Wow. That was a great few days away.
Lovely company, great place, amazing weather, superb service, friendly people. It had it all.
But can I admit that I was rather disappointed with the flight back?
Heading out to Mauritius, I went via Joburg and landed (pun intended) with my bum totally in the butter on one of Air Mauritius’ (almost) brand new A350-900s.
And yes: that’s how modern air travel should be. 4 hours (ish) of comfy seats, legroom, wifi, fancy screens, USB charging and really decent service.
And if you’ve ever been to Mauritius, you know that stuff just works. The roads are well-maintained, the streetlights work, it’s clean, it’s tidy. There’s a sense of pride about the place.
So when we flew back on the 6 hour trip to Cape Town last night, I don’t think it was unreasonable to look forward to the same level of comfort and the same sort of high standards.
Eish.
We ended up on a 20 year old A330-200. Cramped seating, uncomfortable armrests with handsets in (remember those?), a screen that looked like it had come from a 1980s laptop.
A cabin that was hot, cold, and then overwhelmingly hot again. No personal air vents.
Ugh.
I’d genuinely forgotten that medium/long haul flying used to be like this. And it was nostalgia I really didn’t want to relive.
I have to say that I have no issue with flying on old, clunky aeroplanes up to Joburg or Durban. 2 hours is no time at all, and anything is bearable. But when you’re on there for 6 (or more) hours – and you’re paying damn high fares for the privilege – I think it’s ok to want a bit more.
That’s why I don’t tend to go anywhere with British Airways anymore, as mentioned here and here. Although to be fair, they do sometimes have nice A350s and B787s on the Cape Town runs, now. But there are still some 777-200s on BA59 that are even older than yesterday’s relic.
They might have had some cabin upgrades though. Maybe that’s something Air Mauritius should think about, because unfortunately, that plane (and I believe that they have another of the same… “vintage”) really does really let their brand down.
But. Safe flight. Decent landing.
And then we were back in Cape Town, and immediately got both sides of the South African welcome: a truly miserable cow at passport control, followed by the nicest, most cheerful toilet attendant in the baggage reclaim hall.
Ah… So very South African.
Welcome home!