Avis du vol entre Madrid et Mexico City en classe Premium Eco avec Iberia

intro

Hello amigos!

This once, this FR series will cover a trip to Mexico I had back in summer 2021. Back then, pandemic restrictions were a mixed bag of complete freedom to curfews and whatnot. I had a very stressful second semester underway, so I wanted to vacay somewhere with a sea view and only think about drinking and eating.

Prices for travel within Spain were a crazy, and I wouldn't be able to drive in any of the islands as I hadn't got a valid driver's license for Spain. I looked over for Açores or Madeira, and prices seemed reasonable. However the whole trip would have cost me almost as much as going to America. And so, I wondered…where could I go over there that is restriction free? 

Mexico, good old Mexico didn't have any entry restrictions, travel was free, and prices were reasonable too. And so I asked a friend if she would tag along,  and we organised a trip to Mexico Lindo y Querido.

 So I booked a return ticket between MAD and MEX, on Iberia's Premium Economy (which I had already tried to Bogotá and was gladly satisfied), while my friend took care of booking domestic legs to/from Oaxaca in Volaris. In the end my schedule was as follows:

 

At Madrid Barajas airport

Since this was a midnight departure, I was due to be at the airport by 9pm. However I had some work to do around 7pm and it would be a mess if the call lasted longer than 1 hour. So I went earlier to the airport so I could join the call from the Neptuno VIP lounge at T4S.

 Check in was a breeze, as few flights left to America at midnight (Argentina was basically closed, so were Chile and Peru…so all that was left were flights to Mexico). The fact that Mexico had no limitations or conditions for entry was also a great contributing factor.

Done with the paperwork I went straight to T4S to settle down, have some food, work and wait for my call

at neptuno vip lounge

The Neptuno VIP lounge at T4S was recently re-opened back then. As you may had seen on my MAD-BOG report, the only available VIP back then was the Plaza Mayor Lounge at T4, which had the inconvenience of forcing you to leave way earlier to cross the field to T4S and go through the border control.

 The lounge was airy, and most important: empty.

I basically had the whole lounge for myself and this was AWESOME!
Just in front of us, IB's competition was waiting for the night hop to MEX. I love AM's livery on the 787, and I would have liked to fly them instead of IB, but alas, they don't offer W class 

Done with work i had time to check the awesome "strawberry moon" that evening

For dinner, I had a bowl of meatballs with tortilla and some verdejo to wash it down… 

Done with eating and basking in the moonlight, it was time to board our A350 to MEX.

boarding flight 6409 to MExico

T4S was basically a desert at boarding time…the only crowd were my fellow passengers to Mexico at the end of the pier.

quite a crowd indeed, and boarding took its time as it was back to front

Meanwhile, our planem was waiting for us

The flight was almost full, I was due to share my row with someone, but the one in front remained empty after boarding completed and I was granted my request to move to it, huge win!

PTV size was optimal, so was the pitch between rows

Amenity kits were delivered before taxi

The only flaw I noticed on this flight with the W cabin in IB's A350's is that you are right on top of the front galley. This would prove a huge nuissance for this redeye flight.

enroute to mexico

We did a quick taxi to RWY 36R and then turned right to the west over the Sierra de Guadarrama. The supermoon provided lovely views of Madrid, but my camera wasn't up to the task (sorry).

I settled down and as soon as the crew could, we were given the "premium economy" headsets. Not awesome, but bettter than nothing

As we neared Portugal's shores we were handed our dinner. Options were hamburgers (filete ruso in Spain) or something else that I forgot. I went for the hamburger.

It was a great meal.

BTW, since I was so near to the galley, I noticed IB heats the ovens just after boarding is completed, so the food cooks while we take off and the whole "dead time" the food is being readied, that way they are able to spring to action as soon as conditions allow. Thoughtful detail, specially when you want to sleep as soon as possible. 

I settled to watch some TV and sleep…having some peeks every now and then to the gorgeous moon and its reflection on the Atlantic Ocean against the shores of north Portugal /Galicia (shame on you crappy camera) 

After a good couple of hours of sleep, we were woken up almost 90 mins before STA for our pre-landing snacks.
They were meh. 

After the cabin was cleaned, we were preparing to land and we made a straight approach from the Gulf of Mexico into MEX (no traffic at this ungodly hour!)

Immigration was slow and painful (I was craving for my hotel bed as the galley lights kept waking me up and I had a crappy sleep)…and so, this story comes to an end!