[Layover]

First, I can not tell you how much I enjoy Namibia and the people who live there. It really needs to be on your bucket list.

On previous travel on Air Namibia the service had been fine if not exemplary.

This past Saturday August 10th I fly American from Chicago to Frankfurt, laid over and recharged and on the afternoon of the 12th presented myself at the Air Namibia counter where I was quickly and politely checked in.

As an afterthought, I decided to upgrade to business as the cost of my baggage (3/4s of which was donations and clothing for a children's AIDS organization I help to sponsor) was prohibitively expensive so for the extra fee, I'd have a nice seat and the bags would be gratis.

At the Business counter is when I ran into a wall. Since my last trip a new policy requiring two or more open stampless pages in the passport had gone into effect. Even my Namibian friends who bring in MANY people internationally were unaware of this.

My anger with Air Namibia is that there was no effort made to help and get this fixed. There were "talks with the embassy" followed by a flat refusal to board.

I asked if I could get my passport fixed. They said that the US consulate takes 14 days.

Lie #1. It could have been done in minutes the next morning and I could have flown the next evening.

I asked if I could at least ship the donations for the children and that I would pay to do that.

Halftruth #1: "We don't ship packages on our flights without a passenger accompanying them." This was said with a smile.

What they didn't offer me was the information that Air Namibia has a freight office there and they could have sent out a box in the next few days.

These are bad people who offered no assistance in finding ways to accommodate a passenger in distress, and willingly helped to keep donations from getting to AIDS orphans.