Barbara and I have travelled regularly around the world for over 50 years, and although we have had a few minor glitches, we have experienced nothing like the last two days. We were on our way to Zambia and the SAIMM Copper-Cobalt conference at Victoria Falls, aiming to return on Sunday after a couple of days post-conference relaxation.
Not to be unfortunately. Travelling from Falmouth to Heathrow yesterday was the beginning of our woes, with cancelled and delayed trains, but we eventually arrived at Heathrow Airport after a journey of eight hours, just in time for boarding the BA flight to Johannesburg. How wrong we were thinking the worst was now over.
We eventually boarded one hour late, but the plane then spent a further two hours on the tarmac, while we sweltered in the heat with no air conditioning.
At last we arrived at Oliver Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, at noon today, to find that our connecting flight to Livingstone had already left. With virtually no assistance from BA ground staff we finally got them to advise us that there was only one flight per day to Livingstone and that tomorrow's flight was already full! Not wishing to spend two nights in Johannesburg, or to arrive Wednesday afternoon in Zambia for a conference which finishes Thursday lunch time, we made the decision to return home, so here we are now, in the BA lounge, waiting for the evening flight back to Heathrow! A bizarre excursion.
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Hi Barry. Sorry to hear of your wasted journey but I have to say that I'm not surprised that BA has let you down. Since Covid, every flight I have taken on BA from Heathrow T5 has left between 1 and 3 hours late and I have missed connections on more than one occasion. I hate to say it but BA is now my carrier of last resort. At least you have the comfort of the lounge, so I trust that you made the most of BA's hospitality!
ReplyDeleteHi Ian. The ground staff here were totally useless. If they had got their act together we would have had seats on tomorrows flight to Livingstone. Hope to catch. up sometime
Deleteoh no Barry - that is so disappointing - sorry to hear this
DeleteThanks Anon
DeleteI have to say that the flight back to London was excellent and the flight attendants could not have been bettered
DeleteDr. Wills, it was such a pleasure meeting you and your wife on the flight back home. Thank you so so much for the information about Victoria Falls an Iguasu Falls. Will let’s you know end of July what I thought of Iguasu. Take care and may bump into you in Falmouth one day
DeleteHi Tracey, you and Leah and the rest of the BA team were wonderful on our return flight, just a shame about BA at Joburg. It would be great to see you in Falmouth- might even meet for fish 'n chips at the Harbour Lights! When you have seen Iguasu add a comment to the waterfall blog
DeleteI’d stick to Blackpool! Veronica
ReplyDeleteMay well do that.
DeleteHello Barry - Did you travel Business or First which makes the journey better? We had a recent flight to Cape Town on BA in economy which has lot less room in recent times. We were also delayed for 3 hours at T5 and our luggage was not loaded which caused a bit of a panic considering we were travelling up to Pretoria by train, to be fair the luggage did arrive 2 days later and we were staying in a great hotel on the V&A Waterfront. I don't think it is just BA, the whole world has not recovered from COVID yet.
ReplyDeleteHi Tony. At our advancing age we always travel Business Class on long-haul, but returning from Joburg we were fortunate to be in First Class, as for some reason it was cheaper than Business Class! I can't fault BA on our recent flights, the flight attendants, food and service have been great. But there was no BA assistance at all at Joburg. Unfortunately Covid seems to be the excuse for everything!
DeleteDid you travel to Pretoria on the Blue Train?
Yes, we did indeed and I commented on this in one of your recent blogs. You referred me to one of your earlier blogs where you did not have the greatest of experiences. Ours was fantastic, no problems or ill-will by anyone, the people we passed were all happy, smiling and waving, no thrown stones at all. SA certainly has many issues, mostly self inflicted. The Blue Train certainly met our expectations. Joburg is another story, we stayed in Harry Oppenheimer's old gaff, now a hotel and even the hotel drivers were wary and kept reminding us not to stray too far away from the main tourist spots and nowhere at night. There is a rumour that BA might be re-starting direct flights to Lusaka - lets hope so.
ReplyDeleteWe took the train in the opposite direction, from Pretoria to Cape Town, because of the promised stop at Kimberley. This unfortunate didn’t happen and this was my only gripe about the train. It is certainly luxurious, the food and service is great, and it really highlights the extremes of South Africa
ReplyDeleteWe did have a brief stop at the Big Hole, fortunately not long enough to visit the shop.
ReplyDeleteI was disaapointed that the train did not stop at Kimberley, but the following year we flew there after an MEI Conference and spent a day exploring and had the 'Old Town' Museum to ourselves. Did you stop at Matjiesfontein en route to Pretoria?
DeleteNo, unfortunately. Our next trip is to Merthyr Tydfil, I thought it was time to pay my respects at the Aberfan Memorial garden.
ReplyDelete