KLM685 From Mexico, joined May 2005, 1567 posts, RR: 30 Posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 5795 times:
So it was just one of those days in which I was sitting in front of the computer waiting for something exciting to happen. And it actually did! JC ( or Doc) came as fast as a thunder to tell me that Volaris was about to release 45,000 seats that had a promotion of 50 USD roundtrip with taxes included to any of their destinations! At first I thought that it would be something useless, but my airliner instinct told me that I HAD TO AND Bunbury (BUY / YBUN), Australia - Western Australia">BUY ONE. After that I spent the last hour trying to convince my mom to give me her credit card in order to buy the ticket and when I finally did the possibilities were just to many!
So JC, Rich and I decided to go to CUN in order to have this huge, so much waited, spotting trip to CUN in order to get a brand of the most exotic aircrafts and airlines that we don't have in MEX. Volaris said that starting midnight the sale of those tickets will be out to the public. So the three of us punctually went into the web page just to find out that all Mexico was online to get one ticket. AND even if if you had the luck of selecting a promotion fare you would just end in a dead ally as the page went upside down... JC and I tried again at wonderful 4 in the morning only to find out that CUN was just impossible. So our only options were TIJ, GDL or MTY... After 40 minutes of an intense spotting philosophy debate we decided that GDL was our best bet!
School was just a disaster, exams all over the place and my life seemed to be a huge pile of papers full of calculus problems and probabilities to be discovered. Basically I only expected to sleep the whole weekend only to find out that on Saturday I was hitting the airway in order to go to sunny Guadalajara!
Only the day before did I started to worry about my camera and stuff in order to have a day without problems. I decided to go to sleep at 12:20 at night in order to have some good hours to sleep...Or at least I thought cuz my dad woke me up at 2:15 in the morning only to get ready for him to leave me at JC house.
After a few shots of cold water in my face and the sound of my brother coming home from a party I was ready fot this spotting day. At 3am I left my house and after avoiding some drunk people driving I safely arrived at JC's house and leave to the "VIRTUAL" terminal of Volaris in Santa Fe were we waited for Rich to arrive.
The "VIRTUAL" terminal was just fine as it looks like a kid playground where kids play to baggage handling and checking in clients. Service was just fine and we were soon on our first gate of the trip...
JC thrilled to be waiting for the bust that would take us to TLC for our flight to GDL.
10 minutes later we started boarding a somehow comfortable bus that would be our ride to TLC. They were clean and they turned off the lights so people could sleep.
Rich as happy as he could be as he just couldn't contain his excitement about the trip!
The bus ride lasted about an hour and I took the opportunity to sleep for some minutes after talking some Jaime Duende jokes and imagining what was what we were planning on shooting today.
We finally arrived at TLC just to see the new LCC sort of terminal they opened some months before. But it seemed just fine as it was quite spacious and lots of chairs to sit on the boarding gate. Of course, as in any Mexican airport, a band of cops quickly arrived to avoid the shooting of pictures inside the terminal. Our last option was to just point and shot without looking and hoping for the result to be just fine.
A view of the new check-in area for LCC in TLC.
Boarding gates at TLC
After some waiting and some mixes of electronic music powered by Tiesto (as I had no iPod with me JC and Rich lend me one earphone each and listened to two different songs at the same time) boarding was announced on this improvised speakers as it was time for Volaris flight 150 to Guadalajara to commence boarding. We headed right to the door and boarded another bus that in 5 minutes took us to the our airplane.
Volaris 150
TLC-GDL
Airbus A319
XA-VOL
Departure Gate: Remote Stand 2
Scheduled Departure: 06:50
Actual Departure: 6:58
Departure Runway: 15
Cruising Altitude: FL280
Arrival Runway: 28
Touchdown: 7:42
Scheduled Arrival: 8:00
Actual Arrival: 7:50
Arrival Gate: some remote stand
Seat: 14F
Boarding commenced without problems and passengers went into the airplane as easy as butter spread in a bread (a fresh one of course). After obtaining permission for the Meet & Greet with the captains, the three of us had a great chat with the captains and JC obtained the lucky strike for the rest of the flight. While Rich and me went into our seats to spend the rest of the flight without any exciting events.
Arriving to our plane
Boarding
The purser enjoying every second of his work as he felt as if the front of the airplane was his performance stage.
The airplane started to pushback and the excitement was starting to fill our blood...or probably it was just adrenalin... Anyway, for our excitement Volaris famous safety video started playing...
Beautiful Jacqueline giving us safety tips with full detail for male excitement!
Some minutes later our captain applied full chancla and we departed TLC in a powerful takeoff!
Very quickly we were on our asigned altitude and our smily F/A's started the drink and snack service which consisted in whatever non-alcoholic drink you liked and some cookies. Just in time for a beautiful sunrise!
Drinks and cookies someone?
Our almost famous but well trained and professional F/A delivering the drink and eat act...
Me feeling like I could do a Hugo Boss ad...
The beautiful sunrise that opened us the way to Guadalajara...
I found legroom pretty well as my knees felt free all the flight when I generally feel trapped due to my height.
Only when I was just starting to feel the rush going down (basically cuz I was starting to sleep due to heavy tiredness) the airplane started to descend. Then again I was just starting to get somehow bored as the 2 girls at my left were sleeping as if there's no tomorrow and there was no inflight magazine to check.
Yes!
Oops! too fast
Great landing!
After a 40 minute flight we were on Guadalajara for a day we will never ever forever forget! People started getting off the plane and when everybody was down we went to say goodbye to the captain and the FO for this wonderful but uneventful flight!
JC rethinking his profession.
APM on tour excited to be in GDL.
uffff
We never miss an opportunity
We took again a bus to the terminal which seemed really nice and just appropiate for the size of annual traffic that goes through GDL. We waited for an hour for our Guadalajara's host Victor and Edgar which would take us to the famous spotting places of the local airport and for hour 12 hours shooting session.
Waiting for Victor and Edgar
When they arrived they gave us a warm welcome and quickly took us to the first stop of the day: El Arbol. Though there was no arbol anymore and we went to this terrace in which they do the GDL parties to spot. It was definitely a good hide from the sun and also a great view for planes landing and departing.
Just beers missing...
After 4 hours, a nap on the floor and breaking my jeans we decided it was time to eat. We all gathered our things and went to this Burritos place near the airport that makes you feel that you're in a sort of In and Out place. All of the guys ordered this 18 inches burrito except Rich cuz he was sick for some reason.
JC and victor couldn't believe what they were seeing with this huge burrito.
Rich and Edgar talking about Mexican Aviation while JC took a nap in the kids game in the background... A thing which I did in another one just some minutes later.
LAX anyone? ( Never been there, but they told me it just has the same feeling)
After the tremendous burrito and the infamous digestion we were starting to have we all went to the west side of runway 28 to a place called El Zapote to take pictures from a different perspective.
Straight from Atlanta
We spent the rest of the afternoon in this spot in which I discovered that I broke my jeans when I felt something ticklish around my legs. Suddenly I found out what the situation was and felt like it wasn't that of a great idea to be sleeping just on top of the red ants line. Fortunately my butt is just fine as the ants were kind enough of not biting it. The sun was as shinny as it could and we started to get sunburned and thirsty. But we were doomed as the closest store was many miles away until Edgar and Victor heroically went to the store to bring us water and soda for the rest of the afternoon. We spent hours talking about this and that and I learned new ways to get people drunk in parties (which made the trip even more worthy!) After many hours of laughs and songs it was time to leave...
BUT WAIT Fedex's DC-10 was just going through pushback and there's never a last picture! So the whole group decided that it was a good idea to sacrifice our ticket back just for a good picture. Tension grew as our plane taxied to the gate and Fedex was pleasently going through the taxiway towards the runway. Finally it took off and so did we almost did... As Victor drived at a speed so fast he could just have departed from the highway as well...
After 10 minutes of exposing our lives to the road we arrived safely at the airport just to see our very punctual plane not being ready for departure...
Volaris 153
GDL-TLC
Airbus A319
XA-VOB
Departure Gate: Gate 10
Scheduled Departure: 20:30
Actual Departure: 20:42
Departure Runway: 28
Cruising Altitude: FL290
Arrival Runway: 15
Touchdown: 21:22
Scheduled Arrival: 21:40
Actual Arrival: 21:32
Arrival Gate: remote stand 4
Seat: 9A ( row infront of exit row)
We boarded our plane with a bunch of guys that didn't stop shouting about everything they saw on the airplane. After some laughs they apparently shut them so people could hear the safety demo from Jacqueline. Fortunately for me I had the whole row to myself and decided to get comfortable as soon as we took off. It was the only thing Volaris could do for me for putting me on the row that doesn't have a reclining seat :P Some minutes later we started a very quick taxi towards runway 28.
Boarding
Happy after this excellent day!
On your marks...get set...
GO!
The flight went on with a little bit of turbulence but it was just perfect as I decided to sleep half the flight or at least until the F/A's gave the drinks. Unfortunately las huevonzasas ( the lazy...)de las FA decided that "turbulence" (you can't call that rubulence) was just too bad for them to serve the drinks. Two minutes later they announced that we were landing... so nobody actually catched up what was going on. They could at least give the cookies :P Nevertheless the flight was amazing and I enjoyed it very much.
We finally arrived 40 minutes later to TLC with a spectacular landing and ended up this suicidal day in which we stood for 12 hours at the full rays of the sun. But we were all happy despite having dust on the ass.
After an amount of minutes or hours I finally arrived to JC's house and my dad picked me up. I ended up exhausted but happy! I had been almost 2 years without riding an airplane so that just made my day perfect.
Overall Volaris has a great product! The airplanes are very very clean, the seats are comfortable and they have a great service. The shuttle, the check-in counteres, the virtual terminal and the boarding gates are just fine for a LCC product! They really exceded all my thoughts about them. I can't wait now to take them again.
I hope you enjoyed reading this trip report and thanks for doing so!
Thanks also to Edgar and victor for a wonderful day at GDL and to Doc and Mij for being a great company.
Ghost77 From Mexico, joined Mar 2000, 4626 posts, RR: 56 Reply 1, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 5763 times:
Wonderful Trip Report! What a great day we sure all had! I will later post more thoughts and pictures done @ GDL! Was very good to be there myself for the 3rd time for plane spotting. Traffic is considerably growing and changing at GDL as in all Mexican airports with the recent boom of start-ups in the last 24 months.
Rich - APM
Ricardo Morales - flyAPM - ¡No es que maneje rapido, solo estoy volando lento!
Pilot320 From Croatia (Hrvatska), joined Jun 2005, 88 posts, RR: 7 Reply 2, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 5666 times:
excellent TR, Alfonso!
Volaris looks like great airline! I'm very suprised with that, even your flight was (probably) the last in the day of this a/c, it was ontime! Not too common here in Europe!
Mjt909 From United States, joined Nov 2005, 37 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 5532 times:
I loved this TR! Very funny with great pictures.
I had the opportunity to try out VOLARIS last September when I flew TIJ-TLC-TIJ for a visit to D.F. What a great airline! I look forward to taking more trips with them in the future.
Mx330 From Mexico, joined Oct 2002, 805 posts, RR: 22 Reply 6, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 5 days ago) and read 5355 times:
Ah la! Doc!
What a great trip report!
We had a great day and of course the "Lectura de Puños" and la "Miscelanea Trozo" are some moments to remember for life!
KLM685 From Mexico, joined May 2005, 1567 posts, RR: 30 Reply 7, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 5176 times:
Quoting Pilot320 (Reply 2): even your flight was (probably) the last in the day of this a/c, it was ontime! Not too common here in Europe
Quoting Airbuseric (Reply 5): Good report and nice pics! You've seen some interesting aircraft there The legroom on Volaris looks indeed very good.
Indeed! Volaris is a great airline with very good F/A's and VERY VERY clean airplanes. Always ontime and even arriving with some minutes in advantage which was cool!
Thanks all of you for reading and writting some comments! Any question please be welcomed to ask
XA744 From Mexico, joined Mar 2004, 634 posts, RR: 4 Reply 8, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 4970 times:
Hola Alonso, very nice, enlightening, entertaining and amusing TR report. Thank you for sharing !!!
Now, those Volaris´ Airbuses look really immaculate and pristine. Have not yet flown the airline, so the photos and your comments become an execellent reference. Only thing is, did you check the seat pockets, the loos and under the carpet for hidden rubbish ?
I really hope Volaris keeps up with the excellent standards they are now setting as an LCC. Just stay there, we need nothing less, nothing more !!! Would be sad to see the aircraft allowed to deteriorate like the Mexico City " Peje Buses " or the subway, not to mention the service.
It was nice to see part of the APM great team joining you in your GDL adventure. Rich, JC nice to meet you fellas !!!
Best regards
P.S. Looking at your outsized Burrito just made feel hungry and compelled to go outside and look for somehing similar to nibble on. What do you know !?!?!?
By the way, Alonso, are you using the " granma " as your zoom lens ? How is it performing ?
[Edited 2007-05-09 17:55:56]
No matter how you fly...just never get your wings clipped !
Mexicana757 From United States, joined Apr 2001, 2309 posts, RR: 17 Reply 10, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 4781 times:
Alonso
Great trip report and pictures. I like it that theres an ATA picture in there arriving from MDW. Good to see the faces behind the names of APM. Very funny as well.
Quoting KLM685 (Thread starter): Beautiful Jacqueline giving us safety tips with full detail for male excitement!
Did not know they were using celebs for their safety announcements, very interesting.
Quoting KLM685 (Thread starter): All of the guys ordered this 18 inches burrito except Rich cuz he was sick for some reason.
Good lord that thing is huge!! Did all of you end up eating all of your burrito?
Quoting KLM685 (Thread starter): I had been almost 2 years without riding an airplane so that just made my day perfect.
I know how you feel when its been a long time without getting to fly.
BTW I think that lady that is in your picture, where you have your foot on the seats, she so belongs on a Victoria Secret ad.
Rojo From Spain, joined Sep 2000, 2255 posts, RR: 14 Reply 11, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 4672 times:
Those MXN$500 roundtrip fares are excellent... I see we are all enjoying them and I even remember flying with the crew you show in your pictures...
Too bad you couldn't get tickets to CUN, I did two roundtrips TLC-CUN with Volaris last year for MXN$500 each, but I guess CUN has become a good performer for Volaris and they don't lower fares to CUN anymore. I hope Avolar starts the route so I can go back to CUN soon...
Thanks a lot for your great comments! I appreciate you taking the time to read my stories lol
Quoting XA744 (Reply 8): . Only thing is, did you check the seat pockets, the loos and under the carpet for hidden rubbish ?
No seat pockets, only the headrest sort of plastic gap they have for the Safety Card which allows no rubbish to be accumulated. Also the carpet was very clean, overall the airplane was extremely clean.
Quoting Mexicana757 (Reply 10): Good lord that thing is huge!! Did all of you end up eating all of your burrito?
I think only JC and Victor took the mile long burrito although I ate two small burritos which is probably close to one of the big ones.
Quoting Mexicana757 (Reply 10): BTW I think that lady that is in your picture, where you have your foot on the seats, she so belongs on a Victoria Secret ad.
I know, she was so hot that I almost invited her to join me in my empty seats lol
Quoting Rojo (Reply 11): I hope Avolar starts the route so I can go back to CUN soon...
Hopefully! With their new destination TLC we already took advantage of their very cheap tickets. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to one of the LAX trips via TIJ due to finals on our honorable school so i'll miss the ticket. But there's another one planned for the end of the month. Gracias Avolar
Quoting Rojo (Reply 11): I see we are all enjoying them and I even remember flying with the crew you show in your pictures...
Quoting XA744 (Reply 8): By the way, Alonso, are you using the " granma " as your zoom lens ? How is it performing ?
The Granma? Enlighten me please Although my lens is very old now as it is said that it was built together with ENIAC the first computer... It's having focusing problems so it sometimes makes some shots just poor trash.
Rojo From Spain, joined Sep 2000, 2255 posts, RR: 14 Reply 14, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 4499 times:
Quoting KLM685 (Reply 12): Hopefully! With their new destination TLC we already took advantage of their very cheap tickets. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to one of the LAX trips via TIJ due to finals on our honorable school so i'll miss the ticket. But there's another one planned for the end of the month. Gracias Avolar
How's school doing?? I hope those teachers are not giving you a hard time...
I have my cheap ticket MEX-LAX-MEX for the weekend of the 26 / 27 of May, so if you guys are going to be in LAX, maybe we can meet. I suppose you will be taking pictures all over LAX airport?
KLM685 From Mexico, joined May 2005, 1567 posts, RR: 30 Reply 15, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 4452 times:
Quoting LAXspotter (Reply 13): is Guadalajara airport quite busy? lot of action?
Volaris definetely looks like a great product and the fact that they arrived a few minutes before the arrival time is a definite plus.
Guadalajara is busier than common knowledge believes! They have a lot of domestic and international traffic, although they don't reach the crazy levels that MEX has.
Yes, Volaris is a great airline! I really liked it for domestic air travel as a change from the usual.
Quoting Rojo (Reply 14): How's school doing?? I hope those teachers are not giving you a hard time...
I'm going to kill myself in the next two weeks...Teachers DO give us a hard time.
About the 26 & 27 I think the other guys won't be there, but you might just ask them as i'm not 100% sure.
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From Mexico, joined May 2005, 1567 posts, 
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From Croatia (Hrvatska), joined Jun 2005, 88 posts, 
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From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 1914 posts, 
The legroom on Volaris looks indeed very good.
From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 6155 posts, 
I like it that theres an ATA picture in there arriving from MDW. 
From Spain, joined Sep 2000, 2255 posts, 
lol
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