We had a fantastic long weekend in Los Cabos but it was time for us to head home. Just like our trip down, we were flying back to Austin in American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Business Class. Though it is branded as Business Class, due to the fact it is an international flight, the seats and service are the same as what you would find in American’s domestic First Class.
Booking
There are currently two ways to travel between Los Cabos and Austin without stopping, American and Southwest both offer daily flights. Since Mrs. ATX was very pregnant during this trip, I knew that Economy was out of the question. We’d recently flown to the West Coast and back in Economy and she was miserable. This left American as our only option for the trip.
A few months prior to departure, I managed to find a (somewhat) reasonable Business Class roundtrip fare on the Austin-Cabo route. I booked our tickets, via Google Flights, on AA.com about two months before departure for $874 per person ($694 base fare and $180 in taxes and fees).
Check-In
We left The Westin Los Cabos Resort at 8:30a and made the drive up to Los Cabos International Airport. We arrived at Terminal 2, the international terminal, just after 9:00a.
Inside the terminal things were calm and rather deserted. There probably aren’t many people leaving the beach at 9 AM on a Tuesday. We found the American check-in counters without issue and only one person was in front of us in the Priority lane.
Our bags were checked to Austin and boarding passes issued quickly and we were on the way to security 5 minutes after arriving.
Security was painless, though I keep forgetting what has to come off in non TSA PreCheck checkpoints, and we were airside in no time. Before getting to the gates you have to navigate the duty free maze. Los Cabos even had side-by-sides for sale, though I’m not sure how you’d get that on the plane with you.
It took a couple of minutes to get through the shops and I managed to keep Mrs. ATX from buying anything. Once we were in the concourse we took a right towards the food court, our departure gate, and the lounge.
Lounge
American doesn’t offer lounge access on Business Class flights to Canada, Mexico (with the exception of Mexico City) and the Caribbean. However, Los Cabos has one lounge in Terminal 2, the VIP Lounge, which can be accessed via Priority Pass. Access can also be purchased for roughly $50 USD. The full review of the lounge can be found here.
Boarding
Our flight to Austin was departing from Gate 11, a short distance from the lounge. The airport in Los Cabos is currently under construction and we were lucky enough to get a gate with a jet bridge. Our arriving flight parked at a remote stand. Boarding was scheduled to begin at 10:15a which is when we arrived, but it wasn’t underway yet.
My mobile boarding pass showed boarding at 10:25a so we hung out at the gate. Though the terminal was open, there was limited seating so we just stood by the windows. I was able to get a glimpse of N959AN, the 23 year old Boeing 737-800 that would be taking us to Austin.
Boarding began at 10:20a with passengers needing extra time down the jet bridge being invited to pre-board. This was followed by Group 1. We headed down a long, winding jet bridge before arriving at our waiting 737.
American Airlines
AA 2242
SJD-AUS (Los Cabos International – Austin-Bergstrom International)
Seat: 3B (Business)
B737-800 (N959AN)
Scheduled: 11:00a-3:25p
Actual: 10:48a-3:05p
Seat
American’s Business Class cabin on the Boeing 737-800 consists of 16 seats spread across 4 rows in a 2-2 configuration. I assigned us seats 3A and 3B, the third row on the left side of the aircraft.
The legroom on the 737-800 is good and I had plenty of room to spread out.
In recent years, while airlines like United and Delta have been adding seatback IFE screens to aircraft, American has been tearing them out. Instead of seatback screens, they have opted for streaming entertainment and device holders which are fixed to the seatback.
The holder can expand to fit almost all cell phones, including Mrs. ATX’s Google Pixel Fold. It is unable to fit a tablet however.
A USB-A power outlet is located in the seatback, next to the device holder. This allows for easy charging, though I wish they had USB-C ports onboard.
The seat was nice and wide with plenty of space for a narrowbody aircraft. On the left side, underneath the shared armrest is a storage pocket large enough for passports, phones, wallets, and bags of chips. A 110V power outlet was located in the rear of the compartment.
The seat recline button is adjacent to the storage pocket allowing you to raise and recline the seat.
Under the armrest closest to the aisle, is the tray table. It can be removed by pulling on the latch with the fork and spoon icon at which point it slides out (Some photos from a prior flight).
Unlike our flight down, the tray table on this flight had some serious sag and it hung at an angle throughout the flight.
In between the seats, there is a small tray in the armrest that can hold beverages. If more space is needed, a secondary tray can slide out from underneath.
Departure
As we settled into pour seats, the cabin crew came around taking pre-departure beverage orders. I ordered a mimosa but was told, in a very condescending tone, that there was no alcohol allowed on the ground due to local rules. Though I’ve had open-bar PDBs when departing Mexico in the past. Instead, we both had sparkling water.
Boarding wrapped up early and we pushed off of the gate 12 minutes ahead of schedule. After pushing back, we were held on the ramp for 10 minutes before starting our taxi to the runway.
At 11:00a local time we turned onto Runway 34 and blasted off to the north.
As we climbed out of Los Cabos, we made a sweeping turn to the right and headed out over the Sea of Cortez.
In-Flight
Once in the air, I took the time to peruse the menu as well as the in-flight entertainment brochure. These read as follows:
As we neared our cruising altitude, the person in 1E decided it was time to toss his feet up on the wall.
The cabin crew came through the aisle taking drink orders during the climb and I ordered a black coffee and a prosecco.
Despite the smooth climb, the fasten seatbelt sign stayed on for a long time. It wasn’t switched off until we hit our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet. This gave me plenty of time to look around the cabin and notice all of the wear and tear. The overhead bins appeared to have been duct taped shut at one point.
Finally, the fasten seat belt sign was turned off and I headed to check out the forward lavatory. Unfortunately, it appeared that the lav hadn’t been cleaned between flights and was fairly dirty.
Out of the window it was a beautiful day to fly.
The crew came around with the snack basket (Los Cabos-Austin is just under the length for meal service) and I had some chips. They also offered beverage refills though, like our flight down, they had run out of sparkling wine.
After the snack service, I paid $19 for a full flight wi-fi pass and attempted to get some work done on the crooked tray table. After about 20 minutes I gave up and spent the remainder of my time poking around on FlyerTalk instead.
Arrival
As we began our descent into Austin, blue skies gave way to gray clouds. We overflew downtown before circling back around to land from the north on Runway 18R.
We touched down 40 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time and had to hold on the taxiway for 10 minutes while we waited for our gate to open up. This gave me a great opportunity to do some planespotting.
We were eventually cleared into our gate where we arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
From there, we were off the plane quickly and headed for Customs and Immigration.
Our priority tagged bags were some of the first off of the belt and we were through customs and headed to our house in no time.
Summary
We had a smooth flight in American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Business Class from Los Cabos to Austin. While it was slightly less refined than our flight down, it was still enjoyable and we arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule. WIth American operating the only direct route between the two cities with Business Class, we’ll likely fly them again should our travels take us to Cabo in the future.
The ground crew in Cabo does an excellent job of cleaning aircraft between flights. However, many travelers only think about themselves and are just nasty. Case in point, your photo of passenger with foot on wall. They were probably just in the lavatory missing the toilet.
I really don’t understand why people feel the need to throw their feet up on the bulkhead wall. Seems uncomfortable and rude. Though he wasn’t as bad as the guy that took his shoes off and kicked his feet out in the aisle on a recent British Airways flight.