By Air From Mauritius to America

After Steve relieved himself, he went out to an Internet cafe and started looking at his options for getting out. He was able to change two $20 bills for about 600 Mauritius rupees, and made sure that some were in coins so that he would not have to use the drain again. Steve had some choices in getting to Joplin. It looked like that there were at least three options to Europe, where the most connections to America were: Air France through Charles de Gaulle in Paris, British Airways to Gatwick, and Mauritus Air through Heathrow. There were also a couple of relatively short and cheaper legs to Johannesburg and to Dubai, and well as some less attractive options from a connection standpoint to Mumbai, Kuala Lampur, and Perth. There were also a few short flights to some islands nearby that were even more isolated than Mauritius, like, for example, Reunion Island.

Once at Heathrow, BA and United, who were in the same alliance and coordinated their reservations systems closely, even had a flight to Joplin through Dallas. The closest that one could get to Joplin for the other two major airline alliances from Heathrow was in Springfield, about an hour east on I-44, a limited-access Interstate. (But why was BA's flight from Mauritius to Gatwick? That added a wrinkle of getting between airports. And if he used Mauritius Air, he would have to book on another airline to get to the US.)

Of course, he could go through Paris. Paris had two advantages. Air France flew there every day, and they also had an alliance with Delta, so they also could handle everything on one ticket to Springfield. Charles de Gaulle was not the easiest airport in the world to get around in, but he had six months to get to Joplin, so what was the rush? He was a week away at worst.

Dubai and Johannesburg were both relatively close and the odds of getting a connection to America were reasonably good if there was a need to economize which he did not foresee,and he needed a cheaper flight out on the first leg, or if Europe were not a possibility for some reason.

So Steve relaxed, and was almost disappointed that this was going to be so easy.

1. Steve starts to book a flight from the Internet cafe.
2. Steve starts up a conversation with a couple of guys drinking at the cafe's bar.
3. Steve uses a few of his coins to start playing on a vintage pinball machine.
4. Suddenly there is a big boom from the west. A volcano on Reunion Island has erupted, spewing ash into the air. The air space over Reunion and Mauritius has been restricted until the volcano stops spewing ash.

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