MRU turnaround?
 

With the infrequent service to MRU, and the low AONEX fares, I was wondering if it was possible to do a quick turnaround on the JNB-MRU-JNB flights, picking up a ticket in transit at MRU. According to the schedule, the incoming flight arrives at 15:10 while the outgoing one departs at 16:00.

The problem is that the JNB-MRU flight appears to operate only on Saturdays in March.

I am planning to do exactly this in February. The BA people in MRU assure me that they will meet me with my xONEx ticket at the gate as I disembark from JNB (they will only meet BA flights). I assume that I can then get my boarding card and catch the outbound flight. Its 50 minutes for the turnround but it is a very small terminal.

I could be wrong, but don't you have to have the ticket one hour before the flight according to the OWE RTW policy?

I did a turnaround on MRU but on LHR-MRU-LHR.

Two ladies from the BA-office were waiting for me just outside the plane, and they escorted me directly to the BA-lounge, where my passport was checked by someone of immigraton (a bit strange as I was in transit).
Then they gave me my XONEX-ticket and took a print of my CC-card.
After I signed the CC-bill, one of the ladies went out of the lounge to pick up my Boarding pass, and they even escorted me back to the Gate at departure time.

So The ba-people in MRU are really great and give you a really good service, and they're getting used to see some crazy turnaround people :D

No. Having the ticket is not the same as issuing the ticket. For TC2 and TC3 the ticket must be issued at least one hour before. I believe the OP is discussing making the reservation, having the ticket issued, and having BA in MRU hold the ticket for the OP's arrival.

Last Saturday I did the 50 minute JNB-MRU-JNB turnaround to collect my AONE4 ticket. The experience wasn't for the faint hearted! None of the Servisair (handling agents) ground staff meeting the flight from JNB knew anything about my ticket and it took them about 25 minutes to locate it. I subsequently learned that the Servisair supervisor had been taken sick and had not briefed her team about the arrangements that BA had made with her. My ticket was actually at the BA check-in desk and had to be brought through to the departure gate where it was handed to me 20 minutes before the MRU-JNB departure.

Today I received a nice email reply from BA at MRU and they assured me that they would do their best to ensure that this would not happen again. The normal procedure is that a Servisair agent will identify themselves to the disembarking passenger at the earliest possible moment and hand over the ticket.

So, it all worked out OK in the end, but for a few minutes when I was standing in the immigration hall at MRU wondering what to do next, it did start to cross my mind that I could be stranded in Mauritius for a week until the next MRU-JNB flight. I suppose there are worse fates, but it would have been very inconvenient to say the least.

Here are a few things to bear in mind if you plan to do this rapid turnaround in MRU. BA do not have a ticket office at the airport and hence there are no BA staff there. Everything seems to be done by their ground handling agents, Servisair, at the airport. The Servisair staff are very friendly and helpful and did manage to give me the assistance that I needed. If anybody should find themselves in the same situation as me, then I would advise against going through immigration and turning up at the BA check-in desks because you could lose valuable time and possibly find that the check-in had closed. Better to wait in the immigration hall and find one of the Servisair people to help you out. An Air Seychelles 767 arrives at MRU five minutes after the BA/Comair flight from JNB and so the immigration hall can get quite crowded. However, there is a transit gate with its own secuiry checkpoint between this hall and the departure lounge, so that is by far the best way to get through to the departure gate for the MRU-JNB flight. However, you either need a boarding pass to get through this route or (as happened to me) a Servisair agent will escort you through.

Because of the delay in locating my ticket, I didn't have any time to relax at MRU and try out the BA Executive Club lounge. It was a rather stressful experience but I suppose that these things can and do occasionally happen. Its all part of RTW travel!

Phew!! Sounds a bit too exciting a way to start a RTW for me. :eek: But thanks for the very practical details PinotNoir. Might save some Ft'er (maybe me!) a heart attack some day.

For the MRU-LHR flights, folks from BA GSA's office in MRU were at the airport and I get the feeling they are there every day the MRU-LHR operates. They met me in the VIP lounge (which has it's own separate airport entrance and security post, but once in is the same as the regular lounge (and is definitely nothing special in the least)) simply to greet me and send me off (I had eticket and had been in MRU for a week.) And, I know other FTers have had MRU BA folk meet them to give them tickets.

I am starting a MRU AONE4 in June, Can I ask are they physically giving you tickets for all your flights. I was under the impression the entire journey is e-ticketing. I am flying on BA, QF, CX and AA, so unsure what exactly they are handing over.

I was going to do that 50 min turnaround but felt it was too short and if anything had gone wrong then you would be stuck in MRU with no baggage. So best thing for me is to fly in a few days beforehand, spend a couple of nights in One&Only and then start the trip. Prob the most relaxing way to start a trip.

I booked the full 20 segments for my AONE4, so I think it has to be a paper ticket, but in contrast to the AA office in CAI last year, the ticket is not handwritten - it is machine printed. I did ask the BA people at MRU if they could FedEx the ticket to me (like AA in CAI were willing to do) but they politely declined. Unlike others who have reported their experiences here already, I did not have to sign anything (e.g. receipt or credit card slip) but maybe that was because of the last minute nature of the handover. All I had to do was show the agent my passport and the ticket was in my hand.

Regardless of whether you have a paper ticket or an e-ticket, you still need a boarding pass to get onto a plane. So it seems to me that you will still have to be met by somebody from BA or Servisair with the boarding pass because there appears to be no transit passenger desk in MRU - but perhaps I missed it? The alternative is to clear immigration and show up at the normal check-in desk, but I would not recommend that with a 50 minute turnaround.

It is clear (from other reports) that the ground operation at MRU is very different for the mainline BA flights from LHR and the weekly Comair flight from JNB.

Greetings,

I'm interested in an AONE5 itinerary from MRU as well; the pricing looks quite attractive and this is my priliminary routing:

MRU-LHR-CAI-MAD-ATH-LHR-HKG-DPS-PER-AYQ-CNS-MEL-(HKG)-JFK-SXM-(SJU-DFW)-PDX(home)-SEA(over land)-(LHR)-MRU

From this thread, I am guessing that it is possible to book an x-MRU itinerary using credit card payment from a different country and then collect the tickets at MRU at arrival. Given this, do I just pick up the phone and call BA in MRU? If so, are the contact details readily available online at ba.com?

Since my travel will be just over a year out from now, there's a good chance that the cheapest AONE* itinerary may be from a different city. If so, is the booking procedure very similar; i.e., book from anywhere in the world by calling the startpoint airline office and then collect the ticket upon arrival?

Once again this raises a big question mark in that the strict reading of the rules does not allow two entries into Europe on trips originating in Mauritius, and if the ticket is issued and somewhere along the line a re-issue takes place and that person decides it isn't legal, you're stuck.

There are also some other issues with your route, including no routing through HKG transpac, and no transoceanic surface segments (SEA-LHR). Keep plugging away at it.

Unfortunately, no. Different approaches according to station, airline, time of day, phase of moon, level of fatigue in airline people, etc. This is where flyertalk really earns its keep - ask and somebody has already done it. Don't assume that remote station people have the slightest clue about these products, or how to get them ticketed and priced.

Keep monitoring this site and when your trip is bookable (by the calendar) do the research on origin point etc. then.

If you wanna' save a fortune (after all that's why we start in MRU to begin with, right?) try the Shandrani right near the airport. A One and Only it most certainly 'aint-- but I found it to be a lovely, lovely resort with a top-notch staff. I was supposed to stay less than two full days (arrive BA, depart BA) but ended up staying a week-- it was delightful. And quite reasonable (even cheaper, the nearby Blue Bay Blue Lagoon hotel-- but it's usually booked solid-- and it's more like a 2.5 star hotel.)

Shandrani, for me was a great compromise, lovely well-maintained place, superb staff w/o spending $1000 a night. And the South is much less "sceney" than where some of the other places are. The food in the hotel was so-so-- the local places, OTOH, were delicious (and cheap.)

Whatever you do, IMHO, don't skip lovely MRU. And, the airport is surprisingly new and efficient, so no excuse to not get out and enjoy for a couple of days.