Mexican Airlines - Choose Wisely or Roll the Dice

Mexico     Destinations, Getting To and Fro
InterJet and VivaAerobus have both so far let me down in big ways.
InterJet and VivaAerobus have both so far let me down in big ways.
You can get flights out of Tijuana, Mexico for about half the price than they would be out of San Diego. But there's definitely a bit of "you get what you pay for".
Living in San Diego, I fly Mexican airlines a good bit out of Tijuana. Unfortunately, it's always a big risk as to whether you'll make it to your final destination remotely on time or not. I hear many other passengers having the same problems. And of course because it's Mexico, you have no recourse.

The most complaints I have heard of (and experienced) have been on InterJet and Viva Aerobus. But to be fair, I have flown both of these successfully as well as Volaris and Aero Mexico.

InterJet in particular I learned, might just be the most risky. Apparently they are government-owned and so they don't really care about the passengers. They cancel flights often if they are not full enough and blame it on weather. They're strictly about the ole' dinero. I believe this wholeheartedly based on personal experience.

Tales of woe....

InterJet

We arrived at the US side of the bridge to cross over and fly InterJet out of Tijuana and were told that flights were all on hold because of the fog. The woman at the check-in desk assured us that we should cross over the bridge and if any of the airlines did indeed take off that night, that they would switch us to that airline. Okay fine. Over we went.

Well that was ALL a load of crap.
1) InterJet was the ONLY one who cancelled their flight. All other airlines left on time that night.
2) There was no way they would switch us to another airline as they just don't have those kind of relationships between the airlines. They looked at us like we were crazy when we asked.

Zero customer service skills, more of a shoulder shrug if you asked them anything about the cancellation, the rescheduled flight, or just about anything. I supposed they're used to this. You just get the "flight cancelled" stamp across your forehead like a scarlet A because you were dumb enough to book with InterJet and are expected to move aside.

It was now 1 AM and we were stuck on the Mexico side until our flight left at 9 AM the next morning. If they had just let us know they were going to cancel the flight, we would have gone home and slept in our own beds for the night. So we stayed up in the cafe as long as we could, then got a little sleep on the tile floor.

I flew out of TJ about a week later and the exact same flight (only on InterJet mind you) was cancelled again! Fortunately I was flying Aero Mexico that time so it all went smoothly. ;)
Although I don't think Viva Aerobus meant to be lame, it did turn out that way and I heard similar complaints about other routes.
Although I don't think Viva Aerobus meant to be lame, it did turn out that way and I heard similar complaints about other routes.

Viva Aerobus

Feeling pretty pleased with myself for not flying InterJet, I made it out of TJ on time and without issue. The Viva Aerobus planes are clean and new but are bare bones with seats that don't even recline.

Then my 3 hour layover in Monterrey, MX turned into a bit more than that. After the flight was already 1/2 hour past the departure time with absolutely no update, they finally announced that the 2:30 PM flight was now scheduled for 1 AM - what?!

Wow, a 4am arrival into Cancun ought to make transportation and holding the hotel reservation fun. I won't even get into how that all turned out but I did end up spending a couple of pre-dawn hours alone on the beach of Puerto Morelos with my luggage.

Most people settled in, some left the airport. They were offering a refund for the local passengers who decided just not to fly which I thought was admirable. A nice woman walked me out a restricted door to get to the ticketing desks to see if there was anything I could do like book on another airline. I have to say that their customer service agent was very helpful and did everything he could to answer my questions and did so with a smile. I decided to wait it out and he gave me a free meal voucher.

Had there not been other flights having similar issues, I would have been reasonably happy with the airline and figured it was a fluke. But in addition to my flight, there was another one that kept getting delayed further and had no departure in sight and I also heard a man yelling over the phone to Viva Aerobus about yet another flight issue he was dealing with. No recourse, you're stuck with whatever you get.

Hanging out in the terminal....

Feeling tired and cranky and downtrodden, I looked down to see "I ❤ Travel" at my feet on the dirty floor. Yes, I do. This is exactly what I warn people about. Learn to take it in stride. My meal voucher, Denny's. LOL I have to say that it tasted delicious at that moment.
I just needed a little reminder. I love travel.
I just needed a little reminder. I love travel.
My Denny's meal voucher in action. I felt pretty accomplished that I left the gate area and scored this greasy hot meal.
My Denny's meal voucher in action. I felt pretty accomplished that I left the gate area and scored this greasy hot meal.
Viva Aerobus has their own terminal in MTY which is small but has some modern food options and a few shops, The seats are all metal with arms so there's not any comfort there. The airport is far enough out of the city that you can't walk to anything outside of the terminal but could take a taxi into town if you wanted to and you trusted the airline's estimated departure time, which I did not.

I don't know how many hours I spent on that cold hard dirty floor during my 13 hours at the airport, but I did find a little alcove with an electrical outlet to charge my phone and there was free WiFi. I managed an hour or two of sleep.
At least two flights worth of people were in for the long haul. I claimed my space. Looks pretty comfy, huh?
At least two flights worth of people were in for the long haul. I claimed my space. Looks pretty comfy, huh?
The floor is more popular than the seats because everyone needs to plug their phones in.
The floor is more popular than the seats because everyone needs to plug their phones in.

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