Airline Popcorn

Maybe you've got your Star Alliance or Kulula credit card. Well, what about the popcorn?

Chances are when you go to the movies you'll spend at least 66% (two thirds) of the value of your ticket on a coke and popcorn. Think about that for a second. R20 for Coke and popcorn anywhere else would probably cost you R10, at most. A 50% premium is quite steep.

Now while you might think flying is decent value, you get schnied at the popcorn machine. The popcorn machine is the parking fees you pay, the costs involved in getting around without your own car or alternatively if you are in a sorry enough state that you have to catch a taxi to the airport...well, woe betide you.

I spent the weekend in Cape Town, carless, and figured I didn't really need to go to the trouble of hiring one, what with it being the spirit of Bicycles Invading The City of Cape Town and all. It cost me R180* for a taxi from Three Anchor Bay where I was staying, to Century City (half way to the airport). This morning the taxi cost me R250 for a 30km trip from Century City to the airport. But wait, the worst is yet to come. When I paid for my parking ticket (Sunday afternoon to Wednesday noon), I got the whopper: R337. Let's add that up shall we...R767.

Now my air ticket to Cape Town and back was a bargain. R1300. Ummmm...but I spent so much on 'coke and popcorn' (not jelly tots on the side), it came to just shy of 60% of the ticket price.

You could argue that I was wasting money catching two taxi's but I basically exhausted all domestic resources (a cousin, an aunt, a school friend, a London friend, someone else flying 40 minutes after me). I did get around a fair bit with friends doing their thing, but at the end of the day, the taxi rates in this country are shocking. I heard afterwards that I could have gotten to Century City on a regular taxi for R7...but this is with bike in tow and people said: "If you want to take that chance..."

We also pay a heck of a lot of popcorn on security premiums: for our homes, insurance and the rest. The next time you eat popcorn, remember what it is. Expensive, salty, inflated nothing. Might as well sprinkle some on your fingernails and chew those...

*If you're a Pom no problem at all, it will cost you just a penny more than a pound.