Teleportation

last of Europe

So there I was, at the age of 22, about to fly for the first time, standing in a check-in queue to get our tickets to Mexico – yet another dream about to come true. The tickets had been so cheap that we had started questioning if the airline actually exists or if it’s just a hoax. Therefore it was a relief to notice that we were not the only ones taking that flight: a huge line of passengers lined up to the check-in counters.

The atmosphere was dandy and the dress code seemed to be baggy pants, as much colours as possible and messy hair. Over 50% of the people were fellow dirty hippies, free spirits, people with no plan. We had reached the airport early so I figured we’d have to wait  for hours. Yawn!

However, half way through the queue, we received a rather important piece of information: we are required to have a return ticket! People around us started panicking, murmuring and running around. Of course, amidst all these opportunist hippies, we were not the only ones who had gone for the cheap (one-way) flight. Everyone without a proof of getting out of Mexico was shooed away from the counters. Apparently the airline had massively overbooked the flight and needed to get rid of the excess scum.

aeropuerto

The sheer possibility of not getting on that plane – after all the preparation – came as a bit of a shock. Needless to say, this particular detail was never mentioned in the booking process*. The e-mail we had received after booking the flight clearly stated: “all you need to get your ticket is a travel document”. This is what we tried to communicate to the woman at the counter and later to the manager, along with a make-believe story that we are going to take a bus to Guatemala, but they didn’t budge. Ultimately they called the security and left us standing there clueless. It was time to come up with another solution. Instead of the ordinary dull waiting at the airport we ended up running around, calling other people for help and, in the process, reuniting with Bea – another member of our hitchhikers’ family who didn’t even get a chance to book the flight although the site had claimed there were empty seats left.

That’s the way they earn money: overbooking an absurdly cheap flight and then crushing low-budget (and no-budget) travelers’ dreams. What they didn’t take into account, however, is that shady hippies are kind of creative folk and tend to support each other.

Someone appeared with a laptop and offered to help: a few strokes on the keyboard and a few clicks of the mouse and soon we were taking photos of our over-priced return tickets that we had (apparently) booked already in March. The evidence was foolproof: five people showing a photo of the same return flight, on the same day, booked at the very same time. But it worked! All they cared about was to see some image of some ticket going somewhere out of Mexico. They called off the cops. Just 20 minutes before the scheduled take-off we managed to get our tickets and ran to the x-ray.

somewhere

Once we got through the boarding, the people looked so relieved on the other side. “Victory” was written all over their faces. People high-fived and congratulated each other. It was nice to see strangers becoming friends due to this common struggle. I had never thought getting into an airplane could be so joyful! I wonder how many people will actually use the return and onward tickets they were forced to book – and how many of them pulled through using “creative methods”. Oh well, the bottom line is: we were finally on that plane, enjoying the company of our new friends.

The air-carrier turned out to be real, we did board that plane, we did not die in a statistically unlikely yet gruesome plane-crash and we even got our luggage in time. Splendid!

The Mexican border was so much more relaxed. The biggest effort from our side was to push a red button (still don’t know why) before passing through the customs.

Now it’s confirmed: WE ARE IN MEXICO!

new dawn

* (Now that we scrutinized the conditions, the mention of exit document is mentioned as point 14.2. However, these conditions were not even included in the email.)