the upgrade cleared (two of them to premium economy in a a320 and once to business in a b787). So you may check if that offer is still active.
Paid upgrades have priority over status upgrades, so I would say that even bidding the minimum amount, you should be fine.
Premium economy in the a320 is similar to club Europe with BA, but they only offer the first three rows of seats. Food was worse than BA, but the seats offer lot of space, middle seat blocked and you can have as many drinks as you want (quite good selection of wines and spirits). The lounge in Santiago is quite nice.

[JonathanC]

You can also credit LATAM flights to VSFC, and I think it’s more generous than the basic earnings you’d get if you have an Avios account.

I’m not sure how many points you’d get if you credited say using a VSFC Gold versus a BAEC Gold though…

[MarkM]

Thank you, that’s really helpful!