Mali flights ... Point Afrique

[spoonymonki]

Anybody know why Point-Afrique have postponed all fights to Mali? They say it is "Political" but refuse to expand. Will they resume?

Cheers in advance

AfricanSpoon

[roro]

I have asked the same question about postponed flights to Djanet and the reponse was because there are too few reservations !
And the lack of reservation was certainly due to the recent kidnapping of tourists .
I think this is the same reason for Mali .
Hope things will get better in the next monthes !

RR.

[Alistair]

Point Afrique have not "postponed all flights to Mali" I confirmed my late October flight (Paris - Bamako) with Point Afrique yesterday.

Spoonimonki - please don't make general statements which may extend beyong the facts as you know them.

[spoonymonki]

Alistair

Thank you for your terse reply .. however I would point out that my post was based on the following conversation I had directly with Point=Afrique.

Me. "Hi, I'd like more details about your flights to Mali between Octover and December 2003"
PA. "I'm sorry, we aren't flying to Mali at the moment, please call back next week for an update"
Me. "Oh, what is the problem"
PA. "I cannot say, it's political"

Not entirely sure how YOU would have interpreted that information but clearly being a smartarse you would have realised they actually meant "Business as usual Sir, please book right now".

[Chris Scott]

For what its worth, Point Af offer great charter prices to Sahara and Sahel towns in the season (I've used them myself to Atar), but have had a reputation for being a bit hit and miss - ie a half full flight may be cancelled.
Some tour operators take the risk and use them, but I would guess all desert tours - esp those from Europe where they got more hostage news are going to have a bad year.
And so will Point. Bamako tho, would be the more secure of their destinations, I would have thought.

Maybe they meant 'office politics', rather than global - someone left the milk out again and it was the last straw ;-)

Ch

[Alistair]

Spoonymonki - thankyou for the further information regarding your enquiry to Point Afrique. (It is clearer now) I apologise if my response appeared terse.

A few days ago Point Afrique site listed 58 flights Paris - Bamako, between now and the end of April 2004. Today the site lists 29 flights. This may explain some of the issues you encountered.

[This message has been edited by Alistair (edited 03 October 2003).]

[spoonymonki]

Alistair,

cheers for the reply ... you caught me in a foul mood as P-A really don't seem to have a clue what they are doing.

On the www they have a special deal for returns Paris to Mopti, however after calling them (and finding out the flights WERE running ... plus they had no idea what this Politcal bumph was about) the women had absolutely no idea about the special offers ... it took a later call to find somebody who did know about it!

They might be cheap but based on their office performance I think I'll consider leaving my Iran Air flight as my most terrifying and give Air France a call!!!

Regards


Spoon