Sitting in my PE guesthouse getting my ducks in a row for a coaching program tomorrow. So no scanner. But here's the text of a letter in the Feb edition of SAA's Sawubona inflight magazine. I'll drop the original article in when I'm back next week.
Now (11th Feb '08) added below the text version.
From the complainant..
"This is getting too much. Every time I travel to Lusaka the lunch served is horrible. On 17 November last year on SA63 from Lusaka the lunch was shamefully ridiculous. Something called couscous? With cold ham and a tomato, and a bread roll that was not fresh (very hard). First of all, half the people did not know what couscous is (very foreign to Southern African meals). Why not just give passengers a sandwich if SAA cannot afford to give us decent meals?
"This is my second complaint about meals on this route; should one revert to the press to get some response? I am tempted to take this to the media in both Zambia and South Africa.
"No one has bothered to respond to my fist complaint. One wonders if the food served is deliberate because the route is an African one? Food for thought!"
- Agnes Phiri
Here's the SAA reply:
"Our menu on this route changes every week to offer variety. Our caterer has put measures in place to address all quality issues. Couscous is a staple food throughout North Africa and part of the cuisine in neighbouring African countries and elsewhere. One of its attractions is that, unlike pasta or leavened bread, it is a light and elegant grain food. As the leading carrier on the continent, our African routes are our stars and we would like to thank our customers travelling on these routes and assure them that we greatly appreciate and value their continued custom."
So SAA's embedded message was, "Hey Philistine! You don't know what couscous is? Tough. Right, now that's out of the way, let's do a little plug to our loyal and uncomplaining customers who DO like our couscous."
If this wasn't so tragic, it would be funny. I thought SAA PR was truly crap in the days of Felicia Mabuza-Unsubtle, but this is an Ig-Nobel award-winning response. If Agnes Phiri thinks she has it bad, she should try being a vegetarian on this same airline. I swear they've done more damage to my digestive tract than any other single element in my long life.
imbizo.com
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