Mexicana to Buenos Aires

Background

I never really planned on going to Buenos Aires, but when Mexicana published a rather insane fare sale from the US, selling tickets for $287 (with taxes!), it seemed a perfect opportunity to finally visit the southern hemisphere while also sampling Mexicana's long haul service.

This was also my first opportunity in ages to fly longhair on a -confirmed- ticket, not one of those ratty tatty space available ones. While flying non-rev is always an adventure, it can also be stressful, and you can't really complain about anything either, this time I was free from dress codes (fishnet stockings and leopard print tops, here we come !!  ) and proper behavior.

Booking was made through Mexicana's schnazzy website, mexicana.com is truly a pleasure as it is mostly hassle free, mx even allows you to hold an itinerary for 24 hours before purchasing it, thus allowing you to mull around before deciding to finally pull the trigger. MX.com even allowed me to pick exit row seats for the long hauls (MEX-EZE-MEX). Big thumbs up here.


Nov 7th 2009
AA 237
LAX-SJD
9:40-13:05
MD-80

Curiously enough, the first leg on my LAX-EZE trip booked into an AA flight to San Jose del Cabo, I really had no choice but was nonetheless excited to fly on one of those much maligned AA MD-80s on the scenic flight down the Baja coast. It almost seemed like going to the dark side, or being in an episode of wife swap, flying on AA after flying UA for such a long time, how adulterous   .

Unfortunately the journey started on a sour note as MX site did not do a good job of confirming our seats on the AA flight, hence when checking in at LAX, we were stuck with untantalizing middle seats. Argh !! I'm usually a mild mannered fellow, but nothing pisses on my kitty litter more than getting to the airport almost 3 hours in advance, only to get stuck with a middle seat, grrrr.

Seating woes aside, the check in experience with AA was very easy, security was equally painless and soon we were airside and free to enjoy the luxurious and opulent T4. OK so the terminal wasn't really that good, but given LAX's paltry standards this was pretty decadent.



Boarding started out fine and on time, but soon things took a turn south, seems the gate was having some trouble with passenger's passport info, soon the gate agents were running around like headless chickens and boarding slowed to a trickle.



Luckily my much maligned middle seat in the back actually allowed me to board early and avoid a long wait. The MD-80 was in pretty nice shape and the crew seemed in good spirits. I settled into my middle seat, expecting my seatmates to be Oscar the Grouch and a Leper, however, fortune was to smile at me that morning, as a nice couple had apparently booked the aisle and window, no doubt hoping to snag the entire aisle, and I was promptly asked if I wanted to switch to the window; as I was not being really in the mood to be the sandwich in a threesome that early in the morning   , I was delighted to move to the aisle. Now if only I had a window…



Soon another lady boarded who apparently knew the couple, surprisingly enough, I was asked if I wanted a window. Needless to say I was all too happy to oblige.

After the musical chair routine boarding seemed to pick up and we were good to go. A couple sat next to me and the lady was quite the Chatty Cathy. She in fact kept a good conversation pace during the entire flight due to her lifelong fear of flying, talking was apparently the only thing that prevented her from turning into a nervous mess. While this may sound like a nightmare to many, it wasn't really that bad, and it made the flight go very quickly.

We were off to the south with a flight time of around 1:45, service was a beverage run and buy on board with snacks and cocktails, quite a few people seemed to be in a party mode and started drinking early.

The crew were all very polite and efficient, AA seemed to be not nearly as bad as I had expected them to be.

Soon we were descending and making a straight in approach to SJD, it was now time for a 3 hour layover in Cabo.



Immigration and Customs were done with in less than 10 minutes, soon we were free to roam the airport in search for Mexicana's check in counters for our next flight, as AA had not given us our boarding passes for the MEX and EZE legs.




Nov 7th 2009
MX 7415
SJD-MEX
15:05-18:10
F-100

SJD's check-in experience is lousy, the airport lobby was quite a disappointment given the amount of traffic it handles, I've seen better bus terminals than this ! Mexicana's counters were crowded and disorganized, separated into different queues with no real sense to them.

Disorganization aside though, we were checked in within 15 minutes by a very friendly lad and given our boarding passes to MEX and EZE, this time mx.com did not let us down and we were given our pre-asigned seats.



Once airside, there's not really much except for a few fast food joints and some stores. I asked an AeroMexico agent who was boarding a flight if they had any Salon Premier (AM's Lounge) and he chummily replied "Sir, we barely have an airport !   "



Fortunately there's at least a Wings restaurant, so we headed up there for a quick bite and a drink. There's also wifi available throughout the terminal so it's not all sorrow and woe at SJD.



Boarding time however came and went with no sign of our little F100 to Mexico City, people were getting antsy and boarding staff announced a 15 minute delay, however they promised they would make up for the delay during turn-around.



Our plane finally arrived around 10 minutes before scheduled departure, but deplaning was painfully slow as it seemed half of the passengers were coming to Cabo to attend the "octogenarian bingo world tournament" which only added to our delay   .

The gate area was getting quite crowded as MX also had flights to SMF and LAX about to departing at nearly the same time.

Boarding was supposedly done by row numbers but nobody seemed to pay much attention to them. We were welcomed on board by a very friendly crew and a clean but slightly worn interior.



This was my first time on board a F100 but I was pleasantly surprised, the bins seemed tiny but managed to fit my rollaboard perfectly, and seat pitch was excellent, more comfortable than the AA MD-80 I'd dare say.





Boarding was quick and soon we were off to Mexico City. Flight time was 1:50. The day was sunny and clear, so I managed to snap a few shots nice shots of Baja California.







As the flight was operated by Mexicana's low cost arm, I really was not expecting much in the way of on board service, but things turned out to be quite nice.



Our flight attendants were all nicely dressed and groomed, and as soon as we were at cruising altitude they served a tiny sandwich and the beverage of or choice (including cocktails), this was followed by a second beverage run about 20 minutes later. Not bad at all ! I was so far pleasantly surprised by Click.



Dusk started to fall and as we descended into MEX the cabin was filled by the wonderful afternoon light. Soon it was too dark to take pictures though, and by the time we were landing at MEX darkness had all but fallen.



We didn't really make up any time during the flight and were at the gate about 30 minutes late. As our layover was close to 4 hours, it didn't really matter.

The layover was long enough and allowed us time to go out into the airport to have dinner with a good friend before coming back airside to check out Mexicana's International Elite lounge.

I was half expecting some of those fearsome lounge dragons I've heard of in legends, but the guardians were actually very polite and friendly. They arranged for me use the single shower room they had so I could freshen up before the long haul to EZE as there is nothing worse than feeling crusty on a plane.

The lounge itself is on the small side, but the staff were nice and helpful, the lounge overlooks the tarmac and runways, but because it was nighttime so there wasn't much of a view.





Between dinner and the shower there wasn't a lot of time left to relax, and soon we were off to gate 22 for our flight to EZE.


Nov 7th 2009
MX 1691
MEX-EZE
22:00-10:20
B767-300 XA-MXE





Perhaps unsurprisingly, boarding was also a bit late to start, however, this time around things were more organized than in SJD.



As we had seats 8 F and G, we were among the last to board, we were welcomed by the very friendly purser and settled into our nice bulkhead seats.





The flight was being operated by XA-MXE, one of Mexicana's 767-300s, the seats and plane itself look clean and well maintained, but the IFE is one of those vintage projection systems, very old school  



Despite the late boarding, we pushed back more or less on time for our 8:30 min flight to Buenos Aires. Load seemed to be very healthy, both in Y and in C, it was also interesting to see quite a few people that had boarded with us in LAX.

Soon we were off into the night sky, we turned south and said goodbye to the sparkling lights of Mexico City, however, as the lights disappeared below, they were quickly replaced by the flickering reading lights above, yes my friends, our plane wasn't a boring old 767, this was the special DISCO edition.

The flickering went on without much of a pattern, pushing the reading light or even the FA call button yielded no results at all so it was pretty obvious that there was some sort of wiring glitch on this bird.



Fortunately things were soon fixed by simply turning -all- reading lights on, it was time for dinner service anyways so no biggie. Amenity kits were distributed which were kinda neat, a nice little bag containing socks, eyeshades (gee, I wonder why I would need these on this plane ?) and a toothbrush kit.



I took advantage of the pause before dinner service to walk around the cabin and visit the lavs. Plane was quite full, but despite the full plane it must be said that most passengers enjoyed quite a comfortable ride, seat pitch on this 767 was very roomy, this is as much a marketing gimmick as it is an operational necessity, as a high density configured widebody would suffer from higher penalties when departing from MEX.



The lavatories on this bird were an invitation to disaster, a few things inside were a bit creaky and most excitingly, the lock on the door did not want to stay put, thus, doing your business meant you had to be creative, as you needed one hand to keep the lock in place. I was taking care of a simple matter so I had it easy, but I dare not fathom how a passenger would deal with things when taking care of more complicated issues.

About an hour after takeoff, FA's came around with meals and beverages, choices were the always exciting chicken or pasta. I chose the chicken and it turned out to be one of the most unfortunate airplane meals I've had. It must be said that I am not a picky guy, I'll eat almost anything just for the fun of it. But this was just uninspired. The chicken tasted like it had spent 2 days in a fridge and the rice was the instant variety, just plan blah!





The salad was fine though, and the dessert was great, tis a good thing I had eaten on the ground at MEX, otherwise I would have been terribly disappointed.

After 20 minutes, crew came by with another drink round, then coffee, before coming back to pick up the meal trays.

The crew were a nice bunch, they were all proper and polite. I went to the galley once during the flight to get rid of some trash and the FA on duty was very nice and responsive. During the flight they also went by a couple of times doing water runs.

Fortunately the disco plane seemed to settle down after the meal, lights were turned off after dinner and they stayed that way, although the reading lights and FA call buttons also didn't work, but hey, at least the lights stayed off.

Time did not really go as fast as I would have liked though, I wasn't really tired enough to sleep so I just watched the main screen, listened to some music and read a bit.

Soon the sun was beginning to rise and we were treated to a wonderful view of the northern Andes.



About 1.5 hours before arrival into EZE we were treated to a sandwich for breakfast. The sandwich wasn't spectacular but it was actually much better than dinner, although it wasn't particularly difficult to improve on that.





It was after breakfast that I managed to finally doze off a bit, while overflying the vast flatlands of Argentina.



Our descent was smooth and clear, allowing us nice views of the environs of Buenos Aires, where we touched down at Ezeiza around 20 minutes ahead of schedule.



Fortunately we managed to land before the BA 747-400, giving us a head start on the immigration queues.

Overall I was satisfied with MX on this long flight. Satisfied being the correct word to describe it, the plane was very comfortable, crew were polite, I didn't have to pay or anything extra, however there were nagging details that prevented this from being a great flight, old plane and ancient IFE aside, the meals definitely left much to be desired, the crew were always proper but they never seemed to go off the script with regards to service. Tiny details like an obvious pieces of rubbish on the aisle that nobody picked up (despite multiple crew members walking by various times), or another time when I visited the lavatory immediately after a crew member left, only to discover things to be quite disheveled. I certainly did not expect him to leave things in an immaculate state, but there were a few obvious and simple things that could have been done to vastly improve the appearance of the lavatory.

I say this not in the interest of nitpicking but because I really think Mexicana could do an -excellent- job if they polished things up a bit. Still, it was only 2 MX flights so let us see how they do on the return trip. Stay tuned for part 2.

As always, comments are always appreciated and welcome, thanks for reading !

Ricardo