123 Milhas sold cheap flights with other people's miles — then R$2.4B in debt came due

123 Milhas was a Brazilian travel company that sold discounted flight tickets and travel packages by arbitraging airline loyalty miles. The Grupo 123 umbrella included 123 Milhas, HotMilhas, Novum, Maxmilhas and LH Lance Hotéis. The model depended on buying miles cheaply from consumers and redeeming them for tickets at a margin.

The miles-arbitrage model was inherently fragile: it depended on airline loyalty programme terms remaining favourable, on a steady supply of cheap miles from consumers, and on travel demand staying strong. When any of these shifted, the margin compressed. The group accumulated R$2.4 billion in debts.

In August 2023, 123 Milhas entered recuperação judicial — Brazilian court-supervised bankruptcy protection. Approximately 800,000 creditors were registered in the process, the vast majority of them individual consumers who had paid for travel they never received.

The recovery plan proposed paying creditors over seven and a half years, with options including full repayment tied to cashback on future purchases, or a 40% discount paid in 12 semi-annual instalments starting after 18 months. Legal experts noted the effective haircut could exceed 70%. The creditors' assembly was still pending as of mid-2026.