Anatomy of an Award: Buenos Aires Rio on Aerolíneas Argentinas & Gol

In February, my parents flew down to South America to join me for a trip in Rio de Janiero, followed by a week spent in Buenos Aires, the location I call home for at least half the year.

I booked them in United Business between Charleston, SC and Rio de Janiero using United miles, and LATAM Business between Buenos Aires and Miami using American Airlines miles.

Aerolineas Argentinas Cutting USA Routes, American Airlines Might Pick Them Up

Aerolineas Argentinas is cutting its Miami to Cordoba route in June 2016 and its routes from Buenos Aires to New York, Rome, and Barcelona at undisclosed dates according to these (1, 2) Spanish-language articles

Direct Flight to Cordoba, Argentina that You Can Book for 30,000 Delta Miles

Aerolineas Argentinas resumed flights from Miami to Cordoba, Argentina on July 5, 2015, 16 years after the last flight on the route.

The Best Award Space to Argentina Year Round is with Delta Miles

Delta SkyMiles have access to the best award space to all of Argentina--not just Buenos Aires--year round in economy and Business Class.

The backbone of the award space is AeroMexico availability on its daily flights from Mexico City to Buenos Aires.

Delta Has Made 7 More Partners Bookable Online This Year

Already in 2015, Delta has added Aeroflot, Garuda Indonesia, Aerolineas Argentinas, China Eastern, China Southern, China Airlines, and GOL to the list of airlines bookable on delta.com with Delta SkyMiles. That means the following airlines' award space are now bookable on delta.com:

Delta
Aeroflot
AeroMexico
Air France
Alaska Airlines
Alitalia
China Airlines
China Eastern
China Southern
Garuda Indonesia
GOL
KLM
Korean
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Australia

Not all Delta partners are bookable online though.

Anatomy of an Award: intra-Argentina Flights with Avios and SkyMiles

I spent five hours booking a roundtrip from Buenos Aires to Bariloche this week. But at least I avoided an hour and a half in taxis to pick up paper tickets! HUH!?

Bariloche is 851 miles to the southwest of Buenos Aires as the plane flies.

Image from gcmap.com

I decided to book a last-second economy award for two because Bariloche is on the northern edge of Patagonia, and summer is over.

Anatomy of an Award: Membership Rewards to Argentina

I recently booked a family of four an economy award from Miami to Buenos Aires with their Membership Rewards. It was an interesting award that I think demonstrates the complexities and fun of booking with American Express points.

I won't talk about that award specifically, but I'll use it as a jumping off point for discussion since it illustrates a typical Memberhip Rewards situation.