Airlines to avoid when traveling to or around Mexico

Remember a long time ago when low-cost carriers first started becoming a thing and everything was fine until the competition got so fierce that some airlines started being deceptive in their advertising as well as their price structures in order to end up being the cheapest in search results? Well this notion kind of died down and was even made illegal in certain countries when they were forced to present the "all in" price rather than some tricky and deceptive price structure that would hide certain costs such as baggage surcharges and even going as far as to charge people $100 to have a carry on bag.

I don't encounter airlines like this very often anymore but Mexico is a wild place where almost anything is legal or at least tolerated. On a recent flight I was lied to on what I thought was going to be a far cheaper price but by the time we actually got my butt on the plane the price that I ended up paying was basically exactly the same thing I would have paid if I went with a full-service airline. Also, these airlines typically won't give you anything for free, not so much as drinking water. Therefore, I have permanently banned them from all searched and I highly suggest you do the same or at the minimum know what you are getting yourself into before you get involved.

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I don't know how long this airline has been around but I don't think very long because I have never encountered them in the past. I was made aware of them by an agent in Guadalajara but it was kind of funny how they warned me about this airline before offering the price to me and the flight as an option. The agent told me that they hide it in the fine print but the only thing you are allowed to carry on the plane would be a purse or something similar. If you have so much as a laptop bag they are going to inspect it and if there are clothes in there they will charge you something crazy like $100 for carrying it on. This is clearly a scam because they make no mention of what the bag can weigh, only that carry on's will be charged. This scammy practice has sent many airlines in most of the world to their doom because airports are stressful enough environments without being constantly lied to.

Instead of booking with Volaris I paid more for Alaskan Airlines for the same route but while I was in the airport I made a point to go to the Volaris gate to see what sort of chaos was going on there. Sure enough, basically everyone was arguing with the staff at the counters and the mood was tense there. As it turns out people don't like being lied to and ripped off when they are in a contained environment where the customers have no choice but to abide by whatever rules get made up once they pass through security.

I quite enjoy not having a huge amount of stress in my life and I certainly don't think that anyone should be paying that much money for a 7 or 8kg bag. It's nuts and I will not let this company have ANY of my business. If you simply mention the word Volaris in Mexico you can see people's eyes light up with a bit of rage.

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Next we have Viva airlines which is another carrier that you probably would never hear of if you weren't flying into Mexico. They will never be able to expand as an airline if that is even their eventual intention because they appear to be just as bad as Volaris and perhaps worse. I have never seen someone end up with a near 1/5 rating across all travel rating websites but that is what Viva has managed to to. Not only do they have tons of hidden costs but apparently they also frequently lose people's bookings, and have a very low number of staff at check in counters which has resulted in many people missing their flights entirely. When this happens Viva makes no apologies nor do they offer refunds even though it is very clear that it is entirely their fault that people were not able to get to the plane on time.

I didn't even know that Trustpilot had a rating level of "mediocre" but that is exactly what Viva Airlines has.

Travel to and from Mexico is a wonderful thing if you do it right. But do yourself a favor and stick with airlines that you have heard of and go ahead and shell out the extra money for a "real" airline. Sure it might seem like you are super-clever saving $50 on a flight but chances are you are not actually going to save anything and your trip is going to begin and end on a very bad note.

Companies like this are fading away fortunately now that reviews mean everything to companies, but there are still a few of them that are going to milk budget-travelers for as much as they can before they eventually repaint their planes and change the name of the airline... hopefully with a new and better company direction.