I Am Going to Tell You the Whole Story of the Scam AeroMexico Tried to Pull On the Hilarski Family.

Let's start from the beginning. Back on October 30, 2018 we decided as a family to travel to Acapulco, Mexico for a week long event. So I went on CheapTickets.com like I normally do. The flight to Acapulco included a stop in Mexico City, Mexico for a few hours before continuing on to Acapulco.

Even though the price of $1500 seemed a little steep for a flight so close to our home in Panama I decided to buy it.

Here is the Original Itinerary for the AeroMexico Scam. Everything Looks Peachy So Far.

On December 23, 2018 I Receive an Email from AeroMexico Informing Us That Our Connecting Flight Had Been Cancelled. Step 1 in the AeroMexico Scam.

We were travelling with our 13 month old child so we were forced to book a hotel in Mexico City for the night. They changed the next available flight to the following day. We already had a hotel room booked at the Princess Mundial Resort for the 10th of February. Added cost $160 plus the inconvenience of having to leave the airport and return at 6 am the following day.

The Date Has Arrived. We Are On Our Way to Acapulco, Mexico!

We packed and made the one hour trip to Tocumen airport in Panama City, Panama. Everything at Tocumen went smoothly. Even the flight to Mexico City was uneventful. I should mention super uneventful because there was no in flight entertainment for the 3 hour trip.

We arrived in Mexico City, went through immigration, picked up our bag and headed to the Sheraton. We enjoyed a few hours in the Maria Isabel area of Mexico City before turning in for the night. The following morning we woke up at 5 am and rushed to the airport for our 0830 am flight to Acapulco.

We Checked in Without Incident but the AeroMexico Scam Was Just Getting Warmed Up.

We were almost two hours early so we decided to grab some breakfast at Starbucks. AeroMexico still had not posted the Gate number so we waited patiently in (Sala K) which is the general holding area at the Benito Juarez AeroMexico terminal.

AeroMexico Scam Step 2.

After 30 minutes our gate was posted on the screen. So we headed to gate 58. We relaxed and waited for boarding. Our son was having a grand old time practicing his walking. Then around 0730 am I mentioned to Anabell that it was odd that our gate was largely empty. So Anabell checked the flight board and told me our flight was changed to gate 75!

WTF that was on the other side of the airport. So we put the Little Man in the stroller and went quickly to gate 75. It took about 10 minutes to make it across the airport terminal. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 0830 am so we were not worried.

When we arrived the AeroMexico agent rudely said, "where have you been, we have been paging you for 30 minutes, the flight has already left." I said, "What page? We know our names and did not hear anything and why did the flight leave 45 minutes early?" The agent said, "go to the Aeromexico desks and see if you can get on a later flight." Livid, we headed to the ticket desks.

AeroMexico Scam Step 3. You Better Call the Police!

When we arrived at the ticket desk we had to wait 10 minutes while they helped other upset travelers. Apparently we were not the only ones this happened to. When it was our turn the agent said, "you missed your flight and now you need to buy new tickets because you purchased discount tickets." I said, "it is 0800 am our flight is not scheduled to leave until 0830 am. You need to just give us tickets for later today." Agent said, "Sorry you missed your flight so you broke your chain of flights and have to purchase tickets back to Panama as well."

The Moment I Thought the Cops Were Going to Show Up and Take Me to a Mexico City Jail.

You can imagine the exchange between us and the ticket agents. They now had three people behind the counter telling us all kinds of bull shit. Then I said, "fuck this, give me tickets to return to Panama." The agent looks up with a straight face and says, "If you would like to keep your flights and fly to Acapulco today the cost will be $3500!" I gave the guy the look like, "one more word and we are going to have a big problem." He said they couldn't help us any longer and recommended we speak to Cheaptickets.com where we purchased the tickets.

I turned around and yelled to everyone, waiting to talk to the Aeromexico scammers, what had happened. Apparently other families were in the same position. We then decided it was time to leave. They told us that our luggage was available as it had not been put on the plane! Are you fucking kidding me? In the end it was great that we could grab our luggage. The whole exchange took about 15 minutes. Mind you it still wasn't even 0830 am, the time our flight was supposed to leave.

We felt hopeless so we decided to find a different way to Acapulco and we would figure out our return flights once we settled down. Remember we were traveling with our one year old child.

Cooler Heads Prevailed and We Took a Bus to Acapulco.

It took about 15 minutes for Anabell to retrieve our luggage. During this time I remembered that the buses to Acapulco left often or we could drive. We decided to take a bus. The cost was about $80 and took 5 hours.

We checked into the Princess Mundial and began our conference. After two days I decided it was time to make the call to Cheaptickets.com and try to sort out our flights. I couldn't avoid facing the issue any longer.

AeroMexico Scam Step 4.

I called Cheaptickets.com and explained the situation to the agent. He was understanding and couldn't believe the airline left us behind and left 45 minutes early. On top of that they did not offer us tickets on a later flight to Acapulco. On top of that they blamed us and cancelled all of our ongoing flights.

So the agent says to me. "I will call AeroMexico and get your return flights honored." 10 minutes go buy and he returns to the line and says, "AeroMexico will honor your flights home if you return to Mexico City and catch the flight you missed to Acapulco and pay $200." I said, "Could you repeat that please?" He did and I said, "do you realize how stupid that is?" He said, "Yes Mr. Hilarski this is stupid." He connects with AeroMexico multiple times but they won't change their story.

He then said, "Sir maybe you can talk to AeroMexico directly?" I said, "I already tried that, Cheaptickets.com are the professionals and my agent please fix it!"

Could You Get Me a Supervisor Please!

So after wasting an hour already I asked to speak to a supervisor at AeroMexico. A nice polite young woman comes on and assures me that she will fix this for me. Once again I felt a little confidence but after waiting another hour she came back with the same answer as her agent. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

The agent says, "Mr. Hilarski I am going to call the AeroMexico corporate offices and get this fixed. I will call you once I have an answer." So we headed down to the pool bar and enjoyed some time in the sun. Little Max was having a great time.

After about 30 minutes I get the call from the Cheaptickets.com Supervisor. All I heard was that my tickets returning to Panama were being honored. Then the call dropped. We ordered beers and enjoyed our conference.

We Are Now Back Home in Panama. AeroMexico can Fuck Off.

So I will do my best as a blogger and social media influencer to expose the AeroMexico scam. After hours of fighting with them, missing part of our conference, all of the stress, the five hour bus ride, the extra hotel rooms and the absolute rudeness of their staff I feel the need to inform the world.

AeroMexico the damage has been done. I don't want money. I don't want an apology. I just want to expose you for what you are, "an opportunistic airline who uses criminal tactics to overcharge your customers." This post is written on Steemit which is a blockchain based social blogging platform. This post will live on for eternity and I hope it is seen millions of times.