Re: Digest Number 256/air travel

[Guest guest]

Flying every year from Boston to London, and this year having flown from

Boston/London/Johannesburg/Cape Town/London/Boston this February and March,

I've learned 2 things:

a. BA no longer lets one make seat reservations in advance of departure, at

least from the USA.

b. South African Airways does not let one lie down on the floor to sleep,

even if one has RLS! 11 1/2 hour flight from London to J'burg.

c. I always take one of those neck pillows that one can blow up. It gives

me something to lean my head against on the seat.

d. If the plane is not too crowded, after takeoff I try to find a seat with

at least two empty spaces next to it so I can lie down. This didn't

work from Boston to London or Cape Town back to London. There was nary

a seat to spare!

e. My personal preference is to take an isle seat, then I won't disturb

anybody when and if I have to stand up and/or walk around. I did a

lot of that from Boston to London this year.

f. I try to take my meds when I am flying overseas the same time as I would

at night. I. E 11.00pm on the flight Boston to London, even though that is

4.00am London time, I will then take it again at 11.00pm that same night

in London.

g. I don't like bulk head seats as one cannot put ones feet up. I always

have a carry on bag

that I can put under the seat as a foot rest. SAA from London to

J'burg had foot rests in Coach Class but not on any other flights,

neither did BA.

h. This was the first time I ever had a letter from my neuro re my RLS. It

came in VERY HANDY at Logan Airport when the BA flight was totally sold

out, they moved someone so I could have an isle seat just because of my

doctor's letter.

This is all very long winded and is only my personal opinion. Hope it helps!

a.

[Guest guest]

Hi a,

>h. This was the first time I ever had a letter from my neuro re my RLS.

It

>came in VERY HANDY at Logan Airport when the BA flight was totally sold

>out, they moved someone so I could have an isle seat just because of my

>doctor's letter.

>This is all very long winded and is only my personal opinion. Hope it

helps!

Great to see you visited our fair shores! Life in Cape Town is really rough

One thing I've really found useful on inernational flights when dragging my

mother-in-law (with RLS) around and the kids are...

1. When possible travel off season. This gives a great opportunity to get

more spare seats. Check with the travel agent.

2. If you can't prebook and even if you can, arrive really early, the

checkin staff for the flight will be quieter and if there are empty seats

they are willing to help those in need. I've had numerous occasions where

they've shuffled seats and blacked seats out even though we haven't paid for

them. The doctor's letter is really important. The Miami-Cape Town (14hours)

is just such a case, when checkin opens at 1pm for the 5pm flight it's nice

and quiet, the staff aren't harrassed and are really cooperative (get to

them before the nasty passengers get to them).

3. Try and get your seats done properly at the checkin counter, people are

damn inconsiderate and I've had many problems where we've been struggling

with 2 kids (4 of us to 2 seats) and one guy sitting with two empty seats

refuses to give it up cause he wants to sleep across them. They never move

once on the flight.

HTH

Regards

joe van niekerk

Cape Town