Aeromexico is the leading airline on this high frequency route! They offer the most seats every day aboard 737’s which makes them eligible to compete with Alaska Airlines, United, and LCC Volaris who also fly similar aircrafts. Holding 60% of the market share, Aeromexico does everything it can to stand above their competition and encourage people to choose Aeromexico over another airline.
Check-in for AM is at the old and dated T2 which is home to a number of international airlines such as Air New Zealand, Volaris, and Air Canada, along with domestic carrier Hawaiian. AM has not rolled out Sky priority like a number of their partners have, however being sky team elite plus I knew that I had access to their business class check-in and took advantage of it in order to shorten my wait time at LAX. I was checked in within minutes.
However, at check-in, I noticed that the women checking me in did not place priority stickers on my bag. I then asked her why she did not and she informed me because her computer did not prompt her to. I asked her if she had my frequent flyer name on my reservation and she informed me that she had not. How odd! It was there when I checked in online and I was standing in the biz class line, flying an economy class seat, and you didn’t even ask me if I had status or try sending me back to the end of the line with the common fliers. I found the entire exchange to be strange, but then again, maybe Aeromexico employees are too nice to say “Hey you don’t belong here”. She quickly amended my reservation, added the ticket number and the priority sticker to my bag.
Once pass security, I decided to relax in the Air France Lounge. The lounge is a bit dated and is actually just the old NWA World Club spruced up a bit. This lounge is NOTHING to rave about, but it still provides free French wine, a wider alcohol selection than SkyClubs and a decent selection of cheese and other snacks. About 45 minutes before departure, an announcement was made that my flight was boarding, and I packed up, well fed on cheese and wine and headed to the gate.
The plane was already ½ boarded by the time I arrived at the gate and I noticed that Aeromexico has a very unique way of boarding. The first to go in are those who need extra assistance, then business and skyteam elite/elite plus passengers followed by windows seat passengers. That’s right, they call for window passengers, then middle seat passengers, then finally aisle passengers; helping to reduce congestion and not require people to get up once in their seat. I have never boarded in this fashion, but actually found it to be pretty savvy!
I had a window exit seat, but still waited to be among the last to board. I was in no hurry to get onto the overside metal tube and knew I would be sitting for the next 3.5 hours anyway; so why be first. The cabin was approximately 90% full on the redeye flight. Flight attendants were very friendly and spoke excellent English and Spanish. Even being in the exit row, they didn’t care that I only spoke broken Spanish because each of the FA were fluent in English and said in the event of an emergency, instructions would be given in both languages. SCORE! I got to keep my seat (I was a bit worried).
We took off and were on our way to Mexico City without any delays. It wasn’t even 10 minutes after takeoff before I zonked out. The seat was extremely comfortable and despite forgetting my neck pillow, the seat thankfully had a 7 way adjustable headrest with adjustable wings, so there were no issues! I slept all the way to MEX and awoke just in time for them to ask us to prepare for landing. I had noticed that the FA had passed out headphones in my sleep and were now collecting them. These like the alcoholic drinks are FREE! For sure making them a doublewide delight!
The flight from LA to MEX was very comfortable, but then again I slept throughout the entire thing. I cannot honestly tell you how the service was because I was sleeping, however no one seemed disgruntled, there were overhead televisions, and free alcoholic beverages are served in coach, including beer, wine, tequila, rum, and vodka! As far as I could tell there was no meal service, however we did depart at 11:30pm and arrived before 4am, so a meal was NOT expected!
Upon arrival in MEX everyone must clear customs, the same as you do when transferring within the USA. The cue wasn’t bad and took about 25 minutes to get through, however it was 5am. Once through immigrations, bags are picked up. My bag was waiting for me already pulled off the belt with all the other priority luggage, and then you clear customs. Bags are redropped upstairs on the second level near check-in. When I went upstairs to recheck my bag, the line was longer than I wanted to wait and since my bag was small I decided to keep it with me. The honest to god reason why I even checked in LAX-MEX was because I didn’t want to take my toiletries out of my bag and I knew that there was no TSA pre-check in T2 at LAX.
I walked towards the departure gates, recleared security and was in the Saloon premier within minutes. MEX security is nothing like the TSA and I felt like I actually was a normal person, not a terrorist. Like most countries, my shoes stayed on, I kept my liquids in my bag and the only thing I had to even remove was my laptop. I forgot to remove my belt and the metal detector rang as I meandered through. However, instead of requiring me to go back through, they just used the wand to wave me down and cleared me to continue! No attitudes and all smiles! I knew I was not in the USA! I now had 4 hours to burn, and planned to explore the newer Mexico D.F. T2
Overall, great trip with Aeromexico and I would HIGHLY recommend them on this route! Thank you Aeromexico, I can’t recall the last time I slept on a plane without first drugging myself!
