Plane Speaking

Trade Secrets / May. 28, 2012 / by Caroline / 8 Comments

Caroline Hurry

When the pilot is ready the passengers appear. No wait … isn’t it the other way around? CAROLINE HURRY can’t be sure

Robert Louis Stevenson assures us it’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive but he lived before the advent of budget airlines. No. The trick to travelling is to pack light. Toss those plans. Jettison expectations. They’ll only weigh you down. Have a drink instead. Here, have another …

My mistake was expecting the plane to take off to Maputo on time. We were, after all, strapped into our plush leather seats paging through the complimentary magazine, when the pilot announced that we’d be off in two ticks … just as soon as someone handed in his “paperwork”.

Tick. Tock. Fast forward four hours: By the time a plane, the requisite paperwork, a fresher crew and a partridge in a pear tree had been found, I had fortified myself with some dinky bottles of Amarula and a rather good dry white in an ORTIA lounge, courtesy of my husband’s Priority Pass card.

Explanations? Pah! Over-rated. What difference does it make? You’ll leave when you leave, right? When the pilot is ready, the passengers appear …

Be great if it were the other way around, but what can you do?

Truth is, passengers in South Africa have zero rights compared to Europe where airlines legally have to compensate passengers for overbooking and delayed flights. I conducted a small straw pole of my own.

Here’s what some of you said:

Stevie Godson: “Cathay Pacific is No. 3? After 16 hours on a Cathay Pacific flight, I stepped off with severe food poisoning! It took a couple of hours and a dose of Immodium before I could even leave the loo at Hong Kong airport.

“And British Airways No. 9? Four years ago – supposedly BEFORE all the luggage problems, they lost both our suitcases. It was December, freezing cold in London and they gave us a BA sleeveless T-shirt and an onboard toiletries kit. Bags – containing not only clothes but also all our family Christmas presents – only turned up days after Christmas. No compensation, no apology even.”

“Strangely, one of the flights I was LEAST looking forward to – Air Afrique from Guinea to Joburg – turned out to be one of the best: Clean, good food, superb service – amazing. I’d flown there on Sabena via Belgium but had no choice about the return trip and was dreading it so I was more than grateful.”

Rebecca Ali: I flew Emirates to Dubai and found it very relaxing even though it was economy class. I got a really good bargain too, by finding a Dubai flight online with Dial A Flight.

Martin Liefeldt: “People gripe about airlines all the time. The European Laws on air travellers’ rights are crazy. You don’t get the same protection on trains or busses. Our expectations are far too high. We demand cheaper flights and the only way we will get them is via better utilization of assets by airlines. Delays are the price. Why should an airline have to pay compensation because the weather is bad or because something is broken on a plane? I would hate to think a decision to fly is taken for commercial reasons. South Africa has one of the best domestic air networks in the world. Try the States. Try Europe. Our flights tend to be on time, our planes are clean and our cabin staff friendly (by comparison). Our pilots are superb. And the Jhb/Durban route on SAA is the shortest route in the world where a full meal is served. “

Peter Davies: “Anyone who has had the misfortune to fly regularly on domestic airlines in the USA will know the services offered in South Africa are bliss by comparison …”

Karin Bookatz Lewis: “My best flight experiences have been on SAA and Quantas. No mention of Air Canada, I noticed. I’m not surprised. In North America, there is NO compensation and there are no rights of passengers at all.”

Celeste Whitmore: “The only time I was ever airsick was on US domestic flights.”

Susan Pryor: “Having just got off a 10-hour Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore and waiting anxiously to find out if I am on a 13 hour flight onwards, I can attest to Singapore Airlines being very good.”

We’d like to hear more about which airlines you love and which ones you don’t. Leave a comment below or email me at Caroline@travelwrite.co.za

Brenda Lamprecht

The planes in the US must be ghastly if SAA is bliss by comparison. I consistently had such bad flights with SAA that I vowed never to board one of their planes unless there really was no other flight available. On overseas flights you hardly see the SAA crew because they’re always in the galley stuffing their faces and talking so loudly that nobody else can sleep. Serve the passengers? Don’t be silly!
Melanie Berg

My husband and I have also had such bad experiences with SAA that we prefer to go with Air France or KLM whenever we fly to Europe. I agree with Susan Pryor that Singapore Airlines is excellent. We have also used Cathay and while their business class section is great, their economy is not. Cathay’s food in economy class was too ghastly to eat. At least I managed to avoid food poisoning. The crew were okay tho. Thanks for a fantastic website and good luck with it.
Mo Haarhoff

Funnily enough, I was really impressed with Emirates a few years ago. The flights were long and very full, but the service was charming on all four legs. Dubai airport not so hot, but airports everywhere don’t impress me.
Peter Berg-Munch

Martin Liefeldt state that train and bus passangers do not get compensated in Europe. I come from Denmark and there the passangers are entitled to compensation if the trains or busses are delayed. It is easy to get compensated. But you only get compensation when the reason for the delay is caused by the transport company.
Peter Berg-Munch

I have just read up on compensation for air travel in Europe. It is a Jungle. I take the easy route and get insured via my credit card provider. One year I went to Madrid via Paris 3 times. All 3 times the luggage did not arrive. I happily went shopping for a total of 13.500 Rand. This covered my credit card expense for almost 5 years.
The point the regulators in Europe is making is “fair must be fair”. The airlines are selling a product and they have an obligation to deliver. Some airlines started to get too smart. They cancelled departures with only a few passengers. In this way they could save money. Introducing compensation to the passengers the airlines had to be more efficient. Now everybody wins!
- http://www.google.com/ Mitch
  
  A million thanks for posting this infomrtiaon.
http://Bizcommunity.com Rod Baker

Feel the need to appreciate every other airline? Feel the need to suffer a little so reaching home will be that extra bit special? Try a certain airline… you’re better off in Siberia (the names sort of rhyme). Lithping athendanths, no perthonalithed video screenths, just thothe large dropth downths you either watch with your head cranked back at 45 degrees or you view by peering like an old lecher between the seats in front of you.

As a bonus my suitcase was broken into (wrapped in Jhb) and an article or two nicked – and after a year still awaiting some compensation, ANY compensation.

Ah, but there is the in-flight “entertainment”. You try an 11-hour flight and all you have to watch is a doccie on how Parma ham is made? BTW, it will help if you take a couple of Spanish lessons first – because the commentary – if you can hear it – is Catalan.

And that’s all Greek to me.
http://www.doggoneknit.com/dogpark/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=194226 Johnette Adolphsen

This domain appears to get a good ammount of visitors. How do you get traffic to it? It gives a nice unique twist on things. I guess having something useful or substantial to post about is the most important thing.