Buy One Get One Free Business Class Ticket? Yes Please!

Hopefully the title of this post got your attention, and if you’d like to know more, then keep reading.  Hopefully you’ll be able to take advantage of this deal just like we did – and the best part?  It doesn’t look like it’s about to expire!

Jon has been flying and collecting miles ever since 2004 when he started his first Delta Skymiles account.  Now, together with his husband Ben, they travel the world, in first class of course, at least once a month for pennies on the dollar.  You can read more about Jon and Ben's travels at their website, www.NoMasCoach.com 

First things first, take your credit card out of your wallet.  Is it a Visa?  A Mastercard?  Look above the Visa/MC logo and tell me what it says.  Visa has a great program for certain cardholders called Visa Signature and Mastercard has something similar called World Elite.  Today we’re going to talk about the World Elite program, and some of the awesome benefits associated with it.

Luxury Hotel Portfolio – Enjoy complimentary room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out upon availability, daily breakfast for 2, exclusive amenities and more, at more than 1000 Luxury Hotels & Resorts worldwide.

Rental Car Program – You can get elite status with various rental car programs, helping you to secure quick access to your car, discounts, upgrades, and more.  Also, discounts are on the average of 15-20%, but sometimes cheaper fares can be found.

Elite Chauffeured Service – Need a limo to the airport?  Up to 25% discount on Chauffeur service to and from the airport.

Elite Cruise Program – Hundreds of dollars in discounts and potential room upgrades across some of the best luxury cruise lines in the world.

I don’t know about you, but as much as I like the benefits I don’t really foresee myself needing to use all of them.  It’s nice to have a personal travel concierge (which is offered as well) to take care of all the plans, but I do enjoy being able to plan my own trip (preferably without an expensive limo).

However, one of the best benefits that I have found is the Elite Air Program.  This program offers TONS of benefits, including:

• 10-25% discount on various airlines on economy, business, and first class travel
• Upgrades from full fare economy to business class, for free, on airlines such as Air China, Lufthansa, Brussels, Austrian, and Swiss Air.
• BOGO business class tickets on Aeromexico

Lets focus on that last one.  Buy one, get one FREE tickets on Aeromexico business class fares!!  Now, before you get so excited that you decide to jump on your next flight to Mexico, lets understand the terms and conditions associated with this deal:

World Elite Benefits

• A Business Class ticket for a companion with purchase of a qualifying roundtrip, full fare Premier Business Class ticket
• Valid on Aeromexico flights from select cities in the United States and Canada to select cities in Mexico, Central and South America
• All travel must originate in the USA or Canada and all tickets must be ticketed in the USA
• Both passengers must be confirmed in the “J” Business Class inventory, booked at the same time and travel together on all flights for the entire itinerary.

Notice that first bullet point, FULL FARE business class ticket.  For the uninitiated, a full fare ticket is just that, one that doesn’t have any discounts associated with it.  When you go to a travel website and search for tickets, you’re usually getting a discount fare, which is not eligible for any BOGO discounts.  You can call the airline, however, and ask about the non discounted fares and get a quote.  In the 2nd and 3rd bullets, we see that you can’t fly Aeromexico to Asia or Europe, and only from the USA/Canada to Central and South America.

Aeromexico does fly to Sao Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, and others, and often the fares are quite good!  Here’s some of the great deals that we found:

Miami-Buenos Aires $3400 (for two tickets)

Los Angeles-Buenos Aires $4400 (for two)

Boston-Bogota $3100 (for two)

Los Angeles-Lima $3100 (for two)

On the majority of these routes, the coach fares were in the area of $1100-1400, so for just a small premium, you can move yourself into a paid, refundable, business class ticket.

Aeromexico can be credited to any SkyTeam partners such as Delta, can be credited to Avianca LifeMiles, or even to Alaska Airlines.  The fare books into J class, so on Delta, here is the earning potential

Here’s the earning potential on Alaska

And LifeMiles with AviancaTaca

While the terms and conditions of the coupon state that only the cardholder can earn miles on the original ticket, when I looked at the Aeromexico website it shows both as full fare tickets.  We shall see how they do or don’t post after we fly.

We grabbed two tickets for a flight to Buenos Aires so we’ll be able to report whether or not the miles post for us both, and AeroMexico is flying the new 787 Dreamliner on the route, so watch for those details later…