Monday, June 07, 2004
Airport Company of South Africa - Airports.co.za
Broadcast date: 7 June 04
Hello, Good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly window on the world wide web. I am your cyberhost – Steven Lang.
It is official policy on Cybersurf to look at good web sites, we try to feature the best of the web – there is no point at reviewing bad web sites – what a waste of time.
But every once in a while it becomes necessary to vent my frustrations and point out what not to do on a web site. Today is one of those ocassions.
Several weeks ago, I had to make a week long trip out of the country – and I thought – how should I get to the airport?
To get a taxi costs about 300 rand there and another 300 rand when I return – ridiculously expensive! To drive there and park at the airport for a week will end up costing about the same.
As usual, when I have a problem I seek answers on the web. So I easily found the Airports company of South Africa at airports.co.za – no problem there!
The front page gives one no clue about how I could get to the airport. There is about that offers information on flights and one that says:
ACSA airports
And since I wanted to go to an ACSA airport – I thought, let’s try this one.
At the next screen, I clicked on Johannesburg International Airport.
On the first page of Johannesburg International Airport – JIA to those in the know – I was shown a long list of services you can find at the airport –
These services include:
• a chapel;
• prayer facilities for Islamic passengers;
• a conference facility
• a 45-room transit hotel;
• an emergency medical facility
• a baggage storage facility;
• a media conference room
• a five star luxury hotel on the doorstep of the airport terminals.
• Internet access
Very impressive -
But still – nothing on how to get to the airport.
So I found a navigation bar that must surely have some info on how to get to the airport.
Nope not yet – but there is a button that says – Passenger services
I clicked on that – and I found that
In the medical clinic they have
• Obesity clinics
• Botox treatments
• Dentists
• Optician
• Gynaecologist
But still nothing on how to actually get there – so that I could make use of all these essential services.
I am very persistent – so I clicked on anything and everything on the airports.co.za site
I used the search facility and found out that there was a company that offered shuttle services to Durban airport and one that offered a similar service to Cape Town airport. In neither case was there an indication of where you could catch the shuttles.
Eventually I found a phone number of a company that claimed to have a shuttle service to Johannesburg airport.
I dialled the number and sudddenly I was in a Telkom like phone queue
Please be patient – your are third in line. To cut a very long, and consumately tedious story down – I was transferred three times put on hold three more times and eventually a woman sounded totally stunned that I should want to go to the airport. She was so flabberghasted, she said she would have to phone me back.
She never did – of course – and my gracious wide drove me to the airport.
Airports.co.za – put some useful information onto your site.
Apologies for the whinge, but it really had to be said. Thanks for listening and tune in again next week, when I promise to be in a better mood.
Hello, Good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly window on the world wide web. I am your cyberhost – Steven Lang.
It is official policy on Cybersurf to look at good web sites, we try to feature the best of the web – there is no point at reviewing bad web sites – what a waste of time.
But every once in a while it becomes necessary to vent my frustrations and point out what not to do on a web site. Today is one of those ocassions.
Several weeks ago, I had to make a week long trip out of the country – and I thought – how should I get to the airport?
To get a taxi costs about 300 rand there and another 300 rand when I return – ridiculously expensive! To drive there and park at the airport for a week will end up costing about the same.
As usual, when I have a problem I seek answers on the web. So I easily found the Airports company of South Africa at airports.co.za – no problem there!
The front page gives one no clue about how I could get to the airport. There is about that offers information on flights and one that says:
ACSA airports
And since I wanted to go to an ACSA airport – I thought, let’s try this one.
At the next screen, I clicked on Johannesburg International Airport.
On the first page of Johannesburg International Airport – JIA to those in the know – I was shown a long list of services you can find at the airport –
These services include:
• a chapel;
• prayer facilities for Islamic passengers;
• a conference facility
• a 45-room transit hotel;
• an emergency medical facility
• a baggage storage facility;
• a media conference room
• a five star luxury hotel on the doorstep of the airport terminals.
• Internet access
Very impressive -
But still – nothing on how to get to the airport.
So I found a navigation bar that must surely have some info on how to get to the airport.
Nope not yet – but there is a button that says – Passenger services
I clicked on that – and I found that
In the medical clinic they have
• Obesity clinics
• Botox treatments
• Dentists
• Optician
• Gynaecologist
But still nothing on how to actually get there – so that I could make use of all these essential services.
I am very persistent – so I clicked on anything and everything on the airports.co.za site
I used the search facility and found out that there was a company that offered shuttle services to Durban airport and one that offered a similar service to Cape Town airport. In neither case was there an indication of where you could catch the shuttles.
Eventually I found a phone number of a company that claimed to have a shuttle service to Johannesburg airport.
I dialled the number and sudddenly I was in a Telkom like phone queue
Please be patient – your are third in line. To cut a very long, and consumately tedious story down – I was transferred three times put on hold three more times and eventually a woman sounded totally stunned that I should want to go to the airport. She was so flabberghasted, she said she would have to phone me back.
She never did – of course – and my gracious wide drove me to the airport.
Airports.co.za – put some useful information onto your site.
Apologies for the whinge, but it really had to be said. Thanks for listening and tune in again next week, when I promise to be in a better mood.
