Viva América! Virgin and LATAM get closer with points redemptions

After announcing a limited partnership last year, Virgin Atlantic has introduced the ability to redeem Virgin Points for flights on LATAM, Latin America’s leading airline group.

LATAM has a complicated history

LATAM has been in existence since 2012, following the merger of LAN Chilean Airlines with Brazil’s TAM Linhas Aéreas. TAM was previously a member of Star Alliance but the combined group opted to continue LAN’s membership of oneworld. Until 2020, this led to close alignment with the rest of oneworld, in particular American Airlines.

In 2019, Delta Air Lines, who own 50% of Virgin Atlantic, purchased 20% of LATAM Group - which during the pandemic reduced to ~10%. This led to the end of the close American Airlines partnership, dropped in favour of Delta. Qatar Airways also owns 10% of the airline.

Despite the minority Delta ownership, LATAM kept almost all oneworld relationships - including those with British Airways and Finnair - but not with American. Fast forward to 2023 and we have a scenario where LATAM has codeshare and frequent flyer partnerships with both major UK long-haul airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

With both airlines as options for engaging with LATAM from the UK, this leads to a few questions…

Where are the best redemptions?

British Airways easily wins here. With flexible Avios pricing options and lower entry points, BA prices are just better. Here’s the price for São Paolo, Brazil to Lima, Peru in Economy and Business starting at:

Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic prices are almost double, in points terms, for Economy and 12,000 points more for Business:

The only benefit of Virgin Atlantic’s pricing is the marginally cheaper cash element. However, 12,000 points for around $10 cheaper is remarkably bad value. Virgin only has a ‘plus’ on their side because they easily publish all of their award pricing charts on their website. The airline confusingly has two award charts, though:

Surprisingly, Virgin Atlantic have integrated their systems with LATAM - meaning you can search for award availability directly on the website, rather than phoning up. British Airways can also bring up availability online and the space available on both websites will generally be the same. The surprise comes from Virgin traditionally having bad integration with partners with most only being bookable over the phone.

Where are the best earning rates?

British Airways Executive Club members crediting their LATAM members will earn Avios at a rate of between 25% for the lowest Economy fare to 125% of miles flown for the most expensive Business fares. Crucially, after LATAM left oneworld, BA frequent flyers no longer earn Tier Points.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members earn both Virgin Points and Tier Points. Virgin Points earned on LATAM flights (left) is similar to British Airways, LATAM flights with Virgin flight codes (centre) earn a little more while, clearly, the Tier Points earned (right) are in favour of Virgin:

Do you get Elite Status benefits?

No. Regardless of whether you are a top tier BA or Virgin frequent flyer, the partnerships between LATAM and these airlines only extend to mileage earning and redemption, as well as codeshares.

Quite a number of LATAM’s former oneworld partners have maintained Elite Privileges with the airline, such as lounge access, this includes: BA’s sister airline, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Qatar Airways.

Conclusion

As with almost all things related to frequent flyer programmes, there isn’t a simple answer as to which scheme is better in the context of LATAM flights. However, we can generally say the following if you are members of both Virgin and BA’s frequent flyer programmes:

• If you’re booking a cash ticket, credit your flights to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. You will benefit from more points earned and future Tier Point benefits.

• If you’re looking to book an award ticket, use British Airways Avios. It’s almost certainly cheaper.

Clearly, if you have doubled down on British Airways as your scheme of choice then credit your flights there. If you do have the flexibility then take advantage of LATAM working with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Want to learn more about Virgin Atlantic Flying Club? Be sure to watch my video down below - and if you have any questions, be sure to pop them in comments section: