Aero Cal and The Moorings

[Redbull addict]

Hi Everyone,

I reserved a charter with Moorings a few months ago for a one week bareboat charter in Baja during the first week of June. Last month we made final payment via credit card, so its fully paid.

Our air travel reservations is with Aero California, who apparently was halted by the mexican goverment on April 2nd from flying due to safety issues. It's now May 1st and I came across a story on the web. I called Moorings, who we booked the entire trip with and they are not doing anything pro-active to help us. The operator I spoke to, said that he was expecting Aero Cal to reopen in time for June. Everything I read online points to the airline not opening anytime soon.

What is your opinion on how hard I should push Moorings on helping us find alternative transportation means and who should pay for it. I feel that the month we lost by Moorings not contacting us makes them partially responsible. It's not even clear if we will get a refund on the airfare portion. Has anyone ever been in this pickle? We may be able to fly to Cabo San Lucas, but then the drive to La Paz is supposed to be long and expensive.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Tom

[Redbull addict]

Here's some additional info that might some of you chuckle.

We looked through our paperwork and matched some of the dates. Apparently Aero California was stopped from flying on the 2nd of April. We made our final payment via credit card over the phone with moorings on the 4th of April. So they knew that Aero Cal was no longer flying but didn't tell us and took our money

Today we called the travel insurance company and explained the situation. Their answer....sorry this doesn't qualify for trip cancellation insurance. So they won't refund our money because this is a "Trip delay" according to them, which limits their liability to $200 per day with a cap of $1000 max. Obviously the trip is much more than that per person.

[Pblais]

I saw this:

http://www.lapaz-tourism.com/pazfishi.htm

Basically, unless they don't actually fly it's pretty hard for you to claim they won't. They claim they will be back in the air before your trip. Of course who knows if they really will. When an airline goes belly up this is what happens.

[CaptainK]

Here's a little something on Aero California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_California

[Talbot]

presumably you paid moorings, and they paid aero. if you paid by credit card, I would be talking to the card company, and seeing what they reckon. I would also be talking to a sollicitor as moorings knowingly accepted money when there was no likelihood of aero being able to complete their contract.

I suspect it will all depend on the small print and whether your contract is with moorings or with aero and moorings.

[Rod Headlee]

If you fly into Cabo, it gives you more airline choices. I believe Alaska and US Airways services Cabo as well as AeroMexico. Then you take a cab from the airport to the bus station in Cabo and catch the bus to La Paz. The bus takes about 3 hrs to make the trip here. If you book a room at Marina Hotel, they have their own shuttle from Cabo to LaPaz. Marina Hotel is a block from Moorings. You should ask Moorings if they have a shuttle from Cabo. Aeromexico is the only airline that serves LaPaz right now.