You fellow flouderers have all my sympathy, I’m one of you!

FLIGHT OUT was supposed to be Mexicana 563, on 29 Jul from GDL to Mexico City, leaving 0940 arr 1055.

That flight was cancelled and I was put on AeroMexico’s AM 107 leaving 10 a.m.

CONNECTION in Mexico City for Mexicana Flt MX 844, was ok.

FLYING BACK, they LOST THE SAME BAG ONCE AGAIN, after having delivered it just 5 minutes before we had to leave for the airport (at 4:30 a.m.) FLIGHTS BACK: Mexicana 849 31 Jul Dallas TX to Mexico City, leaving 7 am, arriving 0930

CONNECTED TO Mexicana mx 7476, flying into GDL, leaving 1200, arriving 1315

Losing that bag was only one of the absolutely HORRIBLE things about this trip… here’s an outline of what happened:

1. Walk into the airport and immediately spot Mexicana, go up and wait in a huge line for 30 minutes or more, only to find that it’s the WRONG Mexicana! There are TWO Mexicanas in the airport, separated by about half a block so no way you can see that, and I picked the wrong one and had to start over.

2. Go to the right Mexicana and find that my plane was cancelled, but they shifted me over to another flight with Aeromexico. Run (literally) over to Aeromexico and check in, after waiting another 20 minutes or so and having to get help to push to the head of the line because my plane was taking off.

3. Walk FOREVER to board the plane. Get on, go to DF, get off.

4. Walk FOREVER in DF airport to get to the airbus that takes you to the other terminal, then walk for , i kid you not, at least 30 minutes to get to my plane. They wait till five minutes before the plane takes off to let everybody on, and when it’s my turn they send me away to get some immigration paper nobody told me about, one I’ve never seen before and which I had to really run to get. 3-1/2 hours later get off exhausted in Dallas.

5. Upon handing over my passport and FM, I was asked by an immigration officer for the address of where I was staying in Dallas. I answered that I didn’t have it memorized but my driver was probably right outside. They said they were awfully sorry but they had to detain me, then walked me over to a room full of dejected Mexicans in a locked area and told me to take a seat! I, of course, did not do that, but kept talking to them until they let me go, but they were unbelievably rude and cold and it took an hour.

6. I find the baggage carousel but of course by that time, my bag’s not on it.

7. Try to locate ANYBODY to help me and everyone in a uniform says it’s Mexicana’s problem and there were no Mexicana agents in the whole airport by then. (No kidding.) One of the Lufthansa agents told me that Mexicana is almost always absent. So I decided just to forget my bag and get to the funeral, but was again detained. Turns out that once you TELL them your bag’s lost they won’t let you out of there until they confirm it, and then you have to fill out forms.

8. Finally get out of there and go to the funeral home (driver was nice enough to be waiting on me still, one hour late)

9. Called the number I was told to call about 20 times that night, and another 30 times the following day, but almost never got anyone to answer. The few times they bothered to answer, they were defensive and rude and either told me the bag was in Timbucktoo or just plain decided to hang up on me without warning.

10. They finally called a few hours before I had to leave for my return trip, saying they’d bring the back, which they did, 5 minutes before I had to leave for the airport, around 4:30 a.m. I checked the bag, thinking lightning doesn’t strike twice, only to find that it was lost. My cousin wrote me an email to say Mexicana took it back to HER place in DALLAS.

11. I must have talked to at least a dozen airline representatives about these problems. Not one single person had the decency to even ACT apologetic, much less say something like “I’m so sorry this has happened, don’t worry, we will make it right.” Every single person I talked to was cold, defensive and sullen.

I don’t know how, but I want some restitution for all this. Any ideas appreciated, but an email where I can reach Mexicana would be even more appreciated. I still have not gotten anyone from that airline to answer a phone. (Maybe it’s better if you’re calling from the US, but I’m an American citizen calling from where I live in Mexico.)

Thanks guys