Here's a trip on various airlines in various classes. Possibly the beginning of another RTW in the eastbound direction ;-)
Starting out, this time I missed the airport bus by moments as the bus was 8 minutes early. Unamused, I hopped in an Uber to the airport for the first time in ages. Again, I arrived at the YYC international terminal wing which was packed with holidaymakers. Thankfully, I'd been able to use the OLCI facility to verify my vaccination record so I didn't need to see any agent - kiosk to print bag tag, drop it, and away we go. Interestingly, WestJet's document check tool wouldn't recognize my EU Digital Covid Certificate but thankfully I've had it converted to an Alberta record as well, which worked no problem.
After bag drop, fairly easy security check, and a lengthy walk back down the terminal I had about 45 minutes to spend in the WestJet Elevation Lounge for some breakfast. I took a few photos of the bar but bar service doesn't start until 11.
I had the eggs benedict and a cappuccino. In my opinion, the food is better in here than the Maple Leaf Lounge down the hall, but the coffees are better at the MLL (they are made by a person there, not a fully automatic espresso machine).
After my breakfast and a call to my mother, I hopped on the YYC meep-meep shuttle back to the D concourse.
WS1510 YYC-CUN
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 1A
Flight time: 4:43
I arrived at the gate just as they were calling priority boarding, so after zero wait I was the first person in J to board. I snapped a few pics of the empty cabin. It's a small cabin, only 4 rows, and I love the color scheme and small decorative touches.
The only other time I've flown WS business class was on the inaugural flight in February 2019, also in seat 1A.
I wasn't sure which menu to expect given that WS ends breakfast service for flights departing after 9:30 and this flight was scheduled to depart at 9:25.
Clearly, so was the cabin attendant as he initially handed out the lunch menus. Then, after serving me a PDB of sparkling wine, he came back and replaced it with the breakfast menu. Definitely more suitable for this hour.
We popped out of the overcast skies very shortly after take off.
Had another glass of sparkling wine before breakfast was delivered on a single tray.
The red wines on offer weren't the same as on the menu, apparently due to a supplier issue, so the cabin manager presented me with both of the available options. I chose the California red.
After a few sips of wine, my travel partner was offered a tour of the plane and was put to work prepping food and beverage.
Tired after all that, the aft crew rest area provided a good place for a penguin nap!
Here's some of our smiling cabin crew.
About an hour before landing, a snack box was presented. Same as in premium economy.
After a very pleasant flight, the real fun begins. We pulled into a gate near the south end of Cancun's terminal 4, and from what I could see, we were the fourth or fifth widebody to arrive in recent hours. Walking down the corridor to the immigration hall, I was presented with a line that was already starting to back people up the escalator. A staff member was rushing over to turn the thing off so people weren't literally piling up at the bottom.
From landing, it wasn't until 75 minutes had passed that I was through immigration. And although I waited around a couple of minutes to take some cockpit photos, I was still one of the first 40 people off the plane. Crazy. Only half of the booths were staffed. People were starting to get testy towards the end of my stay in the waiting pens and the line was still enormous.
I thought to myself, well, at least after this colossal wait, the bags should be grab and go. Nope. They were just starting be delivered when I arrived at the belt. It took another 30 minutes of waiting to get my "priority" bag. Worst arrivals experience I've had in many years. At this point, I've resigned myself to missing my next flight which is on a separate ticket. I easily exited the terminal and waited for the inter-terminal shuttle bus, watching a woman who I'd seen huffing around the luggage belt, get scammed for a taxi by one of the hawkers - they were going to be late for bag drop for their Aeromexico flight and the hawker informed her that there was a 20 minute wait for a shuttle when the taxi can go right away. In reality, the shuttle is at 20 minute intervals but the LED sign on the side she couldn't see would have informed her that the shuttle was moments away.
Unfortunately, again, I didn't really think I'd do a trip report for the rest of the trip so I didn't take too many photos. I made it easily over to Terminal 2 on the bus, and the checked bag screwed me for my onward flight. I didn't arrive at the counter until exactly at the scheduled departure time, but as is the norm in Mexico later in the day, the flight was delayed and they'd just started boarding. If I'd been hand baggage only, I could have made it, but they couldn't accept my checked bag. So I had to pay a 1500 MXN change fee, which was more than the cost of my original ticket and more than buying a walk up fare. Why did I pay the change fee you might ask? Well, they could move me on to the next flight, less than an hour away and thus no longer available for sale, whereas if I'd just discarded the ticket and bought a new one I'd have to wait another 2.5 hours in there. No thanks.
I headed to "The Lounge" for a very small cheese quesadilla and a few Coronas whilst waiting for the flight, which of course was delayed by an hour by the time all was said and done. I appreciated a comfortable place to sit after standing in that awful arrivals hall in T4 for so long.
Y4865
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Seat: 2F
Flight time: 2:02
It was pouring rain out by the time we boarded, but I always like being out on the tarmac next to these machines. I'm not even sure if I'd been on an A320neo before, but certainly not boarding at a remote stand. Loved the large engines on a narrowbody.
I'd originally booked seat 1F, a window "premium" seat on Volaris, but that one was taken at the time of check in on the new flight. Only middle seats were available in the first row (which has a ton more legroom) so I opted for seat 2F, which ended up being a whole row to myself.
Famished after the meagre lounge snack I consumed, I was looking forward to at least a club sandwich off the buy onboard menu which was mostly junk food. Sadly, there were no more available so I opted for a bag of Chip's chips and a beer. No wifi on this flight so I caught up on some podcast material.
After a painless arrival in MEX where my bag was first off the belt in dumpy, aging Terminal 1, I hopped in an Uber to the Hilton Mexico City Reforma. As a gold member I got a complimentary upgrade to an upper floor with a nice view; and 3 PM check out.
Still famished, but tired, I didn't want to head out anywhere nor did I want to eat solo in the fancy steakhouse attached to the hotel. So I pulled up to the lobby bar, asked about food options and he very graciously offered to get me some street tacos from a place around the corner. They definitely hit the spot with a couple of cold beers from the tap. I left a reasonably generous tip for that.
