We just learned that our connecting flight from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido early Saturday morning was cancelled, and we now have a seven-hour layover in Mexico City. Normally I would just check our bags through and tour around the city a bit, but our inbound flight leaves Chicago at 2 am and arrives in Mexico City around 5 am, and that is not something I am keen on doing on zero sleep.
So what are our options to get some sleep in Mexico City in the middle of the day? I am pretty pissed off at Delta/Aeromexico at the short notice…it looks like there is a capsule hotel in the airport but it’s one capsule per person? And the airport Hilton is sold out. Normally I do my homework ahead of time, but what is our best option for somewhere in or near the airport where we can snooze a bit so the first day of our vacation isn’t a total writeoff? I am fluent in Spanish and happy to grab a cab, etc. if needed, but would prefer to keep it simple and close to the airport. Otherwise, we could switch our flights to travel via Atlanta Friday night and have a layover there, but Tom_Scud isn’t thrilled at a 3-leg itinerary leaving not much time for sleep, either, and increasing the chance of lost luggage.
Thoughts? I haven’t been in Mexico City proper since 1982, but I was 13 years old then and not in charge of organizing things.
The nice thing about the Airport in Mexico City is that it’s actually in Mexico City. If you want to book a hotel nearby, the Hilton isn’t your only option. Seems kind of a waste for a, what? 3 or 4 hour nap? I’d see how much it is to buy into a first class lounge. If you have an AmEx card, that sometimes gets you a discount. It would almost certainly be less than a room.
I am not going to be able to sleep in an airport lounge with people running around. Also, we are still pretty COVID-cautious in public indoor spaces, and that’s another reason I want a room with a door that shuts. A shower would be a definite bonus.
I would just book a nearby hotel other than the Hilton, but am trying to figure out how to do that during the hours that are normally between checkout time and check-in time. I might just land, do a quick Kayak search, and then call the front desk of the nearest decent-looking place and see if they have a room available RIGHT THEN.
looks like 2 people need 2 capsules, though, and there are shared bathrooms, and you can’t reserve except for overnight stays. I would prefer something more peaceful.
Mexico City opened a second airport last year, so we need to make sure we’re all talking about the same Mexico City Airport. Presumably your flights are via MEX (old airport), not NLU (new airport).
There is a full scale Marriott hotel inside the terminal at MEX. We often stay there on short nights. The breakfast is very nice. From when you clear incoming national security it’s about a 200 yard walk inside the terminal building. When you’re done sleeping there, it’s about a 200 yard walk to the outbound security. Courtyard Mexico City Airport
Both ways you’re passing through the food court where a bunch of mom’n’pop taquierias can fix you up with local yummies most any time of day or night.
Professionally speaking, you can’t beat the convenience or the quality. It is much better than the in-terminal Hilton. If you just want to crash for a few hours with no wasted time or hassle, this is totally the hot set-up.
Thank you, that sounds pretty perfect under the circumstances! Hopefully they will have a room available…maybe I will give them a call and see what they can tell me.
Just a word about hotels being ‘booked out’: If you are checking availability via booking agencies (like agoda, booking dot com etc) there are only a limited number of rooms allocated to them. Might be wise to check directly with the hotel you wish to stay at as there may indeed be rooms available.
Traffic at MEX has grown so much in recent years that they have built a new separate terminal on the opposite side of the airport from the traditional terminal.
The Hilton I know of and the Marriott I recommended are both in the older terminal, called “Terminal 1”. I have no idea about hotels in the new “Terminal 2”. Getting between terminals is by shuttle bus and is a bit of a slow PITA I’m told.
I do not know which airline(s) you’re using, nor which terminal(s) they use. Any given airline will only use one or the other not both.
Before reserving a room I suggest knowing which terminal(s) you’ll be using. Wiki sez there is a much smaller hotel in terminal 2, but I haven’t researched beyond seeing those words.
I think I will have to call hotels directly as the time slot we would need is normally between checkout and check-in, so it’s neither day, really. I plan to do a quick peek on Kayak.com if the airport doesn’t look crazy on arrival, and then call the likely suspect(s) directly to explain. If it looks crazy, we may just do the capsule hotel.
The airline is Delta/Aeromexico, btw. And someone on another site reminded me that we will have to claim checked bags, recheck them (actually probably just one checked bag for both of us), and clear Customs in Mexico City before flying onward, so let’s see how much time we actually have left after that. Oh, and leave enough time to get through security for the ongoing flight.
If none of that works, maybe the capsule hotel if they have space? I am really kind of peeved that all of this is happening. We might have chosen a different destination entirely if we had known, but if we rearranged everything now, we would lose a TON of money on hotels that it’s too late to cancel and a short flight from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca that isn’t refundable at all or even modifiable.
I would go for the capsules. It’s an interesting experience and will make a great travel story later. Plus they are very conductive to getting sleep with no other distractions if that’s your goal.
It’s not something I’ve done before, but from what I understand most airport hotels will let you book a “day room” in between the traditional check-out and check-in times. I’m sure they’re used to accommodating flight crews who need to rest before working a red eye fight that night, and similar situations.
All the flight options from Chicago to Puerto Escondido sucked. I just picked the one that I thought sucked the least. The other contender on Delta/Aeromexico that didn’t leave us in the Mexico City airport for 7 hours involved a Friday evening flight to Atlanta, a 9.5 hour layover, and an early morning flight to Mexico City, a 2-hour layover there, and then a flight that would get us to Puerto Escondido at the same time we will already get there. Alternately, a budget Mexican airline with reviews that mention things like leaving passengers stranded in random cities. Or, say, a roundtrip flight to Mexico City on whatever airline, and then a three-city itinerary on some random budget Mexican airline (or Aeromexico). But I am leery of booking things like that as separate trips on separate airlines in case of flight delays. If you’re all on one airline, at least one airline is responsible for getting you where you need to go. Especially to/from smaller cities where there are maybe only 1 - 2 flights a day.
This is a large part of why I have never been to that part of Mexico. It’s a project.
