British Airways
Durban to Cape Town

British Airways were cheapest, so it was a no brainer to book our return flight from Durban to Cape Town with them (5th Feb 2010). Our holiday began with an SAA flight from Cape Town to Durban, then we spent a night at the Belaire Suites on Durban's north beach, before cruising with the MSC Sinfonia (boarded in Durban harbour) from Durban to Maputo and the Portuguese Island (with an island hop to Inhaca) and back to Durban.

Three wishes for SAA

I wont say British Airways food is perfect, but it is better than SAA's. SAA please take note that this is what an Asian Vegetarian sandwich should look like (NOT cheese and cucumber):

And SAA, you've got to admit that BA's kids meal (see below) is far more attractive than simply providing an adult rolls for the little ones.

Finally SAA, please start stocking tomato cocktails again - here's one I enjoyed on my BA flight:

The earlier you check-in luggage, the more time to steal it

We checked in a couple of hours early for our British Airways flight, and were advised at the check-in desk to rather bring our hold luggage later, as otherwise it's lying around for longer with greater opportunities for it to be stolen. Sad really that this is the situation we find ourselves in. Sounds to me like we need a new airports management company.

British Airways vs SAA

The fact that we flew with both within a week, provided a rich opportunity to update our BA & SAA comparison. On the plus side for SAA, we found that they had discovered a sense of humour...unfortuanately their food has gone from bad to worse. Something which has continuously impressed me with BA is the shortness of their check-in queues, and today at Durban check-in was one of the rare times I've had a bit of a wait in their queues. We were sitting just behind the wing of the British Airways plane, and it was very noisy.

Last flight from Durban International Airport

With the new airport at La Lucia (King Shaka) coming into operation after the Fifa World Cup, this was sadly my last flight from Durban International Airport. I know Comair put in a bid for the old airport, but some clever guys would rather destroy millions of rands of airport infrastructure at the old airport than allow competition against the new King Shaka Airport. This is a HUGE mistake - no country thrives without unleashing competitive forces. China were in the doldrums for a long time before they started encouraging competition.

Ultimately the losers from this are (1) those travelling between Durban and Johannesburg who will have to pay higher prices than if proper competition was allowed, (2) those living on the south coast of Durban who will now have to travel further as well as those travelling there, (3) all airline passengers throughout South Africa as airport taxes are being increased on unrelated routes to finance King Shaka, (4) airlines as there'll be fewer people flying because of the higher prices, (5) other businesses as more being spent on airline tickets means less to spend elsewhere, (6) even government itself will actually pay a price because less business being done means less tax income coming into its coffers. The only winners are those who decided to build King Shaka Airport, as they'll be protected from having their very costly decision exposed.

SouthAfrica.TO is a staunch advocate of the breaking up of the inefficient high-cost couldn't-care-less ACSA monopoly.

Yes, why not label BA flights as SA

One needs to be on one's toes with ACSA around - they marked the British Airways carousel where we needed to pick up our luggage as "South African Airlink: SA8664".

Our BA e-ticket receipt

Dear MRS DOE,

Thank you for booking with British Airways.

Ticket Type: e-ticket

This is your e-ticket receipt. Your ticket is held in our systems, you will not receive a paper ticket for your booking.

Please remember you must bring the card used to pay for this booking to the airport with you, for verification, before you can travel.

Your itinerary is detailed below.

What to do next

Visit Manage My Booking and print "Your Itinerary", a customer friendly up-to-date summary of your booking. We suggest you take this with you on your trip, as some authorities will need to see a printed flight itinerary. We also recommend the following services to help you get the most out of your journey:

Book a great value hotel Need somewhere to stay? We've got a wide range of carefully selected hotels to suit your budget.

Request special meals If you have special or medical dietary requirements then request your special meal online.

Add car rental now Explore your destination. Competitively priced car rental in partnership with Avis.

Pre-allocated seats To help you get the most from your flight we will reserve you specific seats.

This is only a selection of the services available for you in Manage My Booking. To use these, or to see what else is available please click below*:

Manage My Booking

* Please note that this link provides direct access to your booking, so please only forward this email if you want the recipient to access your booking and the related services.

Checked baggage	1 piece
	> Checked baggage policy information
Hand baggage	ONE piece only. Max weight 7kg. Max dimensions 56cm x 45cm x 25cm (22in x 18in x 10in)..
	> Hand baggage policy information

 

Yours sincerely,

British Airways Customer Services

How to contact us

This is an automated email, and we are unable to respond to replies. To ask a question online, or send us an email (in some countries), please visit "Your questions"

If you require further assistance you may contact us on:

27 11 441 8600

Passenger notices

Dangerous articles in baggage

For safety reasons, dangerous articles such as those listed below, must not be carried in passengers checked or hand/cabin baggage.

or other articles or substances which present a danger during air transport

> More information on dangerous articles in baggage is available here

Notice

If the passenger's journey involves an ultimate destination or stop in a country other than the country of departure the Warsaw Convention or the Montreal Convention may be applicable and these Conventions govern and may limit the liability of carriers for death or bodily injury and in respect of loss of or damage to baggage. Many air carriers have waived the Warsaw Convention limits for death or bodily injury. Further information may be obtained from the carrier. For further information see the Notice of Liability Limitations.

Conditions of Carriage

It is important that you read this section carefully as it contains important information about the terms on which carriage and other services are provided to you.

Carriage and other services provided by the carrier are subject to Conditions of Carriage and the Conditions of Contract, which are hereby incorporated by reference. These conditions may be obtained from the issuing carrier.

Copies of the Conditions of Contract and the British Airways General Conditions of Carriage are available on request or can be obtained at the airport or online here:

> Conditions of Contract
> British Airways General Conditions of Carriage

Notice of liability limitations

The Montreal Convention or the Warsaw Convention system may be applicable to your journey and these Conventions govern and may limit the liability of air carriers for death or bodily injury, for loss of or damage to baggage, and for delay. For more information, please visit:

> Liability limitations

Passenger service charge and security and/or insurance and fuel surcharge

The price of your ticket includes a security and/or insurance surcharge and a fuel surcharge. They are shown in the "TAX/FEE/CHARGE" area of your ticket. These sums are levied by British Airways and are not a tax, fee or charge imposed by a Government Authority or by a third party. UB is the Passenger Service Charge which carriers pay to UK airport operators for each passenger's use of airport facilities.

Notice of government and airport imposed taxes, fees and charges

The price of this ticket may include taxes, fees and charges which are imposed on air transportation by Government Authorities and Airports. They may represent a significant portion of the cost of air travel and are either included in the fare or shown separately in the "TAX/FEE/CHARGE" box(es) of this ticket. You may also be required to pay taxes, fees and charges not already collected.

British Airways overbooking policy

In order to minimise the effect of "no-shows" (passengers who are booked on a flight but do not present themselves for travel), and to allow as many passengers as possible to travel on the flight of their choice, British Airways and most major airlines may overbook services. Whilst we make every effort to provide seats for which confirmed reservations have been made, there is a slight chance that a seat will not be available on a flight for which a person has a confirmed reservation, and no absolute guarantee of seat availability is denoted by the expressions reservations, bookings, status OK and the timings attached to them. British Airways operates compensation schemes for passengers with confirmed reservations who are denied carriage without reasonable grounds. Details of these schemes are available at check-in. Please direct any questions about our overbooking or denied boarding compensation policy to our Customer Relations Manager, 

British Airways,
P.O. Box 5619,
Sudbury,
Suffolk,
CO10 2PG. 
Telephone:  +44 (0) 191 490 7901
or on our web site:
http://ba.com