FLIGHT & LOUNGE REVIEW: BA First Class to Mexico City Plus Multiple Lounges

Hola Mexico City! 

Despite having been to North and Latin America a number of times, I had never been to Mexico. So when an opportunity came up to hop over to Mexico City in British Airways’ top cabin for a reasonable amount of Avios, my flight was booked before I knew it! 

Heathrow T5 mini lounge-hop 

So a little while ago I meandered my way through Heathrow’s T5, stopping for an hour or so in the Concorde lounge – which I do always enjoy (especially the Terrace and the quaint nose cone).

– as well as around 60 minutes in the B-gates BA lounge. It may seem odd to spend time in that lounge over Concorde, but beyond the simple geographical benefit, in my humble opinion, it really is an under-appreciated and lovely little lounge, thanks to it generally always being quieter with less footfall, thoughtful open spaces, and more recently a bump up in the food offering too. 

Anyway, all too soon it was a short walk to the gate, where we boarded pretty well in groups. (The return, as is often the case for BA when departing away from the home terminal, was less ordered sadly). 

Find out more about BA lounges here.

Old First, old service? 

My flight was in an Boeing 787, which was the older BA First layout. Having been fortunate enough to have recently experienced the slightly more modern First – which has the famed door, a larger TV screen and generally sharper furnishings – this is definitely not quite at the same level. So I was hoping to have a top service on my 10 hour day flight from London’s Heathrow. 

Frankly, however, it was all a little lack-lustre. The crew were perfectly fine and didn’t do anything wrong per se, but compared to the charisma and nuanced service from the crew on a previous First flight (from LHR to JFK which you can read about here), this was rather dreary by comparison. For example, there were enough walk-bys and proactive top-ups, but they felt a bit cool and box-tick in some way, and even during the Purser welcome and Gold recognition chin-wag there was no attempt to engage in the way that some of the best BA crews seem to do so naturally. 

I could be veering well out of my swim lane here, but it feels like there are two levels of First in operation at BA; one on the top routes (as above to NYC) and then to those which are more clearly b-zone destinations. Totally fair in some way, as ultimately this is all about economics, but having had both experiences within a few months, the comparison did feel a little jarring. 

Flat for 10 hours 

That said, the seat was still lovely (and I do actually prefer the older-skool blind-style window shade on old First), the food was delish, and the amenity bag, PJs and drinks menu are all really very solid. 

The cabin was full on the outbound, though given a few days out it was only showing half the seats were taken, I suppose most were upgraded fairly late notice from Club in some manner. (I returned in Club on a night flight, so didn’t notice how busy First was, but I have previously noted that the Mexico route has pretty decent Avios availability across much of the year, and especially in First). 

Sights, sounds, colours and views 

When I did land in Mexico, it was straight into the bustle of the city for a few days of relaxing and sightseeing. I secured a lovely room at the delightful Ritz Carlton Mexico City courtesy of another points redemption (hotel review out tomorrow), and managed to tick off some fun sites, including the Teotihuacán Pyramids (about 50 min Uber depending where you’re staying), the Xochimilco colourful boats on the city-centre canals, and the leafy main park and architecturally-fascinating old town. 

Lounging around in MEX’s T1 

However, I want to focus on my lounges experience in Mexico’s Benito Juárez International Airport  

(MEX) for the return leg. This is because I managed to spend a little time in three of them, with varying degrees of success. 

The first was AmEx’s Centurion Lounge. The main thing to note here is that this is before security (on the left as you face it). For me, this is a major downside, as clearly it is tough to relax without knowing that you are through most of the hoops before you hit up a jetbridge and settle into your seat. 

Centurion greatness 

With this in mind, this team are more than aware that they need to up their game to compete, and boy do they do this. Firstly the service in the lounge.

From the lovely friendly welcome at reception when the doors slide open to reveal the classic Centurion entryway, to the attentive and ‘just right’ level of observation from the staff in the a-la-carte dining room (even when busy), they were all great and a credit to American Express. 

Beyond the service, the lounge also does well in other more subtle ways. For example, it is open pretty late (to 11pm, which was handy given my 10pm flight was delayed to 11.20pm), and it also has a spa. A rarity in these post-covid times, and while I didn’t partake (see above re can’t-quite-relax-until-after-security), it even offered nail and hair treatments, plus some free options too [see pic for details]. 

The food too was very decent. For example, my rigatoni pasta was actually laid out piece by piece, my salmon and couscous was fresh and flavoursome. 

Admirals amateurness 

After filling up I exited and headed to the BA-recommended lounge – the Admirals lounge. It is upstairs on the second floor (next to United’s lounge) and note there is only one (slow) lift.

The difference was day and night, with bland seating and decor, floors more like a school or hospital corridor, and only a small food counter with some average-at-best warm options (e.g. meatballs), none of which was massively well presented or appetising. 

From there it was a 5-minute walk to the gate, and more by chance than anything I passed the Priority Pass option, which was called the Grand Lounge Elite. It actually looked fun and comfortable – for example, from reception, you can see a large moon lander model – but I hadn’t pre-registered, so I wasn’t allowed in. Rookie error! 

Club swaps before hometime 

As mentioned I returned by Club (World not Suites), which was ok. The crew were a little surly (and noisy in the galley – always a frustration on a night flight!) but more interesting than that was that it seems a few folks got upgraded from PE to Club and Club to First. One of these was from a lady who had been in Club and had asked for an aisle seat as she said she wasn’t tall enough to climb over someone from a window seat. 

She was super chuffed with her First ticket, and if that wasn’t enough, when I was settled in to my seat (purposefully chosen in the smaller quieter Club cabin, against a bulkhead and a window seat), a mother and daughter came to ask if I could swap with them as they had been upgraded, but weren’t sitting with a third family member. I asked what seat they had and it was at least another window, so I made the swap and had a decent sleep without too much trouble. 

All in all I rated Mexico City, especially as the weather was decent enough and my hotel was ace. Another one ticked off, so now it’s off to plant some trees and find the next left-for-less deal (!)