We've just returned from a Christmas visit to Mexico, where our whole
family met in Cancun for a week. On the way back, we missed a
connection in Mexico City and as a result spent 24 hours in the 7th
circle of Hell that passes for an airport there.
We had bought a Lufthansa ticket Bologna->Frankfurt->Mexico
City->Cancun and return. I made the purchase over the phone, as
Lufthansa's web site was hiccuping that day. The segment Mexico City
-> Cancun was operated by Mexicana (Mexico's most modern airline,
giggle, cough) whom Lufthansa doesn't blush to claim as a partner.
The first thing that irritated me was that, although we landed just 15
minutes late, our flight to Frankfurt didn't wait for us. We were
approaching the gate when it took off. Then, it turned out to be
impossible to find any information about reticketing in the Mexico
City airport. We spent almost 5 hours there on wild goose chases and
waiting in futile lines and pursuing false leads. We left at 1:30 AM
with nothing resolved, and hungry and angry besides. We had to find a
hotel ourselves at our own expense and, as for dinner, we just never
got it.
Although we were initially promised tickets on the first Europe bound
flight leaving the airport, in the end, it seems that both Mexicana
and Lufthansa claim absolutely no responsibility for what happened.
Mexicana's explanation is that it wasn't their fault but the airport's
fault. (I've been rebooked on other airlines when the fault is the
weather, so this makes no sense to me.) Lufthansa claims that the
ticket was sold as two separate tracts, one Bolgna -> Frankfurt
->Mexico City and return, and another, entirely independent, Mexico
City -> Cancun and return. This apparently is what absolves them from
responsibility, although Mexicana is their partner and the late flight
was codeshared with Lufthansa.
I have looked over the tickets carefully since I got home, and I don't
see anything that stipulates this condition. The whole thing arrived
in the mail, all three segments stapled together, and a single
itinerary in the front. It seems to me that the Lufthansa
representative who sold me the tickets should have explained it. I
would probably have got a different flight, given that the connection
in Mexico City was a bit tight.
I'm wondering if the selling of tickets like this is legal in the
European Union. Or do these consumer protection laws not apply to
flights that touch down outside the European Union?
The worst thing about the whole experience was the false information
we got from Lufthansa representatives and Mexicana representatives at
the airport. In the end, after having wasted all that time, I called
Lufthansa in Germany from my cell phone, and was basically told that
we were screwed and that all the promises that had been made were
phantasma.
I've travelled in China in the 1980's, and until now all my airport
horror stories dated from that time. I've also travelled in Africa in
the 1990's; nothing I've ever experienced comes close to the chaos and
confusion of the Mexico City airport.
To those of you who excoriate Ryanair: no airline gives a shit about
their passengers any more, and Ryanair is at least cheap.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup |