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Update: LATAM accelerated its departure from the Oneworld alliance to May 1, 2020. See this post for further details.
LATAM has announced it will be leaving the Oneworld alliance as of October 1, 2020. This follows Delta’s purchase of a 20% stake in the airline. This is a big blow to Oneworld travelers looking to explore South America, though this change won’t be felt for roughly 10 months. After that time, Oneworld fliers will have far fewer redemption options for their miles within South America.
The Facts
- Effective October 1, 2020, LATAM will no longer be part of the Oneworld alliance.
- Until then, Oneworld travelers can still redeem and earn miles on LATAM flights.
- On October 1, 2020 (and beyond), LATAM will partner with Delta (though not necessarily all of SkyTeam).
Speculation
Although no other announcements have been made, it’s hard not to read into this news. In terms of U.S. airlines, it’s clear that LATAM is ditching their partnership with American in favor of Delta. Though American flies to many major cities in South America, this announcement means that U.S.-based Oneworld fliers will either need to pick a new alliance or book additional, separate flights to use points and miles to reach many of the more remote destinations across the continent. United Airlines miles might be a particularly attractive alternative for travelers looking to fly to, from, and within South America, given the sweet spots that exist within the United Airlines program.
A number of questions still remain unanswered, and it’s difficult not to speculate about many of these. For global airlines like British Airways and Qantas that have codeshare flights with LATAM, will these partnerships continue even after September 2020? That seems to be the expectation, but nothing definitive is known.
Will LATAM eventually join SkyTeam? I don’t expect that to happen. Aerolíneas Argentinas and Aeroméxico, two existing SkyTeam members, already cover many of the same destinations as LATAM. By adding LATAM to the alliance, Skyteam would gain minimal route coverage. However, perhaps LATAM will become an airline option for Skymiles redemptions, much like Virgin Atlantic.
Will American Airlines find another South American partner? Around the same time that Delta announced its purchase of a stake in LATAM, it was reported that American was targeting a potential partnership with Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas. American already flies its Flagship First Class product to Brazil – could American add GOL as a partner or Oneworld connect airline? Potentially, although GOL operates more like a low-cost carrier than a full-service airline.
What Does This Mean?
Depending on your airline, or airline alliance, of choice, this could be a big boost or a big loss in about 10 months. Come October 2020, Delta fliers will have more connectivity within South America and American fliers will have less. For an airline with a zone-based award chart like American Airlines, taking away LATAM as a redemption option means that travelers “lose” an extra flight that could help them travel to additional or more remote South American destinations. For travelers interested in South American escapades, you might find less value in American miles as a result.
Others might argue that for traveling throughout South America, this has little to no impact. Similar to other parts of the world, there are low-cost options for getting from point A to point B. Travelers may even prefer hopping around the continent without being tied down to a single carrier.
Not much else is known at this point about either the status of new partnerships or the status of existing ones. You can make all the guesses you want, but until then, it’s business as usual. Will you be booking award travel on LATAM before the airline splits with the rest of Oneworld?
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Less choice is not good, but will need to see if they join another alliance. Always new opportunities opening up so far.
Gives new meaning to “Peso Miles”!
More bad news for Oneworld members.
Hi, also LATAM is not travelling into Argentina with domestic flight. Only choice to go to Iguazu falls or Calafate at Patagonia is Aerolineas Argentinas. This is a big issue for the people (like me) that has miles at LATAM…
Very sad news. Had some excellent flights with Latam in and to South America.
I just received an email from Latam and they have anticipated the exit of One world alliance for May 1. They will keep some of the benefits with partner airlines, but American Airlines won´t be included.
That’s correct. We posted an update in this post with some tips for what to do before LATAM left Oneworld on May 1 (2020): https://awardwallet.com/blog/what-to-do-latam-leaves-oneworld-partners-delta/
Latam deja de realizar vuelos cabotaje en Argentina
I think it is painful for AAdvantage members, like me. Latam is by far the best airline in South America.
I think it is painful for AAdvantage members, like me. Latam is by far the best airline in South America.
hopefully the new alliance with delta airlines is good
Very sad news. This change will bring opportunities but it is also likely that not all is good news when, as in my case, I have accumulated miles.
I think this has effectively been brought forward to 30th Apr
I just received an email from Latam and they have anticipated the exit of One world alliance for May 1. They will keep some of the benefits with partner airlines, but American Airlines won´t be included.
This is terrible news! :/
What a pity, it will be hard to fligth within South America now…
Very sad news. Had some excellent flights with Latam in and to South America.
It is a bad new for me, I have AA miles and I need to use them in South American…and there is no flights of AA in this region
some speculation but overall I think it might make it harder to use LATAM PASS miles…
it is a pity, In South America only American Airlines remains with Oneworld
Sad news indeed. Really enjoyed their tran Tasman crossing 5th freedom flight from Syd-Akl in their Dreamliner flatbed! On OW award redemption too! 😉
Well that`s not a good news, I guess.
Too bad, I really think LATAM is a top airline and it has improved during the last years.
That`s too bad. I really think LATAM is a top airline, and it certainly has improved during the last years.
So we will need to redeem One World miles by September 2020 in order to flight with LATAM.
I hope you will write a remind article in August/September.
Bad news for Brazilian passengers. It will be harder to use miles on flights to USA.
It is a pity that LATAM leaves the OW alliance. It is really useful for us in South America.
Very disappointing. We made great use of our Avios on our last South American trip.
This is bad news for oneworld. They really are falling behind the other alliances. They really need to add some more airlines.
Bad move SouthAmerica service was great with AA and Latam
I think this is bad news for Oneworld.
It is always not easy to find LATAM’s award tickets with appropriate routes and time with oneworld partners’ miles, hope better changes happen following tie with Delta…
So sad. Hope they will join Skyteam soon.
Oneworld loses quite a few South American connections. Owch!
Saben como buscar pasajes de LATAM en AAdvantage?
Bad news guys.
This is a blow to the usefulness of AA miles in South America.
Sad to see it go
Less choice is not good, but will need to see if they join another alliance. Always new opportunities opening up so far.
Not a good news. I have miles in AA, and I used LATAM to fly in my country. We have to wait to see if they join SkyTeam.
This is bad news. LATAM had some decent redemptions for me.
Managed to burn through quite a few avios on intra-country flights with LATAM over the years, this will make things a bit less convenient now 🙁
Well, at least MR transfer to Delta and then maybe easier to use? It’s sad that any one group loses an option. I’m not a big South America traveler so it doesn’t effect me. I’m trying to earn more miles on AA just to use them on them! They have many options but it’s still slow going. It’d be easier if they would just give up and join with a credit card to transfer miles to them.
It’s a big loss for the oneworld alliance.
One world is no longer one world. Goodbye South America.
This is just another blow going into 2020…
More bad news for Oneworld members.
Guess I better fly them quickly
It would add a very large potion of smaller cities in Brazil if AA were to add GOL in place of LATAM,
Creo que siguen emitiendo pasajes LATAM,
Big loss. I was able to do that amazing SA trip using BA miles pre BA massive devaluation and saw all the trophy places on one ticket in business (Easter Island, Iguassu, Patagonia, Machu Picchu etc.). LAN had a decent business product.
There is some official information in LATAM’s page here: https://www.latam.com/en_un/about-us/latam-delta-alliance/
They say they will maintain bilateral agreements with most of the oneworld alliance members.
I’ve read somewhere that by “most” they mean “all but American Airlines” but I can’t find where I read that.
Personally it would be great for me if they join SkyTeam but I doubt they’ll do that. Aerolineas Argentinas is a SkyTeam member and competes with LATAM in many routes.
Let’s hope for the best and see what happens.
Thanks for sharing a direct LATAM link with us, containing some additional info.
A big blow to OW redemptions, sad day.
oh well, bye latam
I feel as if AA is declining and airlines are bailing out from AA whenever they can.
So I will have to manage and split my scarce miles into two accounts (Latam Pass and AAdvantage) instead of earning and using miles in just one of them.
Bad news for Oneworld members in Latin America
This is a sad day for me. It’s not ever day that we’d travel to South America but this represents a major shift in the points and miles game to get to this area of the world.
It is interesting that alliance musical chair is being played out in the Brazilian market.
We enjoyed trips to South America in the earlier years and really appreciated the low cost good quality carrier… great use of our miles!
This certainly makes my AA miles less useful
Maybe Cathay Pacific from now on will work with Iberia more closely for the seamless Asia – South America connections.
It’s good that my flight to Argentina in March next year on LATAM airlines is not affected by this!
Airline partnerships do not last forever. When a partnership ends, other partnerships are created. With Delta owning 20% of LATAM, we may eventually be able to redeem Delta Skymiles for LATAM flights. We have more choice in flights when we use both Delta and American. We can view this as a positive when LATAM changes partnerships.
This is interesting. I wonder what American Airlines will do about the loss of coverage for South America.
I will probably not get to book before then, but had always been eyeing off awards to Easter Island.. will have to pay cash instead.
Award availability to Easter Island was always very limited – I was never able to find any. Business class fares from SCL to IPC on LATAM are VERY reasonable if you remember to change the country location on their website to Chile.
This is a shame for BAEC members, as there were some excellent J fares between Madrid and Frankfurt (quite often around £180 or under round trip), which yielded 40 tier points each way
I’m still bummed about this change. One of my favorite trips was visiting Chile, including Easter Island, in LAN business class using BA miles. What a bargain!
This is terrible news! Thanks for the notice.
It has a reasonable time to change, so alternatives like GOL, or other solutions, could come up with AA miles. As you said: “until then, it’s business as usual”. Thanks.
Gives new meaning to “Peso Miles”!
I guess Delta will probably force LATAM to end ties with Alaska as well.
I will be following this story with interest. It will be sad to lose LATAM as an AA partner but it might work out just fine in the end as long as we can earn with Delta. As far as using AA miles to get to Easter Island (probably one of the most aspirational uses in South American and one of the photos in the article) I’ve heard that was difficult or impossible. I went there last year and chose to use Amex Points and earned AA points for the trip. I might go again and continue on to PPT…but I guess I might earn Delta points next time.
That’s a shame, I preferred collecting miles with them lately
Well, for better or worse the chane is an essence of life.
The good part about this news is that we know 10 months in advance.
Really hope they keep their partnership with British
A big loss for the oneworld alliance, the only oneworld flight within South America will be the Qatar Airways’ GRU-EZE-GRU.
Surely American will make a partnership with Gol but I’m not sure if it will be so strong as the Gol with Delta.
Also I wondering know what is gonna happen with Delta and Aerolíneas Argentinas because Latam and Aerolíneas Argentinas are rivalry airlines.
I am curious as how this plays out. I currently have more Delta miles than AA miles, however sometimes it takes a ridiculous amount of Delta miles for an award.
This is a serious blow to OneWorld.
Once LATAM leaves, South America travel will become much tougher.
Sad, I am a user of Latam.
It is very good to have an alliance with Delta and in the future with Skyteam alliance
This is a bad notice… Would it be included in an alliance with Delta?
That’s a little. I really liked the oneworld alliance!