Glad to see you guys are back and found time in your busy travel schedules for me.
Today is the start of a big trip departing from Mexico City and cross countrying across to Atlanta-Georgia, where we will transit on to another flight to cross the Atlantic heading south easterly to my home country, South Africa. We will specifically be going to Johannesburg, in the Gauteng province. Delta has been bestowed the honour of being our royal chariot on our travels and my goodness do I have a tale of despair for YOU!
Let’s get straight into it!
Mexico City Airport
Mexico City Airport, it’s official name goes as Benito Juarez International Airport, however I prefer “Benito Juarez MAYHEMport”. This is officially the worst airport I have ever departed, transited and arrived in to. I can proudly say, airports in Africa, can outshine this disgrace for a country’s largest hub airports.
“What’s wrong with it?” you may ask…..EVERYTHING. And that is not an exaggeration fellow travellers, it really is everything. The airport was first built in 1928 but has since faced issues with maintenance, overcrowding, staffing, security and efficiency. The airport serves as a hub for Aeromexico which is almost as useless as the airport itself, but we shall leave that for another time. The entire traffic network around the airport is chaotic, poor signage, lack of control over cars and taxis parking, lack of directions and a lot of unnecessary stopping which simply delays passengers. The terminals have some, close to no signage (be prepared for a lot of hand written signs), staff do not speak English and cannot direct you as they themselves are confused, there is construction everywhere as they are constantly patching up areas, there is hardly any seating, the terminals are dirty, I can be certain in telling you that no matter where you go there will be a queue since the airport is understaffed, the selection of restaurants and food stores are poor and expensive. This is just the tip of the iceberg, I hope to maybe one day do an entire post on this airport with pictures and all the reasons I recommend you avoid it at all costs.
There was a plan to change to a brand new airport that would cater for higher capacities and better situate the airport relative to Mexico City, however due to corruption, funding and poor planning, the plans fell and the new airport was never built.
Check In
Coming to the Delta check in area, situated in Terminal 2, there are two staff at the entrance of the hall to check your passport and expect to be asked to show proof that you are actually flying with the airline. After that, you may join the relevant queue, or use the provided self service kiosks. I decided to join the queue and arrived at the front to a gentleman who spoke fairly good English. He began checking me in, however he informed me that he was unable to check my bags all the way to Johannesburg and he explained that I would be required to pick up my bags in Atlanta and find an agent to recheck them in with new tags. I was rather disappointed to hear this considering all my flights were on one booking, I was flying Premium Economy, I was going to travel through Delta’s hub airport and yet they still could not tag my bags all the way. Despite this, he was still able to give me my boarding pass for the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg which seemed really strange to me. For this trip, I am travelling with a wheelchair passenger and therefore a wheelchair was waiting at the check in desk with a smiling Wheelchair assistance. The check in agent explained that he did not speak English, however he would explain to him which gate to take us to and we would have to sit and wait there. I asked if it would be possible for me to push the wheelchair myself and leave it at the boarding gate, but apparently this is against the Mexico City airport policy and that was the end of that.
Security
Going through security was long, the airport staff are extremely slow, flag almost every bag and they have an inventory of over 8 metal detectors, but only utilize 4. None of the staff speak English and are not friendly at all.
I was forced to go through the regular security line while my wheelchair passengers were allowed to skip through on the side and they waited at the end for me.
Our wheelchair assistant took a brisk walk to our gate where we were forced to wait for an hour until the flight began boarding. He dropped us off and told us he would return when it was boarding time. After speaking to some other wheelchair passengers, apparently this is standard procedure, you get dropped off at your gate and have to wait however many hours remain until your flight’s boarding time.
Boarding
We’d be departing from Gate 62 at Terminal 2 on DL590. Scheduled departure is at 05:50, so the boarding process begins at 05:25.
The agents were efficient, and the aircraft was ready as soon as we arrived at the door. The flight crew were friendly for that time of the morning and were swift to help passengers secure their bags in the overhead bins and get them seated quickly.
Towards the end of boarding, it was evident that there were too many bags in the cabin and not enough space in the overhead space. Now this is a common problem developing nowadays and I think airlines need to be wayyyy more firm on the cabin allowance. There were passengers walking on with wheelies, backpacks and a laptop bag and they insisted on stowing it in the overhead. I think it is really ridiculous and airlines need to instil policies because the result of this is that passengers like me who come with one piece that contains my clothing, laptop and small amenities, get their bags squashed and risk their personal items getting damaged. Of course, the airline does not take responsibility for any damage caused in the overhead bins because of another passenger.
Once boarding was completed, the crew began their introductions, safety briefing and announcement. They were all really friendly, chirpy and cracked a lot of jokes in both English and Spanish. I really enjoyed their enthusiasm, it was refreshing and there was some great hospitality from Delta. Kudos to the crew!
Seat
So there are a total of 36 seats in Delta’s Comfort Plus cabin on board the 737-800. The seat is a comfortable width of 44 cm(17.3 in) and pitch of 86 cm (34 in), has an in seat USB Power source, an in seat Power Outlet, a personal video entertainment screen, satellite TV and of course the aircraft is equipped with onboard Wifi.
The seat cushioning is sufficient, it’s not great and it’s not bad. Delta has a Dark Blue, Grey Hues and Red accents for a colour scheme. The fabrics colours are well coordinated, neatly stitched and give you a modern feeling to the cabin.
There is a folding armrest on the side of all seats, including the window. Unfortunately the headrest is not adjustable. Overall the seat gives a good amount of support for your back and legs, however I think it lacks head support with the missing cushioning and adjustability on the headrest.
The seat materials still feel fresh and clean considering the age of this fleet. Delta has done a fairly good job at keeping these cabins updated, clean, fresh and modern. The only complaint I might have and it is rather minor, is the screen. The rotating mechanism was a little flimsy and the entire design feels outdated but it’s not major and is still perfectly functional so I really cannot fault them greatly on this.
The aircraft seat configurations are in rows of 3. It’s the standard when on-board a 737 and is nothing unexpected.
The in-flight entertainment system was pretty impressive. It contains a huge selection of movies, series, Live TV feeds containing several news and sports channels, a 3D map, an aircraft information screen, a Kids section, games, Food & Drink menu, an about delta page, feedback page and a help page. All pages were detailed, working as intended and overall very user friendly.
So in terms of power, the aircraft is lacking a little bit. There are a total of two plug in chargers underneath your seat, it has a wall plug style port and a USB port. It is located in a rather terrible location as reaching it and being able to see it is really difficult to do. The other issue is when another passenger has something plugged in, it is possible that you might not be able to plug anything as their charger is in the way of the extra USB port. This is a rather significant flaw in the design of this seat and I think this was Delta’s way to create a quick and cheap upgrade to their fleet but I really hope this gets changed. The minimum they could do is move its location to the seat in front of you, that way you can actually see where you’re trying to plug into. That’s the bare minimum. They could go further and fit the ports underneath the entertainment screen but I doubt this will happen unless they are upgrading the entire entertainment screen system.
In front of us was a large seat pocket that was indeed clean and contained some safety cards as well as a barf bag. On top of that is the tray table which was firm, folded and locked into position without difficulty and was a good size for when enjoying your snack. I was able to use my laptop comfortably on it. Of course it is not possible to maneuver out of your seat while the tray table is down, but that’s expected on a 737.
In terms of legroom, I’d say Delta is on the more spacious side of the spectrum. I am 175cm tall and I was perfectly comfortable through this flight. If you don’t have a bag under the seat in front of you, there is tons of space to stretch out in front of you and relax. Now the recline on this seat is pretty surprising, but it also means that when your fellow passenger in front you reclines, it can be rather unpleasant. I think this design of a big recline is great for long and short haul night flights, but on these early morning and midday hops, it just creates a problem because some are sleeping and some are not, and if the person in front of you is sleeping and you are not, well now we have space problems and uncomfortable passengers. I think this is a luck based problem and can’t really consider this a complaint.
Included in your seat area is a reading light, an adjustable air vent and a service call button. I used this call button twice and to be honest I was disappointed. The crew are split, there are crew in the front for First Class/Business Class passengers and separate crew for Main Cabin and Comfort Plus. I was seated two rows from the front of the Comfort Plus cabin and therefore the First Class/Business Class crew could see my service light on, but chose to ignore it and I had to wait approximately 4 minutes for a crew member from the back of the plane to decide to do a random check on passenger and he noticed my service light on. This is disappointing, when flying short haul in Europe or the Middle East, if there isn’t currently a meal service happening and you press a service button, the crew responds immediately. And the First Class/Business class crew could have come to me and said “Hey, give me a second while I call a crew member from the back” but instead chose to ignore it on the multiple walks they did past my row. Sorry Delta, but it’s a low score from me on crew response.
For this short flight, there are no amenities given, no pillow, blanket or amenity bag. The most you’re going to get is complimentary earphones to use for a movie. They were good enough, nothing great or worth talking about.
Thankfully Delta does offer in flight wifi throughout the flight. The speeds and efficiency blew me away. I was able to load a Youtube video while in the air, this was amazing considering it was accessible to all Skymiles members. Really impressive Delta!
The crew were all really friendly, chirpy and cracked a lot of jokes in both English and Spanish. They clearly announced which crew members could speak Spanish and which ones could not and I think on flights like these, it’s really important and I give them great credit for bringing awareness to the passengers early. Throughout the flight they offered a warm smile and spoke in a calming and friendly tone. The only thing I’d say they lacked was a little speed and attentiveness. Their responses to service call bells were slow and they did not frequently make walks down the aisle to check on passengers. Overall I really enjoyed their funny enthusiasm, it was refreshing and there was some great hospitality from Delta with their personalities. So it was not all bad.
That right there ladies and gentleman, concludes my review of the Delta Comfort Plus from Mexico City to Atlanta. I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to tune in next week as we continue my crazy adventure from Mexico to South Africa with Delta! Boy do I have some spicy stories after arriving into Atlanta hehehehe