Aeroméxico 787 long haul from Mexico City: the Madrid and Amsterdam patterns, the pay in pesos with dollar allowances and how the altitude changes the day

Aeroméxico, Mexico City, three years, 787 long haul to Europe, and the Aeroméxico thread on here is a paragraph. Here is the long haul from the Mexican flag carrier, from inside.

The long haul network

787-8 and 787-9 from Mexico City to Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, and a South America component to Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Santiago and Bogotá on the 787s and 737 MAXs. The Europe flying is the core and the crew bid it hard.

The patterns

Mexico City to Madrid is around 11 hours out, a 24 to 48 hour layover, and back. Amsterdam and Paris similar. Tokyo is longer with a longer layover. The trips are three to five days with a real layover in a European city, and the allowances are paid in dollars or euros, which is the whole story of the pay.

The pay

Basic in pesos, under the ASSA union agreement (Aeroméxico cabin crew are unionised and the agreement is public in Mexico), which is a decent Mexican salary. Layover allowances in the destination currency, which for the Europe flying means euros, and that is what makes a long haul month worth two domestic months. The exchange rate has moved in the crew's favour for years. The crew who hold Europe live well by Mexico City standards. The crew on domestic live carefully.

The altitude

Mexico City is at 2,240 metres. Everything is harder: the boarding on a hot afternoon, the walk to a remote stand, the first hours of a duty. New crew from the coast take weeks to adjust. The aircraft performance limits mean the 787s sometimes leave with restrictions on hot days and the crew know the operational conversation. The layover in Madrid at sea level feels like a holiday for the lungs.

The service

Premier class (the business cabin) with lie flats and a full service, a premium economy on some aircraft, and an economy with a meal service. The Mexican hospitality is the brand and the crew are warm in a way European passengers respond to. The Madrid and Amsterdam flights carry a lot of Mexican families and a lot of European business travellers, and the crew switch registers constantly.

The culture

Unionised, proud, with a long history and the memory of the pandemic restructuring. The crew room is Mexican in the best way: loud, warm, food everywhere. The seniority system decides the good trips and the Europe flying goes to the mid seniority and up. New joiners do domestic and the US routes first.

For Mexican applicants

Aeroméxico is the long haul option in Mexico. Volaris and Viva are the entry doors and the sector count machines. The path from Viva to Aeroméxico exists and Hector's thread describes it. The 787 to Madrid is why people do it. The altitude is why they are tired.