For United FF'ers, GRUPO TACA GROUP AIRLINES (taca.com) recently partnered with United, now you can get UA miles to Colombia, Central America and South America and use UA miles on TACA. TACA flies newer airbus planes and gets you into BOG at a decent time 14:00. Service could've been better, but they have decent fares.

Has this happened yet? Nothing about it on united website or star alliance website. I know they used to be s few years ago but not now.

Yes, recently got miles for my last trip, check it out at UA partners at :

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,51762,00.html

Merlin,
Thanks. I stand corrected. I looked eareir and couldn't find it.

I flew Taca from BA to NYC earlier this year.
Signed up for Distancia, bought the ticket online, and chose my seat.
Well, that seat assignment was a joke -- was told at check-in that there was no pre-assigned seating. Guess they just needed something to make the website entertaining. People I spoke with on the flight were also bitching about this.
They don't feed you, just a cup of water and a small bag of chips. They come around with some sorry-looking sandwiches for $5 each. I'm considering suggesting and ad campaign for them "Taca, bringing the third-world bus experience to an airport near you."
After waiting two months, I still didn't see my mileage in my Distancia account, so I called them up. They said I had to appear in person at a Taca office. Going from third-world bus ride to third world bureaucracy! Well, that was out of the question, so after making enough phone calls I was given an email address to contact. Just a few weeks ago (this is September, the flight was in March) I finally got the mileage squared away.
So if you fly with them be sure to pack a lunch, and keep your tickets and boarding passes in your safe deposit box if you intend to claim ff miles.

Thanks for the details Bendejo, I also thought that service could've been better on my flight, but you detailed it well as I had similar issues.

But man I'm a glutton for punishment to get those coveted UA miles to maintain my status each year. Used to be that b/c of my frequent trips to Colombia on non-star alliance carriers, I would just miss the top tier UA status. UA MilegePlus is usually good about posting FF miles quickly and accurately IMO.

Merlin,
If you book the TACA segments through UA as part of a UA/TACA itinerary you'll get your mileage credited immediately. If you simply book a flight on TACA and ask for MP credit, it'll take awhile and you may run into the problems mentioned by Bendejo. Sometimes I think TACA's MIS system consists of scraps of paper and a shoebox.

(Message edited by BRanquinho on September 28, 2006)

The positive thing about Taca is that it has the best fares (that I could could find) linking the southern part of South America (Rio, BA, et al) to the northern part, even if that seems restricted to the western coast (Peru, Ecuador). It seems the cheapest way to go between southern Brazil and Colombia is via Miami. But hopefully this will change.

Keep in mind, it's all narrowbody aircraft I believe, so that trip can seem a lot longer on a 737 or A320 than on a widebody.

So true Cat, espec. for me since I go transpacific so often in widebody planes. This is one reason I shy away from COPA these days which flies all 737-800s for 6-7 hrs. TACA is similar as they seemed to only have A319s or A320.

Branquinho, based on my expce w/Central and S.A. carriers, I don't think the concept of MIS exists. I've even had horrendous probls w/Copa getting a refund, and COPA is supposedly one of the premier C.A. carriers. Avianca, surprisingly, is fairly good IMO.