Time for another fiction, this time kinda of history category as all facts are themselves real. The action starts at Douala/Cameroon in Summer 1967 ... fasten your seat belt and enjoy the flights. Here goes the story.
The least that can be written here is that Ryanair, EasyJet and al can't definitely claim to come up with the concept of "Low fare" specialists (Yes I don't buy "Low Cost" as this one better applies to some airlines actually operating on shoe strings, definitely not the case of Southwest which usually buys its fleet member NEW, and at least FAIRLY pays the staff members. Long before them, Loftleidir Icelandic across the Pond, Aeroflot on a worldwide scale and Iberia on a smaller scale were already delivering this kind of song.
My next vacations were due for the forthcoming Fall and I was planning another visit to France, to see some relatives, but also to Belgium and Italy to honour the invitation made by a few friends and fellow workers. Yeah you bet, I am a single working in Cameroon as a locally hired expat, which meant I had to buy my tickets ....
Not wishing to buy one of those 14/60 day excursion fare ticket at a premium by the UTA/Air Afrique duet, I reviewed over and again the very few options left, which were limited to either fly again
-an Air Cameroun DC.4 due for D-check from DLA to Nîmes in Southeastern France and back. But the problems were these marathon ferries only took place every 5 years or so, and getting from/to Nîmes was not a piece of cake.
or wait until next Winter and buy a ticket from Quelle Reisen on the weekly seasonal Condor 727-100 normally chartered to bring German sunseekers. Between Frankfurt and DLA, the congenial tri-holer made an enroute stop at Tunis-Carthage for refueling. Getting the ticket here was not a problem since I was acquainted to Herr Dieter Stadelmayer, the rep. Problem was period of application !!!
I was almost on the point of postponning my trip when a buddy told me
-"Guy ... you should check with Iberia. Admitingly, you have to connect TWICE, once at Santa Isabel (today Malabo, the capital city of Equatorial Guinea) and another time in Madrid. But it's really worth the try". Knowing the guy to be a compulsive penny pinching one, I instantly knew I had to try this one.
to be continued
Alain
The least that can be written here is that Ryanair, EasyJet and al can't definitely claim to come up with the concept of "Low fare" specialists (Yes I don't buy "Low Cost" as this one better applies to some airlines actually operating on shoe strings, definitely not the case of Southwest which usually buys its fleet member NEW, and at least FAIRLY pays the staff members. Long before them, Loftleidir Icelandic across the Pond, Aeroflot on a worldwide scale and Iberia on a smaller scale were already delivering this kind of song.
My next vacations were due for the forthcoming Fall and I was planning another visit to France, to see some relatives, but also to Belgium and Italy to honour the invitation made by a few friends and fellow workers. Yeah you bet, I am a single working in Cameroon as a locally hired expat, which meant I had to buy my tickets ....
Not wishing to buy one of those 14/60 day excursion fare ticket at a premium by the UTA/Air Afrique duet, I reviewed over and again the very few options left, which were limited to either fly again
-an Air Cameroun DC.4 due for D-check from DLA to Nîmes in Southeastern France and back. But the problems were these marathon ferries only took place every 5 years or so, and getting from/to Nîmes was not a piece of cake.
or wait until next Winter and buy a ticket from Quelle Reisen on the weekly seasonal Condor 727-100 normally chartered to bring German sunseekers. Between Frankfurt and DLA, the congenial tri-holer made an enroute stop at Tunis-Carthage for refueling. Getting the ticket here was not a problem since I was acquainted to Herr Dieter Stadelmayer, the rep. Problem was period of application !!!
I was almost on the point of postponning my trip when a buddy told me
-"Guy ... you should check with Iberia. Admitingly, you have to connect TWICE, once at Santa Isabel (today Malabo, the capital city of Equatorial Guinea) and another time in Madrid. But it's really worth the try". Knowing the guy to be a compulsive penny pinching one, I instantly knew I had to try this one.
to be continued
Alain
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