Expedition high hopes hit R24000 low with airline bungle

A FURIOUS Lovemore Heights father on his way with his son to climb Mount Kilimanjaro is R24000 out of pocket after British Airways (BA) yesterday refused to let them board their pre-booked flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg.

Deon Roy, 47, and his 17-year-old son, Matthew, fell victim to the infamous "over-booking" system practised by some airlines at the Port Elizabeth International Airport.

The "no-room-on-the-plane" ruling almost scuppered months of planning, training and their R120000 excursion to the top of Africa's highest mountain in Tanzania.

The father and son were meant to catch an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Johannesburg to Tanzania at 2.30pm yesterday, but instead found themselves grounded in Port Elizabeth after BA refused to let them board their 10.35am flight.

In a desperate effort to save the trip, and after BA allegedly refused to assist them further, the family scrambled to make other flight arrangements and eventually had to fork out another R24000 for new flight bookings on Kenya Airways which was expected to leave Johannesburg later yesterday. "We are pretty furious about this," Roy said, explaining that they had booked their flights on May 28.

"When we got to the check-in [yesterday], we were the only two people in the queue – there was no one in front or behind. We were there 50 minutes before the flight and were simply told it was over-booked and they would not let us on. - Shaun Gillham