I think I may have annoyed folks at JY with my harping on about the "E" flight so I've changed my identity! I have put the "E" flight totally out of my mind and I'll just concentrate on looking forward to and ultimately enjoying this holiday. If I'm privileged to live into my dotage I'll visit Kathmandu, do the flight and if it crashes then it's a good way to sign out!

Thats great Trish - a Nepalese lady - wonderful. How bad was that of me to presume it would be a chap!

Angie

Thank you for posting my response to Angie

Just thinking of JY with health and safety, I remember my first JY trip back in 2005 to India. I was a bit disappointed at the time because we had expected to ascend the Amber Fort by elephant, but we were only allowed to go by jeep. Our TM Gary Desimones said that in a risk assessment the elephant ride had only been given 4 out of 10 for safety. The previous year apparently an elephant had rampaged and killed a tourist. Hence elephant rides banned.

Talking of India I have spotted a young lady called Jules in a photo taken by the Taj Mahal in a beautiful new brochure which landed in my porch a couple of hours ago. Positive start for the New Year with this brochure and all the guarantees. Now do I book the Natural Wonders of Ecuador and the Galapgos before its fully booked, decisions, decisions (but good to be able to think I can do it).

Kind regards

Di

Am getting excited about my Chile trip next month, my appetite has been whetted by loads of photos which have been emailed to me by a couple of people on the nov. tour.

 I hope that you enjoy your family holiday but getting back to Nepal, We only stayed one night I think in Dhulikhel but I remember it being really beautiful with individual lodges set on the mountain side. If I were to book this walking tour I would love to do the add-on to Dhulihkel. 

See you have changed your profile picture, what was wrong with the wreath on your head (just joking).

Kind regards 

Di

It was actually a tiny little Nepalese lady who spoke to my group about climing the "mountain" and she certainly was one of the most inspirational speakers I have heard in a very long time

Regards

Trish

Nice to hear from you. Like Trish, thank you for taking the time to also give me your thoughts - it is appreciated. Your Chile trip will not be long now, lucky you.

I also appreciate James giving more detail. I don't think my family would sue if anything happened to me knowing it was my choice but working in insurance myself, I know where you are coming from. Like Bob, I would still, however, like to be given the chance. 

Any way, I've sat down tonight and thought about things and I think I'm going to book this trip - unless I change my mind again! I can always ask the chap who will give us a talk on summiting Everest how he got there :-)

This will be my main travel holiday this year. I'm on a cruise in July taking in Portugal, Gibraltar, Spain ... and Ceuta, a Spanish enclave to what should be part of Morocco. Quite sedate compared to flights around Nepal but its with my family so I'm looking forward to it.

Dina I will have a look at the website you suggest. It sounds like a lot of fun. It reminds me when I done a light aircraft trip where I live. The pilot done a loop the loop and some other fancy manoeuvres ... boy was I ill!

All the best,

Angie

Trish

Regards

Jaya

Thanks for your reply.  I now understand where the company is coming from on this issue.  However, were I to do this tour I would hope that we would have the option and the time available to do the flight independently.  

Best wishes,

Bob

I am very pleased to hear that you enjoyed the Nepal trip so much and that you have taken the time to share your experiences with fellow travellers.

I would like to assure all customers that the reason for the withdrawal of the Everest flights is 100% due to health and safety and from a commercial and financial viewpoint there would be an advantage in offering this excursion to our customers but the risk far outweighs the benefits.

It is not the safety record of Yeti Airways of whom we also use for the internal flights on this tour from Pokara to Katmandu, It is more due to the fact that fog and mist that can quickly descend upon Mt Everest very quickly sometimes visibility can drop from thousands of metres to just being able to see a hand in front of you. It is during these situations that the last 3 tragic air crashes have happened in Nepal on the Everest sightseeing flights.

If as a company we was to sell customers one of these flights and we were unfortunate enough to be involved in one of these incidents as the supplier of the excursion Just You would be liable to any claims and legal actions from the affected families which could run into many millions of pounds worth of claims.

So for this reason our Executive management team are not prepared to put the long term future of the business at risk for what is known to be a possible hazardous excursion involving conditions that we have no direct control over.

I do hope this has explained our position on this matter a little further and we are aware that some tour operators do still continue to sell this excursion directly to their customers, but as a responsible tour operator it is not something that we are prepared to do.

James

Many thanks for your post - I appreciate it.  It is somewhat reassuring to hear that the Everest flight wasn't the highlight of your holiday.  And having just returned from Chile, I agree the views of the Andes were utterly spectacular and it would be very hard to beat that!  I was lucky enough to have window seats on a couple of the flights and took enough decent photos to put a few into my album - family and friends cannot believe I took them through a plane window!  Osorno is indeed a spectacular snow-capped mountain.

Your other comment, in the light of what James has said, is very enlightening.  If JY use the same airline and planes for the connecting flights, then why the problem with the Everest flight?  The health and safety justification doesn't stand up!  Anyhow, Nepal isn't top of my wish list just at the moment (although it is certainly on it) but I do feel for Angie who clearly wants to do this tour very much and isn't receiving much to encourage her from the powers that be.

All the best,

Bob