We unexpectedly spent one “night,” February 28, 2024 (cost of room paid for by JetSmart Airlines) in Mendoza at the two star Raices Aconcagua Hotel — actually, we arrived in the hotel lobby at 5 am on the 29th — due to an…

EMERGENCY LANDING
Here's the complete story. We had a bizarre experience arriving in Mendoza from Iguazu Falls, located on the border with Brazil in northern Argentina. We intended to arrive at the five star Park Hyatt Mendoza on February 28th instead. However, we awoke that morning to an email from Aerolíneas Argentinas, sent moments after we had gone to bed the night before, notifying us that our direct flight to Mendoza was canceled due to a labor strike. Bummer. We’ve almost always had remarkable airline karma.

Paul got busy and discovered a flight on JetSmart Airlines leaving from the Brazilian airport at Iguazu Falls (very near the Argentine airport at Iguazu Falls) later that day destined for Santiago, Chile. We booked it! The following day we then quickly arranged bus tickets from Santiago, over the Andes mountains, arriving in Mendoza after what we anticipated to be a rather lengthy but doable 8-10 hour ride to finally arrive, a day late — with still enough time to make our scheduled wine tasting at Sposato winery, one of the primary reasons for going to Mendoza.

We departed on the hastily arranged flight from Iguazu-Brazil that evening but never made it to Santiago! During the flight the captain announced we had an emergency and would be landing in…wait for it…Mendoza, Argentina. At the moment we did not know it was a medical emergency of someone seated at the rear of the plane who was really sick. We were thinking, oh god, a mechanical problem with the plane is so severe we are going down, and going down fast. We just weren’t sure how hard we would be landing and coming to a complete stop!

Turns out we made a smooth landing in Mendoza, where only then did we learn it was a passenger’s ultimately non-life threatening medical issue. Departing in Brazil, destined for Chile but landing in Argentina created some red tape with multiple government agencies and several authorizations were required before we could resume our flight. This resulted in several hours sitting on the tarmac during which time it was MIRACULOUSLY granted by the captain, after Rich confidently inquired, that the two of us, along with 15 other folks, all ultimately destined for Mendoza, could deplane in Mendoza!

Shock on top of shocks: JetSmart *paid* for our hotel room. We still don’t understand why. But we were without our three checked bags. They arrived two days later. We didn’t care, we were in Mendoza despite the Argentine Airline strike!

We missed a day in Mendoza, and missed the bus over the Andes. (We were looking forward to that.) For two days, we had to wear the same clothes we left Iguazu in but we happily exchanged it for our first EMERGENCY LANDING story in all our years of traveling!