Dear Air 2000

By Terry Ravenscroft

http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Air-2000-Terry-Ravenscroft/dp/1905529694/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319525472&sr=1-1

Plot
Terry Ravenscroft, former factory worker turned comedy writer, tackles the airlines. In this collection of humorous letters to various airlines foreign and domestic he describes various ‘complaints’, inquires about cultural affairs, and requests accommodations and/or reassurances for a whole host of ‘problems’ which may or may not occur during the flight or during his vacation. He begins by requesting a supply of lasagna from Air 2000, inquiring about special arrangements from Britannia Air for his extra large body size, and wanting to buy a stewardess uniform from Air UK. From there his requests and questions become stranger and funnier with each letter. Some of the replies are notable, too, for what they DON’T say. For instance, Olympic Airlines (Greece) referred Mr. Ravenscroft to their cargo department in reply to his request for information on ferrying back an urn, never mentioning the fact he’d be stealing a Greek artifact.

Similar to Dear Coca-Cola, this is a collection of humorous letters and replies.

Characters
None, other than the authors various self depictions. He presents himself as an obese man, deaf, mute, blind, or suffering from different ‘diseases’ and ‘afflictions’ which may cause problems for the airline.

Dialogue
The replies from the airlines remain professional and even acknowledging some of the humor in the author’s letters.

Writing
I did find this book a bit more humorous than Dear Coca-Cola for some of the outrageous requests and ‘complaints’ listed. However, I felt the author did push the envelope a little. Sometimes the number of letters re-covering the same ground was too much. Plus, on many occasions he threw in some mild insults to the host country, which to an airline representative, would tend to result in less assistance offered even though, to their credit, they remained professional. In many ways, the author comes across as one of those customers who will not be satisfied no matter what is said or done and in many instances, I can understand the airline’s termination of communication.

My ranking:

Green Belt