Aeromexico 787-8 business class review: very comfy (but only vaguely Mexican)
Aeromexico 787-8 business class (officially known as Premier Class) is kinda weird.
The seats are stylish. Comfortable. And every bit as spacious and private as the long haul business class products of some of the world’s best airlines.
The problem is that they don’t try very hard to make it a uniquely Mexican experience. Are they ashamed of their culture or something? What gives?
| Flight Number: | AM185 |
| Route: | Tijuana, Mexico (TIJ) – Mexico City, Mexico (MEX) |
| Aircraft: | Boeing 787-8 |
| Registration: | N967AM |
| Flight Duration | 2 hours 56 minutes |
| Seat: | 3A (Premier Class / Business Class) |
Arrival at the airport
I entered the Tijuana Airport (TIJ) via the Cross Border Xpress Bridge (CBX) from San Diego. Once I made it across, I was happy to discover a world class airport with all the shops and restaurants you’d see in any other major airport in the world. TIJ was pretty nice even way back in 2016!
Back in 2016, Terminal A was two levels. I spent about an hour on the lower level relaxing and taking pics while waiting for my flight to MEX to start boarding.
The boarding process
I went upstairs to the gate a bit early (or so I thought) only to see that the flight had already started boarding. This was approximately 15 minutes early according to what it said on my boarding pass, but no worries – I was as ready as a squirrel on espresso.
Boarding was through door 1L this morning, which meant that all passengers got the chance to walk through the business class cabin on their way back to economy.
Aeromexico 787-8 business class cabin and seats
Business class on the Aeromexico 787 consists of 32 lie flat seats in a 2-2-2 layout. That’s a fairly dense seating configuration, and FWIW, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as nice as Korean Air 747-8 business class (which is also 2-2-2).
There are 4 rows, and I was seated in row 3.
I was impressed. The seats were identical to the ones you’ll find on a variety of other airlines (such as Air France and Air China) – but the purple fabric was definitely unique.
The cabin crew seemed somewhat attentive during the boarding process. They were there and available to assist passengers in getting situated, and they did come through the cabin once with a tray of pre-filled glasses with orange juice or water.
Gate departure
Our departure from the gate was a whopping 9 minutes early at 10:16 AM. The Tijuana Airport is relatively small, so it didn’t take all that long to taxi out to runway 27. It was 13 minutes from pushback to takeoff.
As you’ll see in the following pics, TIJ is relatively small – but heavily served by the big Mexican 3: AeroMexico, Volaris, and Interjet.
Exciting, isn’t it?
Business class entertainment
All I’m gonna say about the in-flight entertainment is that I don’t recommend flying Aeromexico for the latest and greatest in video entertainment. The 13 inch video screens in business class are excellent – but the catalog of content is somewhat lacking compared to other airlines.
Noise canceling headphones are included. They were decently high quality (in both sound and feel).
The meal service
Lunch service began shortly after we reached cruising altitude. It didn’t even occur to me that they didn’t even serve beverages and a quick snack beforehand until they presented me with the meal.
I wasn’t expecting a 10-course meal or anything, but I would have expected a quick snack before the main course. Oh well.
There was no choice of meals on this flight. It was a turkey and cheese croissant, or nothing at all. Making matters worse is that there was absolutely nothing “Mexican” about it. At all.
Business class seat and cabin comfort
The lights were dimmed shortly after the meal service. It was the perfect opportunity to give the lie flat a seat I’ll try. I didn’t go all the way down, but I declare it to be a decent seat for snoozing nonetheless.
I’m a big fan of the 787 in general, but the fact that the cabin crew has control of every window with the touch of a button is something that doesn’t sit right with me.
The lavatory
Bad news (especially for anyone who was hoping for good news after seeing that picture of the meal service): the business class lavatories weren’t any fancier than the economy class lavatories.
Cabin service
During my track to the lavatory, I found all the flight attendants just sitting in the galley laughing and talking (and not doing much of anything). Not only that, they were generally scarce for most of the flight.
That said, they did a pretty good job overall. I just would’ve liked to see them be a little more proactive that’s all.
The arrival in Mexico City
It turned out that the estimated flight time remaining was off by about 15 minutes, so the descent into MEX caught me off guard a bit.
The descent into MEX was twisty, bumpy, and scenic. I knew Mexico City was dense, but wow! It’s a sprawling urban jungle jammed in between beautiful mountain ranges, and I tried to get as many pics as I could despite the really bad angle of the sun (and the odd window tint).
We ended up doing a go-around on the first approach. The pilot said that it was necessary due to wind conditions, but we were probably less than 10 feet off the ground (and flaring smoothly) when they applied max power and took off again.
It didn’t feel like we were getting tossed around by the wind, so I’m not really sure what happened.
Once on the ground, it was a 10 minute taxi over to Terminal 2. We parked at gate 68 at 3:35 PM.
And that’s a wrap! Overall, it was a really great flight. The hard product was really good, the soft product so-so, but overall the convenience of flying out of TIJ made this a really great way to fly from the San Diego area to Mexico City.
