It was a rather short turn around between the bike trip and embarking on our trip to Mexico, but the time is prime to travel. Both because we’re not really training right now after Grandma’s, but also because Kate still has friends in the Guanajuato program that we can visit during that leg of the journey.
We got back from the bike trip around 4 on Friday and I went to work getting the laundry going, unpacking camping items, and prepping a new pack list for Mexico. Kyle is headed up to the Quetico this week and as we exchanged texts about our upcoming travels, he mentioned how easy it is to make a pack list these days after doing it so many times. I’d generally say that’s true. I have a “stock” pack list that I slap into my current planning doc that only needs minimal efforts from trip to trip. On a side note- I also recently used my REI dividends to buy some new carry-on luggage that visually looks smaller than the suitcase I’ve been using for 15+ years, but definitely seems to fit a lot more in it. So much easier than checking luggage. Very slick.
Our first challenge of the trip occurred before we even left. Sitting around with Andy on Friday evening, we received a notification from Volaris saying our flight had been canceled. We tried customer service three times with three different reps and couldn’t get a great answer as to why or other options. The only option they offered was leaving in 2 weeks for the trip. Not an option if only due to sunk costs on airbnbs and museum tickets already purchased. The email was fairly vague, so we ultimately decided to sleep on it and try again in the morning to unpack the issue.
Saturday morning, we contacted Frontier, who was operating the flight, via their chat. This is the only way to contact them nowadays, email aside. There is no customer service line to call. They assured us that the flight was still running and thus there was nothing to act on. There was a flight leaving for Denver on Saturday evening, so we figured an option could be to take that and spend a night in Denver to ensure that we caught our Mexico flight in Denver, which would be much more challenging to rebook. With Frontier’s reassurance though, we decided to stay the course.
To gain a better piece of mind, we drove out to the airport Saturday morning simply to confirm that the flight was still running. It turns out though that Frontier doesn’t staff their kiosk unless a flight is departing; which there wasn’t. So empty-handed, we headed back home. One benefit (we thought at the time) we did glean from the Frontier chat was a confirmation # for tomorrow’s flight. I figured if we had that, we were in a good position to flight out as scheduled (we were not).
We went to bed a little after 10 for a 2:30 AM wake-up to make our 5:30 flight. When I picked up my phone, the first thing I saw was an email from Frontier stating that the flight was canceled. We figured the best place to resolve the issue was still at the airport, so we grabbed an Uber as scheduled and arrived a little more than two hours out from our flight. No Frontier employees were present; only a growing line of frustrated customers. As we waited for someone to show up (no guarantee based on the last 24 hours), I thought back to Kyle and I stranded in Arizona and we decided to act decisively. There was a 6:40 flight with Delta to Denver at an unfortunate sum of $350 per person, but would still get us there with plenty of time to make our connecting flight to Mexico City that left at 12:30.
It’s funny how random interests of our childhood can come back around to benefit our future. I spent so many hours playing poker with the Chisago guys and honestly think this helped me make a quick judgement based on the situation. The flight was expensive, but the outloook was dim and we already had a lot of sunk cost in the trip. The price certainly wasn’t cheap, but not backbreaking in order to continue our scheduled trip. Not booking the flight could result in either a more expensive flight or a delay in our trip (or both). I’m still glad in hindsight (13 hours later) to have booked the flight, albeit pissed that they have not (yet) agree to refund it.
We took the light rail over to terminal one and promptly ran into a Hopkins Cross Country runner on the same flight #teacherlife. If we were more on the ball, they asked for two volunteers to bump to the next flight. $400 each. Basically a sign from God as it still would have put us on track to make the Mexico flight, but even hesitating for 30 seconds left us out of luck. With that said, the rest of the flight went smoothly and we arrived in Denver and found our departure gate easily. We had 4 hours to kill, so we walked a long way into another concourse to find a Starbucks. Not because it’s superior coffee, but because we literally have 10+ gift cards to there from students over the years. #teacherlife. Then I chased down the Frontier customer service kiosk and waited in line there for 20 minutes, only to move one position up in an ~11 person line. Went back to the Frontier chat and had a lengthy conversation attempting to recoup our costs (to no avail), before we boarded the plane to Mexico City.
I slept a bit on the first leg to Denver, but my legs were achy and while I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep on this flight. We were kept on our toes though with plenty of turbulence, especially on take off and landing. Made it safely though and easily grabbed an Uber to our Airbnb in the Condesa neighborhood.
It’s a great studio apartment with a balcony on a quiet street but right next to tree-lined streets and a vibrant street life. After relaxing on the patio for a bit, we strolled the streets and wandered through the parks. It feels a bit European, certainly closer to that than the US, but definitely has its own flavor. We ended up at Naco Tacos for a great dinner of…tacos. Kate had a Guanabana drink and I had a Dos Equis Amber to wash it down. We wandered a bit more and ate some Churros and Chocolate at “El Moro”, supposedly a neighborhood staple. Swung by a bookstore a bit on our block to browse as well. Funny to see all of US and European literature crammed into a small corner of the store.
Despite the flight mishap, we’re glad to have made it and had a good first evening in the city. Looking forward to expanding our reach into the city tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment