Mexico to Lima Flight from hell

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Tuesday 15.6.2010 day 244
Mexico to Lima Flight from hell
I woke up this morning to a slight tremor. This is the first time I have felt an earth quake tremor. I was in Sydney when there was an Earth quake in Newcastle but I did not feel it even though they evacuated my building and I was in the 17th floor. So it was fun to feel this one nothing moved it was very slight.
Well I am a Qantas club member so only fly Qantas and one world so I can use the VIP clubs and get the points. So I booked a LAN flight from Mexico to Lima and was surprised when I got to the airport that LAN had got Aeromexico to do the flight for them and I had to book in at the Aeromexico desk. So now the flight number I had which was a LAN flight is now showing as AM flight number on my boarding pass so I do not think I will get any frequent flyer point for the trip. Boarding was a mess it took forever and every one had way to much carryon bags so they were taking them off them as they boarded and the guys where saying there was not enough room in the hull to fit all the bags and there was not enough room in the aircraft to fit the bags as well. Eventually we all boarded and once they closed the doors the captain informed us that they had to make an extra stop at Acapulco to get more fuel as the weight was too much for them to reach their flying speed. We were told the flight to Acapulco would take 45 mim. All as they gave us to eat and drink to then was a small bag of nuts and one glass of juice. No headsets where handed out. It was sort of fun going to Acapulco as I had never been before but when we landed they then informed us that we would be here for 40 mim for refilling and we had to remain seated during that time. From the window I saw the fuel truck come and not long after some airport officials then police and then more airport officials then more police and then Aeromexico officials. It seemed by the discussions that the airport officials were not happy with them making this stop. Lots of people boarded the aircraft and got off again. The fuel trucked finished filing and moved away but it seemed like the officials were not going to let us leave we stayed another 45 min’s waiting for them to let us going making the stop over an hour and a half plus the extra flying time to Acapulco. The rest of the trip was very bumpy with not much food or drinks for what ended up being a 7 h flight. The captain did manage to make up some of the time he lost. When I was given the immigration cards to fill out I realised that the check in lady had not given me back my travel documents that I gave her on check in and along with my air ticket my two lots of hotel bookings and travel insurance papers were with it as well. As there was 3 hours from check in to boarding she could have called me up to get them or had them at boarding to give to me but no she did not very bad service! Fortunately I have a soft copy of all the document. So had to get my laptop out for the address of the hotel for the immigration papers and to give to the taxi. We ended up getting to Lima just after 1AM and the immigration lines were out the door. By this time I am very tied and have had a fight with my travel partner as we cannot agree on travel plans while in South America. In the line next to us is the captain and he is big and fat and going on about and clearly unhappy about what happened in the unplanned stop! When I get to immigration she asked how long I will be here which is about 40 days and she wants to just give me a 2 week visa! Then she says a 1 month one even though 90 days is standard. After some discussion we agreed on 60 days. The we went through customs. We then had to get money out for a taxi the first ATM did not work. So we found a second. All the time being hounded by taxi drives. Lots of them not official ones and being given all sorts of prices in US and local currency. We eventually get a taxi and got to our hotel after 3am we had to ring the door bell 4 times for them to open the door then they wanted us to fill in all these forms and pay in advance. After we did this they said they would give us the recept in the morning we said no. They would not let us go to bed without doing all the paper work and paying but expect us to give them the money for 3 nights with no proof that we payed? When I went to open my bag I found that that it had been opened but nothing was missing. I was a bit of a worry that is was open after they had all my paper work and had not given it back. There is no way I would fly Aeromexico again.

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