This time it’s First Class to South America—on a free award—using American, Amex and Mexicana miles

We’re heading into fall and that means American Airlines will be expanding service from New York and Miami to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Only this year there’s a difference that cuts the price of a First Class ticket from $13,256 to $0. (Well, almost $0. You still have to pay taxes on the mileage award.)
American is not expanding capacity by adding flights, but rather by switching from 767s to 777s, which have more seats. The new 777s servicing the route have a First Class cabin—which the 767s do not. That means there’s now a vein of premium seats coming on-line with wide open availability to be mined. We checked flights all the way through April 2007, using 125,000 American miles for booking. This is the cream of mileage award redemption First Class on a three-class cabin aircraft. (Business Class availability, on the other hand, is hit or miss as there’s been little change in capacity.)

The all-Boeing 777 schedule from Miami to Buenos Aires (two flights daily) begins on Sept. 6, while 777 service from New York’s JFK (two flights daily) begins on Oct. 29 and continues through April 2, 2007.

beyond Buenos Aires For 125,000 miles, American also lets you fly free on its partner Lan Chile to destinations American doesn’t serve in South America, such as Santiago.

Amex Membership Rewards points can get you there Through a little-known Amex partnership with Mexicana, plus Mexicana’s underutilized partnership with American, you can also get to South America through that airline’s ‘Frequenta’ mileage program, via a transfer of 130,000 Membership Rewards points. Here’s how: Transfer your Amex MR points to Mexicana, then redeem the Mexicana miles for travel on the new American Airlines flight mentioned above. (AA is a Mexicana partner). If you’ve been putting off the big trip down south, now’s the time to jump on it!

You don’t need miles to play ball Here’s what to do if you don’t have the 130,000 Amex points: Buy them directly from Amex at 2.5¢ each ($3,250) for a New York-Buenos Aires First Class ticket that would otherwise set you back $13,256. That’s a savings of $10,006. Not bad, but…

Even Better: Buy miles directly from Mexicana at 1.6¢ (more on this program coming next month), for a total cost of just $2,080 round-trip for American Airlines First Class to South America. Savings: $11,176.