Review of AeroMexico flight Cancún → Mexico City in Economy

Welcome everyone to the 3rd part of my most recent trip to Mexico.
Just a quick look at where we are and where we left last time.

NUE - CDG AF E170 http://flight-report.com/en/report-13512.html
CDG - CUN AF B773 http://flight-report.com/en/report-13596.html
CUN - MEX AM B738 you are here
MEX - CDG AM B788
CDG - NUE AF E170

As I promised I will start with few pictures from our stay at Cancún.
Cancun can be basicly devided into two parts. First is the downtown where the most of the locals live, it´s few kilometers from beaches and the hotels are much cheaper here. Then there is a Hotelzone. It is land in shape of "7" that is going all around Nichupte lagoon. And it is all covered with beaches and hotels. The hotels that are more 2 times more expensive than those in downtown. As prices for transportation are pretty low in Cancún we decided to book Ibis Cancún Centro hotel that was situated in downtown. On one hand it saved us a lot of money but on the other hand travelling to beaches and back on a daily basis was unconfortable and sometime exhausting with local bus. The whole bus system seemed to be very chaotic as there were no maps or timeschedules. Taxis were cheap too, but the prices of buses were ubeatable with 11,50MXN per ride. Taxis to hotelzone were over 100MXN but still it is very good price.

View of our hotel from Plaza las Americas shopping mall.


The main purpose of going to Cancún was the sea and beaches for us and that is where we stayed almost everyday. As it was February beaches were far from crowded so we enyjoed nice sandy beaches almost alone. Cancún is well-known for its turqoise waters and I have to admit I was really impressed by the sea colours there.
Sea temperature was very good for swimming but it was windy there which meant there were quite high waves and it was not allowed to swim at many places.


Cancún is also popular destination due to its nightlife. Hotelzone is full of (beach) clubs and after paying an admission you are usually allowed to drink as much as you wish. From what I could see Hotelzone had a great atmosphere during evenings and nights but we were too tired to try partying at night.


In the middle of our stay we took a one day trip to 130Km far city of Tulum where the ruins of Mayan are. We spend it mostly at the archeological zone and by the sea, but our stay was really nice. The whole Tulum was not in such a rush as Cancún was. I found it to be very nice and calm place. To get there from Cancun it´s best to take ADO bus that costs about 170MXN one-way, the ride takes 2 hours. It takes you to Tulum center and from there you can catch taxi for 70MXN to archeological zone.


The whole place was full of iguanas, I loved them.


We also stayed at Isla Mujeres for a day which is and island close to Cancún, just a 15 minute boat ride. Nice place, but still enjoyed Cancún´s beaches more though.


Oh, really?


Ok, you´re right



Let´s go back to flying.
To get back home we were scheduled on CUN-MEX-CDG-NUE routing and with another 10+hours long journey from NUE home we were ahead of another difficult experience. Our flight from Cancún was scheduled to leave at 20:22 so we tried to get some rest during the day but still managed to get to beach for 2 hours. As I didn´t want to leave hotel before 16:00 I paid for a late check-out.
On the hotel wifi I got regular update from my father sending me aircraft regs for both CUN-MEX and MEX-CDG segments. Still with hour to leave I followed our ride on Flightradar24.

Our original plan was to leave at 16:00 and head to bus station from where we would leave to the airport. But right in front of the hotel there was some taxi dispatcher who offered us a taxi and after a short chat he almost equaled the price of the bus. 5 minutes later our taxi arrived and soon we were heading to the airport comfortably. After 15 minutes ride we were right in front of Terminal 2 with huge amount of time to spare. After quick walk through landside we found out there is nothing to do and tried to check-in and get airside.
I wanted to do an online check-in in the afternoon but was unable to do so due to codeshare flight (that is what AM website told me). At the desk everything went smoothly, I asked the guy if we can get a window seat on the left at which he replied "sure". He was very nice and surprised us by saying he visited Brno in previous years. From check-in we went directly to security and few minutes later we found ourselves airside.

There are some pros and cons about Cancún Internation Airport. I liked the shops, there were several places to get some food including burgers or pizza. Dutyfree shops were rather small but quite fine. Although the airport is quite busy, but small, it´s always easy to get a seat somewhere close to window. We were located in the ground floor as on the 1st floor there were international flights only. I was left disappointed with very bad views outside. The only chance to get apron views from gates at ground floor. Runway action was visible poorly.
Wifi didn´t make me happy too. I read on the internet that it should be free at CUN. I found only one where you have purchase it for 70MXN or something for hour or two. I did it, but when I lost connection at one place I couldn´t bring it back to life anytime after that. That didn´t impress me much.


A proof that being a spotter is not an easy hobby at CUN.


It felt like every 738 has to be equiped with split-scimitar winglets. I didn´t like them at first but I ended up with having no problem with it.


I love both old and new AM liveries


With Aeromexico, Volaris and Interjet it was mostly home airlines who led the activity.


Followed up with US and Canadian leisure airlines and then some longhaul heavy traffic from Europe.


Aeromexico operates flights to Mexico City like every hour. This flight was pretty light when leaving as only about 40 passengers boarded.


I liked the destinations.


The terminal started getting emptier before our boarding time. From looking around it was obvious we were about to have lighter load too, something like 70%. Few gates next to us Volaris´ flight to MEX was boarded at the same time.


Our boarding started little bit late but it went calm and smoothly.


Boarding our 3 years old XA-AMJ


We were greeted by FA when entering the rear door and I immediately got great feeling of very nice cabin equiped with personal IFE.


Great legroom and comfortable seat for 2 hours flight.


Boeing Sky Interior with mood lighting on.


I have to say I like all Mexican airlines liveries. Interjet livery on A320 is one of my favourites.
Oh and not to forget, my first flight on split-scimitar winglet equiped 738.


There was no manual safety demo with PTVs.


Pushback started 20 minutes late. It was still quite fine as I expected to catch some lost time on our way. Our connection at MEX was 1h40min so I didn´t want to loose much more time. I was happy to be seated on the left as I expected to get some nice views of Cancún on departure.


Taxiing for 12R.


Our take off roll was rather lazy, but after rotation we climbed steeply. As expected there were some nice views of Cancun and its Hotelzone but only for few moments because we banked right for 180° turn and to head for MEX. Bad luck as left turn would make the views of Cancun great and it will take quite some time.
Mexico is much bigger than one would guess.


This is how the service looked like. To be honnest I was slightly disappointed as I expected at least a sandwich or something but it was not a big deal.


This thing full of air really frustrated me as it was almost impossible to get inside. Never struggled so much to open a box.


Some informations about AM and MEX in the in-flight magazine.


Some informations about one we are flying right now.


And one we are going to fly in 3 hours.


I enjoyed my stay very much. The interior was great, cabin crew did their job well and I got some small refreshment. I also tried IFE for a while and it reacted very well. Good job Aeromexico.


Good thing about these winglets is that during night winglet is always well visible.


We soon approached Mexico City. I looked forward to see the city from aircraft as it is located right in the city center. But I never expected to see something like that. When the city came to view I was absolutely amazed. It´s incredibly huge and with all the colours and lights I just watched speechless. At one time we were making left turn past the whole downtown and there were other planes visible landing in the distance behind the skyscrapers. It was just stunning view. I recommend you to check youtube for some night landings in Mexico city. I have never seen something like that.


Cabin prepared for landing.


After landing we struggled to get to our parking gate as the airport was really busy.


And here we stopped for almost 15 minutes due to traffic ahead. This 787 is N967AM, our ride back to Europe. Only in case we manage to catch it.


Finally parking.


As we always report only 1 flight here at FR I got to stop it for now in the middle of journey and we will continue if you join me next time on MEX-CDG flight where I will also write some more words about MEX.

Thank you for opening this one and reading it all down here.
See you next time,
Michael