LATAM Announces New Oneworld Benefits

Delta announced a partnership with LATAM in 2019, which represented the largest investment in a foreign carrier for Delta and is a competitive strike against American Airlines in Latin America. The partnership caused LATAM to exit oneworld alliance back in May. Now LATAM announced that they will continue their partnership with some of the oneworld airlines.

LATAM Announces New Oneworld Benefits

In recent years, Delta has expanded its ownership and relationship with other international carriers. It raised its stake in the parent company of Korean Air to 9.2%, announced a trans-border joint venture with Canadian airline WestJet and increased its ownership of Aeromexico, the largest airline in Mexico to 49%. The partnership with LATAM allowed Delta to expand onto an $8 billion market for U.S. travel in which it had limited access, resulting in much greater travel choices for customers. The original plan for LATAM was to exit oneworld completely, however, they announced some benefits with select oneworld airlines.

From the official announcement:

Over the past few months, and in the face of this unprecedented situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline industry has been forced to undergo major changes. Within this complex context, we have been able to ensure the continuity of the LATAM Pass Points earning agreements and redemptions with some of the airlines in the Oneworld Alliance and to maintain access to Elite membership benefits through September 30th, 2020.

Between October 1st, 2020, and December 31st, 2021, LATAM Elite Members will earn a higher percentage of points on flights with some oneworld airlines on routes which origin or destination is not in South America. This percentage will depend on the current member's Elite category. Gold and Gold Plus members will earn an additional 15%, and Platinum, Black, and Black Signature members will earn 30%.

Oneworld airlines that will offer this benefit:

• British Airways (Except routes between London and Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Santiago)


• Cathay Pacific


• Finnair


• Iberia (Except routes between Madrid and Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Guayaquil, Lima, Medellín, Montevideo, Santiago and Quito)


• Malaysia Airlines


• Japan Airlines


• Qantas (Except Santiago - Sydney route)


• Qatar Airways (Except Sao Paulo - Doha route)


• Royal Jordanian Airlines


• SriLankan Airlines


• S7 Airlines