Kenya Airways – The Shame of Africa

Kenya Airways – The Pride of Africa is in fact the shame of Africa. Anybody who has traveled to Africa knows that Kenya is an important connecting port and Kenya Airways knows how to make you miss your flight even if you have reached the boarding gate 10 minutes before takeoff.

So here is the story and it’s a rather long one. I was returning to Johannesburg for the Easter weekend and the shortest flights I found were of Kenya Airways and not knowing any better I went ahead and booked them. The nightmare started at Mumbai airport when the flight took off 45 minutes behind schedule and knowing that I have a layover of just one hour I was tense throughout the journey. The flight attendants onboard KQ211 kept reassuring me that I will not miss my connecting flight to Johannesburg as there are around 20 people on the flight travelling to my destination. But, there always has to be a but in the story, so, but, we when we reached, the plane needed repairs and when the doors opened those travelling Johannesburg with me had to fight our way through to reach the security check point. By the time we reached the gate it was 21:35 and the flight to Johannesburg was to depart at 21:45. Kenya Airways refused to allow around 20 people on board a flight that was parked in the bay well beyond 22:00. The bunch of us tried to reason with the staff saying the plane is still stand and they should let us on. All Kenya Airways officials said they have already planned the flight and cannot let us on. The flight finally took off at 22:20 right in front of our eyes, which we could have easily got on to, had the Kenya Airways folks not decided to blame us for arriving late. At last they said we need to go to the service desk to know what to do next.

So far pathetic and little did I know that it was going to get worse. At the service desk, Kenya Airways officials did not attend to us because they were attending to a business class passenger who missed the flight because he was sleeping in his luxury lounge. See, I told you, PATHETIC! After 40 minutes of standing in line and being aggressive, Kenya Airways person “George” issued us new boarding passes for the next flight to Johannesburg, next morning. I have no words to describe Kenya Airways employees. They took off their name badges and employee IDs as we started asking for their names. Finally they said they will provide us with accommodation for the night but we will require a visa to enter Kenya. At the immigration counter we were asked to purchase a visa for $20. When we explained our situation, the immigration employees had no idea what to do and no Kenya Airways employee was around to help us.  After a very long time, we were issued visas and taken to a hotel.

Phase three now. Kenya Airways calls their airport transport as ‘Sky Bus’. Far from being a bus, it was much worse than the most khatara BST bus. Yes, I thought to myself, now I’m really in Africa. The hotel was quiet alright but the bunch of us travelers had not able to contact our families to tell them where we are and not to wait for us at O.R Tambo Airport. This hotel, The Meridian, gave us access to Wi-Fi an hour after we reached but refused to let us use their phones to call either South Africa or India. Their excuse was that their phones do not have enough credit. What kind of a hotel are you?

So from 21:35 to 02:00 next morning we were being pushed around like heavy baggage that Kenya Airways did not want to take responsibility for.

Now, about Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the place has no payphones, all the mobile charging points are broken and the staff is extremely unhelpful and rude. So, if you are planning to travel to Nairobi or through Nairobi make sure your devices are fully charged and your phones are on international roaming or suffer the consequences of extreme stress and anxiety.

Needless to say I was not looking forward to my return flight to Mumbai. That is another story for another time. When my husband called Kenya Airways to find out what is going on because he could not get in touch with me, they refused to help him in anyway. So Kenya Airways, you suck! I will never choose you again and I don’t expect my complaints to register into your dense heads. You guys are the shame of Africa. How do you plan to compensate me? I do not want additional miles because I will never fly with you again. Not only are your planes old, your staff utterly useless and obnoxious your seats are but also worse than any bus that runs in an Indian village. You just lost twenty customers, hearty congratulations and SHAME ON YOU!