Air Mauritius

For months we have anticipated, planned and looked forward to this much saved for, dream bucket list holiday. Bags packed, checklists ticked and off to the airport we went...

The first red flags started when we did not board at the scheduled time. Passengers started queuing at the font desk, demanding to be informed what's going on. Only those who asked were told - plane rerouted to Johannesburg, possible delay of 4 - 10hrs, this at 23:15. The choice were yours to go home, stay or go to Southern Sun hotel at the Waterfront. Long story short with busses not arriving, our group decided to stay. Long cold night at CT International. Low and behold the rescheduled flight at 07:30am could board at 08:30 and we were finally on our way 09:30 am - set to arrive a "day" late in Mauritius.

Trusting the start of our holiday was just bad luck, we should probably not have tempted fate as on Friday 2 August Air Mauritius informed us that our scheduled 17:15 flight on Sunday was a "confirmed delay" and only departing 02:15 am Monday morning. Bearing in mind check out at the resort is at 12 noon. The shuttle arranged to pick us up at 22:00 Sunday and we made the necessary arrangements to have dinner at the resort, store luggage from checkout time to departure and make use of the shower room facilities.

18:00pm Sunday evening one of our fellow travelers received a call - our flight is cancelled and we must not proceed to the airport.

Utter complete mayhem erupted - where do we sleep, what do we do??? By 20:00 we had confirmation from the airline that they will cover the cost of another night at the resort but we had work, homes, pets and school to get back to!!!

After a night of tossing and turning we were finally on our way to the airport at 09:30 am Monday morning thanks to a great travel agent who managed to rebook us on the 13:00pm flight via Johannesburg.

Needless to say we boarded late, AGAIN and due to arriving late in Johannesburg, almost missed our connecting flight to Cape Town. We were told in Johannesburg that we must not collect and recheck our luggage. Arrive in Cape Town - not a suitcase in sight. Irritated, tired and annoyed we were told our luggage would arrive on intermitted flights and as it was not South African Airways mistake they would not deliver our suitcases. So we spent the next two days driving back and forth to the airport collecting luggage - thanks Air Mauritius!!!

The gist of our story - delayed flight at the start was not a single occurrence. If you want a stress free holiday, come back relaxed and well rested - do yourself a favor and book a more reputable airline. Additional costs are not worth the stress we went through. I will never recommend any friends, family traveling to Mauritius to fly with Air Mauritius. Get your act together Air Mauritius!!!