The contract that Santander has with Latam Pass, the frequent flyer program of Latam Airlines, the most coveted loyalty system in the banking industry, was renegotiated this year, given that it expired on December 31.
In August the companies reached an agreement and renewed this alliance that has existed for more than three decades for another five years. However, what was not known is that the more than 688 thousand clients who currently use this program will see a change in accessing these benefits.
On Wednesday, Santander began to communicate to its clients about this adjustment. “From January 5, 2026, Santander Rewards will begin to operate and, along with that, the benefits of the Santander LATAM Pass Alliance will be updated. These changes consider new mileage accumulation ranges and adjustments in benefits, details that you will be able to know from January 2026,” the bank states on its website.
Although all the details of this new “Santander Rewards” benefit program will be known in January, the truth is that the bank has already advanced some changes, which have preliminarily generated annoyance among customers, as they have expressed on social networks, since they interpret that it will be more complex to access them.
However, Santander assured that some of these adjustments could be more advantageous for certain clients. Likewise, there will be others that will have greater restrictions, since for example there will be no more free bags for every event and there will be no automatic access to the Gold Category.
When asked about this, they pointed out that “Santander Rewards is evolving towards a program that rewards the customer’s total relationship with the bank – their seniority and products – and not just consumption. It seeks to strengthen the bond and priority with the customer.”
They added that “the program integrates all Santander benefits into a single ecosystem: those associated with the LATAM Pass alliance, commercial and financial. Customers will maintain the accumulation of LATAM Pass miles, but the rate will depend on compliance with the rules that will be communicated on January 5, 2026, and may even be higher than the current one.”
In addition, they stated that “customers with a Life Card will begin to accumulate miles, expanding access to this benefit.”
And they clarified that “The free suitcase benefit is not eliminated: will be subject to the new rules, remaining unchanged until March 31, 2026.”
Currently, those who have WorldMember cards can carry a free 23 kg checked bag for all flights operated by LATAM Airlines, without further requirements.
But that will change, because from April 2026 “the luggage benefit will no longer be defined exclusively by the type of card, and It will also depend on compliance with the rules of the Santander Rewards Program. which will be reported on January 5, 2026″, the bank indicated on its website.
Finally, Santander explained that “the corresponding cards will continue to have access to the WorldMember Lounge and mileage transfers at no annual cost. As a novelty, customers will accumulate LATAM Pass Qualifying Points (1 for every 2 miles), which will make it easier to advance to higher Elite LATAM Pass categories, even above the current Gold category (without category cap), which provide benefits such as preferential boarding and check-in, priority luggage, upgradesamong others.”
Mileage accumulation
The number of miles that users can accumulate will depend on the level of the customer’s connection with the bank. That means that the more products a person has, the more likely they are to make profits.
What Santander did report is the accumulation range that each person will be able to access according to the credit card they have. But the exact rate will be subject to the rules of the Santander Rewards program that will be known in January.
In that sense, those who have The Platinum Card American Express will be able to accumulate 1 to 1.5 miles per dollar spent on purchases. For the WorldMember Limited Santander LATAM Pass card, it will be 0.8 to 1.2 miles per dollar. With the WorldMember Santander LATAM Pass, you will go from 0.7 to 1.05 miles per dollar.
Meanwhile, for the Platinum Santander LATAM Pass (includes clients migrating from Life LATAM Pass), the accumulation range goes from 0.6 to 0.9 miles per dollar. With the Gold Santander LATAM Pass card, it ranges from 0.5 to 0.75 miles per dollar. While with Life Santander it ranges from 0.3 to 0.45 miles per dollar.
No more Gold status for everyone
“As of January 1, 2026, automatic access to the LATAM Pass Gold Category will cease to exist,” the bank said on its website.
Of course, there are exceptions: “It will only be extended for one year (April 2026 to March 2027) to clients who met the following requirements during 2025.”
They are the “customers with The Platinum Card American Express Santander LATAM Pass, WorldMember Limited and WorldMember Santander LATAM Pass credit cards (WorldMember Cards after 04/05/2017) who during the year 2025 have met the commercial requirements of having made purchases of at least $4 million with any of their Santander LATAM Pass credit cards.”
But also for “Platinum and WorldMember Santander LATAM Pass credit card customers (WorldMember Cards prior to 04/05/2017) who during the year 2025 have met the commercial requirements of having used their credit card at least six of the twelve months of the year.”
Likewise, it stated that “for other customers who have not met such commercial requirements during 2025, their category will be adjusted by Latam Airlines Group SA in accordance with the conditions for obtaining Elite LATAM Pass categories of the LATAM Pass Program.”
In any case, they announced as something “NEW!”, the possibility of advancing “towards new Elite LATAM Pass Categories: for every 2 miles accumulated, you will obtain 1 LATAM Pass qualifying point (PC), which will allow you to advance towards the Elite LATAM Pass Categories (Gold, Platinum, Black or Black Signature). These categories provide benefits for your trips such as preferential boarding and check-in, priority luggage, courtesy sections for a cabin upgrade and additional accumulation of miles. This new scheme, it gives you more opportunities to reach one of the categories using your cards.
