It is an overnight flight from Frankfurt. Probably the only thing that helped me survive is that I don’t have to deal with another 9 hours of time zone changes (that and using miles to upgrade …..). And no children within hearing.
We landed to sunshine pretty much on time at JNB=Tambo International Airport. Immigration was a breeze and our luggage was easy to spot on the carousel. Not seeing either our names or a rep from the travel company we caught the hotel’s shuttle. Even though it was well before noon, they cleaned our room early.
And this is when it got interesting. At least from an observational point of view. The front desk had a box of reservations for the tour company and it appeared that we were the first to check in. Since it appeared to be nap time, who cared? We had made our own flight arrangements (frequent flyer miles all the way) rather than get routed through Heathrow on British Airways.
Mid-afternoon we made the acquaintance of Carol from Santa Cruz; booked on pre-tour to Kruger. Her BA flight out of London had been delayed/cancelled last night. The re routing onto South African Airways had worked for her but not her luggage. About every 30-45 minutes we checked to see if anyone else had shown. The answer was always no. About 1830 the light finally went on in my head.
Free Wifi. Why didn’t I look at the airport arrivals? Huh. All flights from Europe land before noon, most before 0900. And there on the 0600-0900 list was BA 55. Wasn’t that her original flight? Yes. Do you know it is landing at 2200 tonight rather than 0715? (Brain flash. That must have been the London flight listed in baggage claim as delayed till 2145. )
We didn’t see any point in staying up to see if we were right but it certainly is logical. Seven others from Carol’s pre-tour extension and 10 from ours. All missing and presumed delayed at Heathrow. Arriving here -GMT+2 – about 24 hours after their original scheduled London departure. They are going to be really exhausted.
But I have high hopes for Carol’s duffle being on that flight.
