Probably the most compelling features of an airline loyalty program is whenever you’re in a position to guide a round-the-world journey utilizing factors. In some circumstances, you will get unbelievable worth, so long as you’re daring sufficient to study the ins-and-outs of this system and maximize it.
Some examples of this embody a Star Alliance possibility with ANA Mileage Membership and Oneworld multi-carrier award charts in British Airways Avios and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
As we speak, we’ll jump over to the SkyTeam alliance for a close-up take a look at the intriguing Aeromexico Membership Premier round-the-world award.
Incomes Factors with Aeromexico Membership Premier
Earlier than taking a look at redeeming Aeromexico factors for a round-the-world journey, we first should contemplate the perfect methods to earn Membership Premier factors.
There are basically 4 methods to build up factors throughout the Aeromexico program: Marriott Bonvoy, Amex US, Capital One Enterprise Miles, or Citi ThankYou Factors.
Marriott Bonvoy factors will be transferred to Aeromexico on the ordinary optimum ratio of 60,000 Bonvoy factors = 25,000 Aeromexico Membership Premier factors. This is usually a affordable manner of incomes you probably have a big stash of Bonvoy factors (and a high-value Aeromexico round-the-world award inside your sights), however the actuality is that your Bonvoy factors can typically be redeemed at higher worth for resort stays.
As an alternative, it’s higher to contemplate transferring Amex US MR factors, Capital One Enterprise Miles, Citi ThankYou Factors to Aeromexico Membership Premier. Amex US MR factors switch over at a ratio of 1:1.6, whereas Capital One Enterprise Miles and Citi ThankYou Factors switch over at a ratio of 1:1.
Should you’re a Canadian with entry to Amex US, keep in mind that so long as you may have a single Amex US MR bank card (just like the Amex US Gold Card, the Amex US EveryDay Card, or the Amex US Enterprise Platinum Card), chances are you’ll switch your Canadian Amex MR factors over to the US on the prevailing alternate price as soon as yearly.
For Canadians, this could most likely be probably the most possible solution to rack up factors with Aeromexico: transferring Canadian MR factors over to the US, after which transferring these factors into Aeromexico at a 1:1.6 ratio.
The Guidelines
This redemption alternative throughout the Aeromexico Membership Premier program is formally often known as a “SkyTeam Go Around the World Move”, and you could find the restricted official info that exists on the Aeromexico Membership Premier web site at this web page.
What’s very attention-grabbing concerning the Aeromexico round-the-world award, in comparison with different related candy spots we’ve studied up to now, is that the principles are exceedingly easy.
There’s no distance-based award chart in any respect; as a substitute, any SkyTeam Go Around the World ticket will value you both 224,000 Membership Premier factors in financial system class or 352,000 Membership Premier factors in enterprise class, irrespective of which airways you fly, which locations you go to, or how convoluted your itinerary is.
Whereas these might look like sky-high redemption worth factors, when you think about the beneficiant 1:1.6 switch ratio from Amex US MR, it boils all the way down to a extra affordable 140,000 or 220,000 US MR factors, respectively. Then contemplate the truth that Amex US typically places on 25% switch bonuses to Aeromexico, and the mathematics works out much more in your favour.
So what’s going to 220,000 Amex US MR factors get you? Properly, listed here are the remainder of the principles:
As you may see, journey should happen on SkyTeam airways, it’s essential to begin and end throughout the identical nation, and it’s essential to journey fully in an eastbound or westbound route. This will likely be principally ruled by a “no-backtracking” rule among the many three IATA zones, though a couple of information factors point out that slight backtracking to a SkyTeam hub is suitable.
What makes this award redemption extraordinarily engaging, although, is the truth that you may have a most of 15 stopovers on the ticket (with at most 5 per continent). That’s proper, think about the chances that come from placing 16 segments on the identical ticket, particularly because you aren’t merely restricted to 2 or three stops, however quite, each metropolis is usually a stopover!
And moreover, keep in mind that you’ll pay the identical worth whether or not your SkyTeam round-the-world award has three stopovers or 15 stopovers. It’s undoubtedly in your greatest curiosity to maximise the period of time you get to spend in every metropolis and stretch the worth of your 224,000 Aeromexico miles (in financial system class) or 352,000 Aeromexico miles (in enterprise class) so far as they’ll go.
Notice that whereas the principles don’t make any point out of open-jaws, moreover the truth that your beginning and ending factors could also be totally different so long as they’re in the identical nation, different information factors have confirmed that open-jaws are allowed however will rely as two stopovers.
There are additionally a couple of guidelines which can be extra restrictive: all the journey should happen inside one yr of the ticket issuance date, and likewise, all flights on the itinerary should be in the identical class of service, and mixed-cabin awards should not permitted.
As at all times, financial system class awards ought to be comparatively easy to seek out, however in case you select to guide a enterprise class ticket, you’ll must work very exhausting to seek out availability in enterprise class on each single section of your journey, all whereas making certain that the entire journey is accomplished inside one yr’s time.
Nonetheless, these are principally all the principles, and also you’ll discover there are not any restrictions on the entire distance flown. That leaves us a good bit of room to play with…
A Few Examples
Let’s check out a couple of illustrated examples to see what you are able to do with an Aeromexico round-the-world award. Do not forget that all itineraries value 224,000 miles in financial system or 352,000 miles in enterprise – equal to 140,000 or 220,000 US MR factors, respectively.
1. A Basic RTW
Beginning in Toronto, fly south to Atlanta and take a Delta One flight to Paris. Cease in Paris for a couple of days then catch a Korean Air flight to Seoul. Proceed onto Shanghai in China Jap, adopted by a China Airways journey to New York (JFK) by way of Taipei.
Lastly, return to Toronto on a Delta flight. Understand that your beginning and ending factors will be totally different, so you may additionally select to finish up in, say, Montreal as a substitute.
Assuming you may have a stopover for longer than 24 hours in each one in all these cities, you’ll have used simply six stopovers out of your whole allotment of 15.
2. Six Continents à la Aeromexico
Fly Delta One south to São Paulo earlier than catching an Air France flight to Paris. Then fly Kenya Airways to Nairobi, earlier than stopping in Saudi Arabia then persevering with to Istanbul with Saudia after which Amsterdam on KLM. Proceed on to go to Japan earlier than flying Korean Air to Sydney and taking one other Delta flight to LAX. End the journey with Delta flights again to Toronto by way of Seattle and Minneapolis.
You could select any of those cities to stopover for an prolonged size, or just to make it a layover and proceed the journey. Such is the immense energy of the Aeromexico round-the-world award.
3. An Oddball Airline Journey
Should you’re somebody who would take pleasure in a round-the-world journey on among the world’s extra obscure airways, then the Aeromexico round-the-world is true up your alley, because the SkyTeam alliance occurs to have a lot of those lesser-known airways so that you can strive.
Ranging from Vancouver, fly to Xiamen after which Kunming on XiamenAir, adopted by a hop all the way down to Jakarta by way of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis on China Jap and Vietnam Airways. Proceed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the award-winning Garuda Indonesia, after which join onto a Saudia flight to Beirut, Lebanon.
Then, take Center East Airways to Frankfurt, and see in case you can persuade the Aeromexico cellphone agent to permit you some backtracking leeway right here as you head to Bucharest after which Madrid on TAROM, the Romanian nationwide airline, after which catch an Air Europa flight again to New York.
In spite of everything this, your Aeromexico flights again to Vancouver – by way of Buenos Aires and Mexico Metropolis on Aerolíneas Argentinas and Aeromexico – ought to appear positively pedestrian!
Since there are not any mileage/distance necessities and all awards are fastened worth, the sky is the restrict by way of reserving any of those awards. There’s no want to fret about what number of miles you’re flying – if the route is flown by SkyTeam, you may guide it (supplied you’re not backtracking an excessive amount of, after all).
Taxes & Charges
The taxes and costs are a significant unknown right here. If gasoline surcharges are certainly handed on to the passenger on all segments, then a fast look on ITA Matrix tells us that the above itineraries would include not less than $500–1,000 in surcharges.
It may undoubtedly be worthwhile to begin all the round-the-world journey from a jurisdiction that imposes laws on gasoline surcharges, like Brazil or Hong Kong.
This will likely require further positioning flights from Canada, however then once more, you probably have the flexibleness to be reserving an Aeromexico round-the-world award with 15 stopovers within the first place, that seemingly isn’t going to be an issue for you!
Search and E book
When trying to find SkyTeam award area, the perfect airline engines like google to make use of are going to be the web sites of Delta, Air France/KLM, or Korean Air. Understand that these engines like google will present further award area for their very own flights (for instance, trying to find Delta One seats on the Delta web site might offer you further area that isn’t really bookable on Aeromexico’s facet), so it’s greatest to cross-reference between not less than two totally different engines like google.
Delta’s web site will be significantly helpful as a place to begin due to its 30-day calendar view:
As well as, ExpertFlyer’s protection of SkyTeam airways is sort of sturdy, displaying award area on many SkyTeam members (in contrast to Oneworld, the place it has main gaps by way of the airways it covers). It’d be greatest to make use of ExpertFlyer you probably have a subscription, after which use the person airline web sites to cross-reference your findings.
The Aeromexico round-the-world award can’t be booked on-line, and should be booked over the cellphone with the Aeromexico name centre. Wait occasions could also be longer than common, and lots of brokers should not fully fluent in English, so an excessive amount of persistence will seemingly be required.
If there have been one kind of award redemption for which your persistence can be very a lot justified, although, a round-the-world journey with 15 stops of prolonged period – significantly in enterprise class, in case you can pull it off – might be it.
Conclusion
Aeromexico Membership Premier provides simply probably the most highly effective round-the-world award redemption that we’ve examined so far, purely by way of the 15 locations you get to go to as a part of a single ticket. For a hard and fast worth of 140,000 or 220,000 US MR factors in financial system or enterprise, respectively (25% switch bonuses however), there’s insane worth to be unlocked in such a redemption by these of us with aspirations of intensive round-the-world journey.
On the draw back, just like the ANA Mileage Membership round-the-world award, it’s not precisely easy to earn Aeromexico miles, and it is advisable to be taking part in the US bank card recreation not less than a bit bit as a way to earn the miles required.
There appear to be preciously few information factors out there relating to reserving the Aeromexico round-the-world award, so in case you do give it a strive, you should definitely share your expertise with us within the feedback.
