(One of the views from our balcony of Recoleta Cemetery - Eva Peron is looking at us!)Our journey to Buenos Aires was fine until Mexico City.
We had gotten a ticket on Mexicana from San Diego to BA via DFW and Mexico City. Why you ask? Well…I found a deal! Since we were cruising back to San Diego from Chile, we needed a one way ticket which is often expensive. I found a one way ticket on Mexicana in Business Class for less than $1,000 from DFW to Buenos Aires – connecting in Mexico City. We bought a coach ticket from SAN to DFW making the whole trip less than most coach tickets. So the inconvenience of three flights seemed a small price to pay for going Business for the long flights DFW to MEX (less than 2 hours but 9 hours to BA from Mexico City.
In San Diego, AA gave us boarding passes for their two flights and said we needed to go to Mexicana in Mexico City for our boarding passes for Buenos Aires. Our luggage was checked all the way through. (A nice thought but more of this later.)
The first thing to be prepared for at the Mexico City airport is that everyone goes through immigration even if you are in transit. At first, they said we would not need a Customs form – more on this later in the blog too. The line for foreigners was very long and was inefficient. The sign said flights for North America, Asia, and Europe. We thought we were in the wrong line until an official said it was for South America too. If your connecting flight is less than an hour away, you can get in the line at desk 20 but if it is longer than that they will not let you in it. After finally getting through immigration after about 30 minutes of waiting, we went to the escalator for connecting flights but because we did not have a boarding pass we had to go out of the entry hall and to the Mexicana desk for check-in. Now we had to go through customs so we did need the form. The walk to Mexicana took a while. We got in the line for Elite Class – we asked about the flight to BA which was not listed. She waved us away and to the other side of the room.
The first person we talked to said we were too late that you had to check in an hour and a half before the flight. We were there one hour and 25 minutes before departure. We protested loudly in two or maybe it was three languages and asked for the supervisor. It was all confusion and he said “we have no responsibility for you because you were connecting from AA.” I said, "Yes YOU are responsible – we have a Mexicana ticket!" Fortunately I had made a copy of the Mexicana Invoice our Travel Agent gave us and I showed him my PROOF. Then he said it did not matter because the flight was canceled and they would not do anything for us for the night. More loud protests were delivered. He was not pleasant but took our invoice and passports to another woman. She was VERY nice! She rebooked us on the flight for the next day and we got two good seats in Business. We also asked her about what we were supposed to do for the night – she said with a slight grin on her face – “What would you like?” I said, “A place to sleep.” She told us to take our new boarding passes to the El Camino Real Hotel connected to the airport and Mexicana would pay. When we got there, a long line had formed behind a sign that said Mexicana. Everyone signed a check-in sheet and EVERYONE put Mexicana flight 1690! Mexicana also paid for our dinner and breakfast.
One thing that makes me suspicious (and several of the other passengers) is why the flight in the morning was not that full. Could it be that they canceled the evening flight because there were too few people? Maybe it was cheaper to put people up in a hotel than to fly a half empty plane.
Also be aware that the Mexico City airport is a maze with poor signage. We stopped people frequently to find out where Mexicana was located, the hotel, the boarding gates, etc. The signs take you the long way around BUT through the Duty Free shops! We did find a Santander bank in the airport to change some money for when our cruise stops in Mexico in April. We used this bank because it has a reciprocal agreement with the Bank of America so there is no ATM use charge.
When we arrived in Buenos Aires, 10 hours later than scheduled, our bags were not on the plane!!! They told us when we arrived that there were three bags that missed the plane and two were ours. Missed the plane? Ten hours to get bags from AA to Mexicana is not enough? This morning we got a call that one of the bags arrived on this morning’s flight – they are checking on the other bag which they “thought” would be on tonight’s flight. So we are stuck in the apartment waiting for luggage. Being stuck is not a problem, however, because it is raining and we are tired from the journey and the jet lag – 6 hours difference from San Diego.
Travel is full of adventures – this is not the first time this has happened to us. Several years ago British Air lost our suitcases and it took a week to catch up with us in Turkey. We were not a pretty sight – or smell! Our lesson was to never change planes at Heathrow. We have now added Mexico City to that list. Fortunately we have some things in our carry-on luggage but it is not enough for 7 weeks!!!
The flights themselves were great – except the coach from SAN to DFW of course! But…it was short and on time – we were on the side with 2 seats which makes it better. Mexicana was very good – spotless plane, great service, good (not great) food, and very nice flight attendants.
The apartment in the Recoleta district is great – ninth floor overlooking the famous Recoleta Cemetery. We have views from every room – including the bathroom. You can take a shower or sit on the toilet while looking at the graves in the cemetery. Hope the ghosts don’t mind!
News Flash - Elisabeth won the lottery - her bag just came - I now suspect American because the bag had an American red and white tag that said RUSH! I wonder if the bags did not make the plane in DFW? Of course, Mexicana and American will just point fingers at each other!
We had gotten a ticket on Mexicana from San Diego to BA via DFW and Mexico City. Why you ask? Well…I found a deal! Since we were cruising back to San Diego from Chile, we needed a one way ticket which is often expensive. I found a one way ticket on Mexicana in Business Class for less than $1,000 from DFW to Buenos Aires – connecting in Mexico City. We bought a coach ticket from SAN to DFW making the whole trip less than most coach tickets. So the inconvenience of three flights seemed a small price to pay for going Business for the long flights DFW to MEX (less than 2 hours but 9 hours to BA from Mexico City.
In San Diego, AA gave us boarding passes for their two flights and said we needed to go to Mexicana in Mexico City for our boarding passes for Buenos Aires. Our luggage was checked all the way through. (A nice thought but more of this later.)
The first thing to be prepared for at the Mexico City airport is that everyone goes through immigration even if you are in transit. At first, they said we would not need a Customs form – more on this later in the blog too. The line for foreigners was very long and was inefficient. The sign said flights for North America, Asia, and Europe. We thought we were in the wrong line until an official said it was for South America too. If your connecting flight is less than an hour away, you can get in the line at desk 20 but if it is longer than that they will not let you in it. After finally getting through immigration after about 30 minutes of waiting, we went to the escalator for connecting flights but because we did not have a boarding pass we had to go out of the entry hall and to the Mexicana desk for check-in. Now we had to go through customs so we did need the form. The walk to Mexicana took a while. We got in the line for Elite Class – we asked about the flight to BA which was not listed. She waved us away and to the other side of the room.
The first person we talked to said we were too late that you had to check in an hour and a half before the flight. We were there one hour and 25 minutes before departure. We protested loudly in two or maybe it was three languages and asked for the supervisor. It was all confusion and he said “we have no responsibility for you because you were connecting from AA.” I said, "Yes YOU are responsible – we have a Mexicana ticket!" Fortunately I had made a copy of the Mexicana Invoice our Travel Agent gave us and I showed him my PROOF. Then he said it did not matter because the flight was canceled and they would not do anything for us for the night. More loud protests were delivered. He was not pleasant but took our invoice and passports to another woman. She was VERY nice! She rebooked us on the flight for the next day and we got two good seats in Business. We also asked her about what we were supposed to do for the night – she said with a slight grin on her face – “What would you like?” I said, “A place to sleep.” She told us to take our new boarding passes to the El Camino Real Hotel connected to the airport and Mexicana would pay. When we got there, a long line had formed behind a sign that said Mexicana. Everyone signed a check-in sheet and EVERYONE put Mexicana flight 1690! Mexicana also paid for our dinner and breakfast.
One thing that makes me suspicious (and several of the other passengers) is why the flight in the morning was not that full. Could it be that they canceled the evening flight because there were too few people? Maybe it was cheaper to put people up in a hotel than to fly a half empty plane.
Also be aware that the Mexico City airport is a maze with poor signage. We stopped people frequently to find out where Mexicana was located, the hotel, the boarding gates, etc. The signs take you the long way around BUT through the Duty Free shops! We did find a Santander bank in the airport to change some money for when our cruise stops in Mexico in April. We used this bank because it has a reciprocal agreement with the Bank of America so there is no ATM use charge.
When we arrived in Buenos Aires, 10 hours later than scheduled, our bags were not on the plane!!! They told us when we arrived that there were three bags that missed the plane and two were ours. Missed the plane? Ten hours to get bags from AA to Mexicana is not enough? This morning we got a call that one of the bags arrived on this morning’s flight – they are checking on the other bag which they “thought” would be on tonight’s flight. So we are stuck in the apartment waiting for luggage. Being stuck is not a problem, however, because it is raining and we are tired from the journey and the jet lag – 6 hours difference from San Diego.
Travel is full of adventures – this is not the first time this has happened to us. Several years ago British Air lost our suitcases and it took a week to catch up with us in Turkey. We were not a pretty sight – or smell! Our lesson was to never change planes at Heathrow. We have now added Mexico City to that list. Fortunately we have some things in our carry-on luggage but it is not enough for 7 weeks!!!
The flights themselves were great – except the coach from SAN to DFW of course! But…it was short and on time – we were on the side with 2 seats which makes it better. Mexicana was very good – spotless plane, great service, good (not great) food, and very nice flight attendants.
The apartment in the Recoleta district is great – ninth floor overlooking the famous Recoleta Cemetery. We have views from every room – including the bathroom. You can take a shower or sit on the toilet while looking at the graves in the cemetery. Hope the ghosts don’t mind!
News Flash - Elisabeth won the lottery - her bag just came - I now suspect American because the bag had an American red and white tag that said RUSH! I wonder if the bags did not make the plane in DFW? Of course, Mexicana and American will just point fingers at each other!
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WOW, great read, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the updates and of course photos.
ReplyDeleteGuess we can't complain about our recent trip. We flew business on AA from SAN to DFW then from DFW to SANTIAGO and had no problems! Our luggage even got there at the same time we did! - We did have a 5 hour delay in DFW on our return though. - Hope your luggage arrives and you get some rest!
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