SkyTeam member Aeromexico continues to surprise with cheap business class tickets to Brazil. Currently, they run a promotion for tickets from Barcelona to São Paulo, Brazil for just €1,155. With a travel time of more than 40 hours in a premium cabin, this is one of the best value-for-money deals we ever had to offer. You’d have to change planes twice each way. A stopover in Mexico City adds roughly €100 to the ticket price.
These tickets are not refundable.
Entering Brazil is currently possible for fully vaccinated Europeans, if they provide a negative antigen test taken within 24 hours before departure. Mexico doesn’t have any restrictions in place.
Because of barriers on AeroMexico’s website (it does not display itineraries with legs longer than 24 hours), booking these flights is a little complicated. You have to use AeroMexico’s multistop search and add each leg separately, as we did in our Go2 form down below.
Google Flights indicates availability in September and October 2022, as well as in February and March 2023.
While this is a bit inconvenient, it is certainly worth taking a little extra time for this extraordinary price. At least adding a stopover in Mexico City is easier this way.
Routes & Cabins
Itineraries typically include flying to Amsterdam or Paris first, from where an AeroMexico, Air France or KLM plane takes you to Mexico City. This is the longest part of the journey, as the flight across the pond takes roughly 12 hours Westbound.
While Air France might be the best choice, AeroMexico offers a pretty decent business class, too. You will notice that between Mexico City and São Paulo, as the Mexican carrier is the only choice on these legs. The airlines uses Boeing 787-9 aircraft (with a 1-2-1 seating) or Boeing 787-8 (2-2-2) on these routes. It tends to switch them on short notice.
The inbound concludes with an AeroMexico flight to either Paris or Madrid, while a European SkyTeam member (Air France from Paris, Air Europa from Madrid) brings you to Barcelona in European business class (i.e. economy with a blocked middle seat and a glass of sparkling wine).
While this routing is certainly inconvenient in terms of travel time, it is very good when it comes to value-for-money and almost guarantees an instant SkyTeam Elite Status.
Search & Book
The fare rules for these tickets don’t tell us much more than a maximum stay of twelve months, so we cannot tell you when this is going to expire. We expect it to be gone in days rather than weeks.
Google Flights previews availabilities accurately, so we recommend searching for suitable flight dates there. In the next step, you can log your dates into our Go2 tool above or enter them directly on AeroMexico’s website. Remember that you have to use the multistop option to buy these tickets, even if you don’t plan to add a stopover.
If you don’t want to spend additional time in Mexico City, select identical dates for the BCN-MEX and MEX-GRU segments. Do the same for your inbound segments (GRU-MEX and MEX-BCN).
Since the city is modern day marvel and the routing just makes more sense this way, we strongly recommend staying in Mexico City for a couple of days.
Mileage
All flight segments are booking class I, which offers decent mileage in almost any SkyTeam frequent flyer program. Our example covers a trip via Paris with Air France operating feeder flights, while AeroMexico covers long haul routes:
- 45,480 Miles on Xiamen Airlines Egret Club
- 43,476 Award Miles + 360 Tier Points on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- 43,476 RDM + 6,522 MQD on Delta SkyMiles
- 32,608 Miles on Aerolíneas Argentinas AerolíneasPlus
- 32,608 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
- 32,608 Miles on MEA Cedar Miles
- 32,608 Miles on CSA OK Plus
- 32,608 Miles on GOL Aéreos Smiles
- 32,608 Miles on LATAM Pass
- 27,402 Award Miles + 162 XP on Flying Blue
- 27,174 Miles on Air Europa Suma
- 27,174 Miles on Korean Air Skypass
- 27,174 Miles on Saudia Alfursan
- 27,174 Miles on China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
- 27,174 Miles on Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles
- 21,738 Miles on Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles
This deal brings you very close to SkyTeam Elite Plus status. How close exactly? Check out or Status calculator:
Cover Picture: © Aeromexico
Comment (1)
I just flew this route & will fly it again in November.
The food was mostly good but below average for business class. The food & wines were (unsurprisingly) better on my AF long-haul segment than the 3 AeroMex flights.
The hard product for the 787-9s is terrific & the 787-8s are much like many European airlines still (Lufthansa, for instance). If you fly the 787-8s make sure to pick seats on the left side as the right side seating has less foot space due to the seat formation.
There is a large variation in quality of service. On my MEX-GRU flight we had a lovely flight attendant who couldn’t do enough for us, while on our two other AM segments the flight attendants were MIA outside of meal time. You should expect to be proactive to get any drinks.
The AMEX Lounge in Terminal 2 was pretty disappointing with a limited (complimentary) food selection & showers STILL not in use. I cannot speak for the AM lounges in MEX.
A few things to note about MEX Airport:
1) You have to pass through immigration unlike most other international transit from 3rd country to 3rd country.
2) Try to avoid morning connections there as immigration can be total chaos according to many reports. I would build in 3 hours to connect just in case especially when having to recheck bags & change terminals.
3) I was required to recheck my bag both ways (& staff on the ground seem very unsure/confused about this process).
4) You will not pass through immigration when leaving, instead they will simply take your immigration card at the gate. We had a moment of panic when arriving at the gate without having been stamped out by an immigration official.
AM can & will change planes at short notice. We were supposed to take two 787-9s & one 787-8, but they switched one of the former for one of the latter. This was not a nice surprise but something you should expect. Basically, hope for the best & keep track of your seating assignment in weeks before the flights.
I would be happy to fly with them again for the price (& the unbelievable mileage with Skymiles status), but would only recommend this route to Skyteam fliers who’re aware of the above caveats.