Air Travel

by Philip Wagenaar, M.D., first of two parts

A friend and I went to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix on April 8, 2007, and had the happy fortune of meeting an outstanding driver and guide to that city whom I would like to recommend to readers of ITN.

At our hotel, upon arrival we signed up for a half-day city tour, but it was obvious that the small minibus provided would not comfortably hold the number of larger-sized passengers, so a separate van was provided the two of us for our tour.

My husband and I would like to let ITN readers know about a taxi/limo service in the Rome area that we can recommend. Andrea Amore Taxi & Limousines (phone [39] 338 88 88 550 or 328 33 32 022, fax 06 941 17 24, www.taxicastelliromani.com) is located in Frascati, Italy.

Mr. Amore will do tours of Rome and the surrounding areas as well as long-distance trips. We just used him to transport three of us from our hotel in Frascati to Fiumicino Airport on Oct. 23, 2007.

My husband, Lewis, thought if we checked into South African Airways (800/722-9675, www.flysaa.com) at Washington Dulles Airport 3½ hours before our flight to Cape Town on Jan. 11, 2007, we might have a good chance of getting an exit-row seat, knowing they give preference to their SAA Voyager program members (which we are not). Alas, even at the gate, their representative curtly said, “No.”

For the first part of our trip to Ireland (Nov. ’07, pg. 65), Aug. 27-Sept. 1, 2007, we used the “Emerald Package” from Dooley Vacations (Lynbrook, NY; 877/331-9301, www.dooleyvacations.com).

The package, at $899 per person, included round-trip air from New York to Dublin, a hotel for the first night, five nights’ vouchers for B&Bs and rental of an economy-class car (manual transmission).

When my wife and I did our planning for our visit to Edinburgh for the 2007 International Festival as well as the Fringe Festival, I elected to fly British Airways (B.A.) for two reasons: the cabin service has always been excellent and they provide connecting flights to Edinburgh from Heathrow.

On a trip from San Francisco to Bologna, Italy, on May 23, 2007, I changed planes at Heathrow airport. It was a Wednesday morning.

Directly from British Airways on their website, www.ba.com, I purchased a ticket for my sister, Ursula, to fly in economy class from Berlin, Germany, to Los Angeles via London on June 19.

As ITN readers know (July ’07, pg. 26), British Air will not give seat assignments more than 24 hours in advance of a flight — regardless of class — unless the purchasers have fully flexible tickets or are Gold or Silver Executive Club members (another exception — families with young children).

From PARIS, France, Oct. 10…