I enjoy flying, its the missing the plane part that isn't fun.
The title grabbed you didn't it?
On our most recent flight down here we ran into a problem. We flew Mexicana Airlines from DFW to Mexico City. The flight was great, and we met a nice guy, Jim, that was also heading to Merida. The airport in Mexico City (MEX) is old and doesn't have enough gates to support the amount of traffic it has, so they employ a bus type vehicle that take people from the plane to the terminal. This process, unloading the plane and driving to the terminal, takes 15-20 minutes. When we got off of the plane we saw that the line for immigration was VERY long. I mean like two hours long. But, Tony knows where there is another immigration check point in the airport, so off we headed to it. We ran into Jim again and told him to follow us. We got through it very quickly and then we had a quick 2 minute meeting with a client to drop something off. Then we ran to the gate to catch our next flight. Here is where our problems started. It seems that they plane we were catching also was using one of those bus type vehicles to load it and the bus had already left. We only had one hour between flights, so there was no way we could have made the flight.
Our immediate thought was "No big deal, they will get us on another flight to Merida." UMMM, not so much. We went to the passenger assistance counter to find out about the next flight. The flight was full with 20 people on the waiting list. What about the next flight you ask? Nope, full too. We were told to go upstairs to another counter and they people there could help us find another flight, even if it was with a different carrier. UMMM once again, not so much. Then we went to AiroMexico to see if they had anything. Nada. We decided to go take a look at the gate of the next flight to see what it looked like. (this has taken about 1 1/2 hours so far and one flight has left.) At the counter they said the flight was full, but they could put us in line just in case. This still wasn't looking good. At this point we thought, "Let's go to the American Airlines Executive lounge to see if they can help us." Yes, they are a different airline than what we were flying, but it was our last shred of hope. In the lounge they said they couldn't help us, but to try the Mexicana lounge upstairs. Up we go to talk to them. Nope, they couldn't help us either, but we were told if we went back down to Gate 15 they could help us out. Off we jog. HMMMM This looks familiar. Gate 15 is passenger assistance. Nope still no help here.
We decided that this wasn't getting us anywhere, literally, 
so we went to the AA lounge again to use the internet. Now, I said the airport is old, but it isn't small. It is long and we were running/jogging back and forth. BTW MEX is over a mile high and the air is thin. In the lounge we got online and started looking for flights. We landed at about 4 and now it was 6:00. We found no more flights headed to Merida that night. At this point the we are pretty convinced that we're not catching a flight tonight.
Hey, what about catching a plane to Cancun and then a hop to Merida? Well, we could get to Cancun, but there weren't any hops to Merida. We think, what about driving from Cancun to Merida? I veto that option as the flight to Cancun was at 8:45 putting us in at midnight and then renting a car and driving for 3-4 hours. We wouldn't have gotten any rest at all. We check local hotels to see what options we have. YEAH!!!! there is a room in the Hyatt at the airport.
Off we go to the passenger assistance counter, again, to tell them we want a voucher for the hotel since it wasn't our fault we missed the plane. Interestingly enough when we tell them we want the airlines to pay for a hotel, they found 3 seats on the last flight to Merida. You would think this would be the end right?
No. Now we are told we have to go back up stairs to convert our electronic tickets to paper tickets for some reason. And yes, this did cost money to do that. Throughout this entire process I've been pretty mellow about everything, but that one really irritated me. Well, we paid and got our tickets. The time is now 6:30 and our flight is at 8:55.
We were hungry. We ate, went back to the AA lounge to use the internet access again and then went to our gate early. Our boarding passes said to go to Gate B. HMMM B? But all the gates have numbers. Well, when they don't know where your bus will pick you up they just send you to a holding area. Ours was B. Once they had a rough idea of where we would load from they announced it over the intercom. We were supposed to board at 8:11, and it was 8:30 when they announced which gate to go to, 14A. So we go to 14A. 20 minutes later we board our bus type thing at Gate 14B. The flight to Merida was pleasant.
Throughout this whole ordeal Jim is still with us. He is a geophysisist and had some work to do on a client project. He showed us some natural gas well soundings that were pretty neat. It is cool how they can determine whether or not the location is a good place to drill or not.
During this process we are sure our luggage did make the earlier flight to Merida, unlike us, and when we get to Merida we ask to check the back room for our luggage. It wasn't there. We are told that in Mexico they now do not load luggage if the person owning it is not on board the aircraft. Out luggage actually came around on the luggage carasel with everyone else's. We were absolutely amazed!!! 
Throughout the entire time we remembered that there is always a plan, we just don't always know what it is. We got to meet Jim, a nice guy from Dallas, who gets to travel here to Merida occasionally. We did make it home and with our luggage. We were all very thankful.
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite passages:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
We're all really looking forward to our future here in Merida, and we're excited to see how God uses us to further His kingdom.
via con Dios,
Robba