I booked a flight from PDX to PVR in February. Today I was told by Daniel Corarrubias, a Supervisor of Rates and Changes at Mexicana Airlines, that Mexicana ceased flying out of Portland, OR in June. I received an email last night after 5pm West coast time, so I saw it this morning, notifying me that my flight status had been "changed". I called the number listed in the email immediately, and was informed that my flight no longer existed, and they needed to try and book me on one of their partner airlines to be able to get me from PDX to PVR.
The agent, Antonio Estrada, gave me the details on the new flight he found which cut a day off the back end of my vacation, but still got me home on the 29th of Nov as originally planned. The flight was less than appealing as there are 4 connecting flights and one is an over night layover at SFO. I was also informed at this time that Mexicana will not provide accommodations for the night of the 28th in San Francisco even though I will not depart on the next connection until 7am Nov 29. This was unacceptable to me so I requested to speak with a supervisor, Daniel Corarrubias. Daniel was immediately curt, rude and defensive. He basically informed me that I was to accept the changes and there were no other options or I would be given a full refund. I then requested that I speak with his supervisor, Claudia Alarcon, who was unavailable nor could I have a number for her, an email address, nor a voicemail and I could not call back and speak to her at a later time. After spending 2.5 hours on the phone with Daniel and the agent, Antonio Estrada, I was booked on a flight leaving a day earlier, Nov 21. This means I will have to pay to take another day off work.
Reportedly there were no other options. However, what about cooperating with another airline outside your contracts to get me to Mexico and have Mexicana pay for the flight? This I was told was not possible. After booking the flight I commended Antonio for his help and patience in dealing with the booking and my frustration. I requested to speak with customer service so I could let them know he had done a nice job.
In speaking with the customer service representative, Elsa Sotres, I thanked her for Antonio's work and explained the situation. Elsa gave me a quick apology to close the conversation, at which time I asked, "Is that it?" Elsa told me there was nothing Mexicana could do to compensate me for this oversight. My question is why the airline did not notify me back in June of the fact that they do not fly out of Portland any longer? At that point it may have been possible to provide me with more appealing flight times than the 4 connections BOTH ways to and from Mexico. Elsa then gave me the robotic response, �We hope you can continue to fly with Mexicana Airlines�.
Lastly, the only way to lodge a formal complaint is to fax or email a complaint. There is apparently no one to take calls for customer service for complaints, only when a customer wants to compliment their service will Mexicana accept a phone call. Ridiculous!
Rest assured I will never fly Mexicana Airlines again, and I will relay this incident to everyone I know in hopes that they choose another airline so as to avoid similar misfortune and excessive frustration.
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