Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Sunshine daydream!
What were the airlines that gave you such hassle in Zanzibar/Mombasa?
That's a crazy story, though sadly not uncommon. The worst thing about traveling in Africa is dealing with air travel within or between countries.
Was one of them Precision? I have approximately zero faith in that airline at this point. Unfortunately Kenya Airways sometimes sells you a ticket and then you show up at the airport and get shuttled onto a Precision plane!
The last time I flew Precision they lost the pilot. Like, he couldn't be located. I needed to be in Zanzibar that evening so they were like...we can put you on Indigo, is that fine? I said, fine, not knowing that Indigo is a company that runs a f'ing DC-3 on that route. It was INSANE.
"We tend to be patronizing about the poor in a very specific sense, which is that we tend to think,
Re: Sunshine daydream!
You got it! It was Precision that canceled our flight out of Zanzibar. And they were zero help trying to re-book or work around. They could fly us to Dar, but there were no flights out of Dar back to Jo'burg. They had a sign saying, "Daily Flights to Jo'burg" up in their window. We asked about getting on that flight, and "Oh, sorry. That flight isn't running today."
There was a woman in front of us who was just going OFF on the lady at the counter. She lived somewhere in Kenya (I didn't catch where) and they were trying to send her to Mombasa to stay overnight and then fly on the next morning. She was just unloading on them about how they never get anywhere on time, always cancel flights, they're thieves, demanding her money back, etc. And I don't think the woman behind the counter was even listening to her.
I definitely realized the value of customer service in the US that day. While I don't agree with a lot of people who abuse the system here, I definitely see how easy we have it with multiple air carriers, easy re-booking, etc.
So we ended up paying over $500 for a 540 flight. And they put us through the BS of having to clear customs in Mombasa. I was SO pissed. Looking back, it wasn't that huge of a deal, but the whole part about having to get off the plane and pay them $25 for a visa when I never stepped foot outside an airport in Kenya just really rubbed me the wrong way.
All that said, I think we'll try our best to stick to SA and Regional Air next time. :-) I sent along my frustrations to our tour operator, and he basically said what you did - it's not uncommon, but not many other choices.
Ahh! I knew it! I hate that airline.
It does make for great cocktail party conversation though