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The 13 Best Ways to Earn LATAM Pass Miles [2021]

BY 

Stephen Au

- UPDATED: September 17, 2021

1. Travel  / 
2. Airlines

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LATAM is one of South America’s largest airlines, especially when you consider that it’s a parent company with many regional airlines. For example, LATAM has subsidiaries in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. As you might expect, LATAM is one of the most important full-service airlines in all of South America.

LATAM was founded in 2012 as a result of a merger between LAN Airlines (Chile) and TAM Airlines (Brazil), whereby TAM agreed to a takeover of LAN. LATAM used to be a Oneworld alliance member but left in early 2020.

Today, LATAM is one of the most important airlines connecting the U.S. to South American hub cities like Santiago, Lima, Sao Paulo, and more.

Although its frequent flyer program, LATAM Pass, isn’t as famous as Avianca LifeMiles, it’s still a program with lots of opportunities for excellent value. And you probably always want to maximize your value, so let’s get into all the best ways you can earn LATAM Pass miles.

Sign up for a LATAM Pass Account

The first order of business is to sign up for a LATAM Pass account. All of your LATAM miles will need a storage location, and your account will hold all of the LATAM miles that you might accumulate.

Here are the step-by-step instructions to make an account with LATAM Pass:

1. Visit the LATAM Pass registration page.
2. Choose your country of residence.
3. Fill out the registration form and submit the form.
4. You will receive an email with your LATAM Pass Number.
   • This email might say that your password will be created at a later time, but remember that you already created a password when you submitted the form.

5. Visit the LATAM Pass page and click Log In on the top-right corner
6. Enter your LATAM Pass Number and the password you created when you filled out your registration form.
7. Click Log In.

Be sure to keep your LATAM Pass number handy and easily accessible because you’ll need to provide it anytime you have eligible accrual activity.

Earn LATAM Pass Miles With Credit Cards

While you might think it’s nearly impossible to get LATAM miles with credit cards, we’re pleased to inform you that it might be easier than you think!

Sure, LATAM Pass doesn’t have any 1:1 transfer partners like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards, but you can still get amass LATAM Pass miles pretty easily with credit cards.

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

The first (and easiest!) way to get LATAM miles is by transferring them from Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy maintains the largest list of transfer partners, so if you have Marriott Bonvoy points, you can move them to LATAM to convert them into LATAM miles!

The transfer ratio is 3:1, which means that for every 3,000 Marriott points you transfer, you will earn 1,000 LATAM miles. Also, you’ll get a 5,000-LATAM mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer.

In other words, if you transfer 60,000 Marriott points, you’ll get a total of 25,000 LATAM miles (20,000 miles plus the 5,000-mile bonus). Typically, transfers take around 2 business days, which is quite fast!

And you can earn Marriott Bonvoy points easily by making purchases on your Marriott Bonvoy credit card. Here are our favorite picks:

Recommended Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Co-Branded LATAM Credit Cards

Another solid, headache-free way to get LATAM miles is to open one of LATAM’s co-branded U.S. credit cards. All of LATAM’s U.S. credit cards are issued by U.S. Bank, and these cards will allow you to earn LATAM miles directly.

U.S. Bank and LATAM currently offer 3 types of co-branded credit cards:

Refer a Friend for Bonus Miles

It’s possible to earn referral bonuses on any of the credit cards above! In fact, both Chase and American Express offer Marriott Bonvoy cards, and you can earn referral bonuses for any type of Marriott Bonvoy card.

American Express will offer you a referral bonus in the currency of the card you’re referring from. That means that if you refer a Marriott Bonvoy card to someone else, you will earn a referral bonus in Marriott Bonvoy points. Also, if your friend decides to apply for a different Amex card but uses your referral link from an Amex Marriott Bonvoy card, you will still earn the referral bonus.

For example, if you have a Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card and you send a referral link from this card to a friend, your friend can apply for a non-Marriott Bonvoy card, such as the American Express® Gold Card and you’ll receive your Marriott Bonvoy referral bonus!

With Chase, your friend can only apply for a Marriott Bonvoy credit card, but your friend can apply for any Chase Marriott Bonvoy credit card available. For example, if you have the Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card, you can send your friend a referral link, and you will receive a referral bonus even if your friend applies for a different Marriott Bonvoy card within Chase! 

Lastly, you can even refer a friend or family member to the U.S. Bank LATAM credit cards! The person being referred must enter your referring U.S. Bank-issued LATAM Pass number into the application to get the referral bonus. When all is said and done, you will earn 5,000 miles for each friend referred. As of writing, there is no published policy on the maximum number of referrals you can make.

Non-U.S. Based Credit Cards

LATAM’s footprint touches every major South American country — indeed, LATAM is the airline of choice for many travelers in this part of the world, so LATAM has partnered with many banks to offer South American residents exclusive opportunities to earn LATAM miles using credit cards.

For example, banks like Banco Pichincha, BCP, Banco Itaú, and BBVA offer unique co-branded LATAM credit cards to help South Americans earn miles on their regular spending!

Here are the co-branded credit card offerings:

Bottom Line: Each of these credit cards offers unique benefits, bonuses, earning structures, and more. You’ll want to compare each available option for you to sign up for the best choice.

Earn Miles Through Travel

The easiest way to earn LATAM miles besides credit card spending is through travel. This can be done through direct LATAM airfare purchases, partner airline flights, and much more.

In this section, we’ll walk you through the best ways to earn LATAM miles via travel.

Airfare and Airline Purchases

Without a doubt, the simplest way to earn LATAM miles is to book paid airfare with LATAM (and its subsidiaries). Interestingly, LATAM’s accrual scheme is very similar to U.S.-based airlines.

That is, the number of miles you’ll earn is based on the ticket price, not the distance you fly.

This particular section is for LATAM-operated flights in particular — the below section will discuss partner airline flights.

You can earn LATAM Pass miles on Basic, Light, Plus, and Top fare tickets. Unfortunately, this means you can’t earn miles with Promo tickets for domestic Brazil travel or international flights.

Also, only the fare itself is eligible for accrual; taxes and fees, along with add-ons like baggage fees or seat selection fees aren’t eligible for mileage accrual.

If you are a base-level LATAM member, you will earn 5 miles per dollar spent on your LATAM-operated flight. For example, if you book a $600 ticket consisting of $100 in fees and $500 in airfare, you will earn 2,500 LATAM miles.

Your miles will typically post to your account within 7 days after your flight completion. If you don’t see the miles, you can request them retroactively here.

Crediting Partner Airlines to ConnectMiles

LATAM used to be a Oneworld airline, but this is no longer the case. Nonetheless, LATAM still maintains numerous partnerships with airlines around the world to enable you to maximize your mileage.

In this case, the number of miles you’ll accrue will be a percentage of the total distance flown instead of the ticket cost.

Each airline has its own individual rules and accrual guidelines. For example, flights operated by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, and SWISS between North America and Europe, as well as between Europe and Africa, are ineligible to earn LATAM miles.

Usually, your miles will be deposited within 2 weeks. If the miles don’t appear in your account within 2 weeks, you can request missing mileage retroactively online.

Let’s say you’re booked on a one-way Delta Air Lines flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and New York City (JFK) in the K class. You will earn 75% of the total flight distance. Since the total flight distance is 2,475 miles, you’d earn around 1,856 LATAM miles on this one-way flight.

Boost Your Miles with Elite Status

LATAM has a total of 6 elite status tiers (including the entry-level tier), each of which has unique qualification criteria and benefits associated with each tier.

You can earn a bonus of up to 120% extra miles, depending on your elite status:

At the moment, the only airlines on which you will earn the elite bonus are LATAM and Delta Air Lines. With all other airlines, you will not earn an elite bonus, unfortunately.

Car Rental Partners

Another fantastic way to earn LATAM miles is by leveraging LATAM’s only rental car partner: Rentalcars.com.

Luckily, Rentalcars.com has some of the best deals for car rentals, as long as you’re not married to the idea of booking directly with a car rental agency.

This partnership does not apply to reservations within Chile.

You’ll be eligible to earn 5 LATAM miles per $1 spent, and you can visit LATAM’s link here.

The miles will post to your account within 15 business days after your reservation is confirmed.

Hotel Partners

One of the most lucrative ways to earn LATAM miles is by booking hotel stays with LATAM’s hotel partners. Currently, LATAM partners with numerous hotel chains, most of which are familiar names.

Here is the list of LATAM Pass hotel partners to earn miles:

Note that we did not include the accrual rates in the above chart because LATAM Pass is currently updating its policies.

Hotel Booking Portals

LATAM is partners with a few hotel booking portals that could potentially land you some lucrative bonus miles. Most of these are worldwide brands offering great deals on hotel bookings, but you’ll definitely want to compare the rates to the cheapest available ones you can find.

If the value of the miles you’d earn exceeds the additional cost you have to pay, then it may be worth it!

Specialty Earnings for LATAM Pass

Now that we’ve exhausted all of the main ways to earn LATAM miles through travel and credit card spending, let’s talk about some of the niche ways you can earn LATAM miles.

As usual, you’ll want to make sure that the value of the miles you’d earn is worth whatever cost you are incurring.

Let’s get into it!

Join Club LATAM Pass

Club LATAM Pass is LATAM’s monthly subscription program for earning miles. In essence, you are buying miles at a better rate and spreading out the cost over the course of the year.

Each subscription tier has different rules — for example, any miles earned from Club 2,000 and Club 5,000 will be valid for 36 months, while any miles earned from Club 2,000 Plus and Club 5,000 Plus will be valid for 48 months.

Here are the tiers:

• Club 2,000 — Earn 2,000 miles per month for $30 per month (1.5 cents per mile)
  • Miles are valid for 36 months
• Club 2,000 Plus — Earn 5,000 miles per month for $73 per month (1.46 cents per mile)
  • Miles are valid for 36 months
• Club 5,000 — Earn 2,000 miles per month for $36 per month (1.8 cents per mile)
  • Miles are valid for 48 months
  • 1 free mileage transfer per year (minimum of 9,000 miles and maximum of 70,000 miles)

• Club 5,000 Plus — Earn 5,000 miles per month for $82 per month (1.64 cents per mile)
  • Miles are valid for 48 months
  • 1 free mileage transfer per year (minimum of 9,000 miles and maximum of 70,000 miles)

Buy LATAM Pass Miles

You can actually buy LATAM Pass miles! However, you have to visit the correct LATAM Pass corporate website link and have your LATAM Pass number handy.

Once you’re on the page, you can enter your LATAM Pass number to visit the Buy Miles page. You can purchase up to 999,000 miles for R$70 per 1,000 miles. That’s approximately equal to $12 per 1,000 miles, which translates to a cost of 1.2 cents per mile.

This is actually a fantastic deal because you may be able to significantly reduce the cost of a flight redemption if you buy miles to top of your account!

Plus, with such generous purchase limits, you can leverage this opportunity to book deeply discounted premium cabin airfare, as long as you find availability.

Foreign LATAM Pass Partners

LATAM Pass is extremely quirky because it has different partners depending on what country you reside in.

And since LATAM Pass has a diverse footprint with significant operations in almost all South American countries, the list of partners can quickly get out of hand.

You can access different country websites by following these steps:

1. Visit the U.S. LATAM Pass website
2. At the top of the page, click OTHER COUNTRIES
3. Select the country you reside in, and you’ll be redirected to the appropriate page.

For example, according to the Argentina website, you can earn miles booking cruises with Solo Cruceros, filling up on gas at Shell, and even ordering food delivery with Rappi.

Meanwhile, in Peru, you can earn miles with Cabify, a ride-hailing company, as well as Autoland, a car dealership company.

The easiest way to figure out what foreign partners are available is to browse through the LATAM website for various countries you could accrue miles in.

Final Thoughts

Well, there you have it! There are plenty of ways to earn lots of LATAM Pass miles. The easiest way (especially for U.S. residents) to earn lots of LATAM miles is to open Marriott Bonvoy credit cards and put your ordinary spending on these cards. After earning Marriott Bonvoy points, you can transfer to LATAM Pass at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus after transferring 60,000 points.

Additionally, you can make use of the U.S. Bank LATAM co-branded credit cards, along with the over 30 foreign co-branded credit cards.

If you’re looking for travel-related ways to earn LATAM miles, you’ll be happy to find that LATAM has tons of airline partners, as well as several travel-related partners, such as hotel chains, online travel agencies, and car rental companies.

Lastly, there are a few niche ways to earn lots of LATAM miles, including buying them for as little as 1.2 cents per mile!

Hopefully, you found this comprehensive guide on the best ways to earn LATAM miles useful. Happy earning, and don’t forget to check out our guide on how to redeem LATAM miles too!

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