Having handed over the reins of Cranky Concierge, I decided it was time for a little adventure. I came up with a whole bunch of ideas, but in the end, I settled on something relatively close to home: México. Specifically, I planned to fly on all seven of the country’s scheduled jet operators, test out Cross Border Xpress (CBX), and explore a couple of different destinations along the way in what I consider to be a very underappreciated country.
In the end, I almost made it. I flew six of the airlines (all new to me), visited seven airports (five of them new to me), and I got on my first Embraer E2. Even more shocking, all of my flights were on time. It was an epic trip, and today, I’m just going to introduce the adventure. As of now, I have 11 posts planned in all. Don’t worry, I’ll spread these out and even put some on Wednesdays to avoid disrupting regular content too much.
- Introduction to Cranky’s Mexican Adventure
- Cross Border Express is Great, But It Can Be Tricky
- Viva Kicks the Trip Off the Right Way
- Mexicana is Weird, But the E2 is a Delight
- The Spectacular But Distant AIFA Airport
- Mexico City is More Than Worth the Visit
- Aeromexico Does It Right in the Air but Not on the Ground
- Señor Air Has the Best Name and an Experience to Match
- Los Cabos and La Paz Couldn’t Be More Different
- TAR Was a Wild Ride
- Volaris, the Purest ULCC
The trip planning process was chaotic in its own right. I had to figure out how I could connect all of these airlines and spend time in places I wanted to be. In the end, I put together what seemed like a doable itinerary:
- Viva from Tijuana to Puerto Vallarta and connect to Mexicana to Mexico City/AIFA
- Four nights in Mexico City at the Hotel San Fernando
- Aeromexico Connect from Mexico City/MEX to Huatulco
- Two nights at the Holiday Inn Huatulco
- Magnicharters from Huatulco to Mexico City/MEX
- Overnight at the Izzzleep capsule hotel at Mexico City Terminal 2
- Aeromexico from Mexico City/MEX to Puerto Vallarta and connect to Señor Air to Cabo San Lucas/CSL
- Two nights at the Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol
- Bus to La Paz and one night at the One Hotel La Paz
- TAR from La Paz to Mazatlán and connect to Volaris to Tijuana
If this looks ambitious, it was. But it was doable, I thought. My biggest concern was the one-hour connection in Puerto Vallarta on the way out, but after polling people online, I was told to expect I could easily stay airside for the connection. (That was completely and totally wrong, but Viva was early, and I made it anyway.)
It was a little dicey trying to actually buy the tickets on all these airlines, but after a couple of declined charges, I got it done. Most were booked direct except I bought the Aeromexico ticket to Huatulco via our travel agency’s system, and the Aeromexico flight to Puerto Vallarta used 10,000 Delta miles.
After spending several wondrous but chaotic days in Mexico City, I realizet I had bit off more than I could chew. So, I pivoted to something more relaxing. I would still fly on Viva, Mexicana, Aeromexico, Señor Air, TAR, and Volaris but I caved on Magnicharters to make for a much easier trip. By cutting out Huatulco, I would just fly on Aeromexico to Puerto Vallarta sooner and have three days to relax there before picking up the rest of the trip as planned.
As much fun as it would have been to fly a B737-300 again, it just wasn’t worth it. So I refunded my Aeromexico ticket to Huatulco which, at about $300, was the most expensive ticket I had bought by far. I tried to get a refund after a last minute schedule change from Magnicharters for my $100 ticket, but after getting hung up on one too many times, I gave up. The six flights I took + CBX ended up costing me only $798.33 all-in. Yes, flying in México is a whole lot cheaper than in the US these days.
With all of this settled, I was admittedly pretty proud of myself for getting all the pieces to come together. Now I just had to hope things would go as planned.
