[nashsimpson]

Awesome post – great info! I am going to bookmark this.

[paranewbi]

X2!

[MikeyD]

Wow, that was a lot of work compiling all that. Do you work at CBX or something?

[DB-Baja]

So you have to purchase your airline tickets through CBX? Are they same deals available anywhere else?

[paranewbi]

No… you can purchase your flight ticket at any Mexican airlines, just print out your ticket and bring it with you (usually you can print out your boarding pass 2hrs in advance and that is sufficient at CBX). That way you get to walk past the crowded airline counters within the CBX facility that others are getting their ticket/boarding pass at (Don’t get in any lines within CBX just go to the entrance to crossing where agents are standing to review your documents detailed out in the above).

I also go on the CBX website to purchase my CBX crossing pass… a lot of the airlines offer to complete this with your flight purchase but will get you for a few bucks for the pleasure.

[JuanSoler]

Are the fares on CBX more expensive?

[maxmo]

Is there a penalty for not using the CBX website to but your ticket?

[cabodream]

I don’t believe so.

[paranewbi]

IF your asking about the CBX crossing tickets (you need 2 – one for each way) It is cheaper to buy them on the CBX website as the airlines that will include those crossing tickets with your flight purchase will charge a small fee extra for providing that service.

The CBX website doesn’t sale airline tickets… Within the CBX building are airlines counters that will sale and service all tickets, luggage, etc. associated with the airlines located at Tijuana International (NOT the name of the airport just more expedient). The times I have used the CBX crossing those counters are insanely crowded (mostly with people wanting their boarding pass printed out ($) because you have to have it to cross.

I always purchase my flight ticket (months in advance for the deals) online and then print my boarding pass out the night before my flight so I have it in hand with my passport and FMM (also printed out online) as well as my CBX crossing passes for coming and going, for the quickest transit through CBX to TJ International and vice versa.

Why anyone would purchase their flight ticket at CBX… not knowing if there was room available on the flight you want/need, is beyond me when you can do that in your own home. If you don’t have a printer available then fight the crowd at the counters for a boarding pass to a flight that you already have secured at home and you know is available. You’ll also have to spend a few moments in the immigration area filling out your FMM.

With 2 million people transiting CBX each year… do what you can to not have to stand in any of the lines. And if you buy your tickets months in advance you’ll get the best deals (Especially with Volaris).

[guacamole]

Thanks for clearing that up, I was getting confused too. How much are the CBX tickets to use their access to and from the airport per person?

[paranewbi]

Prices can be found here… https://www.crossborderxpress.com/en/ticketshttps://www.crossborderxpress.com/en/tickets

RT = $35/$40/$45 depending on the ‘season’.

I didn’t realize since it’s been a year when I last purchased tickets to cross at CBX. Fortunately I will be purchasing this year for our kids/grand-kids to fly into Loreto and camp with us (in our RV) during what’s now the ‘Low Season’ pricing!

I’m starting to think with my grand-kids making $15-$18 an hour at their entry level jobs (and still living with mom) I should stop spending my retirement on them and let them spend theirs!

Talk now in Cali is to raise the ‘fast food’ workers wages to $22 per hour… but that’s for another thread.

[BajaBundo]

22 bucks an hour while living at home means they should start paying for room and board in my opinion, but that’s just me.

[paranewbi]

I agree! and they do! It’s Grandma that I bow to when she wants her kids/grand-kids on the beach with us in Baja 🙂

I really can’t complain since she did agree to my insistence that they ‘aged out’ at 18 for birthday and Christmas gifts (cards forever more!). And with 5 kids, 11 grand-kids (all older teens or adults now!) and 4 great grand-kids; I came out on the good financial bargaining!!

I would rather give our money to airlines than Chuck-E-Cheese…

[amandae]

I love your priorities; prefer to buy airline tickets over paying for kids birthday parties and margaritas over buying travel insurance. 😆😆😆

Any more pearls of wisdom you might want to share???

😁

[paranewbi]

I’ve driven pretty much nothing but dirt roads to Panama from San Diego (VW bus) surfing my way through all of the Central America countries… this in the 70″s. Only asphalt was around the capitals of each and the Pan Am highway was being torn out of the tundra going south.

Months would go by before getting back home.

I came to a conclusion during those times and it pretty much is my motto today;

“If you go far enough, you will get back home.”

[BajaGringo]

I spent several years living in Tucuman, Argentina during the 70’s and 80’s and the Pan American Hwy passed right through. Back during that time I had the opportunity meet and talk with some who made the trip from North to South America; they rode motorcycles, different makes and models of trucks and vans, one Suburban and one Land Rover that I will never forget.

They all shared similar stories of problems and hazards to get through Central America which seemed to be the most difficult section for most based on poor to no roads available, breaking down with lack of parts available and highway pirates.

One retired couple I met drove down in a VW Kombi and it took them nearly 3 months to get through Central America in 1973. One of their problems was their windshield got shattered and were unable to get a replacement. They finally found a local glass shop that manufactured one out of about 5 or 6 different pieces of plexiglass, each cut to make the curve with the Kombi’s frame and all glued together with epoxy. They told me it took a few days of driving to get used to the prism effect and it leaked like a sieve around the outer seal and they were – of course – driving through the region during the really extreme rainy season.

The most memorable one without a doubt was a Canadian driving a Land Rover down who encountered similar problems as the rest but also high centered on a rock passing through northern Colombia, badly damaging his oil pan. The problem was he was trying to outrun a small group of bandits, chasing him in a pickup and he couldn’t stop. He escaped the pirates but his engine seized further down the road.

He was able to get a local to help him tow the Land Rover to the next village but there were no Land Rover mechanics there back then and even fewer parts. After spending a week going over all his options, he ended up cutting a deal with a local mechanic who swapped out and adapted a complete drive train from a Ford Bronco to fit under the Land Rover chassis.

It really was something to see as they had to cut and modify the chassis to make it work including modifications to the floor of his Land Rover, requiring the front seats to be raised almost 3 inches to stay level, which felt really odd to ride in.

The whole job including the Bronco drive train cost him 1500 dollars.

When I asked him why he didn’t just sell/trade his Land Rover for another vehicle from a local there, he told me that the Land Rover belonged to his wife and he had promised to bring it back in one piece.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to see her reaction and hear that conversation on his return.

[paranewbi]

OH, OH… might be a need for a new thread! Although venturing a little out of the ‘Baja’ topic range, a thread of ‘experiences’ might be interesting.

So I started a new thread “Those south of the border experiences”.

[BajaGringo]

Good idea

[carloshc]

Amazing! I live in Tijuana and didn’t know what a good service that CBX access offers.

🖕🖕🖕

[nashsimpson]

I think that it’s still a secret to a lot of people. Some friends who have a timeshare in Cabo always fly out of San Diego and when I mentioned the CBX as an alternative, they acted like they had never heard of it? Maybe some good prime time marketing would help.

[amandae]

I hear the parking lot for the CBX on the San Diego side is full most of the time, not sure they can handle more people without some further expansion?

[mx-rider]

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together.

[cabodream]

Great info here all on one page – thank you!