During my most recent visit to Mazatlan to cover a bunch of fun stuff for TravelAge West, I flew American Eagle between Dallas/Fort Worth and this Mexico beach resort destination. This is a review of my air travel experience on the way back.
THE ROUTE: Mazatlan (MZT) to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW); Embraer ERJ-190 (E90); 2 hours, 20 minutes; economy class
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THE DEPARTURE: The Mazatlan airport is relatively small (just 10 gates), but it’s clean and modern. I thankfully wasn’t flying Volaris or Viva Aerobus, both of which had extremely long check-in lines snaking through the terminal. At the American Airlines check-in area, I had a rather swift and pleasant experience: I was directed first to a check-in kiosk, where a helpful, bilingual agent was on hand to answer questions, and also tag my bag (which I paid $26 to check). He then directed me toward the bag drop at the check-in counter, but I didn’t actually need to go to the counter, since another agent greeted me quickly, weighed my bag and said I was ready to go. In other words, I didn’t stand in a single line during the check-in process. Not bad!
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I had some time to kill, so I shopped at a couple of the souvenir stores and had a quick lunch at Carl’s Jr., where 1980s and 1990s hits like “Word Up” were blasting from the video screen. Afterwards, I proceed through security, where only one person was in front of me and the entry was efficient.
Don’t plan on spending much time in the post-security departure area; there’s only a food cart and two very small duty-free shops. If you’re hungry and desperate for souvenirs, do your business before going to the gate. One thing I did love about the departure concourse: an airplane hopscotch game plastered on one part of the floor (I gleefully hopped through it) and also a series of big letters, also on the floor, that described all the international flights that leave from MZT (including airline, aircraft type, distance and estimated flying time). These visuals provided some entertainment while strolling down the concourse.
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THE AIRCRAFT: Boarding was on time for the American Eagle Embraer E90. First class was in a two-aisle-one format, while in economy (where I sat) there were two seats on either side of the aisle. The seats were new but the typical slim size for smaller aircraft, and overhead storage was minimal.
INFLIGHT SERVICE: The flight attendant offered on-alcoholic beverages and our choice of pretzels or cookies (those amazing Biscoff cookies, which I love).
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THE ARRIVAL: We landed a bit early at Dallas/Fort Worth, which meant we had to wait for our gate to be available. As often happens at DFW, it was quite a long walk to get to the immigration area, but I passed through Global Entry quickly and my luggage was waiting by the time I got to the baggage claim. Customs was a breeze too, thanks to the Global Entry lane, but passing through the TSA PreCheck lane to get back to the gates for my connection was extremely slow, with only one agent and one lane open, and a wait of nearly 40 minutes.