The Mexican reach-around

Right after I posted this I heard about a huge quake in Mexico City. Here's a list of ways you can help! ❤️🇲🇽

Over the years I've heard a bunch of interesting, somewhat under-the-radar tricks that frequent fliers have used to fly for less. One of them involved buying a Star Alliance Round The World First Class ticket at the airport Venezuela using local currency. At the time, their currency was rapidly devaluing and you could score this ticket for a fraction of what it would cost anywhere else in the world. You saved so much money it more than paid for the cost of flying yourself there to make the transaction. Among my friends these things inevitably end up with wacky and suggestive nicknames.

Well, after last year's interesting attempt at getting onto a one-way flight back from Mexico without paying extortionary rates (seriously, all the normal booking channels wanted more for a one-way than a round-trip!), I found that local travel agencies could book the ticket for a reasonable amount (i.e., half the cost of the round trip).

I finally got around to finishing up next year's trip and encountered a similar situation. I was looking for the Oaxaca to Puerto Vallarta leg and the prices seemed extraordinarily high for First on a regional jet.

Aeromexico's US site

So just for fun I switched browsers and visited the Mexican version of Aeromexico's website and "ta da!" – that discount First Class bucket was magically available for the very same flight on the very same day for US$830 cheaper! Also notice that the cheapest Economy ticket isn't available on their US site, either. If you were flying Economy, this trick would save you US$40. 

I also replicated this on Expedia.mx and saw the same results. We've already started calling this particular trick the "Mexican reach around" 🤐

"shopping like a local"

My guide for getting to Puerto Vallarta.