First-class for Pesos
Jul 11, 2007, 2:36 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Mexico
Programs: AAdvantage, UA Mileage Plus
Posts: 60
First-class for Pesos
The peso isn't the only undervalued Mexican currency. Mexicana Airlines' Frecuenta mileage program can help you travel the world in business or first class for a fraction of the normal price.
You don't even have to set foot on a Mexicana plane, according to Matthew Bennett of Firstclassflyer.com. That's because you can buy frequent-flier miles from Mexicana for a bargain 1.6 cents each (on other carriers it's more than 2.5 cents) and use them to fly airlines like American, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Singapore and Lufthansa.
Here's how it works. Say you want to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo first class on Singapore Air. By buying 120,000 miles at 1.6 cents, you'd spend only $1,920, vs. $12,565 for a typical fare. There's no limit to how many miles you can buy, but it can be difficult to find frequent-flier seats, so check availability first.
Has this been discussed before? If not what do yall think?
Here is the link.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...fortune/3.html
You don't even have to set foot on a Mexicana plane, according to Matthew Bennett of Firstclassflyer.com. That's because you can buy frequent-flier miles from Mexicana for a bargain 1.6 cents each (on other carriers it's more than 2.5 cents) and use them to fly airlines like American, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Singapore and Lufthansa.
Here's how it works. Say you want to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo first class on Singapore Air. By buying 120,000 miles at 1.6 cents, you'd spend only $1,920, vs. $12,565 for a typical fare. There's no limit to how many miles you can buy, but it can be difficult to find frequent-flier seats, so check availability first.
Has this been discussed before? If not what do yall think?
Here is the link.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/...fortune/3.html
Jul 11, 2007, 2:50 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Programs: OWEmerald; STARGold; BonvoyPlat; IHGPlat/Amb; HiltonGold; A|ClubPat; AirMilesPlat
Posts: 38,186
Since you're a newbie, and FT has been around for almost a decade, it is a pretty sure bet this has indeed been talked about quite a bit. Nothing unique...and as the caveat notes, be sure you can get a seat when you want it before buying those miles/points. The likelihood is so negligible it will only be of value to someone who is very flexible in their plans. Even if you find available F seats on SQ or any other partner airline, they are likely to have vanished by the time the miles/points are purchased and ready to be redeemed.
The classic example of such a "mileage purchase" was actually offered by FT's monthly periodical, INSIDE FLYER. It was offering SPG points for each subsciption purchased. As it transpired, if you bought $1,500 worth of subscriptions (30), the SPG points earned would be enough to get a First Class or Concorde ticket through QF's FF program. And there were lots of award seats available on Concorde once she started flying again. So lots of subscriptions were sold -- and in true FT fashion, offered up for free to those who wanted them by those who bought them. A Concorde seat went for $12,000 return back then, so quite a deal.
Of course, what also made it so good was the fact that for every 20K of SPG points one transferred to QF, SPG tossed in another 5K, so lots of us just used the SPG points we already had: It was 100K SPG points to get the 120K QF points needed.
The classic example of such a "mileage purchase" was actually offered by FT's monthly periodical, INSIDE FLYER. It was offering SPG points for each subsciption purchased. As it transpired, if you bought $1,500 worth of subscriptions (30), the SPG points earned would be enough to get a First Class or Concorde ticket through QF's FF program. And there were lots of award seats available on Concorde once she started flying again. So lots of subscriptions were sold -- and in true FT fashion, offered up for free to those who wanted them by those who bought them. A Concorde seat went for $12,000 return back then, so quite a deal.
Of course, what also made it so good was the fact that for every 20K of SPG points one transferred to QF, SPG tossed in another 5K, so lots of us just used the SPG points we already had: It was 100K SPG points to get the 120K QF points needed.
Jul 12, 2007, 5:58 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 4,843
The classic example of such a "mileage purchase" was actually offered by FT's monthly periodical, INSIDE FLYER. It was offering SPG points for each subsciption purchased. As it transpired, if you bought $1,500 worth of subscriptions (30), the SPG points earned would be enough to get a First Class or Concorde ticket through QF's FF program. And there were lots of award seats available on Concorde once she started flying again. So lots of subscriptions were sold -- and in true FT fashion, offered up for free to those who wanted them by those who bought them. A Concorde seat went for $12,000 return back then, so quite a deal.
Of course, what also made it so good was the fact that for every 20K of SPG points one transferred to QF, SPG tossed in another 5K, so lots of us just used the SPG points we already had: It was 100K SPG points to get the 120K QF points needed.
Jul 15, 2007, 10:19 am
#6
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Homosassa, FL & Ringwood, NJ -UA-G(Lifetime); SPG-Plat (Lifetime)
Posts: 6,120
Since you're a newbie, and FT has been around for almost a decade, it is a pretty sure bet this has indeed been talked about quite a bit. Nothing unique...and as the caveat notes, be sure you can get a seat when you want it before buying those miles/points. The likelihood is so negligible it will only be of value to someone who is very flexible in their plans. Even if you find available F seats on SQ or any other partner airline, they are likely to have vanished by the time the miles/points are purchased and ready to be redeemed.
The classic example of such a "mileage purchase" was actually offered by FT's monthly periodical, INSIDE FLYER. It was offering SPG points for each subsciption purchased. As it transpired, if you bought $1,500 worth of subscriptions (30), the SPG points earned would be enough to get a First Class or Concorde ticket through QF's FF program. And there were lots of award seats available on Concorde once she started flying again. So lots of subscriptions were sold -- and in true FT fashion, offered up for free to those who wanted them by those who bought them. A Concorde seat went for $12,000 return back then, so quite a deal.
Of course, what also made it so good was the fact that for every 20K of SPG points one transferred to QF, SPG tossed in another 5K, so lots of us just used the SPG points we already had: It was 100K SPG points to get the 120K QF points needed.
The classic example of such a "mileage purchase" was actually offered by FT's monthly periodical, INSIDE FLYER. It was offering SPG points for each subsciption purchased. As it transpired, if you bought $1,500 worth of subscriptions (30), the SPG points earned would be enough to get a First Class or Concorde ticket through QF's FF program. And there were lots of award seats available on Concorde once she started flying again. So lots of subscriptions were sold -- and in true FT fashion, offered up for free to those who wanted them by those who bought them. A Concorde seat went for $12,000 return back then, so quite a deal.
Of course, what also made it so good was the fact that for every 20K of SPG points one transferred to QF, SPG tossed in another 5K, so lots of us just used the SPG points we already had: It was 100K SPG points to get the 120K QF points needed.
As an aside, the chance of finding a FC seat on SQ, even for top tier elites, is as close to zero as you can get. There have been anecdotal stories of success, but they are few and far between.
Jul 15, 2007, 12:08 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, NY
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Posts: 18,487
Jul 20, 2007, 1:47 pm
#9
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Monterey, California
Programs: Affiliated with all, participate in some
Posts: 2,188
I have struggled for years to use my 200,000 MX miles. It can be quite difficult to get a confirmed reservation for an international partner award.
