LATAM drop its flat-bed Frankfurt to Madrid flight …. not that it matters now

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If you wanted to earn some easy British Airways Executive Club tier points in comfort, LATAM offers a great opportunity.

LATAM runs a Boeing 787 between Frankfurt and Madrid, which continues on to Santiago. You can buy tickets separately for Frankfurt to Madrid (or vice versa) and they are usually under £100 each way. Given that the trip gets you 40 BA tier points each way plus a flat bed seat for the trip, you can see why it was a popular option for aviation enthusiasts keen to try something different.

Anika reviewed the LATAM Frankfurt to Madrid service for us three years ago – see here.

LATAM 787 business class

LATAM is leaving the oneworld alliance on 30th March. This means that you won’t be able to earn tier points (and potentially not Avios, although LATAM may retain a BA partnership) from April.

This means that it doesn’t matter much that LATAM is ending its Frankfurt-Madrid service on 30th June. There is a good reason for this. LATAM has decided that it can now justify running a direct ‘three times per week’ service from Frankfurt to Santiago as well as from Madrid to Santiago.

It’s a shame to see the service go as these ‘Fifth Freedom’ flights are becoming an endangered species.

If you want to learn more, this article looks at ‘Fifth Freedom’ flights in Europe plus other intra-Europe flights which use long-haul aircraft. It is 18 months old so please double-check the information.

If you want to book this LATAM flight before it ends (and preferably before 30th March whilst it still earns tier points) you can do so here.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

oneworld alliance partners

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Secret Squirrel says:

8 Feb8 February 11:45

Can you have both IHG Black & White cards within one account online like Amex?
- Grant says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 14:56
  
  Not in my experience. I received my free card today and it made me register a separate account from the premimum one.
  - Sal says:
    
    8 Feb8 February 18:06
    
    So if you have ing premium card can you apply for free and still get the bonus points?
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      8 Feb8 February 18:53
      
      Appears so!
Bs says:

8 Feb8 February 11:59

I still appear to be Platinum on Red app. It’s definitely been more than a month…
Hugo says:

8 Feb8 February 12:06

Anyone know how Lloyd’s are treating curve withdrawals – no fees? Avios given? Thanks
- Secret Squirrel says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 12:39
  
  ATM withdrawals don’t appear to be effected like top ups, or atleast not with IHG.
Alex Sm says:

8 Feb8 February 12:40

Is it 10 euro or 10 dollars – the headline and the text say different things
Seems that HfP proofing has gone out of the window recently…
Mikeact says:

8 Feb8 February 13:17

Today’s Bits.
With all these airline cancellations to, from and around the Far East ….what do airlines do with all the surplus aircraft that are not used. ? I guess it’s not that easy to double up on other routes …. just park them up somewhere?
- Rob says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 14:28
  
  Given ongoing 787 issues the flexibility may be welcome.
- Peter K says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 14:29
  
  No real idea but maybe do some maintenance that they’ve been holding off on doing until the appropriate time.
- Bagoly says:
  
  9 Feb9 February 05:35
  
  They don’t want to destroy the economics of their existing routes.
  Maybe they could copy that Qantas idea from last year and run some all-redemption flights to reduce their outstanding points liabilities, on routes where redemptions are difficult to get, E.g. London to Mauritius/Seychelles/Maldives.
Harry T says:

8 Feb8 February 14:34

OT:
I’ve been thinking recently about the value of hotel status for leisure travellers, and I’d appreciate some discussion on it.

It seems to me like a lot of the benefits such as late check out and “free” breakfast can be obtained by using a travel agent such as Amex FHR or Virtuoso. Similarly you can pay extra for a room with club lounge access etc. Does anyone who travels a few times a year for pleasure find value in chasing status with hotel chains? It seems you can acquire most of the benefits by using a travel agent, which also gives you the flexibility to stay at different hotels outside of a certain chain, depending on your preferences.
- Genghis says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 15:33
  
  Most things can be got with cash. I prefer to get them free.
  - Harry T says:
    
    8 Feb8 February 18:21
    
    @Genghis
    I see your point but doesn’t it require a significant amount of expenditure to achieve, say, Marriott Platinum or Hilton Diamond?
    - memesweeper says:
      
      8 Feb8 February 19:28
      
      Many of us are spending the money anyway, on business travel. It’s a small but appreciated benefit that when you go on holiday you might actually get some recognition of your loyalty.
- Peter K says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 16:47
  
  Status can make a big difference. Even just free breakfast can save a fortune. I looked at the Sheraton on Tenerife for example and it was €25 per person for breakfast, the Hotel Indigo in Rome was the same a few years ago.
  
  If I stay at a Hilton though I get it free, so that’s €50 a day saved straight away (or the effort of going elsewhere for brekkie).
  
  For the sake of putting 10k through a Hilton card I’d want that status. On the other hand, I’d not pay to stay several unnecessary nights to get a status in a hotel brand.
  - Harry T says:
    
    8 Feb8 February 18:23
    
    @Peter K
    You make a good point. I guess it depends how much it costs to acquire that status? If you get it through a credit card then that is probably better value than doing it the “hard way”, although there’s the opportunity cost related to where else you could direct that 10k expenditure (wish I had the Hilton card!).
xcalx says:

8 Feb8 February 15:04

OT Received the free IHG card this morning. Can this card be used to pay Brighton, fee free.
Spaghetti Town says:

8 Feb8 February 15:12

How do people keep their hotel.com rewards alive without staying somewhere?

Wasn’t the trick to book somewhere in Kathmandu for £3 or something like that
- meta says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 15:40
  
  Yes, that’s the way. Also if you need to reduce the value of free nights as you can only use them for room cost without tax.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  8 Feb8 February 15:50
  
  Recently booked a £4 hostel bed for 1 person in Cambodia worked perfectly. Though I probably left it too late in case it didn’t work so will try earlier if there is a better next time.