Mexican Airport Misery: Aeromexico VS Air Canada

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. It sounds like your Aeromexico flight was delayed about one hour and twenty minutes. That is a pretty routine delay. Did Aeromexico say what the reason for the delay is? I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting compensation from them for this unless they are required to by law or conditions of carriage, but there's no harm in trying. It may or may not have been within Air Canada's legal rights to insist you buy new tickets. Regardless I think that's a horrible way to treat distressed passengers, and wouldn't play well in the media. I would try to get a refund or credit for the new tickets they made you buy. When you write Aeromexico and Air Canada, make sure you leave out most of the details in this post. I know it sucked that you couldn't find a hotel and that your shoes broke during this process but that is definitely not the airlines' fault. Similarly, they aren't going to compensate you because you were worried your luggage wouldn't arrive on time but it actually did. They aren't obligated to hold a flight for you and won't be held responsible for not doing so. That stuff makes you seem like an unreasonable person without a real actionable complaint so don't include it. Short versions of the emails you should send: To Aeromexico: Your flight was late and because of that I missed another flight and had to pay $1592. Please send me a check. (They will probably laugh at this but maybe you'll get something.) To Air Canada: My flight on your interline partner Aeromexico (http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/codeshare.html) was delayed and your station in Mexico made me purchase new tickets for $1592 which I only agreed to under duress. We were in a vulnerable situation with disabled and elderly passengers and we feel like your agents took advantage of that. Please send us a refund of the $1592. I would wait to see what Air Canada offers and then decide how to escalate if it's insufficient. Good luck. If a flight is significantly delayed, then the airline actually is obligated to compensate the passenger. This is true only in limited circumstances that may not apply here.

First thing is definitely to figure out how exactly this was booked in the reservation system. Was it a single itinerary? Was it a codeshare? And then even if somebody booked you badly so that Air Canada thought you were originating your travel in Mexico City, try talking to Air Canada. BUT. You need to put your list of grievances aside when you do this. Aeromexico in all likelihood did not wrong you though that may depend on a couple of factors you will have to chase down. The Mexico City airport did not wrong you by having a midnight or being big, nor did security, or the hotels or the cab drivers. It is unreasonable to complain that the last seats on a plane aren't together as if it was done to personally spite you, that is an entitlement that violates the rules of space and time and reduces the sympathy of the listener instantly. If this trip was booked as multiple itineraries and you were not told, you would be justified in raining down anger on whoever did it, but if that person was a travel agent you are probably not going to get any compensation. It's understandable that you are traumatized by the experience and you want someone to make it better, but the only potentially fixable problem here is that you had to buy new tickets from DF to Toronto and maybe you shouldn't have had to. Address that first.

If you booked Toronto/Mexico City round trip and a separate Mexico City/Acapulco itinerary then unfortunately it's on you to make your flights. The airlines are extremely unlikely to compensate you for the hassle.

In my experience, when you book two legs of a trip on two different carriers, you don't have any kind of continuity of responsibility between the two segments of the trip. So, if an Air Canada flight had landed late and caused you to miss an Air Canada flight (or one of their code shares) you'd be booked on the next available flight. But if you book on two completely different airlines (and I can't find any information that Aeromexico and Air Canada are code shares), when you don't show up for the second flight it's basically as if you have missed your flight like any passenger originating from that city. Sometimes if you miss your flight they rebook for a fee but sometimes you're just screwed. (I cancelled a flight the day before departure because I was ill and they issued me the credit in full! Minus a $250 rebooking fee. The total cost of the original flight had been $266. So I was left with a $16 credit. ) If you booked with a travel agent or something similar I would start with your attempts at resource there -- flying on two different airlines with a departure time of midnight on the second flight is not the best plan: if you miss your flight, there likely won't be one until the next morning, all of the customer service desks are staffed at a minimum if at all, etc etc.

http://ask.metafilter.com/268235/Mexican-Airport-Misery-Aeromexico-VS-Air-Canada#3894406: "The airlines are extremely unlikely to compensate you for the hassle." If a flight is significantly delayed, then the airline actually is obligated to compensate the passenger. There is just a hellacious amount of paperwork and other tactics they use to try and make you not file the claim. It doesn't matter if there is a connecting flight or not. Even just a delay on a non-stop flight is eligible. I'm not sure one hour is enough of a delay, but that's what the site I linked above is for. They'll do all the work, and you only pay them if you get paid.

It sounds an awful lot like Air Canada took advantage of your panic and worry to get you to buy a new ticket when they should have honored your existing one. I have missed connections on codeshare flights (oneworld) and my existing reservations were always honored with a seat on the next available flight with no cost to me. You could try submitting this to http://elliott.org/ the consumer advocate guy.

I can't figure out: 1) Our luggage was tagged to go straight from Acapulco to Toronto, and we were told that boarding passes for the Air Canada flight would be issued in Mexico City. and 2) To add insult to injury, AC insisted (1) that we buy new tickets to Toronto (which cost us an additional $1591.18 Canadian dollars) It sounds like it was a codeshare flight and it was their own fault you missed the connection (because the first plane was delayed) which means you should not have to buy new tickets. How did you book the flight? Through Air Canada or through AeroMexico?

I have missed connections on codeshare flights (oneworld) and my existing reservations were always honored Are they code shares, though? I don't see any information that they are.

Are they code shares, though? I don't see any information that they are. Oh, right! I was looking at vacapinta's comment and went from there. But yes, they're not listed as partners on either airline's website.