A Bumpy Ride with AeroMexico: A Traveler's Worst Nightmare

I recently flew with AeroMexico, Mexico's national carrier. This was a rare experience for me, but it's something that happens more often when you're traveling abroad.

I don't often get to fly with international airlines, but it's just part of the deal when you're traveling in a foreign country. About a year and a half ago, my family and I planned a trip to Mexico. We like to travel independently, rather than booking a tour. At the time, the only airline flying from Russia to Mexico was Aeroflot, and it only had flights to Cancun, which is a pretty touristy area. We didn't want to spend two weeks in just one place, so we decided to split our trip between Cancun and the Pacific coast.

AeroMexico

Why did we choose AeroMexico?

We couldn't find any direct flights from Cancun to Acapulco, so we decided to fly through Mexico City, which is the country's capital. This way, we could see the city and also visit Acapulco, which is a beautiful coastal town.

When we were booking our flights, the prices were pretty reasonable, but the baggage fees were a bit steep, even for a regular airline. We're also members of Aeroflot's elite club, which is part of the SkyTeam alliance. This meant that we could get free baggage and earn miles for our flights, which would count towards our status in the Aeroflot Bonus program.

We were convinced to choose AeroMexico after these two points. We didn't buy the tickets directly on the airline's website, but through a Russian company which, as it turned out, was a great choice.

Mexico City Airport

First major disappointment

When we bought the tickets, we somehow couldn't figure out where to enter our 'Aeroflot Bonus' card numbers. And without them, we'd be left without free baggage allowance and miles for flights. While we were trying to resolve the issue, we stumbled upon a lot of conflicting information. It turned out that we had booked tickets under some obscure tariff, where our cards wouldn't work at all. Or, at least, that's what we understood.

We eventually managed to enter our card details into our booking on the airline's website. At least, they should have credited us with some miles for the flight.

By the way, we had booked and paid for four flights in total. Kantun - Mexico City, a mid-day layover, Mexico City - Acapulco.

And then, seven days later, we flew back: Acapulco - Mexico City, Mexico City - Kantun, a night to relax, and the next day Kantun - Moscow.

So, we called Aeroflot, and they told us that there shouldn't be any restrictions on the program, and our card should work on all tariffs. By the way, when we were buying the ticket, the website didn't show us any tariff groups at all.

Light onboard meals

I was really looking forward to enjoying Sky Priority perks, but it seems that 'Aeroflot' had other plans. When I contacted the Mexican airline, they told me that the service would be partially restricted on this tariff. Apparently, it's only available if you have a gold card, not a silver one like mine.

We tried to buy a ticket with checked baggage from a third-party seller, but the airline itself refused to honor the sale. So, we ended up buying separate baggage for each of our four flights on the airline's website. And guess what? We had to pay a whopping 30,000 rubles for the privilege! That's right, for a service that's supposed to be included in the card benefits, according to the alliance's rules. It's a total rip-off.

After we paid, I thought we'd finally gotten it out of the way, but boy was I wrong. I mean, we were trying to save some cash on baggage fees, but in the end, we just ended up wasting our money.

But that wasn't the end of our troubles

The real horror story of AeroMexico

We were having a great time on the Caribbean coast, and our hotel was amazing. We were really looking forward to our last day before flying to Acapulco. But then, out of the blue, we received a message that our morning flight from Cancun to Mexico City had been cancelled. Now, our tickets weren't exactly non-stop, but rather a combo with a layover, so the Mexico City to Acapulco leg was still on. We'd already booked a new hotel for after our stay, and we couldn't just cancel it.

Flight from Mexico City to Acapulco

The travel agency we booked our ticket through gave us a guarantee that they'd either get us on the flight or refund our money if something like this happened. So, we reached out to them. Before that, we had a backup plan in case things didn't go as planned: our original flight was scheduled for 10:30, but the airline had another flight at 8:40, which actually suited us even better. We asked them to switch us to the earlier flight. The Russian office forwarded our request to the Mexican company, but they were slow to respond. It's been over a day now, and we still haven't heard back from them. Not even a response at 3 PM local time, or 6 PM, or 11 PM. The Russian company kept saying that sometimes it takes them a while to respond and kept sending follow-up requests. It wasn't until around 2 AM, just an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave the hotel (if we wanted to make it to the flight on time) that we finally got a response saying they'd switch us to the 8:40 flight.

But here's the thing: our luggage 'disappeared', and we had to buy a new one. And to make matters worse, we had to pay the higher fee for it, since the airline's policy is that luggage purchased within 24 hours of the flight costs double the regular price. We didn't have a choice, since the airline had cancelled our original flight just a day before!

Meeting the airline and service

The service at the airport was actually pretty good. They applied some of the perks from our card to our account – we got a separate check-in line, priority boarding, and priority luggage delivery. Of course, the boarding process in Mexico is a bit weird, but it worked out okay.

The flight to Mexico City was on a Boeing 737 MAX and lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. They served light snacks on board. The planes were well-maintained. And to our surprise, there was even free Wi-Fi on board for all passengers. We managed to explore the city, return to the airport, and still make it to our flight.

We had a flight delay to Acapulco, which is pretty standard for this airline. We got boarded on a smaller Embraer plane, similar to our SuperJet. There was no in-flight internet, but they did offer some light snacks. The flight itself was about an hour and a half long.

Snacks on the flight to Acapulco

I've gotta say, the in-flight service and airport experience with this airline have been pretty good. The flight attendants are attentive and active, and the planes look well-maintained.

On the way back, everything went smoothly without any issues.

Even after the dust settled, I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth about the baggage ordeal. And to make matters worse, their rewards card isn't even working properly with my tariff. But what really got me was when I was asked to pay for the baggage again - separately, not through my ticket, which they claimed had been cancelled - and this time at double the price, even though we couldn't have bought it anyway.

Considering this airline is supposed to be the best in the country, it's hard not to wonder if we just got unlucky...