How I booked World Cup business class for fewer miles than economy

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When I unexpectedly got the chance to buy 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets at face value for a match in Mexico City, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. Seeing Colombia play at a World Cup has been on my bucket list for years, but flying into Mexico City the morning of the match meant flights from Miami were already insanely expensive.

So I opened Google Flights and started searching for award options with the Points Path Pro extension enabled, which let me compare both cash fares and mileage prices side-by-side directly in the search results. Almost immediately, I realized economy award prices were far higher than I expected for such a short flight.

But after digging around a little more, I noticed something that made me start checking flights I normally would’ve ignored completely — and it led me to an award booking I honestly didn’t think would exist for a match this in demand.

Flying into Mexico City the morning of Colombia’s match, award pricing already seemed to be climbing because of World Cup demand. While searching flights, one thing became obvious pretty quickly: Economy awards were a terrible value.

The lowest-priced option I could find was an American Airlines nonstop from Miami to Mexico City, priced at either $475 or 42,000 AAdvantage miles one-way in economy.

For such a short flight, that felt absurd. At first, I figured that was simply the reality of booking travel tied to one of the biggest sporting events in the world. But after seeing those inflated economy award prices over and over again, I started checking flights I normally wouldn’t have even considered.

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For a relatively short three-hour flight, I wasn’t even thinking about business class at first. I was perfectly happy flying economy and just wanted a reasonably priced award to get me to Mexico City in time for the match.

But after seeing those inflated economy prices over and over again, I got curious and changed my Google Flights search from economy to business class — mostly just to see how bad the pricing would be. That’s when I stumbled across a partner award I never would’ve expected to find.

Once I switched the search over to business class, an Aeroméxico flight from Miami to Mexico City popped up for just 23,000 Flying Blue miles one-way plus about $90 in taxes and fees.

I could not believe what I was seeing. American Airlines charged 42,000 AAdvantage miles for economy, while Aeroméxico business class was available for nearly 20,000 miles less.

The booking itself was surprisingly easy too. Since Aeroméxico and Air France-KLM are both part of SkyTeam, the flight was bookable through Flying Blue, which partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Rewards.

What surprised me most is that I almost never would’ve searched for this option in the first place. I clicked into business class mostly out of curiosity because I assumed premium cabin pricing around a World Cup match would be outrageous.

Instead, it ended up being one of the best-value award flights I’ve booked in a long time.

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