The overlooked program that beat my go-to airline

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As a digital nomad, I spend the vast majority of my year traveling throughout Latin America. That means I’ve become very familiar with Avianca, Colombia's flag carrier, which offers fantastic connectivity throughout Central and South America. Plus, you can transfer most major transferable point currencies to Avianca and enjoy elite benefits if you’re a cardholder of a co-branded Avianca credit card.

On a recent trip from Mexico City (MEX) to Buenos Aires (EZE), I was about to book a flight with a layover in Bogota (BOG) through my go-to, Avianca. At the last minute, I checked an unpopular loyalty program out of curiosity, and I’m so glad I did.

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Aeromexico isn’t the most user-friendly loyalty program for U.S.-based travelers. You can’t book your award redemption through the standard Aeromexico website. Instead, you have to go to a different website, and you can’t change the language to English. If you do, the option to use points is removed. If you don’t know Spanish, you can use your browser's translation feature to search for your redemption.

Apart from being difficult to book, Aeromexico is known for having subpar rates on award flights. For instance, a one-way flight from Mexico City (MEX) to Paris (CDG) might cost around $1,065, or 142,400 points plus $95 in taxes and fees. That works out to a terrible value. At that rate, you’d be better off booking your flight through a travel portal and redeeming your rewards at a flat rate of 1 cent per point.

However, the Avianca flight I was eyeing wasn’t very ideal. I knew Aeromexico operated a nonstop between MEX and EZE, whereas Avianca would have a layover in Bogota. That might not seem like a huge deal, but I travel with my cat, so I try to make sure the flights are as quick and seamless as possible. Plus, the redemption would’ve been a poor value, so I would’ve paid cash for my ticket. This is an expensive time of year, so I’d prefer to save money wherever I can. That said, I don’t want to waste my miles, either.

Given the poor redemption rates and the difficulty of searching for an award redemption, I almost didn’t check the Aeromexico website. However, the Avianca flight didn’t seem very feasible, either.

Aeromexico offers two different award redemptions: classic rewards and dynamically priced awards. Classic rewards are fixed-priced using an award chart, but typically have very limited availability. I searched for my flight just a couple of weeks before departure, so I assumed there wouldn’t be anything remotely affordable.

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Luckily for me, I found a classic rewards ticket on the nonstop between MEX and EZE on the day I wanted to fly. It cost just 50,000 Aeromexico Rewards points, plus $98.77 in taxes and fees.

That flight retailed for over $1,100, which means I got a valuation of around 2 cents per point. While it might not be the most legendary award redemption of all time, it got my cat and me to Buenos Aires safely and efficiently.

This experience reminded me that familiar doesn’t always equal better, and just because a loyalty program has a reputation for providing poor value doesn’t mean it’s not worth considering. Loyalty programs are constantly adding new sweet spots while removing others. Before you press “book,” make sure you’ve actually weighed all your options.

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