Alaska Airlines
First Class (U)
SFO-MEX (San Franciso Airport – Mexico City)
AS 240
Oct 9, 2017
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Boeing 737-800
Departure: 9:55 AM
Arrival: 4:20 PM
We were upgraded to First Class at the 48 hr upgrade window courtesy of Alaska MVP status.
After we had set the alarm for 6:15 AM and had gotten up and showered, I got a flight tracker notification that the flight had been delayed to 11:20 AM. Damn. Having finally gotten to bed at 1:30 AM, there’s nothing worse than a quick turn around and then a delay on a morning flight. We could have spent the additional time sleeping. =/
We took the shuttle bus back to the SFO International Terminal. We hummed and haa’ed about staying a little longer at the hotel to use the room but decided we would respect the initial check in baggage cut off time and get to the airport for 8:55 AM check in cut off. It’s a good thing we did as the check in at the airport was mostly dead after the cut off. There was a large Mexican family checking in at the First Class line up which seemed to take a bit of time. Still, the San Francisco International Terminal is one of my favourite air terminals in the USA. It's bright and beautiful and a nice place to be.
Unfortunately, Alaska’s “on time performance” on this trip continued to let us down. Fight delay after flight delay was posted; first at 12:20, then at 12:48 PM for a total delay time of 2 hrs and 53 minutes. Worried about cancellations, when I checked at the kiosk to find out what was happening, I was told it was “ATC” delays here in SFO. So far, a total of 19 minutes (YVR flight) + 21 minutes (SEA flight) + 2hrs 53 minutes on our outbound legs alone. There isn’t much to do in this part of the International Terminal “A” Gates. There were lots of lounges, but none of them we had access to. We are not Priority Pass members and Alaska doesn’t typically include lounge access with a First Class fare.
After we had been delayed about 3 hours, Alaska handed out food vouchers for everyone. We received $24 pp person. So, we went for a lunch at one of the grill restaurants at the end of the terminal. There wasn’t much to do other than plane spot while we waited. . .
We finally got on board at 12:30 PM. It was a quick loading and everyone was on board really quickly.
The seats were the usual Alaska First Class leather seats. It's not the most comfortable seat out there but far better than being in the back. The Mexico route appears to have very few Alaska elites.
There was a small bottle of Dasani Water on the seat. As with other times, Alaska does not do a pre-departure beverage like Delta, AA etc…
We taxied out toward takeoff. There was an Air France A380 that was re-positioning to the A gates. Huge!!
We had a climb with a quick view of the California coast before we got underway on our SE heading.
Once airborne, a round of drinks was served. I opted for a chardonnay white wine.
Breakfast was also served. Since it was a morning flight the was supposed to depart at 10 AM, it was morning breakfast catering despite it being about 1 PM now. The choices were egg fritatta (with pork sausages) or cereal. This was served with a side of fruit. The FA admitted that they forgot to send the plates with the catering and it was going to be another 30 minute wait for the plates so they just left for Mexico without them. A bit of an embarrassing picnic presentation but after a 4 hour wait, who’s splitting hairs?
Slept for a little while and tried to spot the border with Mexico. I was not super successful.
We had a twisty and bumpy desent into Mexico City. There was lots of urban sprawl to look at out the window on our descent.
Once on the ground, we taxied to a very rough and out of date airport that felt like Latin America. I spotted the defunct Mexicana hangars and Interjet, the new Mexican upstart carrier that’s now flying non stop Mexico City to Vancouver.
As with other travellers, it was long and bureaucratic process to get the tourist cards signed. We waited about 20 minutes to get through the immigration check point. We had a quick walk through Duty Free on Arrival but didn’t get anything.
We met our driver for the W, which was arranged via the hotel. He transferred us over to the hotel in a Nissan Altima and an old one at that; at least 10 years old!! I think this was a downgrade from the promised Towncar but what can you about it now?? It sort of punctuated the day in that funny way when nothing went exactly right . .
We later got an automated apologetic email from Alaska with a $100 discount code per person for the major four hour flight delay. It was a nice gesture on their part. It was not too generous but a lot more generous than the useless 5% discount codes that Air Canada has been providing over the years. In summary, we were happy that our Alaska leg had come to an end. And that's not something that I usually find myself saying. . .