brothers birthday up north - car too expensive, bus a safety hazard so i’ve got chose the dreaded fly option… any takes on the above situation?
regards, gg
EDIT
done and dusted - will tell you guys! tip! get the flyairlink app on your mobile and reserve a comfy seat on the plane prior to flight, in the case of this plane any number 3 or 11 seat will give extra leg-room, if you choose to sit on 11a or 11f, DONT FIDDLE WITH THE DOORKNOBS!
EDIT #2
i’ve done online booking for car parking, saves about 60% on the fees ; it’s a valet service, you stop at the terminal, hand the key to the driver who takes it to undercover parking whilst you stroll in, do auto-check-in, drink a coffee and board the plane - remember to reset all km readings to zero in case the anc hijacks your car for the election, you might be able to take them to the constipational court for a refund - a gps tracker can come in handy, any suggestions?
Airlink are pretty decent, used to travel to Botswana for business fairly often in the past and still do from time to time, the options on that router from JNB to BW were Airlink, Air Botswana and SA Express and Airlink were head and shoulders above those two, I have also flown them to Namibia and Botswana from Cape Town and never had a bad experience.
Only caveat I guess is that they don’t connect to the main terminal and so you have to always catch a bus to / from the aircraft, overhead space is also small so you have to check luggage in even if its regular cabin size luggage and lastly they seem to descend really fast which stuffs my ears up
You don’t have to check in your cabin size luggage, but you con’t take it with you to your seat. Instead they have a little trolly there at the door and stoor your luggage in to front cargo hatch along with all the baby prams. Just remember to grab it when you disembark again from the stairs.
I do like these smaller jets. Let people on/off means it is so much faster to board. And they tend to have a bit more space in the 2+2 config that they use than the 3+3 on a 737 or A300.
The bus is only in play at OR Tambo as most other airports in SA still don’t have ramps anyways and one bus does everyone in the aircraft. If you’re unlucky with a 737 it takes 3 busses to get you to the terminal (thanks Kulula…) and I always got stuck on the last one.
I hear you on the bus, its just with most of my travels I’ve usually had connecting flights, tired and just want to get home so every extra leg in that process is one I try avoid if I can
Reminds me of the days up in Africa during a time when you could wear anything as long as it was brown … you happily enjoy the calm relaxing “inflight entertainment” on a Flossie (or is in a Flossie) when the next moment you “fall”(!) out of the sky following by slamming (your teeth are loose) on the runway followed by an unbelievable epic accompaniment of 4 screaming engines working flat-out to achieve a near-instant stop (feels like one) somewhere in an exotic location in a faraway bush on a ±400m landing strip.
The view from the cockpit during such a maneuver:
After a few of those landings, any landing thereafter is “calm and relaxed”.
I have to fly my son back from Kruger International (Nelspruit) to OR Tambo in Jun (don’t ask - complicated story with gymnastics practice and our holiday booked in year in advance. The cheapest option his mom approved was a flight, didn’t want to go for a bus and driving him myself is actually more expensive).
So looking at an Airlink flight at 6:55 from Kruger Mpumalanga Intl to OR Tambo. It’s a 55 min flight.
Since he is 11, this is regarded as an unaccompanied minor and Airlink initiated an additional process:
Somebody will accompany him from where I drop him off to where he gets on the plane
Somebody will acommpany him from where he land until he is handed over to his grandparents
I had to provide contact details of the people dropping him and picking him up.
Haven’t personally done it and also not on Airlink. Quite a while back I did receive a kid who flew from CT to JHB, if I remember it was on Safair, he was 10 years old. Last year sometime I also whent with a friend to OR Tambo who dropped off someones kids who flew to france, a 14 and 12 year old if I remember.
We checked them in and had to stay till they boarded, turned out to be a fun day since the flight was delayed, a 8 hour day on OR Tambo in all. They got taken care of really well, a Air France employee took them from us but we had to still wait until they actually boarded, another Air France person came to us and said they boarded safely and we could go.
My friend got a email when they checked in as well as when they boarded, which also got coppied to their mother in France, then there was another email when they landed and another when they were received by their mother on the other side.
I’ve read some positive comments on Airlink looking well after minors… me’thinks it was Google, not sure - there are pretty strict regulations re under age children… but I’ve got no 1st hand experience, sorry
Thanks good to know. I booked and paid yesterday after I ran him through how I think it will work. He’s game for it (even excited - 2nd time on a plane but he was a toddler last time).
The only bit that’s different from what I think is the bus/shuttle from the plane to OR Thambo’s main terminal.
At the check-in counter an Airlink representative will escort your child through the respective Security checkpoints / Passport control right until the Passenger door to the aircraft and handed to the flight cabin attendant.
