Trying to get to Mexico

Several months ago My parents, Ryan and Nena planned on going to Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. My dad timed it so he would have a vacation after his long trial was over. He knew he would need a get away. Ryan served a mission in this area and had been wanting to return for some time. The week after the trial I told me parents I would do my best to get to Mexico even if it was just for a few days. I had Thursday and Friday off so I put in a request for time off on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course my request was denied. I knew that it wouldn't be possible to get there in back in two days so I figured I wouldn't be able to go. My mind kept turning trying to think of something that would work. I talked with Brandon and asked if I was able to get Valentine's Day off (Saturday) if he would try to get all three days off with me. I put in a request for time off. I did a little research first to see how many people were on reserve for Saturday. Luckily a Fresno captain was sitting reserve in LAX. That meant they had both an am reserve and a pm reserve. I knew they wouldn't let me have time off unless they had at least one reserve for the am and one for the pm. I posted a comment that they had coverage for both the morning and evening shifts. Miracle of all miracles they gave me Saturday off.

Like the idiot I sometimes can be I didn't check the loads down to Mexico until after I got the day off. Everything was overbooked. I looked from multiple cities and multiple air carriers. I checked and rechecked a million times. I looked pretty hopeless. We were trying to come up with a back up plan since we now had 3 days off together. Unfortunately many of the flights were over-sold because of the Valentine's weekend and Presidents day. We figured we could go to Boise if Mexico didn't work out. I went to bed Tuesday night thinking it probably wouldn't work out. Wednesday I got on Orbitz and I say tickets going through Mexico city on Mexicana or AeroMexico. I went to work checking that possibility out. Sure enough there were just a few seats open. We decided to go for it. Brandon was able to get off work a little early. We caught a 6:00 pm flight from LAX to Mexico City.

It was a totally different experience traveling on a carrier that was not a US company. I definitely felt like the minority. We arrived in Mexico City at around midnight. We needed to double check the flights to Cancun in the morning. I texted Myca to check the loads for me. They told her totally different information then they had given me. In fact most of the time that we asked any question we received different answers from everyone we asked. It was very frustrating. It looked like we wouldn't be able to get on a flight until 8:45 in the morning.

We walked around the airport a lot. There were no chairs anywhere. The floor was tile. It was freezing. The airport let the outside air into the building (it was 40 degrees outside.) I only had a sweatshirt and no socks. I couldn't get warm or comfortable. We did sit down and watch Bourne Ultimatum but we had to shift every five minutes because the floor was so hard. I don't even think we had 5 minutes of sleep.This 7-eleven was my saving grace. I was able to pick up some hot chocolate.This is where we watched the movie. It was on a bridge between a hotel and the airport.

At 5 am the train to the other terminal opened. We went over to the other terminal and checked in right away. They told us that the 8:45 flight looked pretty good and to meet back at that desk at 8:00 am. This must be a Mexico thing because usually they will just give you a seat request card so you can go through security and wait at the gate (where there are chairs!) After we checked in we went and had breakfast. It wasn't very good but it was nice to have a soft place to sit. When we went back to the ticket agent at 8:00 am she told us the flight was already full. The good news is that she gave us a seat assignment on the 10:40 am flight so we could go through security and get a chair.

We made it on the 10:40 am flight. We arrived in Cancun, grabbed some cash, and took a bus to Playa del Carmen. I was just hoping and praying that we would have such a good time that it would make up for the really tough time getting there.