introduction
Hello amigos!
This is part 2 of a trip to Mexico I had back in summer 2021. This FR will cover the second flight of the trip, from Mexico City to Oaxaca.
You may find the previous FR here:
Flight routing
- 1
While I'm not a great fan of LCC, the price difference between AM and Y4 justified it, specially for an hour long flight. Well, another new airline for the checklist in any case!
So, without further ado… let's get it on!
At AICM
The day before I had met with some friend and had a little too many tequilas and mezcales, fortunately my friend took care of me and made sure we made it on time to AICM.
Benito Juarez Airport is odd. It has suffered a dozen of reforms, but it's falling appart. Its modern and airy in some parts, but dingy and just plain awful in others… it just doesn't live up to the great city it serves.
Volaris check in was crowded that day, but it flowed nice and efficiently…
Security checks took no time and we were up to the nasty long concourse that is Terminal 1 in a nutshell.
These floors are shamefull
As we both had loungepass, we went to the Grand Lounge (which I chose by chance…) the place was crowded but we made it to a "reserved" booth for us 2
Since I was basically useless, I didn't wander around. We had a waiter who brought us drinks and breakfast. Some chilaquiles to save the day!
Let's say the lounge complied with what I needed from it. A confortable place to spend my hangover, eat some "death-beating" breakfast, staying hydrated, and survive. No complaints from me here.
Once we were done with breakfast, we went to our gate…on the walk we could have fun with the great views of the planes at MEX, such as this IB racoonjet:
The gate was crowded and boarding took its time to begin…I was just hoping to make it to the plane alive.
Photographic evidence tells us this was the case:
boarding volaris' a320neo
I like how the engines look on the A320NEO, it gives me the same vibes as 777s
Instant porte, with some awards Y4 has earned.
The plane looked pristine, and the seats better than enough for this hop to OAX
While boarding was completed I checked out the view outside: another Y4 airbus, and an UA 737
taxi and takeoff
Enroute to the runway (it was one of the RWY05), I had the views I couldn't have while inside of the terminal (not too much to see at this time):
Ah Interjet…so sad
As we lined up with the runway, now I had a view to Terminal 2, AeroMexico's fortress (AKA Boeingland):
en route to oaxaca!
The powerful A320 had no issue with MEX's altitude and had a nice and powerful takeoff into the clouds. I'm still getting used to the engine noise…
Views were basically null because of clouds
I felt so badly I thought I had contracted COVID…but it was just the good old "cruda". So I slept basically for most of the flight until we were getting ready for landing.
The pilots landed smothly into OAX, great job guys!
OAX doesn't have any jetbridges, so we deboarded into the tarmac, it was a lovely welcome to Oaxaca!
In stark contrast to MEX, OAX was well kept and seemed quite new. Bags took a bit to come out…and we then grabbed a cab to our hotel in the city's downtown.
Hola Chibcha!
Me encantan los reports de México y de Centroamérica porque están llenos de lugares que están en mi bucket list! Especialmente Oaxaca. A todo esto, se dice "Oajaca", verdad? Yo decía "Oacsaca". jaja
Al menos se ve limpio, a diferencia de las alfombras de SCL! ja
Magnífico! Una puertita habría sido lo máximo para tener más privacidad.
Se ve rico, pero algo me dice que es picante. No sufren de presión alta los mexicanos, por Dios??
Esteee... si el cerebro completa la imagen, sí.
Qué lindas vistas! Debe haber tanto que ver en Ciudad de México!
Santa Madre de Diosssss...... No sé si podría. No sé. No sé. No sé...... Aunque un día un alumno de séptimo año trajo de México unas barritas energéticas que contenían harina de chapulín. Esos son los grillos, no? Cuando llegué a la sala había un escándalo porque varios alumnos estaban desafiándose a comer de la barrita y nadie se atrevía y todos se morían de la risa. Y obviamente le tocó el desafío al profesor. Yo lo pensé un momento y me atreví a darle un mordisco, pero lo hice con harto teatro, como en cámara lenta, mientras todos gritaban y algunos se ponían verdes y se tapaban la boca. Después lo mastiqué, también con mucha exageración, y me lo tragué mientras algunos, especialmente las niñas, estaban al borde del desmayo. jajajaj Creo que ese día me gané el respeto hasta de los más rebeldes. jajaja. Es que aquí es impensable comer insectos, aunque tengo que decir que me he tragado varios mosquitos andando en bicicleta. (O sea, yo andaba en bicicleta, no los mosquitos jajajaj) En todo caso, yo empujaba el pedacito de la barrita por mi esófago, pero el pedacito quería volver a salir. jajaj
Ooohh! Justo para el mes del orgullo!! ?
Hola Nelson!
Las x son bien engañosas en México. En efecto en este caso es como una J. Otras veces puede sonar como una ch o como una sh o como una tz...depende también del idioma original de la palabra.
Es un poco picante, pero uno eventualmente se acostumbra. Ahora que lo dices no sé si de eso sufran, se que si hay problemas con el sobrepeso.
Jajajajajajaja
Gran anécdota con tus estudiantes y las barritas. A mi también me da asco, pero con un par de tequilas encima uno ya se relaja... la última vez mis amigos querían comer escarabajos y tarantulas; nope.
Gracias por pasar!
Nobody likes low cost airlines in my opinion, but those damn galaxy carriers sometimes charges us insane amounts of money for a specific route that you can't really justify that expense for the amount of service you're getting :), though it's nice to read a report about Volaris as they're not commonly reported on here.
You're totally right!
Alas in Europe many mainline carriers are not discernible from LCCs (yes I'm looking at you IB, TP, EI, AY, SK).
Thanks for passing by!
Hola Chibcha!
Funny you posted this because I was recently looking at some flights on Volaris. I only live a few km from TIJ, and Volaris have a pretty big operation there to tons of destinations in Mexico, and it's waaaay cheaper to just cross the border to TIJ than flying out of San Diego--especially since I'm actually closer to TIJ than SAN. Volaris seem to be a decent value overall, but it's nothing exciting at all. It's really a shame that InterJet went bankrupt during the pandemic because they were really the best of the Mexican LCCs with the most room and better service--they were more like a JetBlue type of LCC. A big loss for the Mexican domestic markets where prices have gone up since, with one less competitor. Nevertheless, Volaris seem very convenient from TIJ for me, especially because they avoid the hot mess that is MEX haha.
Thanks for sharing!
Go ahead, try Volaris!
If you've endured Iberia intre-Europe, it won't be any worse.
Indeed, InterJet didn't have any decent IFE, but their service was beyond good for an LCC; specially for the MEX-BOG run, it would be the second best option after AM, given that AV has gone down the LCC path.
Saludos!