For nearly 25 years we've been using the Royal Air Force flights to Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands. We send an email (used to be a fax!), pay the bill, get given a reference and off we go. Turn up at Brize Norton, show ID and that's it. Simple. Too simple. It would seem that the bureaucrats are running out of things to do. (I have a book called "Bureaucrats - How to Annoy Them" and I'm very good at it!). This morning we received an email from FIG (as Falkland Islands Government is known) attaching forms to be filled in for every passenger. Why? No idea. It's like the forms we fill in for Ascension Island Entry Permits. In fact we can't do that for the clients - they have to do it themselves. We then fax them to Ascension Island and when the guests arrive on the island they have to fill in the same form again! Why? Don't ask me. Not much point in asking anyone really 'cos nobody knows.
Here's another question for you. Why have travel insurance companies chosen the mysterious age of 66 to impose a double premium on clients, whereas you can rent a car until you're 70? Why is someone over 70 required to get a doctor's certificate to say they're fit to travel if they want to go on certain ships? Who decides these magic numbers? I have clients well into their 80's who can walk the socks off me! In fact on the last trip I did we had two ladies of 86 who were both miffed that the third was 87! The younger people in the group (in their 50's) were amazed at the stamina and enthusiasm from our friends.
But back to those bureaucrats. One of the thing my little book suggests is to drop wax on the box that says "Do not write in this space". Of course I wouldn't dream of doing it .......
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