wakesetter93

I'll pass on that landing

dat4life

Thanks! That's a bummer, though the bottle with a straw doesn't sound quite so bad I suppose we could have lucked out, but going four for four is pretty darn good luck for good crews.

Appreciate it, 24left!

Thanks, WS93!

That sounds fantastic. Interestingly enough, I was actually hoping to go to Normandy this trip. But I decided against it, as my mom's balky knee probably wouldn't have appreciated the long car ride after the long haul. I'm a big history nerd too, and it really is shame I haven't put together a WWII tour just yet.

Thanks! Welcome to FT!

Book now (if you can), and think later! Welcome to FT!

Thanks, neguine. Glad you enjoyed it!

I actually picked up the phrase from a Dreamliner FO friend of mine. I thought it was pretty fitting. But any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, eh? haha

dat4life

Per the concierge’s suggestion, we booked our car service back to CDG for 7:30PM. The driver was already was already waiting for us when got back to the hotel. After loading up our bags, we were off to CDG. I thought we would be able to avoid rush hour traffic leaving at that hour. I was very wrong. Traffic was bumper to bumper pretty much all the way to CDG. It was good thing we left early as the journey to the airport took nearly 90 minutes.

The Air France agent handling check in was thrown for loop when I told her we were headed to Chicago and directed us to the Air France check in counters. It took a couple of minutes for her to wrap her head around the fact we were flying to Chicago via Mexico City, but she quickly printed our boarding passes and tagged our bags when she did.

Departure immigration and security were easy enough for mom and I. Dad, however, got selected for secondary screening at security necessitating an incredibly thorough search of his carry on. He was close to fuming by the time it was done, but nothing a relaxing glass of bubby at the lounge couldn’t solve. The closest lounge to the gate was one of Air France’s satellite lounges, which was small but very nice. The lounge was a bit crowded through our entire visit. Food and drink selection were average for a Business Class lounge. I was thrilled to find shower facilities available at the lounge. Showers were a bit of necessity after spending all day walking around Paris, and probably a public service for those folks sitting near us. Thoroughly refreshed and clean, it was time to fly.

Aeromexico 4
Paris (CDG) - Mexico City (MEX)
Depart: 11:00PM
Arrive: 3:50AM
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 4J (Business Class)

Apex gives out five stars like candy, eh? I really enjoyed my Aeromexico flights, but they weren’t quite five star good. Then again… Apex deemed American Airlines a five star carrier… So yeah, I guess that makes sense.



Interestingly, the Boeing 787-9 taking us back to Mexico City had a US registration number (N446AM). I’ve been meaning to research it, but my educated guess is this might be an aircraft leased from a US based company.

Once aboard, a smiling flight attendant directed us into the far aisle where I found my seat 4J. The seat was the same lovely setup as the outbound flight. This time though, my parents were in the set of seats in the middle directly across the aisle from me.

There was a welcome note with my name and seat number handwritten on it. This was a very nice touch.





Also at my seat was the amenity kit, which was a slightly different design than on our outbound.



Contents were the same.



Headphones were already at each seat. I brought my own Bose headphones, but the Aeromexico headphones seemed decent enough.



Water, orange juice, and champagne were offered pre-departure. I went with champagne, which is the drinkable Jacquart Brut.



Pushback was right on time, and we were off.

Again, the menu was available on the entertainment system.







The drink menu is the same as outbound. But as 1P so astutely pointed out, I forgot to post the wine list. So here y’all go!





The shrimp remoulade appetizer was excellent. And again, you can’t ever go wrong with cheese.



I pre-ordered the beef filet for my main course. It was tender and tasty enough. And the salad was crisp and fresh.



Charlotte tart dessert was delicious.



Dinner wrapped about 90 minutes after take off, which is again appreciated on a red eye. Service was excellent through dinner with flight attendant hustling throughout to clear dishes, keeping drinks topped off, and serving the next course.

I fell asleep shortly after dinner waking up over Maine with a little over 4 hours to go to Mexico City. I headed over to self serve area to grab a drink and snacks.











Shortly after going feet wet over the Atlantic, the clock struck midnight local time and it was my mom’s birthday. While most sane mothers would regret having their offspring if they dragged them on planes and sitting at airports for their birthdays, my mom was surprisingly cool with it and actually welcomed it. So props!

I fired up the entertainment system to watch Godzilla vs King Kong, which was… interesting? About two hours out, it was time for breakfast.



I went with the smoked salmon, which was good.



We smoothly in Mexico City an hour early, which ordinarily is a good thing. But at before 3am, there was absolutely nothing open and stretched our already layover to over six hours. So we just walked around terminal, which felt amazing. I actually attempted to change our tickets to fly directly to Houston instead of Chicago, but agents were unable/unwilling to do it because of our checked bags. Which is fair enough.

We setup shop in the Aeromexico lounge opened at 5AM, and then headed moved over to the Centurion Lounge when it opened at 7. Good thing we got to the Centurion lounge a little early, as there was long queue to enter already. Several Amex staffers worked the line pre-registering guests, so everything moved fairly quickly. We were assigned a table in the upstairs section of the lounge, which was very nice.





Instead of a buffet setup, there was table service with a pretty solid complimentary menu to order off of. We went with fruit plates which were tasty.



We left the lounge an hour before boarding to stretch our legs. The terminal was crowded and chaotic, and it felt pretty darn normal sans the masks. Speaking of masks, I don’t think I’ve seen such great mask discipline as I did in Mexico City. Pretty much everyone was wearing their masks properly.



Frustratingly, three different agents checked and stamped our boarding passes before we were allowed to board.



Aeromexico 686
Mexico City (MEX) - Chicago (ORD)
Depart: 9:45AM
Arrive: 2:00PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 3F (Business Class)

Some interesting looking cargo was being loaded as we boarded.



I savored what was going to be my last pre-departure beverage in a bit.



We ended up sitting at the gate for about 30 minutes after boarding to “sort out some paperwork”. The captain apologized the delay and promised an on time arrival still. Eventually we were airborne, and it was soon time to eat again.

I pre-ordered the mushroom pasta, which was really good.


I passed the rest the flight napping and watching more of Young Sheldon.



True to his word, the parking was set and engines shut down on time at the gate. But the jetbridge operator was nowhere to be found. I was getting antsy as the seconds ticked by as we had a fairly tight connection on two separate tickets no less. The operator finally showed up 15 minutes later, and we finally deplaned.

Thanks to Global Entry, we were through immigrations in a couple of minutes. Some more antsy moments as it took awhile for bags to hit the belt, and naturally our bags were in the last batch of bags despite the priority tags. But we squeaked under minimum check in time with United and were able to get rid of our bags just a couple of hundred feet past baggage claim at the connections desk.

After a short ride on the terminal bus and security again, we were at the gate shortly before boarding began.

United 2161
Chicago (ORD) – Houston (IAH)
Depart: 4:01PM
Arrive: 6:59PM
Aircraft: Airbus A319-100
Seat: 20A (Economy Plus)

Thanks to my lowly Premier Silver status, I was able to assign exit row seats for free for my mom and I. And I paid $59 to get my dad into exit row aisle across from us. Luckily the middle seats stayed empty on both sides of the aisle, making for a decently comfy ride back home.





The plane left the gate 20 minutes late because of a “minor mechanical issue”, which was actually a boon because I was able to get these awesome pictures while taxiing to the runway.





And a hint for my next trip report coming up fairly soon:



Otherwise, not much to talk about on this flight other than we arrived at IAH on time.

Well… it was a short whirlwind trip, something I’m famous for. But man was it fun! Again, Aeromexico was a pleasant surprise. For all four of our flights, the cabin crew were friendly and proactive, food was pretty good, and the hard product was comfortable. Can’t ask for much more than that.

As I mentioned, this was as “normal” as I’ve experienced in a long time, and it was nice to spend quality time with my folks. Speaking of which, my parents absolutely loved the trip. Dad is even asking me when can we go back to Europe. Heck, even my dad liked Aeromexico so much, he’s scheming on how to fly them to Asia. Mileage running isn’t quite so bad, is it dad?

wakesetter93

The owner of that aircraft is the very obscure "ALC B879 39292 LLC"

nequine

Thanks very much for an enjoyable TR to read

enviroian

Great report!

European west bound "redeye" that gets in the middle of the night? Wow, no way, ever. What did you do for 6 hours waiting for your connection?

lamphs

I know this is OT, but you've already been to: DOH, CMB, MLE, AUH, AMS, ATH in the past six days?

wakesetter93

Italicized is booked, once it goes upright the trip has been taken

dat4life

Haha I figured. I was dead tired at that point, the US registration through me for a loop.

Thanks, nequine!

'
Thanks, enviroian!

I actually really liked it. Timewise, it was very efficient and even better if we had a normal itinerary haha. We just walked around, ate, and lounge hopped.

Good stuff! Looking forward to that report.

wakesetter93

It should be a good time. Current routing is DFW-IAH-DOH-CMB-MLE-AUH-AMS-ATH-JTR-ATH-AMS-AUS