Update from MEX
 

Hola. I’ve been lurking on this board since a colleague mentioned it to me over a year ago, but I was waiting until I had something informative to say until I finally posted.

First of all, the UA Intl. F class lounge at MEX is no more. It has become the American Express Platinum lounge, and now, everyone, regardless of class of service, is sent to the RCC, which has become rather dingy over the years (not that the F lounge was anything great, but it was usually uncrowded with a better selection of alcohol and food). A better choice would be to use the MX *A lounge one floor up. It is much newer, nicer, bigger, with good food and beverage selections (served by a bartender/waiter), internet stations, and even a gym. Many carriers (LH among them) now use it as their F lounge.

Another recent cutback is that UA has finally stopped serving champagne in C on flights to/from MEX. 2 years ago, the appetizer disappeared from the menu, and the champagne became generally bad, but got better again (VC, Billecart-Salmon) before it was eliminated entirely about a month ago. Interestingly enough, MX, with whom UA code shares on many routes (MEX-ORD, MEX-LAX, MEX-SFO and MEX-MIA, to name a few) has significantly improved their C/J product, and on a recent RT to AMS, I bought a UA C ticket, flew the MX code share to/from ORD, and loved the service, champagne (VC) and food. On the MEX-ORD portion, in addition to the full meal with appetizer, a large and decent cheese and fruit plate was served before arrival. Champagne and wine (or anything else you wanted) flowed constantly and separate courses were served, vs. UA’s one tray service.
Three or four years ago, UA stopped selling F class on routes to/from MEX, replacing it with C class, but without dropping the fares. It made sense in that the market is served with two cabin Airbus aircraft…and that’s what other carriers to/from U.S. do as well. However, boarding passes are printed as Intl. F and access to the Intl. F lounge at MEX was continued. This was an added bonus on routes where you connected in the U.S. to other international flights to/from Europe, Asia and South America, in that you could (and still can) use the Intl. F lounges in the U.S., because you were technically “connecting from Intl. F”. You can also use the Intl. F lounges if connecting to/from domestic flights, although trying to do so inbound to the U.S. with a domestic connection is sometimes met with a degree of skepticism by the agents, before they reluctantly let you in. Always works for me, and maybe being a 1K helps. As you can use HK49’s to upgrade to/from the U.S., it means you can actually buy a cheap coach RT ($US350) to the U.S., upgrade it, and get access to the Intl. F lounges in ORD, IAD, LAX and SFO. Of course, on the return, your inbound MEX upgrade has to clear before the gate.

UA F/C fares from MEX to Europe and Asia via the U.S. are almost always less (not necessarily a lot) than the fares from the U.S. to the same destination, but are competitive with other carriers flying out of MEX. However, a very extreme example of this would be the cost of RT F and C MEX-GRU. The quickest way to do this is on AM or RG nonstop and they both offer only C service at about $US3200 RT. However, if you want to fly UA and get the double miles, which I do, the best connection is via ORD, flying MX code share to/from ORD and UA to/from GRU. The cost on UA is the same in C and about $US4400 in F (flying C to/from ORD with MX). Out of curiosity, I priced a ORD-GRU RT in both classes and the difference was astonishing. $US6876 in C, and $US9156 in F, which is more than double the cost ex-MEX. Keeping in mind that we Mexicans fly the same flights ORD-GRU-ORD and pay less than half the amount of money with more travel involved, no wonder UA can’t sell it’s premium cabins in the U.S and everyone is outraged at costs. Who in their right mind would pay that amount of money? I honestly feel that $US4400 is a fair price to pay for RT F MEX-ORD-GRU-ORD-MEX and would (will) pay it. Double that for less travel? In their dreams. Will they ever wise up? If anyone is interested in other comparisons ex-MEX, you have to go to the Mexico site on ual.com worldwide sites. Otherwise, you get gringo pricing. (I am not sure if they can restrict U.S. access to the site/pricing, but I sure would if I were UA…this difference is infuriating even to me and I’m the one who pays less than half).

I look forward to learning more and posting more in the future and hope that this first post has been helpful/informative. I am not a UA basher, have flown them for many years and have no intention of stopping, but I believe the service has gotten worse, the business model remains questionable and the FF perks significantly diminished, and I look forward to the day when I am totally satisfied with them again.

I agree. I always thought the premium cabin fares originating in the US were frequently ridiculous when compared to how far much farther you could fly in the same cabin originating in other countries.

As a side perk, foreigners do receive better ground service from UA on the UA offices off-US.

UA service in Mexico, or in Brazil, as an example is far superior than what one receives in the US. UA seems to welcome my business and always try their best to accomodate my needs.

In fact off-US UA competes directly with foreign carriers with better service which makes them up their levels of service.

I have had no luck accessing the Intl. F lounge as a 1K in Chicago w/ a F ticket to MEX twice in the past three months or so. But in LAX I was happily welcomed, and in fact directed to the lounge by the check-in agent. Anyone know what the real policy is?

All other points are great, and dead-on. Especially the comments about the sad RCC. I frequently just go across the hall to the much nicer Admirals Club (since I have a membership there). UA's MEX staff are wonderful!

Yes, UA's MEX staff are excellent...especially in the RCC.

Too bad they didn't take the Int'l F lounge as it's airside. The RCC just looks inside the terminal/check-in area. Not a great view.

Chilango, bienvenido al foro ´Mano... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Great upadate, I used to fly quite a bit ex-MEX a while back... great city you have there BTW.

Back on topic, wasnt the old Amex lounge located right next to the parking lot..? If I remember correctly, it was the Centurion Lounge, or?

Thanks very much for the great and detailed update.

And to update the International First Class Lounge access experiences, while I've never had a UA First MEX flight originate, terminate or connect through ORD, I have always been allowed International First Class Lounge access in ORD on my really short flights to Toronto that are boarding pass printed "First."

Flights to/from a hub are often more expensive than those exact flights when taken from another destination. I'm flying BOS-MSN this week (through ORD, of course). For the same dates and times BOS-ORD was about twice as expensive. Likewise for a couple of random dates in September:

BOS-GRU in C: $4555
IAD-GRU in C: $6260

So, lucky for the rest of us, it's not just MEX. Too bad for those who live in ORD or IAD!

Michael

¡Bienvenido Chilango!

Another tip if you want to check fares ex-Anywhere... http://beta.itasoftware.com . Enter as a guest, then click Advanced Options. You can set your "Sales City" to any city in the world and find out what your flight would cost were you to buy it in that city, or originating from there. Also good to find out what domestic flights cost when bought in-country versus from overseas.

This is great news about the ITA software. I frequently use it for domestic but didn't know they now did int'l.

Great tip, this should be passed on to the wider FT audience.

Chilango-
Great first post! Welcome to FT!

brian_in_dc-
Thanks for that website link. Very useful indeed!!

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"I just wanna wish you good luck, we're all counting on you"
-Dr. Rumack

From one Chilango to another, Bienvenidos a FlyerTalk!. Glad you're aboard!

(Well I'm an honorary Chilango anyway...La Cochinita is from Tlalnepantla)

Just a quick post to further re-confirm that UA First pax traveling on UA 2-Class aircraft to MEX, are still warmly welcomed at the LAX International First Class Lounge.

Always been kinda strange that my online itineraries and fax confirmations always indicate my class as being "Business"...but the Boarding Passes always print out as "First." And that seems to be good enough for them! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif