wakesetter93

Coming to you live from the DFW AmEx Centurion Lounge, the GF and I are off to Tulum for her round number birthday and to celebrate the holidays! I'll try and do this TR as live as possible but I'm not sure what sort of internet service we'll have down at our hotel. Hope you all will follow along!

- American Express Centurion Lounge DFW Airport
- AA 789 J DFW-CUN
- El Pez Tulum
- Ritz-Carlton Cancun
- AA 789 J CUN-DFW

tennislover9

Nothing like a Dreamliner on a 2 hour flight. Enjoy the tropics!

wakesetter93

You won’t hear me complaining!

Also, surprisingly, immigration in Cancun was less of a mess than expected, even with 2 DL A330’s amd a bunch of narrow bodies arriving at the same time

BavarianFlyer

I am right behind you!! Taking both ways the 787-9 in F! Taking the 12:20p flight from DFW to CUN on Monday and the 07:46p back on Saturday! Cant wait for the Champagne and Filet up in the air :-)!!!! Staying @ Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita!

wakesetter93

Don’t get your hopes up for the in flight catering, we had the choice of a cheese tray or a Turkey sandwich in J, no F on the 789. Weather should be gorgeous on your arrival though, I’ll save some sun for you!

wakesetter93

After a jam packed week and a half of work the GF and I are headed off to Tulum for her round number birthday. Alarm went off at 6:00 to prep for a 7:30 meeting then it was in the car to take Gumbo to the GF’s parents house where he’s having his doggy vacation.



After dropping the dog we were off to the Parking Spot North to drop the car off, where it would get a much needed bath while we were away. 15 minutes later the shuttle was arriving curbside at Terminal D. Since American classifies everybody under the sun as priority it took us about 15 minutes to get our bags tagged and BP’s issued.










There was nobody in the TSA PreCheck lane I front of us and we were airside within a minute of checking our bags. Off in search of the oasis that is the Centurion Lounge for the first time since Covid struck.

wakesetter93

A quick ride up the elevator to the 2nd floor and we were in the oasis of the Centurion lounge. After a quick document check and a reminder to wear a mask unless eating and drinking we were admitted in.




AmEx was even handing out a welcome gift that turned out to be a small UV light for killing germs. A good idea but not sure how well it would work in practice.





After dropping our bags we went off in search of some food. The lounge is one long, thin strip with the bar and buffet in the middle and seating off of both sides. The usual self-service buffet was replaced by a menu and a lounge attendant would serve you based on your order, you still had to go up to the buffet however.











In the back of the lounge there was a large conference area along with a couple of phone rooms. This came in handy as I had a couple of last minute calls amd didn’t want to disturb the other guests.






With that out of the way we hit up the bar for a couple of cocktails before heading out to board our flight.







This was my first lounge experience post pandemic and I was pleasantly surprised. The staff did a great job of providing high levels of service and were very attentive even with the social distancing requirements in place.

roadwarrier

I have been in Lounges where this is available, yet people insist on yapping away next to others.
Looking forward to more.

SFO777

Good for you. Looking forward to this one.
Gotta love Texas and an open full service DFW Centurion Lounge compared to idiotic California and a shuttered LAX CL where all you get a take-away bag.

wakesetter93

Things like that drive me crazy.

It was definitely a good first impression of the new DFW lounge space, looking forward to going back. Also, Tulum has been amazing. If you haven’t been yet, go, before the new airport opens in 2023

BavarianFlyer

I know...LOL...no real of anything up in the air no more. Hopefully we will fly out of D and I can cater myself. Hope you have an amazing time in Cancun!

By the way SFO777 next time you are in Denver let me know!

wakesetter93

At T-45 we left the Centurion lounge and started our walk towards gate D29. As soon as we left the lounge we heard over the airport loudspeaker that it was final boarding call for our flight. Confused, but not wanting to miss the plane, we made a dash for our gate only to find 100+ Pax standing in the boarding lane. I have no idea why AA has 9+ boarding groups if they just lump everyone together and post final call 10 minutes after boarding.

Thanks to the priority lane we were able to bypass the queue at the gate and shortly after, we were turning left into the familiar AA J cabin.

American Airlines
AA 2207
DFW-CUN (Dallas/Fort Worth International - Cancun International)
Seat: 3L (Business)
B787-9 (N821AN)
Scheduled: 12:20p-3:56p
Actual: 12:36p-3:56p





AA J on the 789 is a perfectly comfortable seat, and much better than what’s offered on the 788, however I can’t help but wonder why they decided to put absolutely no color anywhere, not even a logo on the bulkhead.

During boarding, flight attendants passed out the entry forms for Mexico and, aside from the bottle of water and Biscoff in a Ziploc, no PDB’s were offered.








We pushed off the gate about 15 minutes late and taxied around to the east side of the airport, next to a 777 headed to MCO. After a short taxi we took off towards the south and quickly climbed to FL 390, overflying Surfside Beach in the process (Location of my last TR).







Once we hit cruising altitude, our FA’s came around the cabin with a choice of a cheese tray or Turkey sandwich. The cheese tray seemed like a safer option so I took that along with the AA house “champagne”.






Before long, we were crossing the Yucatán Peninsula and overflow Cancun and the hotel zone before looping back around to land from the east.










After a quick taxi we pulled up to the terminal and, even with a couple of DL A330’s and some other assorted US narrow bodies, immigration was fairly smooth and within about 15 minutes we were stamped into Mexico.

Short hair Francis

Phone Rooms is such a Japanese style lounge feature, I can't think of where else where I've seen them except in JP.
Wish more Lounges have them

Good call on the calls, I also try to do phone calls at Phone Rooms, Office Cubicles or, Hallway of Lounges where people would just walk by.

789 on DFW-CUN
Never thought I would see the day, but if thats where the money is

wakesetter93

I first saw the phone rooms in my office as soon as I graduated college. Thought they were a little strange at first but now I wish they had them in more places. They come in very handy.

Also, AA had flown 787’s on the DFW-CUN route even before the pandemic. It seems like there’s a flight almost every hour during the winter travel season. If I’m not mistaken they have 3 daily flights on the 789 now.

wrp96

I was on the 7am flight on the 789 the day you went. Hope you are having as fantastic time as we are. We are at Secrets in Puerto Morelos.

Choice on the 7am flight was the turkey croissant or yogurt and berries. And they ran out of vodka.