Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for January 20, 2014

…like YESTERDAY !!!

South Africa looks forward to welcoming you, Evie. I hope you are going to tour the wine route while you are in the fairest cape in all the world. Say hello to my daughter in Franschhoek while you are there; lots of international visitors go to Franschhoek. It’s a very interesting little town with a very interesting history; they celebrate Bastille Day every year.

Avoid Hellta Airlines if Petunia Insect’s experience is typical… ;)

Go Evie – get the hell out of there!

Worst airline I ever traveled on was in Africa, from Zimbabwe to Senegal. It wasn’t an African airline, though, but the old Balkan Bulgarian Airlines, flying a Soviet-made Tupolev TU-154. No atheists in foxholes, or on TU-154s.

Ask anyone with kids. A grandma who babysits and doesn’t interfere IS a goddess.

@frumdebang – Actually, there is nothing seriously wrong with with the Tupelov TU-154.Between 1968 and 2010 there have been 39 fatal incidents involving the Tu-154, most of which were caused either by factors unrelated to the aircraft, or by its extensive use in demanding conditions.

Last week my AirTran flight (under the aegis of Southwest) from MKE to TPA was five hours late, because of engine problems with the plane in Baltimore. It couldn’t be repaired in a timely fashion, and so they sent another plan to MKE. Behold, the NEW plane needed repairs! They sent off for a part; the part didn’t work. Finally we took off at 8:00 p. m. instead of 2:40.

I’ll still use Southwest, though, because the staff is always nice, and they do everything they can to be helpful (including giving us a credit at the terminal and later online, though I don’t know whether both are valid [had to write them about this, as their email “contact us” didn’t work]). The main reason I use SW, though, is that the flight I always get is nonstop and very inexpensive.

Agreed Evie.

The old airplanes from Russia usually have a few seats broken in the seat back position. The buses have racks on the roof to carry luggage because the latches to the underfloor storage doors are broken. Under communism, there is no reason to design a better product.