I woke up more tired than usual as my dad kept me up at night with his snoring. I don’t remember it being that bad when we went to Las Vegas.
Once we got going we went to my Tia Chuy’s house where Tia Irene was waiting for us with her son Rigo. After talking, we headed out to La Basilica de Guadalupe in a full van joined by Alejandro and his wife and daughter.
It was nice to see my Tia Chuy outside of her house. When I was here last year, she stayed home the entire time. My father is trying to get her to go to Puebla on Monday.
My Tia Irene loves churches and especially this one. She watched a mass with almost everyone in our group; Rigo, Alejandro and I looked around. When we left there was a Native dance troop performing in the Basilica’s square. They were well choreographed.
We had lunch at Alejandro’s restaurant: Pozoleria Jalisco, Las Planchas. I had chicken enchiladas and they were great. My family had a good time talking.
Alejandro took everyone back to his place to show our aunts around since they had never been there. Later we all went back to Tia Chuy’s house.
As Alejandro was preparing to leave he asked if I wanted to go back to his place to rest. I said sure, I could use a nap while my father talks to his sisters.
I was really looking forward to that nap.
I barely got out the door when I got a text message from a co-worker asking me what airline I used. I thought he was just joking until I got a message on facebook when another friend asked me if I had heard what happened with Mexicana.
So after a brief inquiry I learned Mexicana would cease operations the next day, Saturday. I knew at that point I needed to make some calls while at the same time trying to limit international ones. My first thought was to call the Mexicana office in Mexico City. I had my cousin do that and he was directed to the website for a refund.
I texted one of my brother-in-laws for help and instant messaged one of my sisters. I even got help from one of my friends to make calls.
After thinking it over I decided to contact the company I purchased my tickets from, Orbitz. Unfortunately they didn’t have a toll-free international number. They did have an online chat to help out. So I gave it a shot.
The person on the other end didn’t know that Mexicana had folded but after looking into it he told me what I needed to do to get a refund. He told me to call Orbitz directly and gave me the international number that was not toll free. Beggars can’t be choosers.
So I called them up and of course they didn’t know what was going on. After getting caught up to speed she helped me get a refund for the cancelled flight. I won’t see it for two billing cycles by the earliest, but I’ll get it back.
The next part was finding a new flight home that was both cost and time efficient. The original journey home was supposed to be a two-part layover departing from Mexico City at 1 p.m. (11 a.m. PDT) and arriving in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. (PDT).
It was too expensive for a direct flight so I needed to do a two-parter. There were several candidates, one included flying into an airport where a dying tropical depression was projected to hit. I decided to go with an hour and a half layover in Phoenix. It’s a good thing my dad and I will have our papers with us.
After I get the refund, it is projected to cost $150 more but now we have a secure flight on an airline, U.S. Airways, which made money last quarter.
I spent almost three hours looking for a solution so for the rest of the night I was just burned out. I couldn’t sleep either. I just stayed up with my cousin’s children as they watched television and played with my PSP.
Saturday morning I’m setting up a Skype video call for my Tia Chuy so she can talk to her daughter that lives in Canada. After that, maybe we’ll go to a museum.
I just know I don’t have to worry about my flight home anymore.
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