Mendoza Airport (MDZ)

Flight #44 – LAN 4241
Mendoza (MDZ) – Buenos Aires (AEP)
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Depart: 10:10AM / Arrive: 11:50AM
Duration: 1 hr 40min
Seat: 3J and 3K (Economy) 
Earned: 610 miles
Lifetime Miles: 90,348 miles

As you can see from the photo, Mendoza's Governor Francisco Gabrielli International Airport (MDZ)... well, it sucks. It's ugly. It's small. It's actually in the midst of construction. There aren't many nice things to say about MDZ Airport other than it's better than driving 13 hour to Buenos Aires.

Our scheduled flight was supposed to depart at 9:15AM. Since South American flights board 1 hour before departure time, that meant we'd be boarding at 8:15. And because you can never tell how long the check in process will be, we wanted to give ourselves at least 30 minutes to wait in line to check our luggage and get through security. Additionally, Tuesday was the last day of a very long Argentine holiday weekend, so I knew it would be pretty busy at the airport with everyone flying back to BA after a 5 days off.

So we left our hotel at 7:15AM and arrived at 7:45AM just like we planned. On the bright side, there was almost no line for the 9:15AM LAN flight to Buenos Aires. We were checked in by 8AM and had 15 minutes before boarding was supposed to start.

After picking up a postcard and a magnet (my parents get one of each every place I visit for my travel collection), we walked over to the security check point by Gate 2. They told us that they wouldn't even let passengers go through security until 8:10AM. But when we came back 20 minutes later, they announced our fight wouldn't be leaving until 10:10AM, almost 1 hour later than scheduled and that the security line would open at 9AM.

Great, I got woken up at 6AM for no reason!

So around 8:45, they announce that security for LAN Flight 4241 will be opening at Gate 4. We hurried over to the gate and found a 20 person line waiting for security to open.

Within 30 seconds, people starting running to get in line behind us and before you knew it, the line was about 100+ people long and security still hadn't opened. Then some agents started approaching people in line offering them coupons if they'd agree to get bumped to an evening flight. No dice, ma'am.

So finally a little after 9AM, they start screening ticketed passengers. After a long few weeks of sleeping in until 10-11AM each morning, our 6AM wake up call was pretty harsh on us, especially my mother who went to bed around 1AM the night before. Being exhausted, she started to get frustrated with the delays as many of us could probably relate to. My father looked on the screen and saw that the earlier flight to BA was cancelled and the one leaving after us had "See Agent" in the comments. I guess we were lucky that our flight was just delayed.

As the line gradually made its snails pace forward, my Manhattan speed parents got a little antsy with the Argentine pace and wanted to use me (yet again) as a reason to cut the line. However, they didn't want to be the entitled gringo Americans cutting upfront, so they waited for someone else to start the Baby First movement.

Once they saw some other 15 sets of parents with strollers moving up front, we went along with them. Interestingly enough, the rest of the passengers didn't seem to mind being delayed even more by the mass of infants and toddlers cutting in front of them.

My parents and I got through security quickly once we were fast-tracked through for having a baby. Didn't have to take off our shoes or remove our laptop from the backpack. Even got through a big carton of baby formula through the x-ray machine w/o being questioned.

But then we waited by the gate for another 20 minutes before they started lining us up. In South America, they often board passengers from 2 doors (one in the front and one in the back). So you had to line up based on what row you were in (either 1-15 or 16-30). We, yet again, skipped to the 3rd Elite line not because we were frequent flyers on LAN Airlines but because I was a baby. Honestly, I think that's why my travel obsessed father decided to have kids in the first place.

But finally we got on the plane and took our seats. And by 10:30AM, we were in the air on our way to Buenos Aires for 2 nights in the posh Recoleta neighborhood (think Upper East Side -- but Madison Ave, not York Ave) before we finally return home to New York City - where no one gives a sh-t if you're traveling with a baby.