BajaNomad

Volaris Shuttle - again, but not good this time

bajalinda - 8-5-2012 at 11:03 AM

We have a friend visiting us from San Diego. He flew Volaris TJ to La Paz and was going to take the shuttle from San Diego to the TJ airport. Only problem was that the Volaris shuttle stood him up along with 15 or so other people. Multiple phone calls to both Volaris and the bus company that runs the shuttle got no results whatsoever. Either the line was just not answered or they were given the run-around and the bus never showed up. The prospective passengers had to resort to calling friends for last minute emergency rides or taking taxis.

So just a heads-up to you all out there. I hope this is a one-off freak incident. I have taken the shuttle several times and have never had a problem, but now I'll probably think twice before using it again.

DavidE - 8-5-2012 at 11:06 AM

GREYHOUND is an emergency alternative. To the Tijuana centro de Camiones then a shuttle to Benito Juarez airport.

bajalinda - 8-5-2012 at 11:24 AM

DavidE - your suggestion might work if the timing is right. But when you've been waiting a good hour for the bus that never showed up and can wait no longer and have to leave "NOW" in order to catch your flight, well....I don't know that the Greyhound option would work. just sayin.....

BajaBlanca - 8-5-2012 at 02:21 PM

terrible situation - one is always stressed when traveling and to have this happen is not good. thanks for the head's up.

Kalypso - 8-5-2012 at 03:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajalinda
DavidE - your suggestion might work if the timing is right. But when you've been waiting a good hour for the bus that never showed up and can wait no longer and have to leave "NOW" in order to catch your flight, well....I don't know that the Greyhound option would work. just sayin.....


Where was your friend waiting? The Volaris shuttle ususally leaves from the Greyhound station in downtown SD. Have they moved it yet again?

The shuttle service was farmed out to Curcero several years ago and they moved the SD stop to the Greyhound station. Volaris has a ticket counter inside the bus station as well as a special, very well marked door, and there are (or at least there were) shuttles nearly every half hour to the Tijuana airport. Crucero/Volaris has always recommended 3 hours of advanced lead time to get to the airport, which I always thought was a bit excessive. The busses are pretty beat up inside, but they generally get you to the airport just fine.

Sounds like your friend, thankfully, made the flight

bajalinda - 8-5-2012 at 04:03 PM

Yes - the location has been moved back to the Santa Fe station. Our friend checked this, and double and triple-checked that information to be sure he was going to the correct station. Yes - thankfully he made the flight, but just by the skin of his teeth after a wild taxi ride!

Kalypso - 8-5-2012 at 06:53 PM

Thanks for clarifying. I checked out the Volaris web site after I posted my reply and saw that it said Santa Fe station again.

Definitely be harder to get a Greyhound from there ;-)

MexicoTed - 8-7-2012 at 09:52 PM

Hi Bajalinda,

Sorry about your friend's experience, but I had the opposite experience with Volaris shuttle two months ago: great! The shuttle is run by a new company in a new 22 passenger bus. It was early and made the airport in record time from Santa Fe station.

I have a couple questions and have a contact that I would like to make aware of this if you don't mind.

Was this booked online at time of the flight reservation and was it a round trip shuttle?

What was the date of the flight?

Hopefully we can make them aware that this is unacceptable.

Ted

bajadreamer - 8-8-2012 at 08:35 AM

Simple alternative. From the Santa Fe Station take the Blue Line trolley south. Costs about $3 and takes 45 minutes to San Ysidro crossing. Most of the day it runs every 15 minutes. Walk across and take taxi to airport. Reverse coming back to US. Very dependable, cheap and easy.

bajalinda - 8-9-2012 at 12:01 PM

MexicoTed - thanks for the offer. Please check your U2U.

I have taken the Volaris shuttle a couple of times in both directions and also thought it was great. Let's hope this is just a one-time occurrence with the new bus company.

Angelos - 8-9-2012 at 12:20 PM

My brother-in-law works for Hazard Construction and there is, apparently, plans in the works to build a foot bridge from the TJ airport across the border to a parking lot (to also be built). There are a number of logistics to be worked out - so I'm not sure how long this will take. It seems this would make using the TJ airport a lot easier.

bajalinda - 8-11-2012 at 08:15 AM

Angelos - we have also heard "rumblings" about this plan. In fact, I think there was a thread about it on this forum a few months ago. It would sure make using the TJ airport a lot easier. Extending the trolley line to this new proposed foot bridge would also be great - I wonder if there are any plans for that.

bajalinda - 8-13-2012 at 09:21 AM

Ending to the shuttle adventure - our friend eventually made it home, but not without a strange return shuttle ride. Below is his report.

"When I got to the Volaris bus terminal at the Tijuana airport the guy at the counter pointed me to the bus and said it was just about to go. Then we sat for 30 min waiting for "somebody", nobody knows who. When people finally started complaining loudly enough the Volaris girl came in and said there was something wrong with our bus and we all had to get on a different one. The strange thing was that for the entire time there was no indication of mechanical trouble - no one was working on our bus, no one under the hood - in fact the bus was idling most of the time to run the A.C. And, they had specifically told us that we were waiting for someone. Also curious was the fact that the "new bus" was right next to ours and had been sitting there the whole time too. When we got on this "new bus" we found it was half full of passengers, also waiting to go. Bizarre.

The new bus left promptly but as we pulled out of that station, a Mexican snake oil salesman immediately stood up and began to accost us from the front of the bus selling some kind of syrup that cured everything. The guy just went on and on. When no one bought anything he would start up again with a slight variation on his original schtick. This hard sell continued the WHOLE way to the border.

The border, in this case turned out to be the Otay Mesa crossing. Last time I travelled on the Volaris shuttle I recall we went to the San Ysidro crossing, where the bus guy guided us to an expedited line, and was waiting for us on the other side so that we could re-board immediately. It was all very efficient. This time however, the bus just stopped at the back of the main vehicle crossing line there at Otay, dropped us off, and left. The pedestrian crossing line was about 3 blocks long at that point and it took us about 45 minutes to get through, which was actually faster than I first thought. When we finally got to the other side there was no sign of our original bus, or the majority of the original passengers. After I waited nervously at the rendezvous point for about 20 minutes a new Volaris bus showed up and I boarded that one along with one other guy. Again, we sat on that bus for about 20 minutes and when no one else arrived, we were on our way to the Santa Fe depot.

But, as we approached the city, me thinking that we were heading for the Santa Fe depot, the driver continued up the 5 freeway and on out to the airport! I remember him asking us where we were going as we boarded and I told him Santa Fe depot. The other guy (the only other person on that bus with me) was going to the airport, but had clearly said his plane to Vegas didn't leave until 9PM and was not in a hurry. At this point I think it was about 6:30 but I can't be sure because by then I'd just kind of given up looking at the time. …..the airport is significantly farther than the train depot and we actually had to backtrack from the airport to my stop."

My 2 cents: OK - the waiting part can be considered as "hey this is Mexico, so don't get your knickers in a twist about waiting". However, going to Otay Mesa instead of San Ysidro could really mess up someone's travel - suppose you have a ride waiting at the San Ysidro border crossing (which is where the bus has always crossed in the past in that special lane), but the bus goes to Otay Mesa.....hmmm, not good. And going to the SD airport is certainly a new thing. I've looked at the Volaris website and nowhere does it mention anything about the shuttle going to the SD airport, nor does it mention which border crossing will be used. Me thinks Volaris needs to shape up their act!

Angelos - 8-13-2012 at 12:16 PM

Bajalinda,

When I took the Volaris shuttle, we also went to Otay Mesa (I was expecting San Ysidro) but since I'd never taken the shuttle before, I thought that might be normal and I was, perhaps mistaken in my understanding.

At the beginning of the ride, a woman came on and told us which line to get in at the border and that we would be expedited across. She said "La linea izquierda" which I understand is left lane. She repeated that several times to make sure I understood and to have me communicate that to the other Americans on the bus that didn't speak Spanish.

Well - we went to the left line and learned that is for the people with the Sentri pass. The customs official made all the Mexican looking people go to the long line, but those of us who looked American he allowed through yelling and cussing at us for not knowing which line to be in. Then he asked me to repeat the exact instructions we were given by the official when we boarded the bus so I said "La linea izquierda." Then he went sort of crazy because I (an obvious Gringa) was speaking Spanish and he wanted to know why. When I explained that I was answering his question by giving him the exact instructions we were provided and that those instructions were in Spanish, he wasn't pleased either. The rest of the encounter was pretty unpleasant as well - demanding that I must have something to declare because of my luggage, etc., etc. When I got through I was pretty shaken up and other Americans in other lines noticed it and asked me if I was okay.

I figured that because it was my first time flying to TJ and crossing the Otay Mesa border on foot, I was just confused and by getting in the wrong lane really violated some huge procedure. Even so, I was more disturbed by the rude, unprofessional behavior of the CBP official than I was getting dropped off at a different border crossing than expected so never gave the Volaris shuttle ride much thought.

Now from reading this thread, it sounds like Volaris had a practice of going to San Ysidro (which I would prefer so I can hop on the trolley) rather than Otay Mesa.

Think next time, I'll take a cab to the SY border so I know for sure where I'm going!

Charlene

bajalinda - 8-14-2012 at 09:11 AM

Jeeze Charlene - sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience at the Otay Mesa crossing.

So why has the shuttle used the Otay Mesa crossing instead of San Ysidro? The only reason I can come up with is that they want to avoid construction at San Ysidro - I can't remember exactly what is happening there (which gov't is working on which lanes in which direction??), but there is apparently a project in the works to remodel the San Ysidro crossing. If that is the case, Volaris should, at the very least, inform the shuttle passengers of the route change.

MitchMan - 8-14-2012 at 09:44 AM

I'd skip the Volaris shuttle.

You can get an extremely low cost round trip Greyhound bus ticket to take you from any Greyhound bus terminal in So-Cal ALL THE WAY TO THE TIJUANA AIRPORT (yes, across the border). Greyhound has arranged to accomplish this with Crucero's participation. You don't need to pay for a taxi from the border to the TJ airport if you do this.

I live in southern California and I drive myself to the Oceanside Greyhound bus terminal, leave my car in the bus terminal parking lot (usually not longer than two weeks, no charge for parking), and take the bus all the way to the TJ airport so that I can board a Volaris plane to/from La Paz. Same thing in reverse. The round trip bus ticket costs about $18 on the internet. Pretty straight forward.

Angelos - 8-14-2012 at 10:36 AM

I can see how Greyhound would work for some. I plugged in the TJ airport and just wanted to get to the border and there are no options. I have to go all the way to a bus terminal which means transferring, etc. and the fair comes out to anywhere from $27.00 to $32.00. And there doesn't appear to be an option to go to San Ysidro as the destination even though there is a transfer there to go on to "San Diego" which I can only assume is the Greyhound bus terminal but no address is given.

There are some discounts, it appears, for veterans and senior citizens. And - from Oceanside, I can see this is a great way to go.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I found the website really cumbersome. Even though it shows "San Ysidro" as a destination it couldn't give me any routes or options. I guess I would have to call them to find out how to get off the bus at the transfer station in SY and not have to pay the whole fair, but then I lose the online discount . . . I'm still thinking a cab might be the best option for someone that just needs to get to the border.

David K - 8-14-2012 at 01:18 PM

Wow, I am glad I drove to La Paz!:wow: :yes:

paranewbi - 8-14-2012 at 02:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by David K
Wow, I am glad I drove to La Paz!:wow: :yes:


Yea...but the drinks weren't free! :)

bajalinda - 8-14-2012 at 02:10 PM

Thanks for that info MitchMan - that sounds like a much better option than the Volaris shuttle these days.

Charlene - in the past you could buy a shuttle ticket from the TJ airport just to the border crossing (at San Ysidro) and not have to go all the way into downtown San Diego if you didn't want to or need to. But you had to buy that kind of ticket at the counter at the airport - I don't think the option was available online on the Volaris website. It seems that you can still do that and just get off at Otay Mesa too since our friend says that all except 2 passengers on his bus got off at Otay Mesa and did not get back on the bus for the rest of the ride into San Diego.

I agree that the shuttle info on the Volaris website could be much better. I think I'll be looking at the trolley/taxi option or the Greyhound option on future trips.