See 15 Cities In Business Class For 176,000 Amex Points Using New Transfer Bonus…

Your best bet to book a SkyTeam around the world award ticket with points…

Let’s be honest, when is the last time you considered booking an award ticket with Aeromexico Club Premier miles — sorry, “kilometers”. If you tell me you have recently, you’re either lying or a super points nerd to which I say, “kudos!”

If you asked me a couple of years ago — even most of 2018 — which program you should use to book an around the world ticket with SkyTeam, I probably would have said Korean Air SkyPass.

Unfortunately, Korean Air and Chase had a tragic breakup.

If you need a minute, I’ll wait.

With the split, we lost not only a great partner of the Ultimate Rewards program but a useful avenue to earn Korean SkyPass miles.

That’s where Aeromexico comes into play. They’re a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and, thanks to numerous options to earn Amex points, quite possibly the best way to book SkyTeam around the world awards now.

Since Aeromexico isn’t exactly a well-known program, let’s dig into how you can book one of these awards.

Aeromexico SkyTeam Go Round The World Award Pass Rules

Let’s start with the basics of Aeromexico’s SkyTeam Round The World rules.

• The trip must be east-west or west-east — backtracking is a no-no
• Only flights on SkyTeam partners may be included
• You must begin and end your trip in the same country
• You may start the trip from any city as long as you can fly a SkyTeam partner
• 3 stopovers are required but you can include up to 15 stopovers
• Stopovers may last as long as you choose
• Your origin and final destination (often the same as your origin) do not count as stopovers
• You can include connecting flights with layovers of less than 24 hours that will not count as stopovers
• May include travel to Africa, Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, North America and South America
• All flights must be booked in the same class of service — you must choose business class or economy class
• Go Round The World Passes are valid for one year from the date of issue

Just in case you weren’t paying attention, that’s 15 stopovers! If you can find award space, you’ll be able to see multiple cities across 6 continents — if only a couple of SkyTeam partners flew to Antarctica.

As with ANA’s Round The World awards, you’ll want to make sure your trip continues in the same direction. Sure, not backtracking can be a pain but there’s still some awesome stuff you can do with this.

Finally, while this is not a “rule”, it’s important to remember that you will be responsible for carrier-imposed (“fuel”) surcharges which can be pretty steep. This is the case with Korean SkyPass around the world awards so it’s just going to be part of booking these awards with SkyTeam partners.

Still, with 15 stopovers, you can see a ton of fun destinations around the world.

Aeromexico Round The World Award Rates

If you want to book a business class round the world award, you’ll need 352,000 kilometers while economy class will cost you 224,000 kilometers. Personally, I have my eye on a business class adventure.

How To Search For SkyTeam Award Space

Aeromexico won’t work for searching SkyTeam partner award space so I’d suggest turning to Air France or KLM — either will work just fine.

The only caveat is if you’re looking for award space on Air France or KLM. If so, I’d turn to Delta or Korean Air — though, they’ll require you to search round-trip.

When you find flights that work for you, make sure you write down the following info:

• Date
• Flight numbers
• Flight times
• Class of service

How To Book An Aeromexico Around The World Award

Why do you need to write down this info? Well, you’re going to have to call Aeromexico to book this award. Even if you have a great memory, just write down the info.

Even if you have an otherworldly memory, you’ll want this info to reference as you could run into a couple issues with Aeromexico agents.

First, English is a second language and some won’t be fluent. This isn’t a knock on them. They work at a Mexican airline so we can’t really expect fluency from everyone. If you speak Spanish — I wish I did, this won’t be an issue for you.

Second, some agents aren’t very well versed in booking these awards. Of course, I can’t imagine they receive many requests for around the world award bookings.

I share this not so much as a warning but just so that you’ll be prepared to hang up and call again (HUCA). If you can’t communicate with a phone agent, move on. If they don’t seem to understand what they’re doing, move on.

As with many fun award bookings, you sometimes have to be willing to stick with it for a bit.

You can reach the U.S. call center at (855-412-2650).

Aeromexico Around The World Example

Now that you know the rules, how to search and how to book, let’s take a look at a practical (sort of) example of an Aeromexico around the world award.

Since we get 15 stopovers and can hit 6 continents, here’s one that popped into my head:

• Atlanta (ATL) to Mexico City (MEX) — stopover
• MEX to Los Angeles (LAX) — stopover
• LAX to Sydney (SYD) — stopover
• SYD to Seoul (ICN) — stopover
• ICN to Shanghai (PVG) — stopover
• PVG to Taipei (TPE) — stopover
• TPE to Bali (DPS) — stopover
• DPS to Guangzhou (CAN) — layover
• CAN to Delhi (DEL) — stopover
• DEL to Moscow (SVO) — stopover
• SVO to Cairo (CAI) — stopover
• CAI to Rome (FCO) — stopover
• FCO to Amsterdam (AMS) — stopover
• AMS to Brussels (BRU) — stopover
• BRU to Paris (CDG) — stopover
• CDG to São Paulo (GRU) — stopover
• GRU to ATL

If you think finding Delta One (business class) between LAX and SYD is impossible, I just sent out an Award Alert with 61 dates that have at minimum 2 seats — many with 4 to 9 seats.

Tell me you wouldn’t want to book this. Just try. We all know you’ll be lying.

Just for kicks, I used ITA Matrix to estimate the taxes/fees (including surcharges) on each segment and the total came to about $1,690.

Surcharges be damned. This is a fun way to see the world.

How To Earn More Amex Membership Rewards Points

If I have you thinking about booking one of these but you don’t have Aeromexico Club Premier kilometers, here’s how you can get your hands on some.

Your best bet is earning Amex Membership Rewards points and transferring to your Aeromexico account. Unlike Marriott Rewards points which transfers at a 3:1 ratio, Membership Rewards transfer at a 1:1.6 ratio.

Basically, 1 Amex point is worth 1 mile which is worth 1.6 kilometers. Pretty simple.

This means you’ll need to transfer 220,000 Membership Rewards points to your Aeromexico account to get the necessary 352,000 kilometers for an around the world business class award.

Additionally, U.S. Bank issues a co-branded Aeromexico card that earns Club Premier kilometers directly.

Amex 25% Transfer Bonus to Aeromexico

As I write this, American Express (US) is currently running a transfer bonus of 25% when you transfer Membership Rewards points to Aeromexico.

Until February 14, 2019, you can transfer 1 Amex Membership Rewards point and receive 2 Aeromexico kilometers.

This means you can book an around the world award in business class for only 176,000 American Express Membership Rewards points.

While I know the surcharges are annoying, that’s 176,000 Amex points to see 15 cities across 6 continents in business class. It’s hard to top that.

Final Thoughts

Look, I realize that plenty of people aren’t going to take off work to hop around the world and see 15 destinations. That totally makes sense.

However, this is a great option if you’re looking to book an extended trip and really want to see places all over the world.

There are tons of combinations to book so don’t feel locked into my example or any other option. Book what excites you so that you can get the most out of your around the world adventure.