With a busy August having come and gone, I thought it to be
a good time to take Michelle away from the quiet life here and head off for
some relaxation, food and cerveza in Mexico City. Strange choice? Probably but
AA had some deals I just couldn’t resist, couple that with some Amex MR points
burning a hole in my pocket and enough SPG points to supply a place to lay our
heads it was off we went.
Seaborne Airlines
#105 Seats: 2B & 2C
DHC-6 Seaplane
Depart: SSB 6:40 AM
Arrive: SPB 7:05 AM
Firstly the biggest hurdle, AA has taken away our morning
flight here in STX so the only way to get to Miami is now in the afternoon /
evening or in the morning from STT, which meant waking before dawn to catch the
first seaplane for the short jaunt over the channel. A relaxing flight in
itself aided by the thought of breakfast on our way to MIA and a couple shots
of espresso before leaving the house.
AA #2230 Seats 4E
& 4F
757-200
Depart: STT 8:30 AM
Arrive: MIA 11:20 AM
After one of the VIs ridiculously expensive cab rides, $20
for about 5 minutes and 2.2 miles
We reached STT to check in and it sure is different from our
little airport at home – big (relatively) queues for both AA and JetBlue and
porters running around everywhere as bag drop is not at check in counter but
rather after customs, a short couple minute walk. Lines for both customs and
security weren’t too bad though why airports in the Caribbean insist on running
jumbo, high speed fans in already air conditioned terminals still baffles me.
With the short connection time and running from the seaplane we only had a couple
minutes to wait before they called business class boarding. Aside from the
usual gate rushers boarding was smooth and once seated in AA’s old brown seats with
a glass of orange juice boarding finished quickly thanks to using stairs at the
front and back of our 757. 2 doors is always something I love about travelling
in Asia as they seem to use 2 doors to board more often than not and it’s the
one thing we have here at STT and STX that is miles ahead of the states!
Unfortunately our catering service is miles behind, actually
we don’t have catering service…breakfast always consists of cereal, fruit cup
and the microwaved AA croissant. One thing that really jumped out though was
Michelle’s blanket was unwrapped and covered in crusties, though as
unfortunately seems to be the rule more so than the exception the MIA based
flight attendants were utterly unhelpful. The rest of the flight was smooth and
uneventful and soon we were on the ground in MIA and heading for the D15
Admiral’s Club to catch up on some emails and have a drink before our flight to
MEX. Though we have access to the AC due to our Amex Platinum card we entered
with our business class boarding passes instead for the free drink certs.
AA #2185 Seats 5E
& 5F
737-800
Depart: MIA 1:00 PM
Arrive: MEX 3:15 PM
Within the hour it was time to head to gate for boarding but
first a stop at the shops for socks, not knowing what the blanket situation
would be this time around Michelle was worried about getting cold. You have to
love how airport shops market their products, we had the choice between 2 pairs
of “travel socks” for $15 or 1 pair of “socks” for $5, naturally they appeared
to be the same socks! Boarding was relatively quick and painless though I keep
forgetting how many AA elites are based in MIA so the Priority Access line was
again longer than the general boarding line. Being a 738 this flight had the
new blue seats with the feature I find among best in the sky, the small tables
for holding a drink or snack. Not sure why no other airlines I’ve seen have
these but they beat resting a glass on the armrest or having the full table
out, plus they keep things nicely out of the way of a clumsy people like me so
we don’t spill our coffees on ourselves. Lunch was served with the choice of
Prawn Salad or Chicken Parmigiana, both sounded good so we did one of each
along with a glass of wine and of course an after meal baileys and coffee or
two!
Michelle's
Mine
Both meals were pretty good, mine had good flavour but wasn't crispy enough and Michelle's prawns were nice but too much salad! I do love the pita chips that AA provides though, it's a great snack with the hummus and a big benefit for us who can't eat the nuts.
Service on this flight was much better than the previous and that is always the thing that bothers me most with AA, the service is far too hit and miss sometimes you’ll have a great flight and it feels like they really have their act together, then you’ll get one with dirty blankets and blank stares.
Service on this flight was much better than the previous and that is always the thing that bothers me most with AA, the service is far too hit and miss sometimes you’ll have a great flight and it feels like they really have their act together, then you’ll get one with dirty blankets and blank stares.
Shortly after immigration forms were distributed and we were
on our descent before we knew it, the approach to Mexico City was much prettier
than I expected and after a descending past the surrounding mountain ranges we
made a big loop over the city followed by a smooth touchdown and parked next to
an AA MD80 after a short taxi. Immigration was smooth an uneventful and after
grabbing our bag we presented the customs official with our declaration and
that’s where it really hit us, even though we had an English declaration card,
his response was “fila diecisiete”…guess that meant time for Spanish!
Knowing the potential issues with cabs we elected to go the
safe route and get an official airport taxi, prices all seemed pretty similar
with maybe a 10 peso variation to our destination in Polanco. We bought our 250
peso ticket and were ushered to our nice white cab, a new VW “classic” (aka
Jetta). The ride to the W wasn’t bad considering the late afternoon and weekend
timing and we were there in 20 minutes or so.
Courtesy of CondeNaste
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