Travel Horror Story

Travel Horror Story

Saturday, June 03, 2006

I’m including one story here that isn’t related to me per se, but is really interesting.

My parents were a little worried about me getting here safely. I told my dad, “Dad, I’m almost 40. I’ll be okay.” He laughed.

Tim, one of the students here, recently moved from Ohio to San Diego. He’s 19 years old. He purchased a ticket on Aero California, a Mexican airline, traveling from Tijuana to México City. You might be saying, “I’ve never heard of Aero California.” You might never hear of it. Read on.

Since Tim was new in San Diego, he didn’t have many friends yet, but managed to find someone to drop him off at the Tijuana airport. His flight was scheduled to leave at 11:45 am.

It turns out that Aero California has been buying old planes and using the parts to repair their planes, apparently a big no-no in the airline industry. The Mexican government had given them until 12:00 pm, the day of Tim’s flight, to fix all the planes with new parts. They were unable to comply. At about 1:00, the airport announces that ALL Aero California flights have been cancelled. Since they were unable to comply with the government order, the government shutdown the airline.

All this was announced in Spanish, it being the Tijuana airport. Tim, who was coming to Puebla to learn Spanish, did not yet speak any Spanish. When everybody left, he was a little confused. He was able to find an English-speaker to explain the situation to him.

Everybody went downstairs to the Aero California office. The people in the office, seeing so many unhappy passengers, and knowing they could do nothing, simply left. Turned off the lights, locked the office door, and left.

Long story short-ish, Aero México was honoring Aero California tickets, in certain cases. Passengers had to wait in line, tell their story, be approved, and were then sent to exchange tickets. Tim, being the resourceful young man he is, simply went to the second desk, skipping the first line altogether. “They told me to come here and exchange my tickets.” With so many passengers, his ploy worked. He did get to México City, about 10 hours later than expected.

His only problem now is that his return ticket is obviously worthless. He’s not yet sure what he’s going to do.

Mom and dad, my trip was just fine. No problems for me: the airline is still in business and I expect it to be when I come home.