Some Thoughts From My Recent Flights On Aeromexico Economy Class

Earlier this week, I embarked on my mileage run vacation to Mexico City and Santiago, Chile with most of my flights operated on Aeromexico. I’ve flown on Aeromexico in Business Class twice earlier this year from MTY-MEX and MEX-LAX, but never tried Economy class.

Los Angeles to Guadalajara, Mexico

There was no Business or First Class cabin on my flight from Los Angeles to Guadalajara. It was a 3-3 configuration on an all economy cabin plane. I was lucky enough to score the best seat in the house 1C (1st row, Bulkhead aisle) because of my Skyteam Elite Status with Delta. So that means I board first right? WRONG!

This is how the boarding process went: Apparently on this particular flight, Aeromexico does not call their elite members (Premier Clase) or any SkyTeam elites to board first. Instead, they boarded by Window (A/F), Middle (B/E), and Aisle (C/D). First, the gate agent called all Window seats to board first, then the Middle seats, and lastly, the Aisle seats.

After the Window and Middle seats boarded, the plane went mechanical and the Aisle people were still lined up waiting to board (I was 3rd in line).

After 30 minutes, the gate agent told all of us waiting to board to sit down as it will take longer than usual. I went to a nearby charging station to charge my phone and a minute later, they called boarding to resume again. Everyone rushed to form the line again and I was pretty much the last one in line and last to board. Only on Aeromexico, you could have the best seat in the house (1C) with mid-tier elite status and board last.

The best part about my flight was my seatmate trying to play with my boarding pass.

Mexico City to Santiago, Chile

So I was convinced that boarding would be the same as it would be in Los Angeles, but it was quite different. Boarding on my 8.5 hour flight from MEX-SCL was more civil. They called Business Class, Premiera Clase, and all Sky Team Elite Plus members to board first. I was lucky to get a great seat, 12B (Bulkhead aisle) on a 767-300 D.

The in-flight entertainment has got to be the worst in the industry. There were pre-programmed movies playing on 10 different channels and there is no “home” screen even though it exists on the remote control. You have to “flip” up and down through the channels on the remote and go through to see which movie you like. There were only about 4 different movies and three of them were in Spanish language (Star Trek, Hangover, and a Ben Stiller movie). Some channels were blank. The only English language movie was The Great Gatsby. This is another reason why I love my Macbook Air and I always load 10 hours of entertainment on it.

I was really surprised that some sort of amenity kit was handed out after take-off. It was basically a zip lock bag with an eye mask, toothbrush, and toothpaste. It was definitely a nice gesture considering amenity kits are rarely given in economy class.

As you can see from the picture below, the food in Economy class was nothing to write home about.