92. Award Travel Hotspot: Unlocking Mexico City’s Hidden Potential with Kelsi Sullivan

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. Today, I'm joined by Kelsi Sullivan, the older sister of the Pointsister duo. Now, you heard me chat with her sister, Devan Sullivan, back on episode number 86 of the podcast that was all about booking ANA Around the World awards. 

While Kelsi is best known for her expertise in booking these ANA Around the World tickets alongside her sister, Devan, she's also a wealth of knowledge on tons of other topics in the world of award travel.  I invited her here today to talk about a hidden gem amongst North American airports that you need to know about. Do you want to take a guess which airport I'm referring to? Don't worry. You don't have to wait long to find out. 

Because today, we are diving into all things Mexico City, including unique opportunities for award redemptions from this airport, practical tips for navigating Mexico City's airport, and recommendations for some must-see attractions if you have a layover or stopover in this incredible city. Having grown up in Mexico City and booked countless award flights for herself and others through this hub, Kelsi explains how Mexico City is not only an incredible travel destination in its own right, but also a strategic hub for award travel. Please enjoy our conversation. 

Devon: Welcome to the podcast, Kelsi. I'm so thrilled to have you. How are you doing today?

Kelsi: I'm so well. Thank you so much for asking. I'm super excited to be here to talk about Mexico City.

Devon: I am as well because you are an absolute expert not only on award flights, some of the amazing and unique opportunities that award travel enthusiasts have when thinking about Mexico City, but also you have a lot of personal experience there. So why don't we just start from there? Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do. How did you get started in the points and miles hobby? 

Kelsi: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So I actually grew up in Mexico City, which is why it's so near and dear to my heart. We moved there when I was really young. I lived in Mexico City until I was 18, until I was ready to go to college. So yeah, super near and dear to my heart. Spent a lot of time there. My parents lived there for 20 years, and I regularly go back. Living in San Diego is really close. So that's kind of my closeness to Mexico City and why I'm so passionate about it. 

Then how I got into points and miles is, you know, I guess kind of how any person who's just really passionate about things gets into anything. My parents were really big into points and miles growing up because we lived abroad. In order to kind of come see our family in the United States, for a family of four, it gets kind of pricey. So my parents definitely offset some of the cost there with points and miles. 

But also probably something a lot of people don't know about me and my sister, we're really into like the FIRE community. I think, you know, growing up with parents who use points and miles for redemptions, but then also being close to the FIRE community and like looking for extra special ways to kind of cut costs and save money where we could so that we could invest it in other things. That's kind of where it really like fueled the passion and where I think once you dig into this hobby, there's like really no going back. It's just like rabbit hole after rabbit hole. So probably a similar story to most people. 

Devon: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that a lot of people can relate to that. I know I certainly can. I think one of the things that I know has happened to me in learning about points and miles is that a lot of us who love this, not only do we love travel, I think that's kind of a given for anybody who's in this hobby. But so many of us also really like the puzzle of points and miles. How can we solve this puzzle? How can we put these pieces together in terms of how can we earn as many points as possible for the money that we're already spending? How do we use those points to get a ton of value? 

One of the things that I personally think can be both infuriating, but also really exciting is just how much the landscape of points and miles changes. Like you think you learn the way that things work, and then the next year the stuff that used to work doesn't. I think that happens on both sides. One of the things that I've seen personally just being in this space for a few years now, using points for my own personal travel, helping other folks travel, is I feel like for a long time there were kind of givens in terms of where great deals could be found. 

I think for people who are based specifically in the U.S., we traditionally think of the main U.S. hub airports. San Francisco, sometimes LAX in terms of award availability, Chicago, JFK, Washington, D.C. These are sort of main international hubs where for a long time I feel like we could reliably find a lot of really great award space. It seems like, at least to me personally, in the last year that hasn't completely dried up, but there has been a shift in terms of where do people really need to focus to look for great deals or to look for great redemption opportunities. 

I think one of the things that's been really overlooked are what are some of the other really incredible North American hubs and the airports that offer some really interesting and unique redemptions. This is why I've been thinking more and more about Mexico City specifically as an airport hub for award redemptions recently. 

One of the things that you said to me as we were just kind of chatting before we started this episode is that you think that there are some really amazing awards that most folks wouldn't think about, maybe have never even heard of, and really make Mexico City kind of a hotspot or a gem in the world of award redemptions.

That's what I would love to dig into. So can you tell us why is it that you think that? What is it that we all need to know about Mexico City and award redemptions? 

Kelsi: Oh my God, if I could just like snap and clap at everything you just said. I agree with every single thing you just said. I do think you're right. I think that we need to kind of think bigger, right? We're already, in so many cases, for these really awesome redemptions. We're already repositioning. What is the difference flying to Mexico City? 

Like for me, flying to Mexico City and flying to Houston is exactly the same in terms of flight time. So really what is the difference?  I think, and we don't have to dig into this too much, but I think one of the things that has prevented a lot of Americans from considering Mexico City is I think maybe just this concern about safety. 

So that's one of the things that I always really like to talk about when I am talking about Mexico City as someone who grew up there in a safe environment. I grew up there in the early 2000s when there were serious kidnappings and like really serious things happening in Mexico City. I just want to assure people that Mexico City is a huge city, but it is as dangerous as any other huge city in America. 

Like as a single woman, I wouldn't be walking down a dark street in New York City alone. I'm not doing that in Mexico City as well. Of course, there's just other precautions you need to take, right? Like you are going to stick out if you are a very, very like tall white person like me with big curly red hair, right? Like I'm not exactly blending in, but it doesn't make you a target. It just means hey, why don't you keep your wallet in your front pocket? But I would say that to you in San Diego. 

So yeah, I'm super excited to talk about it. I do want to talk about some really special redemptions with Mexico City. I guess we'll just like really dig into Mexico City and like these really special redemptions. First, I do have a list of kind of ways to book and just like just really kind of cool redemptions. But I'll talk about these really kind of sweet spot ones. I specifically chose ones that I have personally taken and one aspirational one. So that's kind of I have good experience with these. So I'm happy to talk about it in depth if we need to. 

The first is Emirates. So Emirates runs a Fifth Freedom flight from Barcelona to Mexico City and vice versa. It's an excellent flight. It's not like the biggest Emirates flight, like the bar isn't there. Like it is on that one from Dubai to LAX. But it is a beautiful seat. Lie flat. It's just a great flight. It's I think 10, 11 hours. Taken it myself. Best espresso martini I've ever had on an airplane. It's just a great redemption. 

I think it's when I booked it, I want to say it was like 80,000 points. I think now it's gone up with the devaluation. Maybe it's like 94,000, but it's still just so much good availability. Like I can almost assure you that if you need a last minute flight and you need to get to Europe and you need to get to Europe in the summertime, peak summertime, you can find space on this flight. So it's just a great option. I know you talked about that in your Fifth Freedom presentation. So it's a good one. 

Devon: Can I interrupt you real quick and just kind of expand on that a little bit? So I think one of the things that people sometimes, especially in the beginning, don't always understand is just this concept of award availability. Let's talk specifically about business class versus economy class. Right. 

So to be able to fly, let's start with the business class. Business class awards, again, from North America to Europe. Right now, in your experience, kind of what is the landscape look like? Like, let's say I want to take three people to anywhere in Europe flying business class using points, whether I'm based on the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest. How would you rate that just in terms of easing and booking right now across most U.S. major hub airports? 

Kelsi: Yeah, I mean, it's sparse. 

Devon: Yeah. 

Kelsi: I don't know why in the last three, four months, it's been really sparse. My sister and I have a service for award booking, and we get a lot of award bookings. It's been sparse to Europe. I don't know what's going on. unless it's literally last minute, like three days ahead of time, or right at the 365 or 55 days when British Airways opens up. It's just been sparse. I don't know what it is. I have no idea. 

But even when I was with you recently, just last month, we looked at Air France availability in business class from North America to Europe. There were three dates for the rest of the year from every major American hub. I think recently they've opened up some new ones. But yeah, I mean, just yeah, incredibly sparse. 

Devon: Yeah, and I agree. I have noticed the same exact thing. I wasn't sure, like you said, is this something that's just literally specific to this time point? You know, for like the next three months, this is what we're going to be seeing. Because I don't remember another time in the last 10 years where I felt like, again, some of those go-to redemptions, some of those go-to airlines or award programs that were always pretty reliable in terms of finding specifically business class awards from the U.S. to Europe. It just seems like a major drought right now. 

I'm hoping that this is temporary. I'm hoping that in another two or three months, a lot of these airlines start dumping a ton of award space again. But I think that this really presents in one way a challenge, but in another way an opportunity to say okay, if those things that we've always relied on in the past airlines like Air France Flying Blue, for some folks, maybe that was Virgin Atlantic or British Airways, kind of these go-to reliable airlines. 

If we're in a period where they're just not releasing a ton of award space, then what's the opportunity that is present for us to continue to look at? That's one of the reasons why I love this specific example that you're giving, that Emirates flight that goes from Mexico City to Barcelona. Because not only is availability, at least right now, great in terms of number of dates where you can just find tickets to book on these flights, but again, the number of tickets, to me, is such a crucial factor. 

Because there are a lot of folks who want to fly with a group of three or four or five, even in business class, and they're not in a position to split up their party. Maybe they're traveling with folks who need some assistance. Maybe they've got really young kids or that's just the personal preference. So I think really highlighting a flight like this that has good availability in terms of dates, but also because I'm strange and for fun, I will just kind of see how much availability can I find on some of these flights. 

Kelsi: Yeah, totally. That's normal, Devon.

Devon: Very regular thing to do. But Emirates, especially on this route, the Mexico City to Barcelona route, I mean, there are days where I can find seven, eight, nine business class tickets. So while this may not represent the lowest bargain basement price that you can theoretically pay for an award ticket, my philosophy is like I don't care how cheap you can get a ticket, theoretically, if there are none to book. It becomes irrelevant. 

Kelsi: Yeah, that's a good point. It's Emirates, right? Like, you're never going to get bargain basement deals. You can't tell me one flight that's like, wow, that's just the best redemption I've ever... No, it's Emirates. You get what you pay for. Like, they know they're the best.

Devon: Yeah, absolutely. So I think kind of coming into it with your eyes wide open is really, really important. But one thing that I have noticed that I think is a little bit different from how we think about a lot of other airline booking programs that I think is worthwhile to mention is that I'm a huge advocate in general of booking one-way flights. 

So even if I'm essentially just doing a round trip, like let's say I'm flying from Chicago to Frankfurt. Even if I book two one-way flights, Chicago to Frankfurt, and then separately book Frankfurt to Chicago, I tend to like to book things one way just for the flexibility. I can mix and match different airline booking programs. Emirates is one of those unique airline programs where if you do or if you can book round trip, you can oftentimes find a better deal. 

So even though I'm oftentimes an advocate of booking these one-way flights, especially for this specific route, you mentioned that a one-way flight, I think it prices out around, yeah, like 96,000 points per person, specifically in business class. But if you book that round trip, you can sometimes find a round trip price as low as 120,000 points, which actually does then look like an amazing deal. Or I think sometimes you can find round trips for maybe around 150,000 or 60,000, which is still cheaper than booking the two one-way flights. 

So for anybody who starts to get interested, like oh, I want to check this flight out. On Emirates, it actually is worthwhile to run round trip searches just to see if you can drive that points price down. But is there anything else about that specific sweet spot that you think gets overlooked or that people need to have more information about? 

Kelsi: No, I think really you hit everything that's really important, right? Like, yeah, not bargain basement, but it exists. So if you need it, it's there.

Devon: What other sweet spots can people find coming out of Mexico City? 

Kelsi: Okay so another one that I like a lot and I was hesitant to share this one just because there has been such a devaluation with it, but again, this goes back to availability is Turkish Airlines. So Turkish Airlines runs a route. I have never flown it outbound. I've only flown it inbound, and I have flown it inbound three times. So I'm a big fan of this flight, and they've recently done an update to the aircraft. So it's beautiful.

But the outbound is Mexico City, Cancun, Cancun, Istanbul. I don't fly outbound because the stopover in Cancun is annoying to me. I just at this point in time, I'm pretty savvy with my award stuff, so I don't need to book the outbound. But the inbound, they run it twice daily, once in the very, very early morning. I think it's like, and I've taken both ones at like 2:00 a.m. then ones that like a more reasonable time in the evening. They run it twice, and it's Istanbul to Mexico City.

Everything kind of west of Texas. They've updated with Turkish Airlines. The business class is very much, I would say, in my mind, it looks like a Q-Suites because you do have that kind of enclosed pod, but not quite as spacious as a Q-Suite.

So for me, it's like, it's like if Emirates and Q-Suites had like a little baby or like, no. Better like United Polaris and Q-Suites had a little baby. That's kind of what it looks like in my mind. So I love this. The redemption right now is very high. It's $135,000. However, you can pay that because there's availability all the time. If you're sitting on like a ton of Capital One and Citi Points, it's an option. It's always available. I mean always like it is literally always available. You're not going to have problem finding it. 

But the good thing to know about Turkish is that they often run promos. So you're not going to get a transfer promo, not one of those promos from like a transferable points currency that's going to boost your transfer over to a specific airline. But Turkish Airlines themselves run programs, and they run them frequently, I would say quarterly. 

Somebody who I follow who randomly always seems to be on top of this promo is Max Miles Points I think his name is. He's kind of always, I don't know why. He's always like first on the ball or maybe that's just my experience. He's probably, if you asked him, he'd probably be like, what are you talking about? But whenever I follow his page, I feel like I always see like a good promo of him. 

Just to give you an example, I flew Bombay to Istanbul to Mexico City. I did that earlier this year. I just looked up the cost and it was 56,000 points. That is a spectacular deal. I have clients who will oftentimes express hesitation about Istanbul itself.

Istanbul is one of my favorite airports in Europe. It is family-friendly. It is completely new. I mean the new airport is I don't even know how old but it can't be older than like seven years. It's family-friendly, beautiful. If you're flying business class, which this ticket was business class, you have access to their lounge, which is spectacular. 

You have sleeping pods if you have a long layover. So if you have a layover between four and nine hours, which is pretty regular I would say. I think almost every time I've flown, I've had probably a four to nine-hour layover. You can have access to, like it's basically a hotel room. They have showers. They have work areas. They have a thousand places to eat. Turkish food is my favorite food. They have shopping. I mean they literally have everything. So it's just a great option. It's a great redemption. 

You get into Mexico City very early in the morning on both the flights. No matter what, you can get a flight to wherever it is you're trying to go later that day. In my case, it's always TJ, right? So I fly into Mexico City and fly to TJ. So it's just a great option. It's a super sweet redemption that I think people should know about. 

Devon: Talk to me about any other kind of award sweet spots. If people who are based in the U.S. usually are kind of tracking the regular kind of airports that you would assume have award availability and they're kind of striking out, is there anything else that really exists as a unique sweet spot coming into or out of Mexico City, especially for any aspirational type awards? 

Kelsi: Yeah, Narita. So ANA runs, and I have not flown this, but I have this booked for myself. So I'm just going to say that I have taken it. Well, not that I've taken it, but I am taking it soon. So Mexico to Narita.

So this is a great option. Why? Why is this a great option? ANA is aspirational. People love it. If you're booking on ANA and you're going to Japan from the United States, it's difficult to find availability. If you book via ANA, which is a good redemption price, you have to book round trip. So what is this Mexico to Narita flight? A, there's good availability. I have seen up to four seats. I have never booked that, up to four seats, but I have seen it, only last minute. I don't want to give people too much hope. I think it's more reasonable to expect one or two seats. 

But Mexico to Narita, either way, there's pretty decent availability. They'll drop it kind of all at once. You can find award space if you look at United's 30-day calendar. You can book it on United for 110,000 just if you wanted to book it because United has such good cancellation policy. But if you wanted to make this super sweet, you could find the award space, and you could book it with Virgin Atlantic points. 

So if you book it with Virgin Atlantic points, it's 60,000 points one way. You have to call in to book. Right now, Chase is having a promo to Virgin Atlantic for the 40%, right? So you could literally book ANA business class, Narita to Mexico or vice versa with a 40% transfer promo from Chase to Virgin Atlantic for 43,000 points over the phone, which is just ridiculous. If you can find first class, you can do this as well. 

Devon: Yeah, I think that that is absolutely extraordinary. You know, talking about these ANA redemptions, this really is one of the most aspirational flights, especially since they've updated some of their aircraft. It has always been an absolutely fantastic award. But if you can even find one of the aircraft that has one of the updated business class or first class seats available, I mean, there's, honestly, I can't think of a better way to fly from North America to Japan.

There's some great airlines that service that route. But one of the biggest challenges, especially recently, again, has been that availability. It doesn't matter what any airline offers if nobody can book it. So I think being able to highlight where does some of this availability, at least right now, where is it better? It's something that I think is so overlooked about Mexico City. 

So I love that you've gone through three really fantastic award redemptions that people can oftentimes have much better luck booking if they're willing to get themselves first to Mexico City. But Mexico City, of course, in and of itself, is a phenomenal destination. So for people who want to book beyond just spending their entire vacation in Mexico City to begin to think of it as a really great stopover, where you can get there first direct from so many different airports in the United States to be able to then continue on on one of these really incredible award flights.

But let's talk about that. For folks who want to build in essentially a stopover in Mexico City to take advantage of one of these awards, do you have any recommendations for an ideal maybe 24 to 48 hour itinerary? What are some things that people shouldn't miss if they are just transiting through Mexico City as part of a larger itinerary? 

Kelsi: That's such a great question. I think if you have 24 or 48 hours that's a really quick stopover. Mexico City is huge. I mean, it can take you hours to traverse the city. So just keeping that in mind, you're going to want to focus in on one kind of probably sort of area if you only have 24 or 48 hours. 

Honestly, I really like Roma Condesa. It's very nice. It's kind of hip. It's cool. It's definitely in the last 10 years, definitely been gentrified. Also, there's a lot of Americans there now, which is great. It's great that it's kind of gotten the spotlight and highlight that it deserves. It's very walkable. They have nice sidewalks, good trees, good coverage. 

That's just a nice area to walk around, get familiar, have a nice meal. There's lots of little great restaurants. If you have time, you'll want to go down to the Zocalo. At the Zocalo it's kind of like the center of the city. It's where they do the grito. So September 16th is Mexican Independence Day. It's pretty famous. You know, they're like, they take the flag, and they like kind of parade it around the Zocalo, and they have like a chant. That's where this happens. 

But it's also where a lot of like social protests happen. It's kind of the center of the city. There's a great basilica there. Yeah, I mean, it's a great area to walk around. It's very close by. You could probably walk from Roma Condesa, or you could just take an Uber. 

I also personally love Frida Kahlo's house. It's a museum. It's her childhood home. Yeah, it's beautiful. Frida Kahlo is a really important figure in Mexican culture. I love her. I could talk about her all day. I'm not going to waste time on this podcast talking about her. But she was a very transformative figure in the early 20th century. She's very popular in Mexican culture. I mean, I think she's been popularized across all cultures now. I see her face all over the place. 

She has her childhood home in the southern part of the city. It's a great area. You will have to drive down there if you're staying in Frida Kahlo's. But definitely worth a 30-minute drive. Get down there. Her museum is very cool. It's guided, like, via audio. It's audio guided. There's a great little area close by called San Angel. It's like an arts area. There's nice museums there. 

There's also this nice little hotel called San Angel Inn. It's a great place to eat, actually. You will see a lot. There's not a lot of tourists there, I would say. Like, when I go, it's mostly Mexicans. It's a great place to be. So, yeah. If you just have a quick 24-48 hours, those are probably the few three things I would hit.

Devon: For folks who are maybe coming back to Mexico City. They've been there before. They've taken trips there before. Based on all of your experience living there, growing up there, traveling there, are there any hidden gems or unique attractions that you think a returning visitor should be sure not to miss? 

Kelsi: Oh, that's a good one. I think if you have more time, you definitely have to go to like the pyramids, right? Teotihuacan. The pyramids are pretty cool. It's kind of a hike from the center of the city. So, it is more of, like, a half-day trip. There's this great, like, restaurant there called, I think it's called La Gruta. It's in a cave. It's very popular amongst Mexicans, but also tourists. 

Like, I can't remember if that's exactly the name, but I've been there a dozen of times. Like, it's probably the most famous restaurant there. They do dancing. You're literally in a cave. So, that's pretty cool. 

I also don't know why I'm going to recommend this, but I'll just recommend it. I feel like if you have more time, Xochimilco is really cool. Mexico City was a lake. So, when the Aztecs discovered Mexico City, it was on a lake. There's still  areas of it. This is Xochimilco. They have these very festive boats. It's spelled X-O-C-H-I, just so that people don't get confused. 

They have these very festive boats. They're basically flat boats. Like, the water is really dirty. Please don't drink too much and jump in. Like, I am certain you will get some sort of disease, but it's just a really fun time. I think it definitely kind of  it's a tourist attraction. But even for Mexican tourists, it's a very interesting experience. You get on this boat. You can have drinks. You can have food. People have a lot of parties there. It's just kind of a fun time. So, yeah, I think if you had some extra time, that would be fun. 

Devon: It's so great to get these tips from someone who has so much experience living and traveling there. Now, for folks who are really interested in trying to book one of these award tickets that go out of Mexico City and first have to get themselves there, right? We talked about the importance of positioning and the value of it. 

One question that I get really commonly from people when they are trying to construct these itineraries where they're first going to presumably fly an entirely different airline, book an entirely different award ticket perhaps to get to Mexico City. What are your tips or recommendations in terms of the logistics of transiting through Mexico City Airport? How long a layover do you think is a good idea, at least for people to build in for connecting flights? What are your tips around that? 

Kelsi: Yeah, that's a great question. So, if you're living in a border town or a border community along whatever, like I'm in a border community in San Diego or you're in Texas, my recommendation would be to get yourself into Mexico and take a national flight down to Mexico City. That's going to be the easiest because you get the immigration done at the front end. So, you're literally transiting into Mexico. As an American, you would do American immigration. As Mexican, you would file that you're leaving the United States. So, it's very quick. 

I would do that because when you get to Mexico City, you'll have no problem just getting to where you need to go, right? Like if you're carrying bags, then my recommendation would be like anything you would do in the United States. Maybe give yourself an hour to get bags. Then if you're taking an international flight from Mexico City, you need to give yourself time to check in. But actually, now that I think about it, you could do that at the border city that you're at. Like for me, it's Tijuana. 

Otherwise, so when I fly internationally into Mexico City, I do have Mexican permanent residency. So, I'm probably not the best person to answer this. So, I enter Mexico as a Mexican citizen. I have never had an immigration line longer than maybe like five minutes. 

Now, as an American, I do think that immigration lines could be long. I do think just knowing what I know about Mexican bureaucracy, it probably would be prudent to allow yourself a couple hours at least to clear Mexican immigration as an American, to get your bags. Transferring terminals is very quickly. They have a tram. If the tram isn't working, they have a bus. But still, you need to get yourself to the tram. Yeah, all in all so that I stop rambling. If you're an American citizen, I probably would give two, three hours. 

Devon: I think that's great advice. I think this is also another one of those reasons why we're, of course, assuming that somebody actually has the amount of time to do this, it can be a really great excuse instead of just trying to construct an itinerary where you're only have a few hours in the Mexico City airport. To actually make that a destination in and of itself as well. 

This is something that for people who love museums, cuisine, so many incredible things available in Mexico City. Like, what a great place to have an excuse to build in an extra day or an extra two days on the front and or back end of an itinerary. But also, I understand some folks don't have the luxury of having a ton of time. So, it is kind of good to know what to expect in terms of you don't want to cut it too close in building out some of these itineraries. 

So, for people who, again, maybe they don't have the time to spend an extra day or two exploring Mexico City. But they fly into the airport there. They give themselves a really nice long layover before booking their onward flight on Emirates or on ANA or any of these other incredible options. Can you talk to us about let's say someone has four to six hours to spend in the Mexico City airport. 

Do you have any tips for things to make that layover a little more comfortable? Is there anything in the airport that people should be sure not to miss or to check out if they are going to find themselves there on a nice, generous layover? 

Kelsi: Oh, God. The Mexico City airport is massive. I mean, you can walk around their shops. But there's actually so many lounges. It's like, I actually feel like it's like a joke. Like, there's maybe like eight lounges. I swear there has to be like, I know for sure there's two different American Express lounges. I know because I've been to both of them. I can't remember which terminal each one is in, but they have Priority Pass lounges. They have an Aeromexico lounge. They have, I mean, they have everything. 

So you will find a lounge. You'll have some peanuts and a beer and relax. There's also like a little massage place, a manicure place. I mean, it's like any large major airport. One of the terminals is a little bit older, a little bit more in need of a facelift. But the other terminal is and the international terminal is really nice and updated. So, yeah, I mean, there's so much to do. You're not going to be bored in Mexico City. If you're spending three hours in the immigration line, you're only going to have two hours in a lounge anyway. 

Devon: That's a great, great point. Before we wrap up today, I'm curious if you just have any sort of last tips, recommendations, advice for people in terms of getting tons of value out of their points when it comes to including Mexico City in an itinerary. 

Kelsi: Yeah, I have two. So the first one is like an aspirational one. This is a first class redemption that I have never taken, but I have my eye on every so often. It's not that available. But when it is, it's a great deal.  It's Mexico City to London on British Airways first class. You can book this with American Airlines points. I think it's 62,000 points. The taxes and fees are really low, actually, for British Airways. It's $400. 

Now, interestingly, you can book this same flight. I do see better availability on Alaska for a little bit more points. It's 105,000 first class points, but there's more availability. So with the Hawaiian-Alaskan thing you can connect the dots there. Then, of course, you can also book this on British for 90,000. The taxes and fees are about $300. So really cool, kind of an aspirational thing. I don't really fly first class. It's like a little bit too many points for me. I'm more of like a business class traveler, but definitely that. 

Then the last thing is just SkyTeam. You know, really talking about SkyTeam, I talk about Aeromexico all the time. It's so overlooked. I think because, A, the website is in Spanish. But you can probably get it translated to English. I don't know. Their customer service is not great. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. But they do at least answer the phone, which is better than some of the other airlines. I feel like it really shouldn't be looked over because SkyTeam is what? It's Delta. It's Aeromexico. It's Flying Blue. Virgin pops in there all the time. 

It really should not be overlooked because American Express regularly, so like always, their transfer rate is 1 to 1.6. Now, during a promo, American Express will boost it to 1.9. So 1 to 1.9 is like you're really doubling your points with no work. Just to give you an example, and this is a flight that you can regularly find. 

So you can find an Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam, Paris, London, Madrid, and FCO. You can find that regularly for 150,000 points on Aeromexico. Okay, yeah, that's high. But remember, if you're transferring, that's 94,000 points. if you have the boosted bonus, that's 75,000. 

So it really shouldn't be overlooked because that's all the major hubs in Europe. I mean, that's five different major hubs in Europe. It's regularly available. There's seats on it. So why should it be overlooked? You know, you can look at these with, we were talking about Flying Blue not having the 50K promo. Let me tell you, Flying Blue does have the 50K promo from Mexico City to Charles de Gaulle for 50,000. It's been sparse, like all other North American hubs, but it exists.  

So, yeah, just such an awesome location. Shouldn't be overlooked. Like you said, throw a few days in Mexico City. You're not going to regret it. I mean, you will if you get food poisoning or something. But that kind of just goes with travel, right? You always have to kind of leave in a day for diarrhea. Like, everyone knows that. So, yeah, I think it's just a great option. I'm so excited to have a platform to really highlight such an awesome city and one that I feel has been  regularly overlooked. 

Devon: I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you so much for being here today, for sharing your expertise about some of these incredible award redemptions that exist out of Mexico City. Also just how you can build this into an overall itinerary and really take advantage of some of the fantastic opportunities that this city has to offer. I appreciate your time so much. For folks who are interested in learning more about you, about what you do, where can people find you, Kelsi? 

Kelsi: Oh, yes. You can find me at Pointsisters. Yeah, at Pointsisters on Instagram. Otherwise, we don't really have any other social media. At Pointsisters on Instagram. We love going to conferences. So, if there's a points and miles conference, Devan and I are definitely there. Then, of course, we have a website, www.pointsisters.com. 

Devon: All right, amazing. We'll be sure to link up all that information in the episode show notes, the episode description, so it's easy for people to find you. Again, thank you so much for joining me here today. I appreciate you. 

Kelsi: Thank you, Devon. It was so fun. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.