Baggage??? What baggage???
See you when you arrive WastedG...
I do have a concern about my travel plans. Everything is on schedule now for my departure to Dallas, and then on to Laredo tomorrow afternoon. But...
I am worried. I already checked my bag with American Airlines yesterday. I figuratively waived goodbye to my bag as it made it's way down conveyor into "luggage land."
So, after the flights were cancelled, I learned that it would be a major act of congress to actually recover it on a baggage carosel, possibly taking up to two or three hours according to the gate agent. So, I told them to send it on to Laredo, and that I would catch up to it later in the day. Of course, the second flight was also cancelled, and now I am rescheduled to take the Monday flight out.
So, Where TF is my bag??? Is it in "luggage limbo" somewhere? I am really worried that it will not be at the baggage claim when I finally arrive in Laredo tomorrow night at 6pm. I am almost sure I will need to have it traced, and forwarded on to MTY. I am anticipating the worst.
[QUOTE=Wastedgman]This is not a test. This is for real. I am booked to arrive March 1st.
Wasted.[/QUOTE]
I will not smell any worse than usual ;-)))))))))))))))
I return to the USA on Saturday morning, 3/3. So, we'll have a couple of nights available to visit some of the other clubs if you arrive on 3/1.
This same thing happened to me a couple of months ago when there were bad storms in Dallas, and I was flying directly into MTY. They lost my luggage then too. It literally took them three days following my arrival in MTY to finally locate my luggage and forward it on to MTY. But, it did eventually arrive. I was ecstatic!!!
At that time, I didn't really think ahead with respect to packing an emergency kit. This time, I have packed a very small stealthy bag with all my toiletries, and at least a change of clothes that will austensibly last me for a few days. I will check it through to Laredo, hoping of course that the Airlines don't lose it as well.
I have a rather generous supply of cookies that require my constant supervision. I always carry the cookies in a back pack, which I carry on the plane to ensure unsurpassed quality upon my arrival in MTY. If I were to check them, they would undoubtedly arrive a disaster, cracked up and pulverized to smitherines.
So, I am carrying the cookies on as usual, along with my briefcase and laptop. I guess the cookies are more important than the backup toiletries and change of clothes, so I am checking them through to Laredo.
[QUOTE=Wastedgman]USB: Assuming you will 1) fly out, 2) find you luggage, how long are you planning to stay??
I depart on the 4th. with a broken heart of coure.
We need to hang out and visit some of the other clubs while we're there.
I hope you get your luggage so you won't smell :-) Should I bring you extra clothings? Some socks and undies?
Carlos, need anyting from here? So long as it is small enough to fit. I don't check my luggage. Never.
Wasted[/QUOTE]
Lucky??? Lucky would be this not happening at all :-)
Carlos also pointed out to me today during our lunch buffet at Obsession, that I was very fortunate to recover my luggage in Laredo prior to getting on the bus for MTY. I had actually checked my luggage on Saturday when both flights were cancelled, and the luggage was somewhere in the system on Sunday, not yet delivered to Laredo according to the gate agent there.
I had packed a spare bag for the substitute trip on Monday, just a small bag with underwear, socks, etc...But, when I checked the bag with the flight on Monday, I was not thinking that the entire "late flight" scenario was going to occur.
So, imagine this...My bag from Saturday is in the system somewhere, my reserve checked bag is "who knows where" on Monday because the flight was running late, and the connection was missed in Dallas. So, I had two bags floating around in the system, a system that is totally screwed up to begin with.
Consequently, upon missing the Laredo connection on Monday, I was offered a choice by American Airlines...take a look below, and speculate as to what you might have done in the same circumstances???
1. Standby on the next and last flight, which might already be full. I concluded that I would possibly never actually get on that standby flight, whereby I would have to catch the next day's flight out and spend the night in Dallas, incurring some ridiculous hotel bill for a "big city" venue like Dallas...American Airlines was not about to pay for shit....or
2. American did agree to provide a rebooked ticket on Continental, which means I would have to fly to Houston first, make a connection in Houston for Laredo, and arrive that same night in Laredo at 11pm, 5 hours later than planned had I made my American Airlines connection in Dallas...or
3. Have American rebook the Continental ticket, with an upcharge of $140 to fly directly from Houston to MTY, using half the ticket provided by American to get from Dallas to Houston on Continental.
The choice offered by #1 was just a pig in a poke. I could end up never making the last flight to Laredo with all the disorganization of American Airlines, and the potential that the flight was already overbooked anyway. American loves to overbook their flights.
If I was able to arrive in MTY that evening directly from Houston (#3) , then my luggage would still be in limbo, and I would have to file a lost luggage claim, in Spanish. I would have to hope I was being understood sufficiently that the bags would be recovered and forwarded with some promptness, something that I doubted might happen, if not on account of American's ineptidude, but due to language differences.
I chose #2, primarily because I wanted to arrive in Laredo in an attempt to recover my luggage, and if my luggage were lost, I would at least be able to file a lost luggage request within an "arguably" English speaking city.
Ultimately, I arrived in Laredo via Continental, and checked in with the American gate agents. I asked about my luggage and they recovered the "reserve" bag, which I had put on Monday's American Airlines flight that morning. No problem...so, the basic survival provisions, change of underwear, socks, etc...were now in my possession.
But, when I asked about the big suitcase, the one I had checked Saturday morning prior to the flights being cancelled, the female gate agent checked the room quickly, came back out, and told me she could not find the bag. She advised me that we would have to start the trace on the bag. I told her they would have to find the bag and forward it to MTY.
Fortunately, the male gate agent went back into the room during our discussion and actually found the bag, one of the largest in the room. The female gate agent apologized profusely for the error. Thank God the male gate agent went back in there a second time to check her work.
So, things were starting to come together...I was very glad about having recovered my bags. But, the journey was not over. I still had to take a bus all the way from Laredo to MTY. I was concerned over the prospect of entering into NL on foot, a gringo, at 11:30pm. So, I opted to take a US taxi direct from the Airport to the Bus Station for $40, literally about $15 more than taking a taxi to the border, walking across, and also hopping in a taxi on the NL side, another 50 pesos if negotiated properly, and if you are good at "traveling while gringo."
Usually, at that late hour, the taxis on the NL side would make every attempt to boost the price from 50 pesos to 100 pesos, especially on a gringo coming across the border late at night. I had no doubt that I could negotiate the fare down to the normal 50 pesos as I had done it a million times already in the past. But, after being worn down by the system all day, I decided it was well worth the extra $5US to take a taxi direct to the bus station from the Laredo airport.
The taxi sailed right through the border crossing at 11:30pm, no traffic at that late hour. At that hour, there's a significantly reduced potential for long lines of traffic, which is otherwise the norm during daytime hours, sometimes to the extent of delaying you up to 2 hours to get across the border. So, under normal daytime circumstances, I opt to walk across, not in order to save $5, but to reduce my delays in eventually getting to the promised land.
I realize that this kind of report can be a tedious read. But, I also speculate that some of the tidbits of information here may give other travelers to MTY, especially relative newbies, a glimpse into the process, the costs, the potential pitfalls, etc... especially with respect to making a bus trip to MTY via one of the border towns, especially if you are yourself a Gringo.
[QUOTE=UnospongeBob]I am finally in Monterrey....
After my flights were cancelled on Saturday, and all the aggravation of that experience, I went through an absolute horrible travel experience on Monday with American Airlines.
I was privy to a heated gripe session between the flight attendants on that flight that revealed that American Airlines was extremely messed up with respect to scheduling the proper number of flight attendents. These planes require four flight attendents, or they can not take off. In this case, the flight attendents had to be called out of reserve, being called off rest early, giving up much needed R & R between flight, just in order for the plane to take off. They were all pretty pissed off about it.
But, the significant thing to me is that the reason the flight was late, and the reason I missed connections, which caused me to have a dreadful trip, was due to lousy management, something that, according to the flight attendents, is the source of considerably low moral. It was not a delay due to weather, or equipment, or whatever. It was a delay due entirely to incompetance. My personal opionion...American Airlines does not give a shit about whether you as a passenger are happy, satisfied, on-time...nothing.
I did not arrive in Monterrey that day until 2:30am the following morning after having left the house the prior day at 10:30am. All of the delay was a result of scheduling conflicts with American Airlines which caused their flights to miss connections.
Once I arrived in Monterrey, I went directly to my hotel. Of course, due to my arrival being so late, they had NO rooms available. So, I stored my luggage in their holding closet and made my way to the clubs to kill the rest of Monday night. I was dead tired, but I also enjoyed knowing that I would be saving a night's hotel bill. I did have an opportunity to sleep on the bus for a few hours between Laredo and Monterrey, so I was relatively functional, just tired.
First I made the rounds to El Infinito, Matehuela, El Cielo, and finally to Harem. I arrived at El Infinito around 3:30am, and there was still a skeleton crew of girls working the club. Angry girl was in attendence, and successfully ignoring me as usual. I took a spin through El Cielo and it was really dead, only about four girls. Matehuela wasn't much better when I finally rolled in there about 4:00am for the presentation. I scoped out the girls at Matehuela, having one privado, and decided I would see if I could go over to Harem because I seemed to remember that it was open quite late in comparison to some of the other clubs. I was expecting most of the lower end clubs to close by 5am, but I didn't wait around to find out if they actually did.
I literally arrived at Harem about 4:30am. Two of my girls were actually still in attendence there. One of my girls spotted me, came and sat down, and I ordered her a drink. She drank it slowly, and I told her my nightmare travel story. I told her that I would be going to breakfast after the club closed to kill some more time, telling her also that I probably wouldn't be able to get a room until at least 11am Tuesday Morning.
I asked if she wanted to go to breakfast with me, and she agreed. Anyway, around 6am she is ready to leave after changing into street clothes, and she informs me that a friend of hers will also be coming along with us, a kind of chunky looking, relatively unattractive bar girl at that.
Immediately, the warning buzzers start to go off in my head, believing that the "rich gringo" is being setup to buy breakfast. But, actually, I was pleasantly surprised when the bill came, and both girls dug into their purses for their share of the tab. Both girls had the money in hand, fully intending to pay their fair share.
I chipped in 100 pesos on a 200 peso bill, more out of a sense of shocked thankfullness that the girls actually had no expectation to flease the gringo than anything else. The girls were very polite, realizing my benevolence, and thanking me appropriately for my generosity. I was really surprised that they did not try to run a game on me. Wonders never cease...
Anyway, my girlfriend's friend departed for her apartment in a taxi after we filed out onto the street in front of the Restaurant, Brazil. My girl had other ideas for the two of us it seemed, tame but sweet ideas none-the-less.
After her friend departed, my girl informed me that we are going to walk together for awhile, toward the park downtown. It seems she wanted to watch the sun come up with me. She took hold of my arm, squeezing my right arm tightly, very affectionately, and we walked down a few blocks to the park. We sat on a park bench, talked, and watched the sun come up. Kind of a surprisingly romantic ending.
I think she was being nice, realizing my situation, and realizing I would be all but abandoned in MTY in the early morning hours, no place to flop after she left. She also anticipated the subsequent wait I would ultimately have in getting a hotel room at dawn. By that time, I had been up for many hours without sleep already. Anyway, she stayed with me until around 7:30am, at which time she told me she had to go home to sleep too. So, we left in a taxi, I dropped her off at her apartment, and I went directly to the hotel.
Fortunately, the hotel did have a room available at around 8am, not cleaned, but at least a place where I could drop off my luggage and relax. So, I checked in, and things started to normalize from that point.
One interesting thing...my girlfriend from Harem has actually had me back to her apartment before, not inside, but just to drop stuff off. It is just a few blocks from the club. I noticed when we went to her apartment this time to drop off her work clothes, that some other girls from the club were being dropped off by taxi as well. So, apparently many of the girls that work at Harem also live in the same apartment complex.
I am somewhat impressed that I have apparently become elevated to the status of "trusted friend (client)"...knowing where she lives, and now, subsequently knowing where many of them live. But, here is the problem with attaining the status of "Friend" with any of these bar girls. Here is the wisdom...
Once you are a friend, your status as "friend," at least with most of the pros I know, makes intimate contact with them a much more difficult situation, especially for money. I don't know what the psychological influences are, but it just seems like the more they regard you as a friend, the less leverage you have with them as a paying client. I have a continuing trend in this direction that is not serving me well, and it involves my most recent favorita.
I am learning my lessons slowly still to this day. With this particular girl from Harem, it's not an issue because I am not particularly interested in bar fining her much any more. But, if you have a girl that you're getting too close to, consider what you might be losing in the process.
I am especially aware of this phenomenon now with my current favorita. I sense that a complacency is developing in her, probably as a result of the closeness that seems to have also simultaneiously developed between us. That is the natural progression. The more they "feel" they know you, the less they try. At first, they are very attentive, but later, slowly, they start to relax their urgency at making an impression. It is natural, and even a circumstance that we all know is common in everyday relationships. The secret is finding the middle ground where you can maintain an edge that keeps them sharp without a disasterous outcome.
The problem is, for me, the GFE is directly related to this level of familiarity I am able to create. So, by courting the GFE, and also applying whatever male charm is necessary to get it, we are simultaneously setting ourselves up for potential disappointment, usually sooner than later.
I am playing my cards differently than with angry girl, hoping that my strategy will bring everything back closer to center with this one girl in particular. But, you would think I would learn eventually. This has happened to me more times than I care to remember...
I will relate my next set of exploits in a few days when I have more time. One circumstance involves a current favorita that is in the dog house, but only for a nano-second, and not for anything really bad. The other of my exploits so far involves a new girl that I just bar fined from El Cielo last night.[/QUOTE]
