Customs and Immigration in Mexico City Airport

I am curious bout this also. Last summer I returned on a Permanent Resident Visa; MCI-HOU-MEX-ZIH. My bags were checked thru to ZIH from MCI. In MEX I told my escort (I need a wheelchair escort)I needed to go thru Customs with my bags and then hen recheck them to board the AeroMex flight to ZIH. He looked at my tickets and baggage check ticket and said "No problem, the bags will be at ZIH and you go thru Customs and Immigration there". My bags were at ZIH and it was a late flight and the attendants waved he thru and said all the Customs and Immigration people had gone home. Go figure~

We came through Mexico City on a Delta/Aeromexico code share from Chicago on November 24. So this should be fairly accurate. We landed in Mexico City mid-day.

The flight was operated by Aeromexico. Most passengers were Mexican nationals. There was no line for us at Immigration, there were agents waiting. Literally, no line. We walked right up to an agent.

Our bags were checked through to Zihuatanejo from Chicago. We did not have to gather them and recheck at Customs. We only sent carry-ons through the machine. This is different than previous years. Check at your departure airport to be sure where your bags will end up. We waited for our bags in Mexico City to recheck and, of course, were anxious that they didn’t come. The baggage attendant told us they were sent on to Zihuatanejo but we only half believed him. But our bags arrived in Zihuatanejo on the same plane as promised.

The plane for Zihuatanejo has been leaving from the end of the concourse in front of you as you leave Immigration. Much easier now that it has a jetway rather than a bus.

All in all, really painless. Just check with your departure airport about where to retrieve your checked luggage.

So I'm curious where your bags went through Aduanas. Did you have to have them searched upon arrival in Zihuatanejo? I thought you had to go through Aduanas at your point of entry and disembarkation, which should've been the Benito Juárez airport in Mexico City. Or did your bags not get searched and you could've brought all the contraband you wanted.

In August we flew Interjet. We did collect our bags and went through customs before re-checking them for the flight to Z.

D

Rob - the only semblance of Customs we went through was having our carry-on pieces go through the machine in Mexico. There was a pull aside for people who were making declarations and some of the bags in the Nothing to Declare area were being checked. That part seemed random. Maybe based on how much luggage you were bringing through. We did no declaration except to go to the no declaration area. In Zihuatanejo, we entered through the Domestic Arrival , picked up our one checked bag and left.

It seems to be an entirely new system at Benito Juarez. For us, Customs was not much. It went very quickly, unlike other years of red/green button lines.