How to fly from Austin to Cancun with points and miles

The Ultimate Insiders Guide to getting the cheapest flights from Austin to Cancun any time of year using points, miles or even cash.

Read this is you want to know the best ways to fly from Austin to Cancun with points and miles. Anytime of year. For free.

This guide will teach you the best way to use points, miles or even cash to find the best deals on flights from Austin, Texas to Cancún Mexico AND exactly how to book them. Cancun is the most popular international non-stop destination leaving from Austin. And lucky for you, there are dozens of flights from Austin to Cancun. All the major carriers can get you there. But not in the same amount of time or comfort.

If you are in need of sand and sun and just have a few days to get away, there is almost no better choice.

Here are the questions this guide will answer for you:

• How long is the flight from Austin to Cancún?
• What airlines fly from Austin to Cancún?
• What airlines have non-stop routes from Austin to Cancún?
• What airlines offer first class or business class between Austin and Cancún?
• What is the cheapest way to fly from Austin to Cancún?
• What airline offers the best reward flights for flights between Austin and Cancún?
• What are the best points and miles redemptions on Austin to Cancún flights?
• What is the best time to fly from Austin to Cancún?
• What is the cheapest way to fly from Austin to Cancún?

How long is the flight from Austin to Cancún?

If you are on a non stop, the Flight from Austin to Cancún is 2 hours and 30 minutes (really, 2 hours and 21 minutes). If you are flying on a connecting route, the flight duration will vary dramatically.

For the fastest flights and (generally) cheapest flights when paying with cash or points / miles, look at the non-stop flights.

What airlines fly from Austin to Cancún?

Southwest, American, Delta, United, Spirit, Jet Blue, Copa, AeroMexico, Sun Country and others can get you to Cancun. So, maybe the question is less about Which airlines fly from Austin to Cancun and more about which airlines you should consider flying from Austin to Cancun. Read on and you’ll see what we mean.

Southwest and American each offer at least one non-stop flight from Austin to Cancun every day, year round. Sun Country has (or has had in the past) a seasonal non-stop. For all other airlines, you’re probably looking at a connection…and sometimes a ridiculously long one.

If you prefer flying to the beach in First Class or Business Class, your only non stop option is American.

What airline has the cheapest flight from Austin to Cancun?

What’s the cheapest flight from Austin to Cancun paying cash? How about when paying with points?

The answer to those questions will change depending on when you are traveling or other factors. What won’t change is how you go about finding the answer. And that’s what we’re going to show you right now.

Let’s plan a trip! We always like to sneak a long-weekend beach trip in late January or early February. It helps us escape the cedar fever allergies and kind of breaks up the late winter doldrums. Sidenote, if you also suffer from severe cedar fever, but can’t get on a plane to escape the pollen, head west towards Llano. From there West, you won’t see as many cedar trees and you can get some relief for the day, afternoon or weekend.

So, to illustrate exactly what you need to do to find the cheapest flights to Cancun, we’re going to plan a trip from Thursday, February 1, 2024 to Sunday February 4, 2024. A nice 3 night, 4 day get away on the beach at one of our favorite all inclusive properties. Ahh…sounds good. We’re ready. Are you?

As we said previously, Southwest and American have the most and sometimes only non-stops between Austin and Cancun. So, let’s start by looking at their options.

Southwest Airlines

Getting there:

First let’s look at both cash rates and points rates on Southwest, starting with our outbound flight from Austin:

We’ve highlighted the non-stop flight ($266) and the cheapest flight ($206). The cheapest flight saves you $60 but adds 4 hours of travel time. Chances are, you’ll spend more than $60 on your layover. And, even if you don’t, you’re still spending an extra four hours in transit that could be spent on the beach or at the pool.

Now let’s look at the same flights using Rapid Reward Points:

Again, we’ve highlighted the non-stop flight (16,102 rapid reward points +$46.04) and the cheapest flight (10,707 rapid rewards points+$46.04).

Pro tip: these prices are high for this route on Southwest. If one of these was the flight we knew we wanted to take, we would book now with just to have the seats reserved and then cancel and rebook when Southwest has a sale.

Getting Back:

Alright, now let’s look at the return flight options from Cancun to Austin on Southwest, starting with fares priced in dollars:

The non-stop is $273 at the cheapest, wanna get away fare and the least expensive flight (with a connection) is $241 for the low priced wanna get away fare.

Side note: note that the wanna get away fares are already starting to get booked out, even five months in advance for a non-holiday weekend. The Sunday evening return flight is POPULAR so book early.

And here are the same options if you pay with rapid reward points:

Our non-stop is going to cost 15,604 points plus $63.83 at the cheapest, wanna get away fare and the least expensive flight (with a connection) is going to cost 12,035 rapid reward points plus $63.83 for the lowest priced wanna get away fare.

Let’s add up the cost in dollars and the cost in points for both the non stop flight and the cheapest flight on Southwest:

Non-Stop Austin to Cancun on Southwest

• Cash: $266 + $273 = $539 Roundtrip
• Points: 16,102 + 15,604 = 31,706 + $115.87 in taxes and fees
  • Point Value: 1.33 cents per point
    • $539-$115.87 = $423.13 / 31,706 = 0.133

Cheapest Flight on Southwest from Austin to Cancun

• Cash: $206 + $241 = $447 Roundtrip
• Points: 10,707 + 12,035 = 22,742 + $115.47 in taxes and fees
  • Point Value: 1.45 cents per point
    • $447-$115.47 = $331.53 / 22,742 = 0.1457

So, on Southwest, we can pay $539 in cash or 31,706 points +$115 to get there spending only 5 hours en transit. OR, we could save $92 or 8,964 points by spending an additional 8 hours in transit. Vacation time is precious, so spending less than $100 or 8,600 points extra for an extra 8 hours on the beach is a no brainer.

One last thing to remember, if you are flying with someone else and one of you has the Companion Pass, then you can cut these prices in half (and double your value per point spent)

Before we book our flight from the 512 to Cancun, let’s check our other options so we can compare.

American Airlines

The next place we’re going to check to make sure we find our best / cheapest flight from Austin to Cancun is on American Airlines. American has two daily non stop flights from Austin to Cancun. If you include connecting flights, they have way more options than that.

A couple things to note about American’s Fares before we look at these same flights priced in AA Advantage Miles. Unless you cancel within 24 hours of booking, you will never get your cash back from American Airlines. I repeat, not matter what fare you book, after 24 hours post booking, you can not get 100% of your cash back if you cancel.

Economy fares can’t be changed at all. Main Cabin and First Class fares have flexibility to change your booking, but if you cancel you will get credit to use with AA in the future. Compare that with Southwest, where the two higher fare classes (Anytime and Business Select) include cash refunds if you cancel.

In both cases, you can cancel flights booked with miles or points and get all of your points back.

Outbound:

This gives you an idea of how many daily flights are available (this screen shot cuts off about half of the options):

You can see that there are tons of options that are all within the same ballpark (notice that the most variation in price on First Class fares). We’re not going to look at all of these, just the direct flight and the cheapest.

Starting with our outbound flight from Austin to Cancun, the non stop flight is also the cheapest:

Now let’s look at the same flights priced in American Airlines Miles:

You can see that the earlier flight was the same cash price, but is cheaper when priced in miles for both the main cabin ticket or the business class ticket. Plus, earlier is better because that gives us almost four extra hours at the beach.

What do our options look like on the return flight?

Two non stop options to get home. One leaving in the early afternoon and one leaving a little later.

Inbound:

And here are our inbound Cancun to Austin flights priced in miles:

Non-Stop Austin to Cancun on American

• Economy Cash: $363
• Main Cabin Cash: $415
• Business Class Cash: $747
• Main Cabin Miles: 20,000 + $109.87
  • Main Cabin Mile Value: 1.5 cents / mile
  • Compared to economy fare: 1.3 cents / mile
• Business Class Miles: 40,000 + $109.87
  • Business Class Mile Value: 1.6 cents / mile

Best Flight Deal on American from Austin to Cancun

So, on American, we can pay as little as $363 in cash or 20,000 points +$110 to get there spending only 2.5 hours en transit. That is less dollars or points than the non-stop flights that Southwest offers. And, if you wanted a more comfortable ride, you could pay some extra cash or less than 9000 more miles to ride in business class on American.

Unless you have the companion pass on Southwest, it seems like a no-brainer to go ahead and book on American. But, should we? Of course not because this might not be the best deal.

One of our absolute favorite travel hacks is transferring AMEX, Citi, Capital 1 and Chase points to British Airways Avios and then using those to book flights on BA’s one world partners like American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

Let’s see if we can get an even better deal by booking the same American Airlines flights we just looked at

British Airways

No, British Airways does not fly from Austin to Cancun. BUT, they are a One World Alliance Partner, which means you can use their reward currency (Avios) to book flights on American Airlines. And, because of how British Airways prices parter award flights, you can find some amazing value, especially on non-stop flights of 500 miles or less.

Can we use this hack to get to Cancun for even less? Let’s see.

Pro tip: When booking partner reward flights on British Airways, it is best to break your searches into one way’s. because sometimes there is availability for, say, your outbound flight but not for your flight home. That’s ok. We often book half of our journey via one method / airline and the other half via a different method or airline.

Leaving:

First, we’ll look at the one-way non-stop flights from Austin to Cancun and how much those cost in Avios. Then, for the sake of illustration, we’ll also examine what it looks like if you need to book a connecting flight.

We have two non-stop options from Austin to Cancun via British Airways (these are the same American Airlines flights we looked at above, just booked and priced by British Airways).

Let’s select the economy options to see our one-way cost in Avios:

That’s 9,000 Avios to fly one way from Austin to Cancun plus taxes and fees of $46.04 in an economy seat.

Let’s say we were curious about upgrading. What’s the Avios cost for the same flight if we want to upgrade to business class?

The business class ticket costs an additional 7,500 Avios for a total of 16,500 avios plus the same $46.04 in taxes and fees.

Before we move on to look at our inbound flights, we’ll take a detour in the name of education. Here’s what booking a one-way economy ticket with a connecting flight on American via British Airways will cost:

Economy class with a connection (in this case DFW) will cost you 16,500 Avios plus taxes and fees of $46.04.

And here’s how many Avios a one-way business class ticket from Austin to Cancun with on a connecting flight at DFW will cost you:

31,500 avios plus $46.04 for a business class ticket with a connecting flight.

Ok, before we can start to compare the British Airways option to booking via Southwest or American, we need to look at inbound flights.

Getting Back:

Here are our options for the return flight from Cancun to Austin:

There are lost of options for the inbound journey back from Cancun to Austin. For our purposes, we will look at the same types of tickets as we did for the outbound portion of the journey, starting with the AVIOS price for an economy ticket:

Same as the Austin to Cancun flight, the flight from Cancun to Austin will cost 9,000 Avios but with sligtly higher taxes and fees of $63.83.

And, here’s what the business class seat will cost in Avios on that same flight:

As you can see, the business class fare on this flight will cost 16,500 Avios plus $63.83 in taxes and fees.

Before we add up the outbound and inbound flight costs, let’s also look at inbound flights from Cancun to Austin with a connecting flight, starting with economy:

Just as the inbound flight with a connection the return segment will cost 16,500. As with all tickets, the return taxes and fees are a little higher on the inbound journet at $69.43.

That same flight in business class:

The AVIOS cost for this seat is 31,500 plus the standard $69.43 in taxes and fees.

Alright, now we have to add up the Austin to Cancun and Cancun to Austin segments to get a total price.

British Airways – Cost of Austin to Cancun flights

Basically, round trip, non stop both ways in economy will cost 18,000 avios total plus $109.87. To upgrade that same trip to business class, you’re looking at 33,000 avios plus $109.87.

In order to compare that to the cost of non-stops on Southwest and American, we need to break it all down into a cost per Avios, like this:

• Non-stop Economy: 18,000 Avios plus $109.87 in taxes and fees
  • Point Value using Southwest non-stop price: 2.4 cents per avios
    • $539 – $109.87 = $429.13 / 18,000 = 2.4
  • Point Value using American economy price: 1.4 cents per Avios
    • $363 – $109.87 = $253.13 / 18,000 = 1.4
  • Point Value using American main cabin price:
    • $415 – $109.87 = $305.13 / 18,000 = 1.7
• Non-stop Business Class:
  • Point Value: 2 cents per avios
    • $747 – $109.87 = $637.13 / 33,000 = 2.0

Another thing to consider aside from the price is how easy it is to earn the different reward currencies you are considering using. Avios are exponentially easier to earn than Southwest Rapid Rewards and American Airlines AAdvantage Miles. So, when we have a chance to use them at equal or greater value than using Rapid Rewards or AAdvantage Miles, we choose Avios.

One more step to go before we do a final comparison and make a decision. We have to check options on other airlines just to make sure we aren’t missing any crazy deals that are way to good to pass up.

Flying from Austin to Cancun on Other Airlines

For the sake of due diligence, let’s take a few minutes and see what other options we have for getting from Austin to Cancun.

Air Canada

We could get crazy sneaky and book a flight on United Airlines using Air Canda miles, like this:

It’s only 10,000 Air Canada miles, which are just as easy to earn as Avios. BUT you have to endure a 16 hour plus trip on the outbound flight. So, this one is rejected. But, remember this hack for other flights because it is a gem when you find good availability.

Delta

Ok, so how about Delta?

Here are the roundtrip cash prices and the flight times:

And here are the same flights priced in Delta Skymiles:

Cash and Skymiles prices are similar to what we see for American and Southwest, but not low enough to justfiy the extra 2 hours in flight time. So, unless you had a boatload of skymiles you wanted to burn, this probably isn’t the way to go.

Jet Blue

How about Jetblue?

While you could pay a low cash price for this flight, it includes an 11 hour layover in Fort Lauderdale for said “low” price. Same with the points price. Not worth it.

Spirit

Next we’ll check Spirit Airlines.

Are the flights cheap? Yes, there’s a pretty cheap one there. Does it require a 10 hour, overnight layover in Fort Lauderdale? Why, yes it does. Does that mean we would never consider it? Pretty Much.

United

Last, let’s see what it would look like to fly Austin to Cancun on United.

Yikes! The cash prices are pretty high and at a minimum you’re adding two hours of travel time because all of the flights connect.

Booking on United with Cash doesn’t seem like an option, but what about booking with United MIles?

The mile prices aren’t bad here, but also not as attractive as the Avios/British airways rate. Regardless, we prefer to maximize time on the beach so we would not choose this.

The Cheapest Way to Fly From Austin to Cancun

We’ve done a lot of research for this trip and we’re ready to book it. So what’s the bottom line?

That depends on a lot of factors. Here are a few “if’s” that would lead to a different decision

• If you have the Southwest Companion Pass and a ton of rapid rewards points, then your best bet is Southwest.
• If you’re paying cash and want a non-stop, look at American Airlines.
• If you want the best value for your hard earned points, book the flight using British Airways Avios.
• If you want to maximize you points value AND do it in First Class, use British Airways Avios

What would the Texas Travel Hacker Do?

Leaving Austin for Cancun: Book the earliest non-stop on American but use Avios to do. Spring for the First Class seat to get maximum value and comfort. Get to the airport early enough to use our Citi American Airlines Advantage Executive card to access the Admirals club. Enjoy a bite and a drink before getting on the plane.

Then, coming back from Cancun to Austin, we prefer the latest flight. So, we use our Southwest companion pass to book the return flight. It gives us the most time possible on our get away and makes the return ticket super cheap. There is no Admiral’s Club at Cancun international, so that is not a reason to look more favorably at AA flights. Sometimes we do need to leave earlier and, in that case, we use Avios to book one of the American Non-stops.

However you decide to do it, there are multiple avenues to maximize your redemption values and fly from Austin to Cancun with points for free.