Merry Christmas!

For my husband and I, the coming of the holidays means more travel. I’ll give a quick rundown on the trips I’ll be taking over the holidays, and give an idea of what airlines, airports and lounges I expect to experience.

1. Two trips: a quick rundown
2. Trip 1: Hola Mexico!
   1. Flying Blue Gold elevates our JFK-MEX AeroMexico flight
   2. Alaska Atmos Silver status enhances flight with American airlines
3. Trip 2: A Scandinavian Retreat
   1. SAS provides bid-ups to premium economy and business class for a reasonable price
4. Summary

Two trips: a quick rundown

The trip schedule for the holidays are a little bit tight, but I believe there is enough buffer to ensure that things will go right. After all, other people are a lot more daring with flight schedules and things seem to work fine for them (I hope those won’t turn out to become famous last words!).

For the first trip, we will finally embark on the trip to Mexico City. I wrote about this back in May/June, when we finalized the flights. We will fly AeroMexico from JFK to MEX and stay there for four nights, flying back with American Airlines from MEX back to JFK. We should arrive at JFK early that morning. Then the next day, in the afternoon, I will embark on my second trip: a ‘Scandinavian Retreat‘ to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, where I will be staying for another 3 nights with my mom.

I try to visit her a few times a year, but rather than going back to the Netherlands every time, we both enjoy visiting different cities. This is the next iteration of that after having visited Lyon and Paris together in March/April of this year, and we have planned to go to Madrid together in March 2026.

Both of these trips (or at least half of the Mexico City trip, since we fly back with American Airlines) lean quite heavily on my Flying Blue status about which I’ve written many times now. I’ll go into a little bit more detail what I hope to experience in general, and how the status would elevate the experience.

Trip 1: Hola Mexico!

I wrote about this trip when we first finalized our flights there and back. I’d wanted to viosit Mexico City for a long time but flights to the Mexican capital had been very expensive for a very long time. This time around we were able to book tickets with points, in economy, at a good value:

• For our flight from New York-JFK to Mexico City MEX I was able to book an economy flight onboard AeroMexico, flying their Boeing 737 Max 8, for 11.500 points and $49.44 per person through Virgin Atlantic.
• Four our flight back, Mexico City MEX back to New York-JFK, we booked flights through Alaska’s Atmos, flying an American Airlines Boeing 737, for 12.500 points plus $106.02 per person.

The taxes and fees are a little steep compared to the points price, but keep in mind these reward flights book into standard economy. So while you may be able to get a return flight for the same (or cheaper!) price if you simply pay cash, you’d likely end up in basic economy.

However, here is where our airline status comes in. I have written many times about the kinds of benefits that Flying Blue Gold status provides. I have discussed how I first attained it, what it provides me, and how I plan to re-qualify for it.

Flying Blue Gold elevates our JFK-MEX AeroMexico flight

Flying Blue Gold maps to SkyTeam Elite Plus status, which is an alliance-wide frequent flyer status, and that’s what provides the perks with AeroMexico. Importantly, because my husband I are on the same reservation, my status perks apply to him as well. As such, on our flight with AeroMexico, both of us can look forward to the following perks, despite being booked on a standard economy ticket:

• SkyPriority services throughout the airport, which including priority check-in, security and boarding. This also includes priority baggage handling.

• Access to the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK: I have visited it earlier this year when I flew back home and I reviewed the JFK Delta Sky Club at that occasion. It can get pretty crowded but I thought it was a nice place to spend an hour or two, with a good selection of foods at the buffet. Happy to visit again!

• Extra legroom seats: with AeroMexico, I was able to pick AeroMexico’s extra leg room seats right after booking. This product is known as ‘AM Plus‘ and grants 3 inches extra legroom (34″ vs 31″ in classic economy), and occupied the first 3 rows of Aeromexico’s economy cabin, right behind business class (which would have been first class on US airlines)

I’ll just mention it, even though I will not use it: I have also been provided with a free checked bag, but given the short trip duration and the fact that I do not get this perk on the way back (since we fly with American airlines), I will not plan to make use of it.

Alaska Atmos Silver status enhances flight with American airlines

For the flight back, we are flying with American Airlines on one of their Boeing 737’s. Both my husband and I made it to Atmos Silver status, thanks in large part to the Singapore Airlines Premium Economy flight we took to Thailand recently: when we booked these flights, we could provide our Alaska frequent flyer number to get points at a ratio of 100% the distance flown, which granted us about 20.000 points. This is enough to make it to Silver status. Unfortunately, Singapore airlines has essentially ended this reciprocity, so this trick can’t be applied anymore…

Be that as it may, now I have it, I can keep Atmos Silver throughout 2026. This status maps onto oneworld Ruby status, which is what ultimately provides the perks on American airlines as an Alaska Atmos status holder, plus some nice additional perks. Atmos Silver status doesn’t provide that many perks, but it does allow us to:

• Priority Check-in: there should be a priority line over main cabin or economy class as a oneworld Ruby holder.
• Preferred seat selection: we were able to select preferred seats, which are in the front of the economy class cabin, free of charge. 24 hours before departure we may be able to snag the extra legroom seats as well, called ‘Main Cabin extra‘, if still available.
• Complimentary upgrade: Space available complimentary upgrades were automatically requester for both my husband and myself. In reality, the chance of an upgrade are slim, given that Atmos Silver members are pretty much on the bottom of the priority list. But still, it’d be nice if it works out…
• Priority boarding: we should be able to board with Group 4. Otherwise we’d likely have boarded with group 6 or so.

Atmos Silver doesn’t provide any lounge access; this starts with Atmos Gold, which maps onto oneworld Sapphire status. I’m actually able to get an equivalent of this status by status-matching my Flying Blue status onto Royal Jordanian’s frequent flyer program, however this is not free and so may not be worth the cost. Anyway, we can certainly enter some lounges at Mexico City’s Terminal 1:

• There is an American Airlines Admirals Club, however it closes at 9pm and our flight is at midnight. If we make it in time, we can get access through my husband’s Citibank Strata Elite credit card, which provides 4 Admirals Club passes. We previously used 2 to enter both the Admirals Club at New York-JFK and Washington Reagan Natl DCA. Because these passes are renewed every calendar year (allowing for some amazing double-dipping in your first member year), I’d love to use the last 2 passes, so that we don’t waste them.
• There are plenty of Priority Pass lounges, including Lounge19, VIPort Lounge, The Grand Lounge Elite, The Lounge Mexico By Global Lounge Network and the Terraza By The Grand Lounge Elite. Of these, Lounge19 is open 24 hours, so it’s likely that we will end up her, given the late departure of our flight.

Trip 2: A Scandinavian Retreat

Once we are back in New York, I will almost immediately head back out to meet my mom in Stockholm. I have written quite elaborately about my itinerary and the perks Flying Blue Gold provides, as an example of the dollar value of those perks. I paid cash for the return flight, and the Flying Blue benefits further elevated my original basic economy ticket. Because I described this in detail before, I will stick to a summary here:

• I’ll be flying Scandinavian airlines from New York/Newark EWR. I’ve taken a very similar flight before, from EWR to Copenhagen CPH (which actually was my first review on this blog!) Here, I can access priority check-in and baggage handling, I can access the SAS lounge (which I reviewed before), and I was able to select upon booking the front-most economy cabin seats, which otherwise would cost a fee. I will also get a free checked bag.

• On the way back I’ll fly via Copenhagen, ARN-CPH. Here’s where I’m a little unclear on my perks, as the website and app seem to show different things. Because I’m flying through Copenhagen, it’s quite possible that some Flying Blue Gold benefits don’t apply to the first leg, including fast track security and lounge access. However, as you can see below, it states that Stockholm Arlanda lounge access is provided, and it similarly acknowledges this for priority check-in and fast track security. So, hopefully this is true! If it is, I’ll make sure to review the experience.

• However, then for the leg back to New York/Newark EWR, I’m once again provided all the benefits of the flight to Stockholm, including lounge access. I have reviewed this lounge before, except that at the time I didn’t enter the top level of the lounge. This time around, I will make sure to visit it. I will make sure to review it this time in a dedicated lounge review.

SAS provides bid-ups to premium economy and business class for a reasonable price

Here is a feature of flying with SAS that is not widely publicized that could make for an excellent opportunity: SAS allows bidding up into a higher class of service, for a very reasonable price. I’m strongly considering doing it since the minimum bid is only $640:

With the original cost of ~$650 for my basic economy return ticket, adding another ~$700 or so for the business class upgrade on the CPH-EWR leg would make for a phenomenal value! I have flown SAS business class before and thought it was a very nice experience that I’d be happy to experience again. The only reason I haven’t put in the bid yet is because I’m waiting to see what the economy experience is like on the EWR-ARN flight. SAS operates A330-300’s on the route with a seating in a 2-4-2 configuration, so possibly that will be pleasant enough that business class may not turn out ‘cost effective’ except to treat myself a little.

The very first review I posted on this blog was of Scandinavian Airlines business class, and I sort of combined the SAS lounges and flight son the EWR-CPH-EWR itinerary all in the same post. I definitely plan to write several dedicated reviews this time around for the SAS lounges in EWR, ARN (if I can get in) and CPH, and if I fly business class on the flight back, I’ll likely redo the review for that as well.

Summary

I provided some details of the two trips I’ll be taking over the holidays, the first one to Mexico City and the second to Stockholm. I’ll be flying with a variety of airlines and am delighted that my Flying Blue and Alaska Atmos status should elevate or enhance every leg of my trip with free seat selection, priority services and lounge access at multiple airports. I’m excited to finally visit these destinations and do so with an elevated economy class experience.

While I won’t plan to review the outbound leg to Mexico City, I will provide a lounge review for the return leg. For the Stockholm trip, I’m planning to re-review the SAS lounges in EWR and CPH, newly review the SAS lounge at ARN, and if I do bid and am awarded a business class upgrade, I’ll re-review the SAS business class experience on the CPH-EWR leg.