Flights from Manila to San Jose Costa Rica

[top_secret 2,538]

33 minutes ago, Skyman said:

What's wrong with Mexico?

Let me answer that one.

 

August of last year I managed to fly my wife (fiancé at the time) out of Manila during the outbound nonessential travel ban.  That was not easy to pull off but we did it.  We planned a 2-week trip to Cancun.  Mexico will accept any multiple entry visa issued by a G7 nation as a valid visa for entry to Mexico and my wife has a 5-year multiple entry tourist visa for Japan.  We contacted the Mexican Embassy in Manila and verified they would accept the Japan Visa for a 2-week trip to Cancun.  The Mexican Embassy in Manila assured us she was good to go.  She flew from Manila-Istanbul-Frankfurt-Mexico City.  I flew from Tijuana to Mexico City a couple of hours before she arrived and was waiting at the customs exit as all the Frankfurt passengers came out.  All except my wife, who I was in contact with as she boarded so I knew she was on that flight.  When it was apparent, she wasn't coming out I went upstairs to the Lufthansa check-in and found an airline employee.  They informed me she was denied entry and was being deported back out on the same plane she came in on.  I questioned why because we had been assured the Japanese visa was good.  In fact, the Japanese visa was fine for Mexico.  Visa was not the issue.  Despite the fact she had like $2,000 in prepaid resort reservations in Cancun, Mexican immigration said "unreliable purpose of travel" and denied her entry.  I tried talking with Mexican Immigration to no avail. They won’t even talk to you.  Mexican Immigration taunted her that "if she was supposed to be meeting her boyfriend there, why doesn't she just call me".  She said she didn't have a SIM card for Mexico but she could easily call me if they had WIFI.  They replied yes, they had WIFI but not for her, and would not allow her to even try and contact me to corroborate anything.   They made her sign a Spanish document.  When she refused to sign it because she can’t read Spanish, they told her to sign it or she would regret not signing it.  She relented.  No idea what that was.  Maybe like a withdrawal of application for entry????  She hasn’t a clue what they made her sign.  Once she was actually aboard the plane back to Frankfurt the Lufthansa employee who I had spoken to earlier got her WIFI from inside the plane somehow and she was briefly able call me so at least I knew first hand exactly where she was.  I waited for the Lufthansa flight to depart Mexico City.  I purchased a plane ticket on my phone back to Tijuana leaving in about an hour and got the hell out of that place.  I was back in the US before she landed in Frankfurt.  I got all our Mexico bookings refunded.  I booked her on a one-way flight from Frankfurt to São Paulo Brazil. I booked myself LAX-Newark-São Paulo Brazil.  Met her in the airport in São Paulo. We flew to Rio De Janeiro together.  I got her return rebooked São Paulo-Addis Ababa-Manila on Ethiopian Airlines.  We had an awesome two weeks in Brazil.  Brazil treated her just great.  It was really a great trip, in Brazil. 

 

As for Mexico, she says she felt she never even had a chance there.  She felt she was rejected right from the moment she stepped off the plane just for being a Filipina female traveling alone.  The visa was never an issue.  All parties including Mexican Immigration accepted the Japan Visa as valid for Mexico.  They just aren't letting Filipina females traveling alone into the country.  She said they were rude, arrogant, intimidating, unprofessional and as third world as anyplace she has ever been and she has traveled trouble free to like 22 different countries.  To say that Filipinas are unwelcome in Mexico would be an extreme understatement.  The reception was downright hostile.