The Journey

The Journey
I wouldn’t exactly call it smooth sailing. My trip to Mozambique involved....
* 3 flights on South African Airways – an international flight, a domestic flight, and another international flight, in that order (which caused a huge amount of confusion for all involved....more details below)
* a night at the “Emperor’s Palace” casino and hotel compound in Johannesburg,
* several hours in both Johannesburg and Durban International Airports (I will later offer my opinion as to whether or not the airport in Durban really deserves that grand of a title – see “I thought international airports were usually big”)
* a flight crew that moved through the cabin to collect ‘outstanding catering equipment’ rather than ‘remaining cups or glasses’
* several very puzzled looks from South African Airways personnel trying to figure out...
a) why I would fly from Johannesburg to Maputo via Durban (which is not on the way) rather than taking a direct flight from Johannesburg to Maputo (of which there are several each day)
b) whether it would be possible to check my luggage all the way through to Maputo or whether I would have to collect it and re-check it at every airport due to the fact that I was taking a domestic flight in between my two international flights (if you are wondering how this turned out.....let me just say that I am thankful there were luggage carts at all of these airports!)
* and a waitress (at a Durban Airport café) named Primrose

But in the end I landed safe and sound, with all of my luggage, and found my boss and an ICAP driver waiting to take me to my hotel. All in all, no complaints, just funny stories.

I thought International Airports were usually big....
I had the pleasure of spending several hours in the Durban International Airport, and more than enough time to fully explore the ‘international terminal’ at said airport. After a significant amount of confusion (details below), I came to understand that the international terminal at the Durban International Airport consists of:
- three gates (or so they claim....I only saw two, and together they took up about as much space as my apartment in NY)
- one duty free shop
- and a restroom.

And the entire international terminal is closed until approximately one hour before the first international flight of the day departs (which in my case, happened to be my flight to Maputo).

The Details
I arrived at Durban Airport at 7am, but my flight for Maputo didn’t leave until 10:10. Although I sat and had breakfast at the airport café, I was still ready to get to my gate and relax by about 8:30. However, I encountered several problems in trying figure out how to make that happen. To get specific, I couldn’t figure out...

a) How to check in. At the airport. Where there are usually big signs and lots of arrows pointing to ticket counters with smiling flight crew. It turns out the international desk wasn’t open. That combined with the fact that it was poorly marked and not well lit resulted in me checking-in at the domestic counter (without realizing that there was a separate international counter), which very much confused the guy who helped me. I was certain at that point that my bags were not going to be waiting for me in Maputo (and then how was I going to explain why they were in Durban when I was really coming from Johannesburg?).

b) How to get to my gate. Again....at the airport, where the point is to get to your gate so you can catch your flight. The reason? Again, things in the international part of the airport weren’t really open yet. Including international security...which leads to the international ‘terminal’. And again, due to things being poorly marked and my inability to understand that 1.5 hours before an international flight the entire terminal (and everything associated with taking an international flight) would be closed, I ended up going through domestic security. I realized this when I looked for my gate number and saw that it was on the other side of a wall, which was blocked off by the immigration counter, which was on the other side of the rope that I was standing next to. Eventually a very nice woman at the still closed security machine for the international terminal rescanned my bags and allowed me into the roped off area in front of the immigration counter.

c) Whether or not I was actually supposed to pass through immigration. There was no one at the counter. Because it wasn’t open yet. But fortunately I didn’t have to wait long...the appropriate person showed up, stamped my passport, and allowed me into the international terminal (where I found the two gates and the duty free shop that was – you guessed it – not open yet). Where I sat alone for about 30 minutes before anyone else decided to show up. And in the end, it didn’t take very long to load up the plane and take off – the plane only had 9 rows of seats. And each row had only 3 seats. So there weren’t many passengers.

[In case you were wondering....there was one flight attendant who served beverages and snacks during our hour long flight from a miniaturized version of the cart that flight attendants wheel up and down the aisles on normal sized planes. The beverages were your normal water, juice, coffee, tea stuff, but the snacks consisted of entire packages of cookies. This made more sense for the people on the 2-seat side of the aisle, as they could share....I was in the only seat on my side of the aisle, and was a bit surprised when she offered me a whole package of ‘chocolate biscuits’ at 10:30 in the morning.]