Key Takeaways
A tight window, a long distance
One traveller living in the Netherlands (Europe) has only one month a year to visit family in Mexico City (North America), with fixed work dates that allow travel only between late December 2025 and mid-January 2026.
Dreams versus the December market
The original hope was a round trip for about one thousand euros with checked baggage, but live prices for the Christmas period pushed non-stop options close to one thousand five hundred euros and even many connecting flights above that level.
When every day with family counts
A cheaper Monday flight from Amsterdam (Netherlands, Europe) to Mexico City (Mexico, North America) cost about nine hundred thirty-four euros one way, while a Sunday flight cost around one thousand sixty-two euros. The difference was one full extra day with loved ones.
Final choice and next steps
The traveller chose the more expensive Sunday departure on a KLM Economy Light round trip without checked baggage, paid through the Dutch iDEAL system, and then looked for small, light gifts under one hundred euros from Amazon Netherlands for a nine-year-old girl and a sixteen-year-old boy in Mexico City.
Story & Details
A month that cannot move
In December 2025 a traveller in the Netherlands (Europe) looked at the calendar and saw only one possible window for the yearly visit to Mexico City (Mexico, North America). Work in the Netherlands ends on Friday 19 December and starts again on Monday 19 January. The visit must start on a day between Friday 19 and Tuesday 23 December and end on a day between Friday 16 and Monday 19 January. Every date outside that band is simply impossible.
The wish list at the start looked almost ideal. The journey should be in Economy class, with one adult passenger, and it should include a checked suitcase. Non-stop flights were preferred, followed by one-stop routes with reasonable layovers, all within about thirty hours from door to door. The starting point should be Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands (Europe), but nearby airports such as Brussels in Belgium (Europe), Düsseldorf and Frankfurt in Germany (Europe), Paris in France (Europe), London in the United Kingdom (Europe), Zürich in Switzerland (Europe) and Milan in Italy (Europe) were also acceptable if the price difference was large enough. Trains or long-distance buses to reach those airports were acceptable too, as long as total travel time and cost still made sense.
The shock of Christmas prices
When real prices appeared on the screen, the numbers were very different from the plan. For the non-stop Amsterdam–Mexico City route, common off-peak fares of around one thousand to one thousand one hundred euros for a full round trip were replaced by much higher figures. Around two weeks before the desired departure, KLM’s website showed a pattern in which the one-way flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City was about one thousand euros and the one-way flight back was about five hundred euros. The total was close to one thousand five hundred euros, and this was before adding a checked bag.
Searches through other airlines did not help much. A one-stop combination through Frankfurt in Germany (Europe) with Lufthansa, for example, reached about one thousand euros for the outward leg and seven hundred euros for the return in one case the traveller checked. Routes via Paris, London or Madrid in Spain (Europe) showed similar levels. Guides from travel analysts and consumer sites explained why this was happening: for Christmas flights, the best booking moment is usually by the end of October, and by December prices for late-December travel usually rise rather than fall. The traveller was shopping in early December, well past that sweet spot.
Stretching the map
The next move was to relax earlier rules. Carry-on-only travel became acceptable, because the fare difference between Economy Light and Economy Standard on many long-haul routes can easily reach eighty to one hundred twenty euros for a round trip. If the suitcase could stay at home, at least the missing bag would soften the blow of the high fare.
Then the departure airport was put back into play. Maybe Brussels would be cheaper, or Frankfurt, or London. The traveller was willing to take trains or buses to those cities if the saving after adding ground travel was more than one hundred euros. Yet December fares from those airports to Mexico City also climbed sharply near Christmas. Once the cost of rail tickets and the value of several extra hours of travel were considered, the theoretical bargains were hard to find.
More radical ideas followed. One plan was to fly from Amsterdam to London with a low-cost airline, then take a separate ticket from London to Cancún in Mexico (North America), and from there buy another ticket to Mexico City on a Mexican airline. Another idea was to fly from Amsterdam to a city in the United States (North America), such as Houston, and then continue by long-distance buses across the border through places like Laredo to reach Mexico City. These paths could be cheaper on paper when typical low-cost fares and bus prices were added together. In reality, they would require three or more separate bookings, long hours on the road, land border crossings and unprotected connections. Delays on any leg could cause missed flights with no help from airlines. For a once-a-year family visit, that risk felt too high.
Narrowing the decision to one line
After many loops around the map, attention returned to a simple line: Amsterdam to Mexico City on KLM. At that point the most painful part of the journey was clearly the outbound leg from Europe to Mexico. Return flights in January from Mexico to Europe were more stable and tended to cluster around a band of four hundred to five hundred euros. The choice that mattered now was the departure day from Amsterdam within the fixed December window.
Two main options stood out on KLM’s non-stop service in Economy Light without checked baggage. Leaving on Sunday 21 December cost about one thousand sixty-two euros for the one-way ticket. Leaving on Monday 22 December cost about nine hundred thirty-four euros. The route, the aircraft and the service level were more or less the same. The only differences were the date and the price.
The cheaper Monday ticket offered a saving of roughly one hundred twenty-eight euros. The Sunday ticket offered something else: a full extra day in Mexico City. In this traveller’s life, that extra day is not a small detail. Time in Mexico happens only once a year and lasts only for that single month. One more day with family and friends is about three to four percent more time in the place that matters most. When seen that way, the price difference is the cost of that day.
Choosing time over savings
The final decision was to pay for the Sunday departure and keep the extra day. A round trip in Economy Light was booked directly on the airline’s site, with both the outbound and inbound flights under the same booking. Payment was made through iDEAL, the Dutch online banking method that moves money straight from a bank account to the airline without card rewards but with no extra fees.
On the payment page there was a field for vouchers or discount codes, which led to a short hunt for hidden savings. Ideas included old airline vouchers, special promotions and bank reward points. In practice, none of these appeared in time. Airline vouchers usually come from past disruptions or targeted offers. Reward points from everyday banking do not often turn into airline credits on the same day, and general gift cards do not usually apply to tickets bought directly from an airline. The odds of finding a last-minute code were judged low. The traveller accepted that the ticket price was fixed and turned attention to making the most of the journey that now existed.
Small gifts in a small bag
Because the fare was Economy Light, there would be no checked suitcase. Every possession for more than a month in Mexico needed to fit into cabin baggage. Even so, the plan included bringing presents for two young relatives in Mexico City.
The budget for gifts was one hundred euros in total, and they needed to be ordered from Amazon Netherlands and small enough to slip into hand luggage. The first is a girl aged nine who will turn ten in late May 2026. The second is a boy aged sixteen who will turn seventeen in early January 2026.
For the boy, a pair of Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones was chosen. Reviews describe them as lightweight on-ear Bluetooth headphones with good sound for the price, strong battery life and a folding design that makes them easy to pack. For the girl, a craft kit based on placing tiny coloured pieces on a pattern to create a sparkling image that can stand as a little night light was picked. The first kit identified turned out to be unavailable, so a similar set was selected instead. Both gifts fit easily into a cabin bag, and their combined cost stays under the agreed budget.
With tickets confirmed, bags planned and presents chosen, the story becomes less about perfect optimisation and more about one clear priority: using money not just to move between continents, but to buy a little more time in the place that feels like home.
Conclusions
The price of waiting
This holiday journey shows what happens when long-haul Christmas flights are booked in early December rather than in October. Advice from travel analysts points out that prices for December travel usually rise as the holiday nears, and live fares from hubs across Europe support that pattern. The hope of a full round trip for about one thousand euros could not survive contact with a market where even one-way flights to Mexico City were near that figure.
The value of a single day
The final choice between a Sunday and a Monday flight did not hinge on seat pitch or frequent-flyer perks. It came down to whether one hundred twenty-eight euros was worth one extra day with family in Mexico City. For someone who only visits once a year, that trade feels different than it might for a frequent traveller. In this case, the day won.
Living with the ticket that exists
Once the booking was done, the most useful actions were simple: understand the basic refund and passenger-rights rules that might apply if the airline changes the plan, consider adding a checked bag later if needed, and focus on what can be controlled—such as packing smartly and choosing gifts that will bring joy without filling the cabin bag. The ticket may be more expensive than hoped, but it opens the door to the month that matters.
Selected References
[1] KLM. “Cash refund options in case of a cancelled flight.” https://www.klm.nl/en/information/refund-compensation/cash-refund
[2] KLM. “Refund and compensation.” https://www.klm.nl/en/information/refund-compensation
[3] European Commission. “Air passenger rights – Air travel.” https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm
[4] Forbes Advisor. “What Is EU 261 And How Does It Work?” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/travel-rewards/eu-261/
[5] NerdWallet. “The Best Time to Book Holiday Travel Is Very Soon.” https://www.nerdwallet.com/travel/news/the-best-time-to-book-holiday-travel-is-very-soon
[6] The Points Guy. “It’s your last chance to get a good deal on Christmas flights.” https://thepointsguy.com/news/best-time-book-holiday-flights/
[7] What Hi-Fi?. “Sony WH-CH520 review.” https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sony-wh-ch520
[8] European Commission. “Traveling soon? Check your passenger rights.” YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeCircbwvmg
Appendix
Air passenger rights
Rules in the European Union that protect people when flights are delayed, cancelled or overbooked, often allowing compensation, meals, hotel stays or rebooking when problems are within an airline’s control.
Carry-on bag
A small piece of luggage that a passenger can take into the aircraft cabin, usually limited in size and weight and stored in the overhead bin or under the seat.
Economy Light
A basic ticket type in Economy class that includes a seat and cabin baggage but does not include a checked suitcase and offers little or no refund if the traveller cancels.
Economy Standard
A more flexible Economy ticket that normally includes at least one checked suitcase and sometimes allows changes or partial refunds for an extra fee.
Holiday peak season
The busy travel period around major holidays such as Christmas and New Year, when demand for flights rises and fares tend to be higher than at other times of the year.
iDEAL
A Dutch online payment method that lets customers pay merchants directly from their bank accounts in the Netherlands (Europe), often with no extra payment fees.
KLM
The flag carrier airline of the Netherlands (Europe), operating a large network of European and intercontinental routes, including the non-stop link between Amsterdam and Mexico City.
Mexico City route
A long-haul flight connection between Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Europe) and Mexico City in Mexico (North America), important for travellers who split their lives between the two places.
Sony WH-CH520
A budget-friendly pair of wireless on-ear headphones made by Sony, known for light weight, long battery life and simple Bluetooth connectivity that make them easy to pack and use while travelling.
YouTube passenger rights video
An informational short film from the European Commission that explains, in simple language, what travellers in the European Union can expect when flights or other transport services are disrupted.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 