I too saw this somewhere a while back. But it was SAA and not BA on the one I read.

-------

Re: Brit Airways,

Other than one very pleasant lady a couple of years ago, I have found that the stewards/hostesses are very dour and unfriendly on that carrier.

And I stopped flying them when they shifted our continent to Gatwick. It makes no sense for me to fly them anymore, and since I stopped hazarding KQ years ago, I try to fly something that doesn't impel me to take trains/buses to other airports for my connecting flight.

But I remember that the food was always good on BA.

I'm not dissing KQ but boy..., the legends.... The food left one writhing in agony, the seats were unsteady, the hostesses hit on male passengers aboard the flight, those terrible uniforms....

I wonder how they are doing since the merger with KLM?

Hey Camarada! I can say that KQ is much much better than BA. Those things you are talking about used to happen in days long gone by. KQ is now very proffessional and have good planes as well-on the other hand, I will try not to fly BA if I can help it as there are always problems on their flights-and most people I have spoken to have had similar experiences.

I heard this quite some time back myself.. Having flown Eithiopian airlines a few years back it was a terrible experience.. I was flying out of Kinshasa to Nairobi and I swear the the wings were flapping in flight.. service was terrible but I've heard they've changed over the past years,, thankfully!

I never had any problems with BA in fact a couple of times I found the service to be excellent espeically when I was expecting my son.. I had a long lay over in London they gave me a hotel room to rest for the day, vouchers for dinner their treatment was fantastic..

Awwww but KLM now there was service.. I was bumped to business class one flight, had a 13 hour wait in Amsterdam, stayed in the Business Class lounge at Schiphol.. trust me I enjoyed every minute

Ok here's my list

Gulf Air flew them from Dar to Dubai great service

Air Tanzania when they became organized the service was good,, biggest fault was overbooking, flight delays. que pushers  The airport hmm all they played was Jim reeves country music
I liked their Folker plane from Dar to Arusha.. good service

Swiss Air fantastic but they no longer exsist

Air Zaire good grief I booked a ticket to fly to Canada one time with  them .. flew on a virtually empty airplane, service was foul, stewardesses miserable. I arrived in Belgium expecting to catch a connection.. low & behold I wasn't even on their flight schedule.. had to take a connector flight to London, caught Air Canada. Talk about bad booking practices!!

Air Zambia yikes!!!! all I can say thank goodness they're outta business

SAA Camarada I concur great service great flight!

Air France great wine!!

Camarada.. Air Zaire no longer exsists..
I was always very reluctant to fly on American carriers but I flew to the States a couple of months ago on US Air.. fantastic service in flight..

 :D  :D

Hehehehehehehe! I burst out laughing when I read that. Nauru Airlines? Where/what on earth???

Baked beans...... hahahahaha!

Sooz,

I did a quick search after reading your initial baked beans post and found that there's 12,329 Nauruans on the planet and that their language is distinct. I wonder what happens when they mine the guano away and there's no more home and they all disperse globally?

Here's the CIA map (they make it look very nice):


And fotos from a Nauru website:

Yes Humdul and if I'm not mistaken I believe that SAA bought the airlines some time back not sure when though.. there needed something injected because at times the service was not that good..

Yes Air Kenya exists-I flew with them some time ago and had a very bumpy ride. I think all their planes are ex-russian planes and have been reconditioned-There was Russian and English writing on the planes/seats etc...-which didnt make me feel very comfortable

Is anybody old enough to remember EAST AFRICAN AIRWAYS?

It was the East African Community's carrier and went under back in the seventies.

The hostesses wore cheetah-print hats and had short afros. If you've watched the movie Mississipi Masala you'll remember a smiling hostess in one of the Entebbe scenes...

~KAT~ thanks.

This one looks good, if they're flying to Kigali and Bujumbura.

When I used to fly around back home, the biggest problem then, was finding direct flights to my destination.

We need more and more of these small regional airlines to fill in the void left by big carriers.

Can you imagine one day flying from Nairobi to Bamako on a non-stop flight?

Moving on to trains, did anyone ever take the train back home?

As kids, we would go to my grandparents' upcountry on the train. We started out at Railways in the morning and got there at night (they live in the Rift Valley). It was a great experience.

I have always wanted to take the train to Mombasa but someone was telling me that it's now full of backpackers and crooks and that the service isn't as good as it was in the seventies/eighties.

I've had the worst experiences with KR. Used to take one with my sister from school in Nakuru. Split ticket - third class.
Board train at 11 (night) and disembark in Limuru at 4.30 in the morning. The waiting, the cold in Limuru and worse! Third class. Most passenger were from Luo Nyanza transporting stinking fish (that made me loathe fish!)to Nairobi. The big womans (sorry ladies - they were most rude) sat accross the seats and we had to stand doze it off in the congested corrindors. Doze down to one and the sream of insults - oh oh!
No wonder locking yourself in the toilet was fashionable.
I would think twice before boarding any train in Kenya :steaming:

I love the goats and chickens and the lack of anti-perspirant on the up-country buses.  What I hate is the lack of leg room and the ROADS these days.

Can you believe...at this age and time!!!!

On a British Airways flight from Johannesburg, a middle-aged,well-off,white
South African woman had found herself sitting next to a black man.
She called the cabin crew attendant over to complain about her seating.
"What seems to be the problem Madam?" asked the attendant. "Can't you see?"
she said, "You've sat me next to a kaffir. I can't possibly sit next
to this disgusting human. Find me another seat!"
"
Please calm down Madam," the stewardess replied. "The flight is very full
today, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go and check to see if we have
any seats available in club or first class." The woman cocks a  snooty look at the outraged black man beside her (not to mention many of
the surrounding passengers).

A few minutes later the stewardess returns with the good news, which she
delivers to the woman, who cannot help but look at the people around her
with a smug and self-satisfied grin.

The stewardess said, "Madam, unfortunately, as I suspected, economy is
full.

I've spoken to the cabin services director, and club is also
full.However,we
do have one seat in first class." Before the woman has a chance to answer,
the stewardess continues... "It is most extraordinary to
make this kind of upgrade, however. And I have had to get special
permission
from the captain. But, given the circumstances, the captain felt that it is
outrageous that someone be forced to sit next to such an obnoxious
person".

With this, she turned to the black man sitting next to the woman and
said,"So if you'd like to get your things, sir, I have your seat ready for
you."

At which point the surrounding passengers stood and gave a standing ovation
while the black gentleman walked up to the front of the plane.

Moral of the Story: People will forget what you said .........
people will forget what you did ......... but people will never forget how
you made them feel!

OBS - I got this on my inbox and thus cannot confirm it's authenticity or acknowledge the source. Mutha.

If that story is true, then I would have liked to be on the flight just to see the look on the woman's face when the stewardess delivered the news-that would have made my day. However I am very skeptical about e-mails like these-most are junk and made up stories.... but I wish I am wrong!!

humdul,

Jaribu Ethiopian. I've flown them twice and they are okay. When flying out of Nairobi, you spend a day in Addis and have a room at the Sheraton with free buffet lunch.

My first flight with them was excellent, the second wasn't too good as my seat was broken and it was very cold in the plane.

The only down side was Ethiopian customs scrutinizing my passport because they thought it was fake.

There are some good airlines back home.

There's one I flew a some years back, Lagos-Nairobi. I think it was Belleview (?) or something like that. It was super.

Air Tanzania was surprisingly good also.

Ghana Airlines is horrendous. From FESPACO to Nairobi via Accra, the Ghana Airline staff were rude, the flight was late, not enough food on the flight, stuffy plane etc.

SAA is awesome and has great service. They're expanding all over the place.

KQ's improved (humdul says it has   ) although I haven't flown it since I was a kid.

TAAG , Angola Airlines, is brilliant for national flights and the service is excellent.

Air Kenya from Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Kisumu is good. Are they still flying?

Ethiopian Airlines for me was fifty-fifty.

I have never wanted to fly Air Zimbabwe (if it exists) because of the Mugabe horror stories. The way he comandeers flights, his wife seizing planes to S. Africa on shopping sprees leaving other passengers stranded etc, etc...

But the absolute worst of them all was Egypt Air which took off  two days late Nairobi-Cairo when I flew them. They kept us at the Grand Regency and were very stingy about meals etc. Luckily, I spent most of the time eating at my relative's although we spent the nights at the hotel to take advantage of the luxurious (?) surroundings.

---

International Carriers:

The scariest pre-flight experience was El Al. If one survives the Mossad third degree at JKIA then one can survive anything. But the flight's alright although the airport staff (in Israel) were the rudest.

Iberia ground crew were polite and helpful but in-flight crew were tacky and loud and the food was bad.

Don't ever flyTAP-Air Portugal unless you hate life.

The LACSA/TACSA South/Central America group is efficient although a little more cultural-awareness training for the staff would help.

And if you can, fly Cubana. They are absolutely wonderful.

----

I would really like to fly Air Libya (if the carrier exists).

I've heard that All Nippon's good, as well as Singapore Airlines. Quantas, Gulf, Virgin.

I flew Pan Am when I was younger.

Have never flown Lufthansa and would like to try them one day.

Anyway, wacha nirudi kazini.

Mutha, the story you posted is wonderful - would that it were true but I'm afraid it is not.

Recommending a good airline is a bit like recommending a good obstetrician: you don't really know how competent they are until something goes wrong!

My highly-paid obstetrician, dressed in full hunting regalia, appeared 5 minutes before my daughter's arrival into the world and of course took all the credit for a 100% natural no-frills delivery (but I don't think he ever forgave me for spoiling the start of the 1989 hunting season). So I honestly could not recommend him to anyone...

As far as long-haul carriers (Europe-Oz, about as long as you can get) are concerned, we have tried KLM (lousy food), Thai (great food but not helpful with babies), Lufthanza (not bad), BA (surly), Air France (surly in a French way) and Qantas (by far the best but maybe I'm being chauvinistic). My mother detests KLM, even in business class (worst airline food and service she has ever experienced) and now swears by Lauda Air/Austrian Airlines.

Wow, Air Zaire.... I would love to fly on that.

My Mom once flew Quantas and she said that a man on the plane went nuts and attempted to open the door and 'go for a walk'.

I wonder if Chad, Mauratania, Sao Tome, Eritrea all have national carriers and where they fly to?

Worst food story - a colleague of mine was served baked bean sandwiches with warm lemonade on Nauru Airlines :throwup:

I'll forgive you for not knowing where Nauru is. But this is the last time :: It's a tiny island nation near the equator in middle of the Pacific Ocean. The whole island is a huge guano (aka birdshit to put it politely) deposit, gradually being mined away, but the inhabitants are incredibly rich and own heaps of prime real estate in Australia which is where they'll go when there is no more island!

Incidentally, this is where the Australian government sent the Afghan/Iraqi refugees rescued by that Norwegian boat last year because they didn't want them on the sacred Aussie soil.

Not quite the desert island paradise of the holiday brochures!

I think the best international airlines in terms of everything is Emirates-best food, good service, good planes etc...
I didnt even realise there was a tanzanian airlines

To answer camarada, Air Kenya still exists, still in a small but anassuming way. They literally serve all the main game reserves in Kenya in their small aircrafts. Can't blame them but it gets bumpty gaining attitude and landing - I'm told - not a personal experience. They have a reginal partner - Regional Airlines operated by BA and flying to Djibouti, Asmara, Addis and some Southern Africa destinations.
KAT - Swissair only changed the name to Swiss Airlines. Still in operation and still much liked.
As for flying experiences, life is still to begin for me  :(

I don't remember that one but here's another that's in operation as of  November

East African Airlines Offers Special Celebratory Rates
 


New Vision (Kampala)

November 28, 2002
Posted to the web November 28, 2002

Dan Nsalasatta
Kampala

THE commercial director of East Africa Airlines, Lukia Otema, has announced two months promotional fares for clients who will be using the EAA. She said promotional fares means subsidised air tickets.

She said this was normal for the new airlines in the industry and the Civil Aviation Authority has blessed it.

"It is not our policy to undercut each other in the business industry but is an exception case,"

The pioneer passengers will enjoy a lifetime of benefits. They will have an extra 10 kilogrammes weight concession and will also have a Christmas package. The airline will operate 11 flights a week with a daily flight to Nairobi, twice to Johannesburg on Tuesday and Saturdays, once to Harare and Lusaka on Mondays, three times to Kigali and Bujumbura on Wednesdays and Fridays.

She said marketing offices have opened in the various regional capitals.

Here's a link I just came across.. a little  background on different African Airlines..past & present.

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana..._Airliners.html

And does anyone remember the MPS, RVP minivan services? We also used to take those to gichagi.

There was also OTC. My uncle sold bicycles at the old OTC bus-stop in Nairobi and we loved sitting out there watching people getting on and off those buses.

OTC - Onyango Twende Coo (Show) Used to board then back in Primary Scholl for the Annual trip to the Agricultural Show in Nairobi. Very ford memories. We used to sing all the way - the excitement! And sit with the girls and treat them with sweets at the show..oh..the good old days! ???

yes Eritrea has a national carriers, but its new. We dont fly to many countries though since we are fairly new. We fly to Holland, Germany, Italy, Saudi arabia, Egypt, UAE and Djibouti. We are also flying to Kenya twice a week, but not with the big plane, just a smaller one because we dont have a large fleet, just 1 plane.