[Anonymous]

[RoadKing]

Hi,
I just realized I have a solid load of pts with Eurobonus that expires in a years time, so I was thinking it is about time me and the missus check out South America.

We have been thinking of Buenos Aires for a while, so we will probably target that city.

We may depart from any city in Europe.

Now, Star Alliance have quite a few member airlines, I know Lufty flies down there, any others?

If there are other airlines, which has the best biz class?

Feedback appreciated 🙂

Good thing BA does not have an expiration policy, saving for the big trip in First there 🙂

[Diplomat_BSB]

The only Star Alliance airline flying non-stop from Europe to Buenos Aires is Lufthansa.

The other option would be to fly with TAM (just recently inaugurated as a SA member) down to São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro and then conect to Buenos Aires. Some people do not like TAM, but I personally think it is ok (not the best service in the world, but definitely not the worst).

TAM has daily flights from LHR, CDG, FRA, MXP and MAD to their hub in São Paulo. There are also daily flights from CDG to Rio de Janeiro and 3 or 4 times weekly services between FRA and Rio and LHR and Rio.

A few flights from São Paulo to Buenos Aires (Ezeiza) are operated with widebody aircraft, which makes the journey a lot more confortable. They also operate some flights to the much more conveniently located Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires.

All that said, the only real problem with flying with TAM is that connections in São Paulo can be quite stressfull, since the airport is very busy early mornings, when most flights from Europe arrive.

[RoadKing]

The tip about TAM and the route via São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro is worth consideration indeed.

Thank you for the information. 🙂

[Tom Otley]

We have a couple of reviews of the service.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested/airlines/tam-airlines

[KSHaggag]

Dear RoadKing ,

You also have other Star Alliance options like Swiss to Sao Paulo with a decent business class service and onwards on TAM to Buenos Aires or even TAP Portugal to Sao or Rio then onwards on TAM ….

Enjoy !

[RoadKing]

Swiss and TAP together with TAM, interesting alternative! If not for anything else so for experiencing various member airlines.

[sky-rat]

TAM’s *A award redemption availability recently disappeared from the ANA tool, shortly after the announcement of their merger with LAN (a OW airline). Nothing was said formally but seems like the two would be linked. Mrs and I were looking at something similar (bmi miles to burn, aiming for Chile) and ended up– after some poking around– simply rearranging and heading for southern Africa. Bizclass to J-burg was relatively easy. We’ll look for Chile again once the dust settles on mergers and availability returns.

[RoadKing]

Thanks for the update sky-rat.
As it is, an unexpected long haul job trip and a sale on eurobonus pts, destination is changed from Buenos Aires to CPT.
We’re upping to a First trip with Lufthansa down and doing Swiss back to Europe.
Really looking forward to it 🙂
BA is starting on Buenos Aires again, so I will save that for them.

[Author]

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