Citi ThankYou Rewards has added Aeromexico as a transfer partner, joining American Express Membership Rewards and Capital One in partnering with the Club Premier frequent flyer program.
This will not move the needle at all on which bank transferable points program is best.
- Aeromexico Club Premier has high award prices
- Aeromexico Club Premier adds fuel surcharges to awards
- Aeromexico Club Premier has terrible customer service
Club Premier is 49% owned by Aimia, the company that spun off Air Canada’s Aeroplan, lost 80% of its market value when Air Canada announced its intention to start a competing program, and then sold the program back to the airline. Aimia has the demonstrated capability to run a good operation. In this case however they are part of one of the worst frequent flyer programs.
Some bloggers will claim that Aeromexico offers great round the world awards offering 15 stopovers for just 224,000 kilometers in economy or 352,000 kilometers in business class (see, for instance, The Points Guy).
However I do not know anyone that has ever successfully booked one. Aeromexico’s customer service is too frustrating, even for a native Spanish speaker, and the airline’s agents regularly report award space is unavailable even when it’s being offered by the partner airline.
Copyright: noratm / 123RF Stock Photo
My advice for Aeromexico is that the juice simply isn’t worth the squeeze. If you need to use Citi ThankYou points for travel on a SkyTeam partner other than Delta (where Virgin Atlantic may be the best transfer partner) look to Air France KLM Flying Blue instead.
(HT: One Mile at a Time)
The useless partner matches their useless Citibank cards without travel insurance and the limited 4th night free benefit booked through 3rd party unauthorized prepaid booking channels
Nearly stripping any value of the benefit
Citibank exec decision making penny wise pound foolish
Ha, is that a Lizzo reference?
In addition, if I would absolutely have to transfer to Aeromexico (no reason comes to mind why I would ever have to take such drastic steps), why on earth would I transfer Citi TYP 1:1 to Aeromexico if I could transfer AMEX 1:1.6 ?
At this point, I am just confused on what Citi was thinking. I suppose their direction is going towards quantity is better than quality… why not try and get a program onboard that is unique such as JAL, Asiana or Korean where the only option is Marriott.
I am guessing it will appeal to a certain niche of traveler that goes to Mexico frequently, has Aeromexico service out of their home airport, and would rather book directly through them rather than a partner program.
Absolutely not true, Aeromexico is one of the best airlines in the world, ranking in top 5…
You should do better research..
@User – Aeromexico’s frequent flyer program, which is what this post is about, is a dumpster fire.
Wait, do Euro Carries like Lufthahthahaqhanaza also do “award kilometers” instead of award miles?
Is it a 1-1 conversion? Since a mile is smaller than a km would it make more sense to credit *A stuff there?
I absolutely agree with Gary Leff. I am a first year Titanium (top) level member on Club Premier, and I can not think of anything good about this program or the treatment I receive when dealing with Club Premier: low tech, passive, unknowledgeable, untrained customer service staff. Their elite benefit is a joke if you compare to any U.S. airlines.
Anyone using Club Premier program, you know what I am talking about and you have my sympathy. Good luck.