The best prices that I know of are direct flights between Cancun and Manchester or Midlands. They are only available if you can pay by a credit card with an address in the UK. They are charters. I just recently tried and couldn't book from this side of the pond for that reason. The agencies are currently First Choice and Thompsonfly I think. They will all soon be merging with TUI and will all be known under that name.
Thanks for the info - I got my Dad to speak to First Choice and apparently they are booked out in March and said that they wouldn't issue tickets for flying one way anyway even if I paid for a return - not sure about this info to be honest. Also checked the Thomson web site last night and basically just didn't really find a flight, not sure if it was me or they are also fully booked. I was wondering if Thomson had a booking agent for flights etc anywhere here that I could go and speak to, but don't seem to be able to find any details for anything.
There's basically four options: a) Fly via charter on a one way (then buy a return in the UK and not use the return portion) b) Fly scheduled via the US c) Fly scheduled via Air Europa to Madrid / Amsterdam and then Easy Jet / Ryan Air etc d) Go to Mexico City and fly scheduled - BA and maybe Virgin (?). I also heard BA were to recommence charters from Cancun at some point but not sure on this. We always use a) but it is further complicated for us since some charters do not allow Mexican nationals to travel with them and flying via US is not an option as Jannet does not have a US visa which is required even if passing through in transit. :roll: This way works out cheapest for us, and also because we dont want to fly to London since it's too far from where we want to go. Mytravel, First Choice, Thompsons or Thomas Cook are your charter options. Their local offices here in Cancun will help you. We always use Thompsons but there is one stipulation that all seem to adhere too, which is they wont sell you a ticket if you have not traveled out here on a charter flight within the last year. When you call to book tickets you'll need to call the UK, and when you do you'll often find incompetent telesales staff who think the restriction is 3 months or 6 months. But it's definitely 12 months, most times they will check your old unused return ticket at the airport. Just keep calling back and get different sales staff each time until you find one that knows their stuff. We've done it this way for the past 3 trips home and looking to do a fourth soon, so would appreciate if you can let me know how you get on with this. The UK number for Thompsons that we book through is 0044 870 8014399. Remember that since these are charters they only know how many seats they have available for the return flight once the outbound has already left, so booking less than two weeks of your travel date is necessary. One final thing, the number of flights from the UK roughly doubles in early May for the summer, there are likely to be more seats available then.
That's not true, it's just a lot more pleasant if you have a US visa when you are in transit through there. International airports (including Cancun) have a "transit room" where passengers who can't legally enter the transit country can wait for their connecting flight. The unpleasant part is the passenger basically can't leave that room until their flight boards.
There was a new rule passed after 9/11 and Mexicans without a visa cannot use the intransit lounges in the U.S. I often travel with Mexican friends who do not have visas and it is always a pain since most good and economical flights go through the U.S. I think other countries are Brazil, S. Korea and the Phillipines if I remember right. PLEASE tell me that I am wrong!!!
Jim - You may be right about that. I've never had personal experience with this, but I know it's quite common for transiting passengers to not have proper visas for the country of transit.
Jim - Here's some evidence that you are correct: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D71E3CF931A25753C1A9659C8B63
Hey, RG! Can't you follow directions? I thought I was very clear that I wanted you to prove me WRONG!! I really was hoping after all this time that maybe there had been a change. Sure makes it a hassle and more expensive when traveling with a Mexican national that doesn't have a visa. Flights to Europe, the Caribbean, Canada and more destinations are usually cheaper more varied and more convenient when you can make a connection in the States.
