THE endless journey... 1st Sept 2008
If you're not reading my posts in chronological order you won't even know that Iberia cancelled our London to Madrid flight last night... first time that I've EVER had a flight cancelled and I have flown more times than I can remember. So I guess I should feel lucky... but somehow, you do not feel that way when you realise that you will not reach your dream destination as planned.
I went to bed at 3am (I think the clock on my blog is out by 90mins!) and then woke up again at 9:30am to check on emails. That's two nights in a row that I've slept just 5 hours (on Saturday night I was just TOO excited... just like a kid before Christmas!).
Having just liased with FedAir it seems that our 3rd flight (Jo'burg to Kruger National Park) is still only available at the same time. Their 9:30am and 11:30am departures are already fully booked. They do not even have one seat to spare, otherwise we were willing to split. Our travel agent (lovely Liza, Go2Africa.com) called me to say that it was better to stay put than try and use another charter airline to get there any faster. Bottom line is we'd only save 3 hours, have to spend a further 1,692 Rand on another ticket (£120 equivalent) and then FedAir would have to charge us for not making the flight this morning (we should have been landing at the lodge in 20 mins). But if we use them tomorrow, there will be no penalty fee. That's VERY unusual, trust me. VERY good of them actually. They could have made easy money knowing the travel insurance would take care of the bills.
Also, Liza reminded me that their lounge is great... with TV, DVDs, showers, internet, buffet lunch, etc. to help us unwind. All complimentary too.
It's just daunting to think that having wasted 12 hours at the airport yesterday, having another 4 hours to spend at LHR today (well, 1h15 tubing it over, and 3 hours check-in) to then be faced with another 6 HOUR wait on arrival seems like such a terrible waste of time in this beautiful, beautiful land (and she did reiterate we'd LOVE the flight so much as it's spectacular). I dare not do the maths but we'll probably have spent 1/5 of our time getting there and back.
But, sometimes things happen for a reason. As my mother said 'better late than a plane crash'... sure mum, I won't argue with that... she could have said 'who knows, maybe you'll be sitting next to Mr Right'... :) Only time will tell. NOT holding my breath though ! :)
PS - Just heard back from Liza, she said that they are predicting glorious weather in Kruger all week (30C average) and the evening drive will start at 15h30. We are due to land at 15H so we'll just have to drop our bags and hop on the jeep... this made me MUCH feel better. I hate 'dead' times and I think I will have had an overdose of 'dead time' by then. It's also cheered up Nathalie no end (who seems to be taking all this rather well in the circumstances... but I can only guess that it's because she doesn't know what she's missing out on YET...). You wait !
If you're not reading my posts in chronological order you won't even know that Iberia cancelled our London to Madrid flight last night... first time that I've EVER had a flight cancelled and I have flown more times than I can remember. So I guess I should feel lucky... but somehow, you do not feel that way when you realise that you will not reach your dream destination as planned.
I went to bed at 3am (I think the clock on my blog is out by 90mins!) and then woke up again at 9:30am to check on emails. That's two nights in a row that I've slept just 5 hours (on Saturday night I was just TOO excited... just like a kid before Christmas!).
Having just liased with FedAir it seems that our 3rd flight (Jo'burg to Kruger National Park) is still only available at the same time. Their 9:30am and 11:30am departures are already fully booked. They do not even have one seat to spare, otherwise we were willing to split. Our travel agent (lovely Liza, Go2Africa.com) called me to say that it was better to stay put than try and use another charter airline to get there any faster. Bottom line is we'd only save 3 hours, have to spend a further 1,692 Rand on another ticket (£120 equivalent) and then FedAir would have to charge us for not making the flight this morning (we should have been landing at the lodge in 20 mins). But if we use them tomorrow, there will be no penalty fee. That's VERY unusual, trust me. VERY good of them actually. They could have made easy money knowing the travel insurance would take care of the bills.
Also, Liza reminded me that their lounge is great... with TV, DVDs, showers, internet, buffet lunch, etc. to help us unwind. All complimentary too.
It's just daunting to think that having wasted 12 hours at the airport yesterday, having another 4 hours to spend at LHR today (well, 1h15 tubing it over, and 3 hours check-in) to then be faced with another 6 HOUR wait on arrival seems like such a terrible waste of time in this beautiful, beautiful land (and she did reiterate we'd LOVE the flight so much as it's spectacular). I dare not do the maths but we'll probably have spent 1/5 of our time getting there and back.
But, sometimes things happen for a reason. As my mother said 'better late than a plane crash'... sure mum, I won't argue with that... she could have said 'who knows, maybe you'll be sitting next to Mr Right'... :) Only time will tell. NOT holding my breath though ! :)
PS - Just heard back from Liza, she said that they are predicting glorious weather in Kruger all week (30C average) and the evening drive will start at 15h30. We are due to land at 15H so we'll just have to drop our bags and hop on the jeep... this made me MUCH feel better. I hate 'dead' times and I think I will have had an overdose of 'dead time' by then. It's also cheered up Nathalie no end (who seems to be taking all this rather well in the circumstances... but I can only guess that it's because she doesn't know what she's missing out on YET...). You wait !
posted by Sylvie at 10:50 AM
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