What is it like to fly Interjet?

When booking flights inside Mexico, you might fly Interjet.

No matter which carrier, when you fly on a half-empty airplane, it immediately kicks the experience up a notch. We were lucky to encounter such a happy circumstance when we flew on an Interjet flight from Mexico City to Huatulco, Mexico. Before the flight, I had been a bit apprehensive about flying on an unknown-to-me airline but it was a pleasant surprise after we finally took off. Let me explain.

Checking-in at Terminal 1 in the Mexico City airport was a hurdle. There were extremely long lines (of large families with very young children) that moved at a snail’s pace as reservation agents spoke to each other, and spent long periods of time chatting with passengers. No transaction seemed smooth, simple or efficient. Although we had boarding passes, we had to wait on line for some 40 minutes to check our bags.

About Interjet

Interjet is a Mexican low-cost airline that began operations in 2005. In addition to flights to Huatulco, Cancun, Monterrey, Toluca, San Jose del Cabos, Tijuana, and other cities in Mexico, the carrier also flies to Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala and the United States from its main hubs in Mexico City and Toluca.

Passengers only need to arrive 40 minutes before flight time if they have an online boarding pass. One concierge told us that it is company policy never to overbook a flight, which is reassuring for American travelers. The airline also accepts payment by PayPal.

Tip: We were stymied when we tried to print our boarding pass out at home in the states. A call to a very responsive and knowledgeable Interjet customer service agent told us that we had to sign in to the website as if we were based in Mexico (rather than the U.S.) to print out the boarding pass. That worked!

Living Room (as its called in the trade) 

We flew on Flight 402651, an Airbus –A-320 with 150 seats, that departed about 45 minutes late and arrived at our destination about one hour after its scheduled arrival time. There was ample legroom in our seats in Row 16, without any additional charges, and the gray leather seats were extremely comfortable.

Food and Service 

The predominantly Spanish-speaking crew was courteous and efficient. Although our flight time was short, we were offered snacks of different types of salted chips and an extensive choice of beverages that included beers and hard liquors (including tequila).

Entertainment and Technology 

There was no in-flight entertainment because our flight was less than two hours in duration. In addition, the plane had the old-fashioned drop-down screens rather than seatback ones..

Bottom-Line

Although the flight itself was fine, the frustratingly slow check-in detracted from the experience with the airline. But I would give Interjet another try.

Update: On the way back from Huatulco to Mexico City, we experienced the same lengthy lines in addition to another departure delay.

For more information, including routes, see the Interjet website.

This is one of a series of posts about my experiences on new-to-me airlines. Surely, each flight is different but it’s always helpful to get general impressions of what to expect before you fly. If you fly Interjet and have a very different experience, please feel free to comment below. 

Also see:

• What is it like to fly Aeromexico?
• What is it like to fly British Airways?
• What is it like to fly Swiss International Airlines?
• What is it like to fly Volaris?
• What is it like to fly WestJet?