Dimples

Yesterday I logged in to our cheaptickets itinerary to print out our itinerary for today's flights, and saw this:

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

United Airlines # 821
San Francisco International (SFO) to Mexico City Benito Juarez International (MEX)Departure (SFO): July 1, 11:26 AM PDT (morning)Arrival (MEX): July 1, 6:03 PM CDT (evening)

Mexico City Benito Juarez International (MEX) to Lima Jorge Chavez International (LIM)Departure (MEX): July 2, 11:55 PM CDT (evening)Arrival (LIM): July 3, 5:40 AM PET (morning)

Lima Jorge Chavez International (LIM) to Cuzco Velazco Astete (CUZ)Departure (LIM): July 2, 7:25 AM PET (morning)Arrival (CUZ): July 2, 8:40 AM PET (morning)

The slight problem with this, of course, is that the second of three flights departs a half day later than the last flight we were supposed to connect to. This is what led to my 1 hour 47 minute conversation with "Dimples" the customer service person at Cheap Tickets. Dimple's strangely porn-star-like pseudonym was the least of our worries. We previously had the same flight confirmed the day before, which would have worked just fine. It turns out that LAN cancelled our original flight, but did not notify either cheaptickets or us. I only discovered this problem by logging into the account, or we would still be at this time expecting to board a flight to Peru tonight.

My nearly two hour conversation included mostly a fight back and forth between LAN and United (who apparently also has had about enough of LAN's shannanigans). We could have connected through LA instead of Mex City and gotten into Peru on the same day as planned. However, United refused to reroute their portion of the ticket and apparently hung up on the poor Dimples. That left us to either postpone our flight from Mexico to Peru for a day, or get a refund. So, with that, Dimples hooked us up with the stayover in Mexico for the night, with the supposed promise that LAN would pick up the tabs for all our necessities in Mexico. Seeing as this is the second flight LAN has cancelled on us since we planned this trip, I did not have much hope there would be an agent to help us in Mexico, much less a place for us to stay.

With happy thoughts, we got on our flight to Mexico City, though, and arrived early! We took a bus over to LAN's terminal, where we found - surprise - no LAN agents. However, there was a promise for a LAN agent to show up at 7:00 "mas o menos." Amazingly, around 7:10 LAN did open up their line, and in the mean time, we got to chat with the friendly Argentinean, Roberto, who himself had been delayed by a LAN cancellation. He assured us that LAN had put him up, but also mentioned that he had intended to break or burn everything at the LAN counter if they did not comply with his needs (apparently he did not learn of his cancellation until trying to check in at the airport, and even after the new flight was arranged, they sent him to terminal 1 - note, terminal 1 is about 3 counties separated from terminal 2 at the airport).

Son waiting at the LAN counter in Mexico City Airport

Once we were served, the LAN attendant called hotels one-by-one from a handwritten book to find us a hotel, whilst disgruntled passangers waited behind us. BUT, we did get our hotel voucher, including meals at a restaurant with a band singing pop covers a la karaoke from the 70's and 80's. Strangely, it's probably the nicest place we'll stay at on the trip. Tomorrow we have a whirlwind tour of the city planned, before (hopefully) boarding our new flight to Lima at 11:55 p.m. Thanks Dimples!