Trip Report – Dublin, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta

[NorthernLass]

A couple of people said they’d like a trip report so I may as well start it while waiting for Aer Lingus check in to open for our flight!

We arrived at MAN ridiculously early even by my standards due to me stressing about Storm Bert. However, (presumably) due to Bert keeping everyone indoors, the M60 and Trafford Centre were freakishly quiet for a weekend in the run up to Xmas, and here we are at T1.

The flight before ours was being checked in when we arrived and there was a bit of a kerfuffle going on which we discovered was due to a large Irish party being informed that although they were allowed 10kg of hand baggage each on the way out, they can only have 7kg on the way back. Nobody seemed to be quite sure of why this was.

I have screenshotted everything relating to our booking as we have the absolute maximum permitted EI economy allowance (plus a spare bag to buy extra stuff in Dublin).

There does not appear to be any priority boarding channel, so I will not be able to confirm whether the changes for BAEC members have taken effect (or are recognised at MAN, which could well be a separate issue 😂).

Flight was booked with avios plus cash on via BAEC, hence we can’t do OLCI.

[travelersolo]

For the Irish party going back to Dublin it might be that flight was operated by emerald air which would explain 7kg allowance.

EI have 2 boarding groups. Group1 EI which are elites, business class passengers and aer space. Assuming this is where BA elites will go into group1.

Very much looking forward to the trip report.

[JDB]

@NorthernLass – I hope you have a great time in Mexico once you have escaped these wet,windy shores. The headline was confusing though – didn’t you say you were going to Nuevo Vallarta though? It’s not quite the difference between Paris, France and Paris, Texas but not very similar either.

[NorthernLass]

Boarding was a complete free for all! We managed to check in all our luggage (20 kg & 10 kg each) so were just left with a small under seat bag each.

So, priority check and boarding don’t seem to exist at MAN, and the lounge wasn’t included anyway 😂

@JDB, the short version is that after booking all our travel, the timeshare resort we’d reserved couldn’t actually accommodate us and we ended up accepting a place at the top end of PV, on the beach side of the marina.

We emerged from the wet & windy U.K. into wonderfully sunny Dublin, looking forward to sightseeing tomorrow.

[JDB]

@NorthernLass – I think you will thank your lucky stars that the timeshare people messed you about! It might be a bit hot but otherwise from where you will now it’s walkable (not even 10,000 steps probably) to the old town (which they now rather ridiculously call the Zona Romántica!) which is really rather nice. ¡Que lo disfruten!

[NorthernLass]

Gracias, there does seem to be plenty to do, including whale watching which was a major reason for choosing the Pacific coast!

[CJD]

How long are you in CDMX for?

[harrysjones21]

@NorthernLass what is the Dublin dodge?

I presume a way of avoiding the extortionate fees that BA charge at Heathrow.

In theory, how do you benefit from this method? I am fairly new to all this.

[Richie]

harrysjones21 wrote:

@NorthernLass what is the Dublin dodge?

I presume a way of avoiding the extortionate fees that BA charge at Heathrow.

In theory, how do you benefit from this method? I am fairly new to all this.

Air fares are based on different markets and fee/tax regimes.

DUB-XXX-MEX is different to MAN-XXX-MEX.

If you are as smart as Anna is, you can easily take advantage of this and wisely using your points redeeming also helps.

Positioning separately from MAN to DUB has realised opportunities.

Stick with HfP and points collecting!

[Gordon]

@Richie – we’re all smart!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJG32FtK5w

Another example, also look at Iberia ex eu, they fly to a lot of countries, a booking I made, MAD-BOG, Rtn, Christmas/new year. Using 2-4-1 voucher.

BA LHR-BOG via MAD, 137,750 Avios, £1,023.64 fees/taxes 2 pax,

My itinerary, LHR-MAD On IB rtn 2 pax £284, overnight hotel £64, MAD-BOG 105,000 Avios, £446.40 fees/taxes.

The figure with the 32,750 Avios saved, value at 1p for argument sake, was £559. Any less saving than that I don’t think it’s worth the overnight stay etc. but you could use it to your advantage and take a mini break for a couple of days before the connecting flight.

[harrysjones21]

@Richie Am I correct in saying that in this particular scenario @NorthernLass would have had to book a flight for Manchester to Dublin then onto Mexico.

Is this correct?

I’ve often seen a few fairly priced flights departing Madrid as of late. Not sure how the taxes fair there compared to elsewhere.

[Richie]

@harrysjones21 the positioning flight, MAN-DUB would have to be on a separate ticket, so to de-risk a bit getting to Dublin a day before is a good idea.

[JDB]

@harrysjones21 – the itinerary originally referenced was DUB-LHR-MEX(in F)-LHR-MAN. Starting in Dublin with no stopover in London avoids the UK APD of £202pp (soon rising to £224) plus generally surcharges are less ex Dublin than London. With the advent of RFS, starting in Dublin doesn’t now usually make that much difference on Club fares but more on First before that too moves to RFS. BA surcharges change constantly and sometimes people start in other European countries.

This is a different to ex EU fares where not only do you not pay the APD but often fares from other countries are a fair bit lower than ex-UK. If doing this, you need to have two tickets and leave ample time between flights to collect bags, check in again etc. Travelling to the US or Latin America with IB starting your ticket in Madrid (but can be ended in UK) offers lower Avios, lower charges and no APD. Buenos Aires, one of the longer so bigger saving trips using this ticketing will save you around 100,000 Avios and £600 (less the cost of a one way to Madrid) vs the BA direct flights (which do in fact make a stop in Brazil adding time to that flight). Iberia offers far more destinations and more frequencies for Central and South America.

[yorkshireRich]

Around 2 years ago, we booked LBA to DUB with Air Lingus, so we could re-position ourselves for the flight on BA from DUB to LHR and onto JNB. I think at the time after the cost of the hotel and the flights, I saved myself around 400 quid, plus an extra day.

Anyway, I had a text that morning saying my flight was cancelled so had to get the train over to Manchester and took a flight over to Dublin from there. I was a few hours late and meant we had less time in Dublin, but all was well. We stayed at the Radisson and took the airport bus into the city centre.

I look forward to your trip report.

[NorthernLass]

It’s a bit of a flying visit to Dublin but we’ve had a lovely day wandering around the city and visiting the excellent archaeology section of the National Museum of Ireland. Bog bodies and a lot of gold!

Some shopping planned for tomorrow in anticipation of the higher baggage allowance on BA on our onward travel.

Our outbound itinerary is this:

Avios flights MAN-DUB on EI. Very smooth and efficient experience.
2 nights at the very nice CP DUB (upgraded as diamond to room with club lounge access) for 55k total points.
Then DUB-LHR. Overnight at T4 HIEX (I am VERY risk averse about missing connections!)
Then LHR-MEX in F.

As mentioned above, for the time-rich this routing saves a lot of money. Using the outbound portion of a 241, I paid 94k avios plus £483 for 2 of us, saving £600 on BA’s surcharges. Of course we have to factor in getting to and staying in Dublin, but I see it as an extra mini-break with money left over!

This works for European cities generally, but the saving varies from one airport to another.

On the bus back to the hotel now for drinks & nibbles in the very elegant lounge – if you’re planning to ever use a bus in Dublin, get yourself a Leap card first!

[NorthernLass]

@CJD, we are doing 5 nights in CDMX, then 11 nights in PV then back to CDMX for 2 nights before heading home.

[NorthernLass]

Having a break between films (IFE is working, though I abandoned the useless handheld control and went back to old school stabbing the screen with my index finger 😂). Food has been very good so far, fig and goat cheese tart followed by rack of lamb, no poached eggs in sight, thank goodness, as I had them for breakfast.

We had 2 gloriously sunny winter days in Dublin, and if I’d known it was going to be like that I would have arranged to go to Newgrange which is also on my bucket list. Hopefully on the next visit!

Also very gratified to discover that Tesco Clubcards issued in the U.K. work in ROI 😀.

DUB was a joy apart from the anarchic boarding. I didn’t realise there’s no passport control on the return, so it was another pleasant surprise. I don’t know if that’s all U.K. airports or just LHR 🤷‍♀️

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

DUB boarding is always a mess. It’s a much more egalitarian society with low levels of elite travel status. So often passengers can’t fathom who or why you would have any kind of priority over them.

Common Travel Area arrivals are segregated at all UK airports I have experienced. MAN uses a bus to greet EI aircraft and take passengers to a side door by the baggage carousels of T1.

Great tip on Tesco cards being interoperable. I have been using separate cards for 20 years. Pretty sure Boots aren’t interoperable as they have a slightly different front design on the cards.

[NorthernLass]

I’ll confess to being a bit of a catastrophist, I get a bit stressed when people don’t follow instructions!

We went to the Omni Park near the CP which had a decent range of shops for what we needed. I didn’t go in Boots in the end as Tesco had all the bits & pieces I was after. OH was pulling a face at my basket full of toiletries until I reminded him I needed this stuff because his scuba gear took up so much of our EI baggage allowance 😂.

[NorthernLass]

ARRIVING INTO MEX

This could be helpful for other first-timers.

Immigration (e-gates for U.K. nationals) and baggage collection were very quick. A sniffer dog was walked past us at the luggage carousel and one of our suitcases was selected for a not very thorough search by customs officials. I was intrigued that anyone would smuggle drugs INTO Mexico, but they seemed more bothered that we might be bringing meat and cheese in (although I am aware that these products are in fact available for purchase in Mexico and therefore there is no need to pack them).

I’m sure @JDB has some sort of limousine service collect him and Mrs JDB but I baulk at the inflated prices of these things. I had read that taxis can be had by purchasing a ticket from an “authorised” vendor at MEX, and that the journey to downtown would be about 300 pesos. The “autorizado” booth had half the neon letters missing and a woman issuing hand-written tickets which apparently could be swapped for a taxi ride. I asked how much and she quoted me 1115 pesos. This seemed like a lot, even taking inflation into account, so we decided to get an Uber.

At this point OH failed utterly in his one job, which was to hook us up to the internet in Mexico. I managed to log into the very patchy airport WiFi and summoned an Uber. Ismael was 200 yards away in a white VW and charged the princely sum of 239 pesos (plus maximum tip of 20 pesos!)

Top tip – when you confirm the pick-up, you can select which exit door in the terminal you want the driver to come to, e.g. Puerta 7. This is so much more convenient than having to tramp to some car park like they make you do at other airports!

[Michael C]

@NorthernLass – looking forwards to your Top 10 margarita spots report over the next few days!
¡Que te lo pases muy bien!

[harrysjones21]

Is it best to take USD or Pesos to Mexico when travelling?

Which currency do they prefer?

[NorthernLass]

Pesos – they will accept USD in some places but you’ll probably get a poor exchange rate. It’s not like some Caribbean destinations where USD is interchangeable with the local currency.

[CJD]

Will be interested to hear how you cope with jetlag – the outbound flight will probably be easy enough by just staying up, curious about inbound though because my Mexico plans will likely involve travelling from Madrid.

[Gordon]

harrysjones21 wrote:

Is it best to take USD or Pesos to Mexico when travelling?

Which currency do they prefer?

USD are widely accepted in the main tourist towns in Mexico and Cancun, I made the mistake of taking too many Pesos and ended up bringing most of them back, I’d recommend taking both, as you will need Pesos for rural areas and local markets. Also a Currensea or similar card would be a good idea.