In September, a member of the Simple Flying team flew roundtrip from São Paulo - Aeroporto
Internacional de Guarulhos to Miami International Airport via Mexico City Airport.
This journey was completed with the SkyTeam alliance airline Aeromexico.
Our lucky traveler had originally purchased an economy fare, but the wonderful Aeromexico
staff at Sao Paulo upgraded them to their Clase Premier after boarding.
This is what the airline calls its business class product.
Considering our review had never flown Aeromexico before,their trip was off to a great start!
So let’s take a look at the premium class journey with today’s video!
The flight in question had flight number AM15.
This service departs Sao Paulo Guarulhos at 10:20 local time each day.
Just one other airline operates direct service between Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
This is LATAM Brasil, which uses either a Boeing 767-300ER or a 787-9.
Arriving at the airport roughly 90 minutes before the flight without any bags to check,
our reviewer went directly to the international departures in terminal 2 since they had checked
in with their smartphone and obtain a mobile boarding pass.
Going through security and immigration took no more than 10 minutes in total.
All passengers departing Brazil must go through immigration upon departure, and there are
kiosks available for Brazilian citizens to make the process even smoother.
Our flight departed from gate 241, which had a small seating area.
For background, a new terminal was built at G.R.U.
for international flights, but for some reason, Aeromexico's operations have continued at
terminal 2, which is older.
Unfortunately, we were unable to capture any photos of the gate area.
That’s because our reviewer was unexpectedly allowed to board the aircraft before all the
other passengers and was rushed to avoid interrupting the boarding process.
Once onboard the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner we were given the chance to walk around the cabin
and photograph the interior freely.
While we didnt get the exact aircraft registration of this flight’s aircraft, we can say that
Aeromexico has a fleet of 10 Boeing 787-9 aircraft with an average age of just over
five years.
These aircraft are configured with 36 seats in business class, and another 238 in economy.
For more about the Aeromexico fleet, or to check out a flight review of Aeromexico’s
economy class on a 737 MAX, be sure to check out the other videos on this channel!
But, moving on, the plane had arrived that morning at 08:00.
With boarding taking place about an hour prior to the official departure time, this gave
crews about an hour to turn the jet around and prepare it for new passengers.
Within this time, the 787 had been cleaned, stocked with food and drink from the catering
team, and prepared for departure.
On every seat was a blanket and pillow for the approximately 9 and a half hour flight
to Mexico City airport.
Being given this special privilege of boarding first, we can’t comment on the airline’s
boarding process.
However, from inside the aircraft, the boarding process seemed to be very smooth as the flight
had plenty of open seats.
Our traveler was originally seated at the economy class seat of 24K.
However, after a few minutes after boarding had commenced, they were approached by one
of the gate agents who told them that they had been given an upgrade to seat 8A.
This new seat was located in Clase Premier, Aeromexico's business class, which is set
in a 1-2-1 configuration.
With this great offer extended, our reviewer quickly put their bags in the overhead bin
and sat down as the crew had already begun passing out welcome drinks.
There were three options served for welcome-drinks: Champagne, orange juice, and water.
A short time after getting seated, the crew came by and took removed glasses in preparation
for departure.
The crew gave its safety demonstration as the aircraft began to push back from the gate.
A few minutes later, the aircraft was airborne and headed for Mexico City.
At around 11:30 local time, the lunch service began.
The first part of this service was the offer of a beverage.
The menu for the flight was available on the inflight entertainment systems.
However, our flight reviewer was unaware of this until being informed closer to the aircraft’s
descent.
However, the lunch menu was as follows:
The Entree was Emmental and Brie cheese, zucchini spaghetti with mozarella.
The Salad was a simple green salad.
The Main dish came down toa choice of short rib with wine sauce and vegetables or chicken
with mushroom sauce, vegetables, and a selection of bread.
And finally, Dessert was down to a choice of brigadeiros (a Brazilian chocolate dessert),
dulce de leche, or strawberry ice cream.
Our traveler selected the short rib as their main dish.
This was tender, and the wine sauce paired perfectly with it.
For dessert, the dulce de leche ice cream was requested.
However, we asked if it would be possible to take a photo of the brigadeiros for the
flight review.
The fantastic crew ended up placing the brigadeiros on the tray table, and thus we had two desserts
- nothing to complain about whatsoever!
Everything was cleaned up one hour after the lunch service began, and the cabin lights
were dimmed.
For our traveller, it meant it was time for a nap before getting to work and writing for
Simple Flying.
Bedding and a pillow were provided, but neither were used.
After napping, it was time to get to work.
The crew had given out two-hour WiFi vouchers for every client in business class, and so
we decided to take advantage of the free pass, as WiFi for the entire flight was upwards
of $30.
To the disappointment of our flight reviewer, the WiFi was ridiculously slow and often stopped
working.
Attempting to run multiple speed tests, several of which failed, we can say that no test logged
higher than 3mbps.
One of the unique features of Aeromexico's Dreamliners is something known as Espacio
Premier.
This is a small bar with food and drink available for all business class passengers during the
flight.
The beverages included an assortment of alcoholic drinks, coffees (from an espresso machine),
sodas, and water.
The food options included sandwiches, fruit and vegetable trays, chocolate-covered strawberries,
and cereal bars.
For our traveler, most of the flight was spent awake and working, and it seemed most business
class passengers did not take advantage of the bar.
At 18:00, the second meal service began.
Aeromexico called this second service the quote-unquote "refreshment," which felt more
like a light meal.
The menu was as follows:
Appetizer: Greek salad and bread
Main dishes were a choice between bacon and spinach quiche or a smoked salmon and cream
cheese.
However, the latter was apparently unavailable.
Dessert consisted of a fruit tart.
The "refreshment" was the perfect option for the time of day.
The quiche and fruit tart tasted delightful, and Aeromexico did a fantastic job with its
catering and service.
The business class seat is the same seat American Airlines has on its widebody aircraft and
offers plenty of space for each passenger.
Along the side of the seat, area are two storage compartments: one large enough to fit an iPad.
This large compartment also has a universal power outlet along with the remote for the
IFE screen, should anyone prefer handheld controls over the touchscreen.
The footwell has space to store a pair of shoes should the passenger choose to remove
them while the seat is also equipped with a reading light located near the headrest
(when the seat is in its upright position).
Overall, our traveler thoroughly enjoyed their very first experience with Aeromexico.
For the, everything from the staff and service to the catering and the aircraft was a positive
experience.
From the moment they first encountered Aeromexico's staff at the gate at Sao Paulo, they felt
like a valued customer.
Onboard, the crew was very welcoming and went out of their way to chat and even make some
jokes.
The food service was excellent; perhaps better than the service received on equivalent classes
offered by the big three American carriers when flying to Brazil.
There were only two negative things to note.
Firstly, was the slow inflight internet speed and the second was the languages spoken onboard.
Throughout the flight, there wasn’t a single announcement in Portuguese, the native tongue
of the country the flight departed from.
In fact, all announcements were made in Spanish and English.
While these are both languages our reviewer could understand, you might have expected
at least a few pre-recorded announcements for Brazilians whose dominant language was
Portuguese.
On every international flight our review has taken, there is always someone who speaks
the languages of the origin and destination, which was not the case for this particular
Aeromexico service.
Overall, we would recommend Aeromexico to anyone considering flying long-haul with the
airline and would probably even choose it over the big three American carriers when
flying down to Brazil!
What do you think of this review?
Would you ever try this class of service with Aeromexico?
Let us know by leaving a comment.