After taking off to the east, a quick 180 degree right turn placed us on a westerly heading out over the Gulf of Mexico. After making land fall, and just northwest of Mexico City, we made a right turn before continuing on a northwesterly heading into Leon.

Cancun International Airport’s Terminal 4 was completed in October of 2017. It has 12 gates and serves Aeromexico, Interjet, Air France, Lufthansa, WestJet, Condor, Southwest Airlines, Air Transat, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic, Frontier Airlines, Sun Country and Air Europa. There is also an on-site hotel planned for Terminal 4. Prior to our flight, we arrived to terminal 4 two hours before our scheduled departure.

“On InterJet, Bags Fly Free….Well, Sort Of”. On international flights between Mexico and Latin America as well as on domestic flights within Mexico, InterJet allows one-two free checked bags per passenger (depending upon fare class paid). On flights between Mexico and either the U.S. or Canada, Interjet charges $25 per bag for those who paid “Light Fares” (i.e. the cheapest fares), and one-two free checked bags for “Optima Fare” and “Priority Fare” passengers. If you are checking bags, and I was, then Interjet requires that you check-in at least 2 hours before your scheduled departure time. ***FARE HACK***: IF YOU BOOK YOUR TICKETS ON INTERJET’S MEXICAN WEBSITE AND PAY IN PESOS, THE PRICES ARE CHEAPER!!!***

InterJet flies from Cancun to Mexico City, Havana, Toluca, Aguascalientes, Bogota, Leon, Monterrey, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Silao, Guadalajara, San Francisco and Toronto.

InterJet boards in “zones”. Disabled passengers and passengers traveling with children 5 years old and younger are given priority boarding. Boarding by zones then involves passengers being boarded from the rear of the aircraft forward. Because I was traveling with my 3 year old daughter, I enjoyed priority boarding!

While Cancun is a “focus city” for InterJet, the airline’s main hub is in Mexico City. And, it was from Mexico City that our A320 Neo aircraft arrived right on time.

The average A320 turn around time between domestic flights is approximately 45 minutes. Our turn around time however came in just under that 45 minute mark.

Traveling with children has its perks. Can you say “priority boarding”!! Taking full advantage of that priority boarding, we made our way to the aircraft right behind a family of 4.

Yep! Over the last year InterJet’s load factors have increased by 16%. This has resulted in a 20.6% year-on-year increase in the airline’s revenues. Our flight however was only about 60% full, and this likely aided in the quick turn around time.

As boarding completed, the temperature outside of the aircraft was well over 90 degrees. The humidity was close to 70%. The result? The compressed outside air being introduced into the cabin was warm and moist. If you remember from your high school Physics class, when warm moist air cools, the water in that moist air condenses, leading to the creation of water vapor. As you can see by looking at the air vents over the overhead bins, the warm moist Cancun air being forced into the cabin was quickly being cooled by the airplane’s air conditioning system, leading to the formation of wator vapor near the air vents. I don’t know about you, but I always think that that is a REALLY COOL sight to see!! That is part of the reason that I took both a picture and a video of it. Surprisingly, while shooting, one of the Flight Attendants asked that I not take pictures or videos fearing that the water vapors might be flammable. They are not.

As we waited to taxi, I found myself wondering….. “am I on Jet Blue”? No. “Have I magically traveled back in time to an era when passenger comfort actually mattered”? No And then I realized, I was flying on an airline that once referred to themselves as “The Jet Blue of Mexico”.

And I was loving the “extra” legroom on the “Jet Blue of Mexico”!!

Okay, maybe I’m getting a little too comfortable with all of the extra space.

Okay, maybe I was taking things a little too far! Maybe???

After I explored every which way to extend and stretch my legs, I took a peek outside. Even though A320 passenger windows are close to 33% smaller than 737 passenger windows, there is still NO BETTER view of the world than the one afforded by an airplane window.

And while enjoying the view afforded by my A320 window as push back neared, I saw that our Dallas bound Sun Country neighbor was beginning to board.

Gate 57 is one of the closest gates to our departure runway 12R/31L. So, with push back complete, our taxi time to 12R/31L was very short.

After reaching a cruising altitude of 38,000 and while on a westerly heading of 271, I found it hard not to be in utter awe of the beautiful blue seas and blues skies of the Gulf of Mexico.

As I enjoyed the beautiful blue skies and seas, I couldn’t help but think about how a 38,000 foot view of the world makes everything and everyone (including myself) look and feel so wonderfully small and insignificant.

As we continued westward across the Gulf of Mexico, tons and tons of cumulous and towering cumulous clouds caught my eye. Turns out, the airspace above the Gulf of Mexico is replete with cumulous and towering cumulous clouds in large part because of what Meteorologists call the Loop Current. The Loop Current is a warm ocean current that flows northward between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula before entering the Gulf of Mexico. It’s these warm waters that when cooled lead to the formation of the Gulf’s cumulus and towering cumulus clouds.

As the meal service began, loops of another sort came into play. Loops of the advertising variety that continuously played on the cabin’s video screens. While many of InterJet’s Airbus aircraft do not currently have a formal In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system, this is soon to change. That’s because InterJet recently contracted with Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic) to install what both have described will be an “innovative In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system [that will include] Wi-Fi connectivity” across its fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. Since XA-LHG hadn’t been updated yet, and since my Spanish wasn’t good enough to enjoy the in-flight magazine, I just kicked back and listened to the music on my iPhone.

Like most carriers, InterJet serves a small free snack that consists of either cookies or chips. Ever plagued by a sweet tooth, I elected for the cookies. InterJet also serves free soda, water, coffee, tea, juice and alcoholic beverages.

And, if you’ve consumed too many of those free beverages, InterJet has bathrooms too! That fact, it’s not so unusual. However, what is a little a bit unusual is the fact that some of InterJet’s bathrooms are reserved for use by their female passengers only. Marked “Esclusivo Mujeres” or “Women Only”, these bathrooms are clearly marked with a large pink sticker on the door.

While passengers settled in for a post-snack carb induced nap, my little lady and I visited the lavs. Since my little lady is a little “lady”, we took a look together inside of the female only bathroom. Comparing the female only lav to the general lav, I have to say that the female only bathroom was no cleaner than the general one. So hey InterJet, how about you give the fellas (and their bladders) a break : ).