Let’s get right down to brass tacks: There’s a solid chance this flight will wind up as my worst of the year. I genuinely hope I don’t experience something worse.
Other than safety (I did get from point A to point B, after all) and a good meal on the flight, most of my experience was terrible.
Boarding was laughably bad, there were technological and structural issues, and a flight attendant had a major attitude-meets-power-trip discussion with me when I was minding my own business. Oh, and this flight was on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 — among the newer planes in the airline’s fleet — so it shouldn’t have had problems, but alas, it did.
I wasn’t expecting caviar and fine china on this flight from Mexico City to Bogotá, but even my modest standards weren’t met.
Let me walk you through the chaos of this nearly 5-hour flight.
Booking Aeromexico Economy on the Boeing 737 MAX 8
This was my second Aeromexico flight of the day. I started in Durango (DGO), Mexico, and had a connecting itinerary with a layover in Mexico City (MEX) before continuing to Bogotá (BOG), Colombia.
Aeromexico was selling the Durango-Mexico City-Bogotá itinerary for $375, but just $280 for the MEX-BOG leg by itself. Rather than paying for the flight, I booked using my Delta SkyMiles, which was possible because Delta and Aeromexico are both in the SkyTeam alliance.
Oddly, Delta was charging 40,000 SkyMiles for the MEX-BOG flight alone but only 22,500 SkyMiles for the whole DGO-MEX-BOG itinerary. In total, I paid 22,500 miles plus $95.94 in taxes and fees.
After subtracting the $95.94 in taxes and fees from the $375 fare, I saved $279.06 by using 22,500 miles. That’s a redemption rate of 1.24 cents per mile — just above our average valuation of SkyMiles at 1.2 cents each.
Positives of My Aeromexico Economy Flight
Let’s start with the highs of this flight.
Seats
Aeromexico’s Boeing 737 aircraft, MAX and otherwise, use a 3-3 configuration with a single aisle. The seats on this MAX 8 had a modern look with solid black leather. Passengers have 30 inches of pitch, and my knees were very close to the seat in front of me. For reference, I’m 5 feet, 10 inches tall.
I found a blanket in plastic wrap at my seat during boarding, which I didn’t expect. This wasn’t an overnight flight, after all.
Entertainment
Each seat had a personal entertainment system, offering movies, TV shows, music, and flight details. There weren’t any games, though there were many TV shows and movies.
Additionally, the plane had Wi-Fi, offering free messaging for all passengers and charging $5 for a full-flight internet pass. It was also possible to get 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi by watching an ad. Unfortunately, this could only be done once. It wasn’t possible to watch another ad for another 15 minutes of use.
Clean Lavatories
The plane had 3 lavatories: 1 at the front and 2 in the rear. These were clean when I peeked inside close to the end of the flight.
My Special Meal
Airlines love to mess up special meal requests. I was happy that Aeromexico got my vegan meal request mostly right, other than a nonvegan dessert. The main dish of tofu with rice and vegetables lacked seasoning, but it became fantastic when I drizzled salad dressing over it.
For passengers who didn’t request a special meal, the meal options were yes and no. There was only 1 meal offered, which was a chicken dish.
Many Negatives
There were many negatives to my flight.
Boarding
Aeromexico’s boarding groups are typically just a suggestion. I was completely shocked that groups 1 and 2 were organized, with people in groups 3 to 5 waiting their turns. When group 3 was called, the people in group 4 seemed to say “Screw it” and started moving forward. No one told them to stop, and so group 5 (my group) joined in. It became a cattle call at that point.
Moreover, the 3 employees scanning boarding passes were sharing just 1 machine, creating a bottleneck. Then we stood around in the area between the plane and the gate for at least 15 minutes for no apparent reason. Inside the plane, flight attendants were standing in the aisles, talking to passengers, blocking the path of those who wanted to board.
If you’ve assumed we left late, you’re right. We started boarding on time, made sure we did it as poorly as possible, and then left 10 minutes late — on a flight that wasn’t 100% full.
Bottom Line:
I struggle to think of any way Aeromexico could’ve boarded this flight in a more disorganized manner.
Technology Problems
I was excited to see that the entertainment screen had Bluetooth so passengers could use their own headphones. That excitement died when I realized it didn’t work — for anyone. After multiple passengers asked the flight attendants why it wasn’t working, someone made an announcement that the feature wasn’t working and that the flight attendants would distribute headsets instead.
Each group of 3 seats had 2 universal charging outlets underneath. These were so loose and worn out that plugs kept falling out. My phone would only charge when I kept my hand or foot on the plug to hold it in place (which was rather uncomfortable, given the outlet’s location).
Tray Tables
Each seat had a tray table that opened and closed easily. Unfortunately, they were rather small and somewhat flimsy. My meal covered the entire tray, and there wasn’t any space to put a drink cup. I held that in one hand while eating with the other. My 14-inch laptop absolutely dwarfed the tray table.
Flimsy Seat
You know how passengers pull on the seat in front of them when they stand up — despite the fact that this isn’t necessary? Imagine a seat so structurally weak that it fully reclines every time that happens.
Whenever the woman behind me got up to stretch, go to the bathroom, or whatever and pulled on my seat, the seat reclined fully, and I had to push the button to put it up after she let go of my chair.
I dozed off near the end of the flight, and a flight attendant woke me to tell me I needed to put my seat up. I never reclined it in the first place, but the yanking clearly reclined it while I was snoozing.
Flight Attendant Power Trip
As we taxied to the runway, a flight attendant came to confirm that my special meal was on board. While that should have been a short, simple conversation, it wasn’t.
I took out one of my AirPods when I realized he was talking to me. He got very upset and told me to pause my music and give him my full attention. He insisted that my music was still playing because I still had one of my earbuds in (not true, as mine automatically pause when I take one out). He insisted in a stern voice that I was disrespecting him by listening to music while he talked to me (not true), ordered me to put my AirPods in the case, then put the case in my pocket, and then we could talk.
All of that just so he could say, “Your special meal is on board. I just wanted you to know.”
He could’ve told me that without the power trip. I’m not sure if his first step to fixing this is understanding how headphones work or taking anger management classes, but I tried to avoid him during the rest of the flight.
Final Thoughts
I’ve flown Aeromexico a good number of times. When it’s in economy, my expectations are very low.
I expect that boarding will be disorganized. I expect we will get safely from A to B and that the flight won’t have any other highlights. Beyond that, I don’t expect much. That’s what experience tells me is realistic.
However, this trip set the bar even lower. From a flight attendant on a power trip to horrendously disorganized boarding and tech problems on a newish plane, Aeromexico outdid itself this time in the worst way.