Airline Accidentally Flies Mexican Woman to Seattle — Without Visa or Passport

Chiapas-based Marijose Gamboa just wanted to take a flight back home after a trip to Guadalajara. However, an airline mix-up caused her to accidentally end up in Seattle, Washington instead of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.

The Mexican woman explained the unlikely airline mix-up on TikTok

As Gamboa explained in videos she posted to TikTok, the graphic designer bought a round-trip ticket with the airline Volaris. She arrived in Guadalajara from her hometown Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas just fine. The problem came when it was time to go back to Chiapas.

According to Gamboa, the airline checked her boarding pass before entering the plane headed to Chiapas, telling her to make another line. She unknowingly entered a Seattle-bound plane instead, finding “her seat” was already taken. A flight attendant checked her boarding pass again, and simply gave her another empty window seat.

Then, other weird things started to happen. The passenger still had two hours to go on the flight when they gave her a customs declaration form. Gamboa describes, “I asked myself, ‘Why do I have to fill out this form?’” Even more, she doesn’t have a passport, so she couldn’t properly complete the paperwork. 

The passenger told a flight attendant she couldn’t fill out the form because she didn’t have a passport. When asked about it, Gamboa replied, “It’s a national flight.”

After a very confusing moment, everyone realized she was accidentally headed to the United States.

Airline workers told her they would contact her family to let them know her whereabouts, giving her a confirmation slip. However, Gamboa later found out they had not let her loved ones know — causing them to worry.

The journey back to Mexico

Once she landed in Seattle, it was time to try to get back to Mexico. Gamboa had to go through immigration without knowing English or holding a passport. A Volaris representative helped her out, even holding her suitcase, and was “very nice.”

As per the passenger, “Everyone was kind… As someone without any documentation in a foreign country, they treated me well.”

They still wrote her name down, but assured her she would not have anything on her “record.”

Once that was done, Gamboa had 24 hours to leave the U.S. She explains that police escorted her to a flight headed to Guadalajara.

The woman connected to the Seattle airport’s Wi-Fi, seeing messages from her “mom, aunts, cousin, uncle” and friends. They sent her voice notes “crying,” and “completely desperate” to know where she was. Back in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Volaris workers allegedly told her loved ones that Gamboa had boarded the plane, but was “lost.” According to them, they “couldn’t do anything.”

She went through customs in Mexico, and eventually got back to Tuxtla Gutiérrez safe and sound.

Gamboa’s story is going viral on TikTok, with one user jokingly commenting: “Home Alone Mexico 😅.” Another user imagined, “Looking through the window: Tuxtla has changed a lot!!!” LOL. Yet another wondered, “Did they send someone [from Seattle] to Tuxtla then? JAJAJ.”

Others took on a more serious tone, saying Gamboa should sue Volaris since they checked her boarding pass several times. Some explained the situation might have affected “her immigration record.”

Still, this is definitely the new “Home Alone” movie we didn’t know we needed.