Destination Golf Global Guide (Winter 2018) * | Page 30

Mauritius stopover, Anahita Golf (left) and Le Touessrok (right).
of weight for the out bound trip for a pile of
luggage which included a set of golf clubs.
Then there were the duration of the flight,
scheduling, the length of stopovers (a key
factor on any indirect flight) and the class and
price options. In terms of the latter, Ethiopian
Airline’s business class (Cloud 9) was priced at
only slightly more than some full rate Premium
Economy options. At ZAR 54 000.00 for two
passengers, it was very much less than some of
the direct and indirect business class options
on the Middle East and European carriers.
Recommending or indeed critiquing an airline
objectively can be tricky.
However I enjoy some solace, in the pursuit of
objectivity, from the fact that if I use £100.00
as a benchmark, the process becomes much
easier. The rationale (you can also use it in
restaurants, hotels – in fact in any service
environment) is based on the premise that my
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Destination Golf .TRAVEL
£100.00, or multiples thereof – never has an off
day. It won’t have just had a fight with the wife,
or be suffering from a migraine, or a problem
with a third party supplier. It still fascinates me
how many retailers seem to think that blaming
a third party is a valid excuse for their own non
delivery to a paying customer.
It is consistent in that it is always worth £100.00
and in the value exchange we have implicitly
agreed, I expect to receive £100.00 value in
return and not 50 quid, because your business
happens to be having a bad day.
To recommend or critique in this type of service
environment is also rather like sending friends
to a restaurant having given it rave reviews. Of
course on the night that your friends book you
can be sure that the chef will have just had
a fight with his partner and stormed out of
the kitchen, or the staff are on a go slow and
so on….for the critic it can feel like a game of