InstaTour – bankruptcies, bad luck and 1001 nights

Flying to Marrakech for a long weekend? Hmmm, why not. With just under four hours of flight time, it’s quite doable. What we had underestimated was how unattractive the flight connections Zurich – Marrakech are.

Depending on the season, Edelweiss offers a direct flight up to twice a week, although the days – Tuesday and Sunday – are unfavourable for a maximum four-day city trip. The alternative from Zurich is Royal Air Maroc with a stopover in Casablanca. Since I don’t like stopovers for short distances per se – something always goes wrong – we researched alternatives. As a possible option, we considered EasyJet from Basel. The only catch: the flight times are so unfavorably timed to the off-peak times that we would have had to plan at least one additional night in Basel (if not two in case of delays).

So we decided to take a flight with Royal Air Maroc: Zurich – Casablanca – Marrakech. Outbound flight Wednesday evening, return flight Sunday noon.

So far so good. One day before departure, however, the travel plan began to falter. Then a gentleman from Morocco called me (as I found out after the conversation thanks to the area code and Google) and told me something in French in a brisk tone of voice and with bad acoustics. I actually understand French well, but not when someone calls me unexpectedly and doesn’t introduce himself on the phone, but first wants to know in a commanding tone “vous êtes Madame Anita?!” (so please, you call me, tell me your name first). When I politely ask him if we can talk in English, he hangs up without saying a word. What’s the point, please? Somewhat worried, we consulted the flight times of our flight and found out that a) the flight number has changed and b) our flight leaves earlier, but we will land in Marrakech two hours later than planned.

Since you can’t check in online at Royal Air Maroc when departing from Zurich and I had an appointment up to an hour before departure (and was therefore somewhat indignant that the departure was postponed and jeopardized my nice schedule), we chose the evening before check-in for the first time ever. The challenge here was to find the right counter (“Royal Air Maroc are you looking for? I don’t know where they got the switch”). In addition, the lady at the counter was not informed about any flight schedule changes and issued us the two tickets without further information.

At boarding the next day, the next surprise. We received new tickets and my window seat was suddenly converted to a seat by the window but without a window. Phenomenal. The general mood on board was also far below freezing, because Royal Air Maroc made one out of two flights and flew with the people from Casablanca with destination Geneva first to Zurich, loaded us there and then landed in Geneva. A Moroccan lady behind me was ranting at full volume during the whole thirty minutes from Zurich to Geneva (she has my understanding). I unintentionally came to my very first Swiss flight, but otherwise two stopovers (and one of them not booked) are an imposition with an actual flight time of four hours.

In Geneva, the captain was gracious and we were allowed to wait 45 minutes on our seats and watch the cleaning team cleaning. The change in Casablanca went relatively smoothly considering the fact that all the scoreboards had stopped working and we had to follow shouting supervisors.

After we landed in Marrakech at 11:30 p.m. and had mastered the customs control, the next disillusionment. Far and wide no luggage, and not only from us, but from the entire flight from Zurich. Hallelujah, queue up again and fill out the Lost & Found form.

We were able to pick up the luggage at the airport at 2:30 p.m. the following day. Of course, we had to wait another 20 minutes in front of the Lost & Found counter until the gentleman in charge had finished his lunch break.

My conclusion: on my next city trip I will book the direct flight again. Even if I have to invest in an additional overnight stay in Basel.

Otherwise, the trip was 100% worth it. Here I have a first taste of Marrakech for you and will annoy you with countless pictures in the next few weeks. I hope you’ll forgive!

Paradisiacal garden at La Mamounia

The streets of Marrakech

The bird’s eye view

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