Over Christmas, my husband and I visited Mexico City. This was the first time for both of us to visit Mexico, and we were quite excited! We had booked our flights there and back with points, which I described in detail previously. For the flight there, and the subject of this review, we booked two seats in AeroMexico‘s economy cabin through Virgin Atlantic, but with my Flying Blue Gold status we were able to choose AeroMexico’s ‘AMPlus’ seats, which is AeroMexico’s extra legroom economy seat. Before boarding we were also able to visit the Delta Sky Club near Gate A8, which was close to our departure gate (A5), also thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status.

Online, I have seen AM Plus seats described as some sort of ‘premium economy’ seat, but I can safely say that it really isn’t that. Premium economy, as I experienced on Singapore Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines is a different seat all together with significantly better width, padding and legroom and upgraded amenities and food – in comparison, AM Plus is simply extra legroom economy class.

Briefly, I did enjoy this flight, with professional (but not particularly friendly) service, nice food, and the extra legroom AM Plus was definitely more comfortable than a standard economy seat. Though I don’t think I’d pay for it if it didn’t come to me as a perk of my frequently flyer status.

1. How I booked this flight
2. What is AM Plus?
3. Check-in and boarding
4. The AM Plus seat is an extra legroom economy seat
5. Departure from New York JFK
6. Dinner service in AM Plus
7. Onboard WiFi
8. Descent and arrival into Mexico City’s Benito Juarez, MEX
9. Summary

How I booked this flight

While I wouldn’t normally do so, I booked this economy flight with points. I spent 11.500 points and $49.44 per person (for my husband and myself) by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic. Flights to Mexico City have been quite expensive for the last few years, so while it’s hard to get ahead outsized value when booking economy tickets with points, in this case I was able to do so.

What is AM Plus?

I wanted to clarify what AM Plus is, because I believe there is some confusion online on what to expect from it. I have sometimes seen AM Plus described as ‘premium economy’, though AeroMexico doesn’t explicitly seem to use that terminology for as far as I can see. In their descriptions online, they describe it as a more comfortable and spacious seat. Generally, these seats are located at the front of the economy cabin, right behind business class:

Truly, AM Plus is an extra-legroom economy seat, not a premium economy seat. The difference with the standard economy seats are small: legroom provides about 2-3 inches more legroom (31-34″ instead of 29-32″). The second is in the recline, which is probably an extra inch or two over standard economy seats, and the third is in having a dedicated overhead bin for your carry-on luggage. However, AeroMexico does provide SkyPriority services if you book the AM Plus fare, which is otherwise a perk reserved for premium cabin passengers. This can really improve the ground experience, and as a Flying Blue Gold member have found SkyPriority benefits to make my travels easier.

In terms of pricing, I did some quick searches for the JFK-MEX route and see AM Plus fares coming up 250-300$ more expensive than the basic economy fare. That seems steep, but these fares are fully flexible and include checked luggage. If you compare to the flex ‘standard economy’ fare price, the difference is only about 80-90$, which seems fare for the extra legroom. AeroMexico also states you can upgrade your seat from 20-30$ upon check-in, though I haven’t been able to verify this.

Check-in and boarding

AeroMexico departs out of New York-JFK’s Terminal 4. Since I have Flying Blue Gold status, which maps onto SkyTeam’s Elite Plus alliance-wide status, and AeroMexico is a SkyTeam carrier, we were able to check-in at Delta’s SkyPriority check-in area. This area is located at the western end of the terminal, where also the Delta One check-in area is.

We were traveling over Christmas, so the airport was quite busy. While we had checked in online, TSA PreCheck hadn’t been printed on my boarding pass, so I wanted to stop by the check-in desk for assistance with that. Fortunately the SkyPriority check-in was not nearly as busy as the other Delta check-in areas, but still there was quite a long line for people checking bags. In the end I managed to get it all sorted through one of the automated kiosks, and so we were good to go.

After security we visited the Delta Sky Club near Gate A8. We stayed there until our boarding time, at which points we walked to our gate. We were boarding at gate A3 today, which was a five minute walk from the lounge.

Owing to my Flying Blue Gold/SkyTeam Elite Plus status, we were in boarding group 2, and somewhat to our surprise our group had just started boarding when we arrived. The various groups were demarcated with signs and passengers arranged into orderly lines at each sign. Boarding thus proceeded without much spectacle.

Once on the plan we turned right, which took us through the business class cabin, and then our seats were in the first row of the economy cabin.

The AM Plus seat is an extra legroom economy seat

We booked a standard economy fare, but were able to immediately select the forward-most economy seats in the cabin, which, as I mentioned above, are extra legroom seats to which AeroMexico refers as ‘AM Plus’ seats. This was another perk owing to my Flying Blue Gold status. So, how good is this seat?

As you can see below, the AM Plus seat is an economy seat, so don’t expect any miracles in terms of the seat itself. The seating is 3-3 in this Boeing 737 Max 8, and you’ll find that for the most part, the AM Plus seat is the same as any other economy seat.

Since we were in the bulkhead seat, in front of me was the divider with business class. I was happy that with AeroMexico the TV was placed on the divider in front, rather than extending out of the seat’s arm rest. This means you can watch a movie during taxi, takeoff and landing, whereas an extendable monitor has to be stowed for all of those flight phases.

The seat pocket in front had the usual gamut of stuff, including the emergency procedures card, an inflight magazine and a paper bag. Though this was a short flight, it was nice that AeroMexico provided a blanket as well, which was a standard economy type blanket, and for what its worth, everybody in economy received this.

So what about the legroom? That should be the biggest selling point of AM Plus over standard economy. I’m happy to say that the legroom definitely was noticeably bigger than in standard economy. I had ample space for my legs, to the point that it was also easy to get out to go to the restroom. It’s perhaps not so easy to see on the photo of my own legroom, but looking to the right you get a better sense of how substantial the legroom actually is (though those feet you see belong to a kid, so take that with a grain of salt).

The tray table extends from the arm rest, and is pretty much what you’d expect. Again, this is a feature of a bulkhead seat, as those behind me would have had a table folding down from the seat in front. For me, the table came out folded in half, and could then be extended further to span the entirety of the seat width.

AeroMexico’s Boeing 737 Max 8 has lights and air outlets on the overhead panel, one of each for each passenger in the row.

So overall, AM Plus is exactly what I thought it was going to be: an extra legroom economy. But beware: as I have said in the intro, I have seen this seat described as a premium economy seat, which it really isn’t. If you came on board expecting a ‘true’ premium economy seat, you’d probably be incredibly disappointed.

Departure from New York JFK

Boarding proceeded without any noteworthy events, and after 20-30 minutes all passengers had pretty much boarded. In AM Plus we didn’t receive any special service. Ultimately the boarding door was closed and we departed from the gate right on time. Given the location of Gate A3, aircraft have ti be pushed back quite some ways before there is enough space to position them such that they can be turned. We actually ended up pushing back for probably 10-15 minutes, being placed behind a parked Emirates A380.

Soon after the pilots started the engines and we started to taxi under our own power to runway 22R, where there was a bit of a line. We followed a Delta Boeing 767, and not too long after found ourselves rocketing into the dark, winter’s evening sky.

Not long after takeoff, a flight attendants passed by to provide earphones. I have to say that the design of them is probably one of the worse ones out there. The earpiece is large and blocky, making it an uncomfortable fit to your ear. I would recommend bringing your own!

For the next 25-30 minutes or so there was little service, so that essentially we didn’t interact with any flight attendants until dinner time. The flight otherwise proceeded smoothly and I don’t think in economy you can really expect anything more, to be honest. I will say that the seatbelt sign wasn’t turned off yet by this time, and as it would happen, would stay on for the entirety of the flight. Not sure why, since there was no particularly bumpy weather, so perhaps it’s AeroMexico’s policy? If I ever fly therm again, I’ll report back…

Another thing I thought was interesting. Sitting in front of the cabin, I constantly saw economy class passengers walk forward into the business class cabin to use the lavatory. It struck me that the flight attendants didn’t seem to do anything about it.

Dinner service in AM Plus

Like I said, we didn’t interact with any flight attendants until it was dinnertime, apart from accepting earphones so that we could watch a movie.

I was curious what dinner would be like on this flight, simply because it’s not very long. And to be frank, my experience with US carriers on such routes are usually rather disappointing, as you’d get some snack and a soft drink. My hope was, given that this is a foreign carrier (as in, not from, the US), there;’d be a higher standard for the meal service. And indeed there was!

It turned out that we got a full dinner service, with a hit main, a side salad and a dessert. A selection of soft drinks, juices and alcoholic drinks, such as beer, were also available. For the main, there was a rather standard choice between chicken or pasta, so I took the chicken (the pasta usually is vegetarian). Below you can see the portion: it was a rather massive piece of chicken, and it really wasn’t bad! I actually quite enjoyed the chicken main. The dessert was like a type of crumble cake, and was very tasty as well.

Overall, the meal service was a pleasant surprise. The food portions were generous and good quality – I enjoyed the taste of all provided dishes. I will say that after dinner, the trays weren’t cleared for quite a while. It was only about 45-60 minutes later that these were finally taken away and we could stretch out and relax. When they did so, they did provide a drink refill, which was nice.

Onboard WiFi

After dinner, when the tray was finally cleared, I stretched out ( for as far as possible) and relaxed. I ended up watching a movie for the rest of the flight, but also tried to connect to the Wifi to read some news. To do this, I connected to AeroMexico’s onboard Wifi network, which is provided by ViaSat. There is a card on how to do this in the seatback pocket in front.

First you have to connect to the Wifi network, which is called AeroMexico-WiFi. You’re initially presented with a welcome screen. Pressing ‘Let’s Go’ will take take you to a menu showing various connection options, at different price points.

As you can see, the options cover everything from Free Messaging to a Full Flight pass. I have to say, $5 for 1 hour or $10 for the full flight (it’s 4-5 hours of flight time) are very reasonable, especially given that the ViaSat system is relatively fast. So, if you’d want to pay, I think this is pretty good value. I, on the other hand, was just curious to check the speeds and din’t otherwise pay. I selected the ‘Free WiFi’ option, which provides only 15 minutes of time following the viewing of a brief advertisement.

After you select ‘Free WiFi’, you will get to a screen that asks you watch an ad, which you can see by pressing the ‘Watch’ button. When that closes, you’ll get a green checkmark, telling you you can go online for 15 minutes. At the end of that time, you’d have to reocnnect and watch another ad.

I found the speeds to be pretty good and was able to read some news sites without much issue. I also thought the process for getting connected with simple and intuitive, and the option to get online for free in exchange for watching an ad is a pretty good idea and I wish more airlines would offer that option.

Descent and arrival into Mexico City’s Benito Juarez, MEX

Before long we were flying over Mexico and closing in on Mexico City’s main international airport, Benito Juarez (MEX). Preparations for landing were started to be made about 45 minutes before landing, and at the 35 minute mark flight attendants came by to collect any leftover trash. Meanwhile, as we approached rom the north, we cleared the mountains surrounding the city and saw Mexico City stretch out in front of us.

Having never been to Mexico City before, I didn’t know what to expect, but this place sure stretches on for miles!Reminded me of LA because of that. We ended up flying past the airport, making a 180 and approaching MEX from the south and landing on Runway 5R. We then taxied the long way back to Terminal 2, which is the terminal AeroMexico operates out of at MEX. Here we parked next to another AeroMexico Boeing 737 Max 8.

Summary

I’m always excited to fly with a ‘new’ airline, and AeroMexico had been long on my list of airlines to try. I thought it was a good experience. Thanks to Flying Blue Gold-associated SkyTeam ElitePlus perks, I was able to select an AM Plus seat, which, while sometimes marketed as a premium economy product, really is just an extra legroom economy cabin.

With that in mind, if you think of it as the latter, AM Plus is a nice way to fly. The extra legroom is significant enough to make the experience noticeably more comfortable, though there is little else that differentiates it from standard economy seats, with the seat itself and the service being otherwise identical. However, if you actually think of this as a premium economy product, you’ll definitely be disappointed, since AM Plus has no characteristics at all of premium economy.

Other than that, service is what you’d get in standard economy. Flight attendants were professional, but not particularly friendly. The food was a pleasant surprise: I didn’t know quite what to expect but found portions to be of good size and the food was tasty as well. Overall, I’d be happy to fly AeroMexico again, but probably wouldn’t spend extra to fly AM Plus – only if I’d get it as a perk with SkyTeam Elite Plus status.