I appreciate that many of you chimed in with helpful advice in my recent post on making a short connection in Cancun. After weighing the risks of a tight connection versus the ease of a non-stop flight and spending extra time at home, I opted for the same-day nonstop flight.
Thankfully, my United flight from Los Angeles to Cancun departed ahead of schedule and arrived 15 minutes early into Cancun.
By the way, this is what passes as a business class breakfast today on a 4hr,40min flight–
The “egg white wrap” was very tasty, but a very tiny breakfast for a flight of that length. That will be the extent of my review of that flight…
Anyway, upon reaching Cancun I was third off the aircraft and bolted downstairs to immigration. Thankfully lines were short. I asked a couple of people ahead of me if I could go in front due to a tight connection and they happily obliged.
An immigration officer quickly stamped me into Mexico and I ran over to the exit, waiting in line for about three minutes to pass through customs. Thankfully when I was not chosen for secondary screening.
Now outside the Terminal 3 arrivals area, I walked outside where I found I just missed a complimentary shuttle to Terminal 2. The next one would not depart for 27 minutes. It was only 4:16p, so I was no longer worried about missing my connection.
Connecting from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2
The question now was to wait for the shuttle, walk over to T2, or take a taxi. The taxi touts were aggressive–I must have appeared like a stupid gringo wearing a blue jacket in 95ºF heat (it is winter right now in Buenos Aires).
Since it was so hot and humid, I had luggage, and was wearing a coat, I opted to take a taxi. I decided to engage with one driver and bartered down the price from $20 to $10 after a couple minutes of haggling, walking away, then haggling some more. I know, that is still about $8 too much for a two-minute cab ride, but the extra 20 minutes gave me time to review the Aeroméxico lounge and send a few emails prior to boarding.
While I don’t recommend this sort of tight connection if it can be avoided, I am thankful it worked out this time…
Why does Mexico do passport control when you’re simply connecting? So annoying
Agree. Very annoying.
They dont want to be competing with the US.
Another annoying policy.
Because none of the airports are set-up with an isolated international terminal (unlike for example, PTY, which was only international, and required passport control to take any exit, I’ve heard the airport now has mandatory passport controls, not sure if it’s true).
MEX T-1 used to have an isolated international section back in the day (something like gates 20 and up, you can see remnants of the old checkpoint). Going into it required showing a BP for those gates, and going out required a bag x-ray and passport check. Occasionally, domestic flights used those gates, and leaving the area required showing the inbound BP and ID. I never did a fully international connection so I don’t know how that was handled passport wise.
With enough money and talks to the government, I think it should be feasible to have an isolated international concourse at either/both MEX and CUN, to allow the airports to become a worldwide hub and capitalize on the changing CBP/DHS/DOS panorama in the US.
That meal looks like fine dining compared to what you get on AA these days!
Congrats on the speedy connection – I have a separate ticket connection in MEX soon and opted to spend a full day there rather than risk a 3 hour connection after hearing how slow immigration can be. I realize there are likely many differences comparing MEX and CUN, but rethinking anyways…
MEX has slow immigration. I went there late Feb, landing about noon on a Saturday with a US passport, from jet bridge to curb at most 15 minutes ?
But I guess the low pax count arriving by 737-700 was better than a boatload arriving from a 747-8.
sorry, the first punctuation was wrong. it should be
MEX has slow immigration ?
MEX isn’t known for its slow immigration, as most arriving are citizens of Mexico, unlike the gringo resorts where most arriving in chunks are all foreigners.
This.
When I flew back to CUN last spring, I was 2nd in the line for Mexicans, which was staffed by ONE officer. I estimate the line for visitors being a good 90-120 minutes.
So ‘challenge accepted’ situation? Glad it worked out.
Hope you will fax Ben from Condor Class.
But they gave you cholula sauce!!!
Yes they did and I greatly appreciated it.
I”m going to guess that the reason Mexico doesn’t allow transit passengers to avoid immigration has something to do with the same reason the US, Canada, and several Caribbean destinations don’t allow it either (ex YVR?).
Like most countries in North America, Mexico doesn’t have any sort of exit immigration. Sure, you must hand your tourist card over to the checkin agent upon departure, but you could just as freely walk across any of Mexico’s northern border crossings without any sort of check. The same is true exiting the US, Canada, and several Caribbean islands.
Matthew is the lawyer, but I’ve always thought this had to do with something along the lines of the US (and presumably the other countries) respecting the principle of unnecessary search/inspection to a degree so intense that checking a person’s documents solely on the basis that they choose to leave the country would be unconstitutional.
Perhaps I’m way off base (UK doesn’t have exit formalities), but I think it comes back to this general idea.