Over Christmas, my husband and I visited Mexico City. This was the first time for both of to visit Mexico, and we were quite excited! We had booked our flights there and back with points, which I described in detail previously. Briefly, 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, and were also able to enter the Delta Sky Club near Gate A8 at New York JFK’s Terminal 4, before the flight.

For our flight back, Mexico City MEX back to New York-JFK, we booked flights through Alaska’s Atmos, flying an American Airlines Boeing 737, for 12.500 points plus $106.02 per person. Thanks to our flights on Singapore Airlines to Bangkok, we were able to get Alaska Atmos Silver status, and this allowed us to pick front-row economy cabin seats, marketed by American Airlines as ‘Main Cabin Extra’. Before our flight we were able to visit two lounges. The first one, the Admirals Club at MEX’s Terminal 1, I already reviews a few days ago. Here, I will now review the Grand Lounge Elite at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez MEX< Terminal 1.

Briefly, this lounge was an interesting experience. There are several spaces with very different design, all of which are a little odd. The food ranged from the okay buffet to a menu of served dishes that one can order from the menu. For that matter, attendants make rounds that can serve drinks from the bar. Further, the lounge was quite clean, had a variety of comfortable seating options, and availability of a shower can be a perk for some as well.

1. Location and Hours
2. Access Requirements
3. Seating and Design
4. Food and Drinks
5. Restrooms and Showers
6. Summary

Location and Hours

The lounge is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, although when we were there it seemed like they stopped allowing passengers to enter around 11pm, and were waiting for us to leave for our flight.

Finding the lounge is not so easy, as Terminal 1 undergoing a big remodel ahead of the 2026 FIFA world cup, so many of the corridors are under construction. We entered through the international departures security checkpoint J, which is the one that is furthest north in the terminal. it would have been a quicker walk had we entered through security checkpoint G.

If you’re coming from J, take a right and gho straight, through the angled corridor to gate 27, then turn right and follow the corridor until you’re in front of Gate 19. Here, take the corridor that is just opposiyte of the gate, by waiting area H. There will be plants along the left wall of it. At the end of that corridor, take a right and go along the escalator with the glass wall, as below.

At the end of the corridor you’ll see the Grand Lounge Elite to your right, with a stylish wooden feature on the wall, and glass doors. Head in to find the reception desk on your left.

Access Requirements

There are a variety of method to enter not just the Grand Lounge Elite, but also some of the other lounges that are part of this network:

• Priority Pass: This is also how we entered the lounge, complimentary with the Citibank Strata Elite and many other cards.
• Visa Infinite, Platinum or Signature card: Only for Visa cards issued in Mexico, with some restrictions on the number of visits depending on which type of card you have.
• Lounge Key Membership: Somewhat similar to Priority Pass, Lounge Key membership gets you access.
• Diners Club Card: holding a Diners Club card will grant access.
• Business class passengers of select airlines: This lounge is used as a contract lounge for premium passengers of Air France, KLM, ANA, Iberia, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, China Southern Airlines or Hainan Airlines. Note that Air France La Premiere passengers (Air France international first class) get access to a separate suite.
• Purchase a pass: You can purchase access by reservation of walk-in. A pass costs $47 per person.

Seating and Design

Upon entering the reception desk will be immediately to your left. The reception is in a larger room that includes a barista of sorts and some other seating. From here you can also go left, into an adjacent room with the bar and the buffet, or you can go to a room that adjoins to the right, which largely has seating.

The space you find yourself in after checking in with the reception has a rather eclectic design, that seems to be in a space theme. So, straight ahead was a large, lighted picture of the moon. To the left was seating area enclosed by a lattice framework, which was quite nice and provided some privacy. In front of the lighted moon was some further seating, while separated from that seating area by a metallic structure of sorts was a customer service desk. This seemed to be unstaffed, however. Adjacent to the customer service desk were several suite-like enclosed spaces with comfortable couches and lounge chairs. I did not go into one of these as there was a ‘reserved’ sign.

What I haven’t shown yet is the structure that is dominating this entire room: while maybe not a replica, there was a space capsule parked in the center of everything. It had some chairs by it, and it seemed like you could go inside, though it wasn’t clear if that required payment or something. While kind of cool, I mostly thought this was a rather strange thing to put in a lounge.

And then, there is the barista as well. This little coffee bar is by the lounge entrance, right across from the reception desk. I call it a barista because it seemed the staff msotly made their hot drinks at this place, including teas and coffees.

This is actually something worth calling out: the Grand Elite Lounge has wait staff that go around the lounge and offer to bring food and drinks. This menu I will discuss later, but here on the pictures you can see one of the staff going around with a tray with drinks.

If you follow the people walking past the barista, you’ll end up in an adjacent room. The room is quite large and setup with a lot of space between the couches and chairs. While I appreciate how spacious the room has been setup, I also find it rather odd, because to me it ended up feeling empty, mostly. But as you can see, there are some chairs by the wall, couches by the windows (frosted for privacy, as beyond those windows is just a hallway), and then a series of chairs to the left, in the center and in the back of the space.

The chairs and couches are all mroe or less the same, but I thought they were comfortable. The main thing that is lacking in this space are electrical plugs. I found only a handful along the walls. I think some more decoration would have also been welcome, especially along the walls, and perhaps some plants.

Leaving this space and crossing through the room with the space capsule and barista, you cna go straight ahead and end up in the final room. This space is the smallest one of the three, but does feature seating areas, a bar and the buffet. The seating areas are all on the right of the little corridor that gains you entrance to the room. The seats here feature lounge chairs with faux leather upholstering

To the left are the bar and buffet, which feature a dark, faux marble countertop. The bar takes up a lot of space, but wasn’t necessarily staffed. I’ll get into the details of the food and drinks offerings next.

Overall, the lounge has a very strange of mix of aesthetics, changing from room to room. One room has a ton of space-themed decorations, whereas the other has little to no actual decoration. Still, much of the seating was comfortable and the spacing between seats made for a much less crowded feel, which was welcome (compare that with the MEX Terminal 1 Admirals Club, where all the seats are are placed right next to one another!). I did really miss power outlets, as these were only available by a handful of chairs and couches.

Food and Drinks

The Grand Elite Lounge has an interesting mix of complimentary and at-a-charge food and drinks, and self-serve facilities on the one hand, and restaurant-style service on the other. Attendants (waiters?) walk around with whom you can order things and they then also bring it to you. In fact, short of walking up to the bar or barista, they are the only other means of getting drinks as there are didn’t seem to be any drink stations at the lounge.

The buffet is located in the room adjacent to where you enter, just take a left after you pass the reception, and then immediately left again when you enter the room. You’ll see the large horseshoe-shaped buffet there.

Starting on the right, you’ll find a variety of cold options, including cold cuts and cheese. Then there is a variety of breads, including buns, what looks like savory pastries, and also some fruits.

Next, under a glass cover and kept cold by a coldplate there are a variety of salads and fruits. These ranges from a ham pasta salad to a garden salad, as well as but pieces of (water)melon.

Then coming around the bend on the other side of the horseshoe-shaped buffet are the hot options, These included two soups and a pasta carbonara-type affair. There was one hot plate empty, mind you, so I assume there was a fourth option earlier in the evening, before we arrived.

Overall, I found the buffet rather uninspiring. I’d say the spread is perhaps a little above average for what you might expect in a Priority Pass lounge, but my hopes were higher for one located in Mexico, given how Mexico is known for food. I already mentioned this, but I wish there was at least a single drink station. Like in the Admirals Club at MEX Terminal 1, it seems all drinks come from the barista or bar.

Besides the buffet, there was also an actual menu that you could order from. I didn’t discover this until much later, when I saw an attendant provide one of these to a guest that had just arrived in the lounge. Ultimately I found them stacked by the barista, so I had a look. One thing to note is that there is a complimentary section, and there is a section that’s at a charge. The latter seems to be an elevated selection over the complimentary, with higher quality or specialty coffees, alcoholic drinks and foods, and I imagine portion sizes are bigger as well. What’s confusing is that the foods always are associated with a price, even if they seem to be in the section with complimentary items. Though note these are Mexican Pesos, not Dollars. I saw some of the food that came out and thought it looked decent, but as you might expect these prices are on the high side for what you might expect to pay in Mexico City.

The items at a charge are listed following the complimentary choices (even if you still have to pay for the food, it seems). As mentioned, these tend to be options that are elevated over the prior foods and drinks, and include a wider range of options.

Overall, I thought the complimentary food options, which essentially consists of the buffet, to be fine. Elevated food options are at a charge, which, while not terrible, still is at a higher price point. It’s nice that there is a selection of drinks like this, offering both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options from the bar, and a barista for coffees and teas. I wish there was a drink station so you could get some basic options without needing to interact with the attendants, because I did feel that they were a little slow.

Restrooms and Showers

The restrooms and showers are accessible through the same room that has the buffet and bar. Just turn right as you enter the space, and head through the passageway, then turn right into the corridor to get to the restrooms. Now, I wasn’t able to get to the showers as these were occupied, but they would have been a left turn rather than a right turn.

Having turned right, get to the end of the corridor to egt to the restroom doors. Again these have the space theme, but it’s a rather awkward design that has zero connection to the areas immediately surrounding it. The men’s restroom otherwise has quite a nice design, to be honest. There’s two sinks to the left, urinals to the right, and one toilet stall through the wooden door in the back.

The toilet stall was clean and has all the essentials, same with the urinals. Nut sure why they used the frosted glass for dividers – I’d think an opaque material would be preferred. But, at least these were very clean and well-maintained.

Although I wasn’t able to see the showers, my husband used it and said it was adequate. Otherwise, while the restrooms are on the small side with only one stall, at least it was very clean and well-maintained.

Summary

My husband and I visited the Grand Elite Lounge at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez (MEX) Terminal 1, right after having visited the American Admirals Club in the same Terminal, a few floors up. The Grand Elite Lounge is a Priority Pass lounge with all the essentials, as well as restaurant-style service with attendants with which you can order complimentary and at-a-charge food and drinks. There is also a bar, a barista and a buffet, with the buffet being the complimentary food options, and other foods to order at a charge.

The design of the lounge was odd but not offensive or anything, with every room having a different visual feel. Space featured strongly throughout, but was also entirely absent from one of the rooms. I also thought seating could have been arranged more efficiently, though I don’t dislike the space between seats either, but it did feel a little empty here and there. Electrical plugs were few and far between, and I’d say the lack of those is my only actual complaint, because all in ll, I think the Grand Lounge Elite is pretty good for a Priority Pass lounge, and probably better then the Admirals Club.