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.”
by Jay Brunhouse
by John Penisten, Hilo, HI
We can highly recommend the tour “Great Trains of Europe,” which we took July 8-20, 2007. This was our fourth trip with Grand European Tours, or GET (6000 Meadows Rd., Ste. 520, Lake Oswego, OR 97035; 800/552-5545, www.getours.com), and we were more than satisfied.
by Jay Brunhouse
My husband, Jim, and I took a trip from Cape Town, South Africa, to Chobe National Park in Botswana by way of Victoria Falls, Feb. 19-March 5, 2007.
In July ’06 I made a deposit of $2,400 for trips on the following Shongololo Express trains in Southern Africa: Good Hope, March 6-21, 2007 ($3,680), Dune Express, March 27-April 11 ($3,905) and Southern Cross, April 11-26 ($4,350) — total cost, $11,935.
by Jay Brunhouse
My husband, Uwe, and I flew into Chengdu, China, on June 17, 2007, intending to board the train to Lhasa the next day.
My wife, Barbara, and I booked a trip to Buenos Aires for March ’07 with Escapes Unlimited (2012 Lerner Lane, Santa Ana, CA 92705; 800/243-7227, www.escapesltd.com). We would be flying COPA airlines, which uses Panama City as its hub. Since it was necessary to change planes there anyway, we chose to take a layover in Panama City on the way down. (We had good service on COPA, by the way.)