The Best Delay

"Your reclaim will be proceed in the best delay ..."

...... such was the reassuring message that I received from the Royal Air Maroc website today when I updated my address for their files. Apart from the glaring grammatical mistakes, I was a tad bewildered by the "best delay". Is there such a thing as the "worst delay"? "Mediocre delay"? "Fair-to-middling delay"? Being a pretty impatient person, I can safely say that there is no such thing as a "best delay" in Cat in Rabat world; any and all delays irritate me beyond reason. While puzzling over the semantics of "the best delay" (a not too distant cousin to the "good penalty" & the "necessary evil"), I cannot but ask myself why Morocco's national airline can't hire someone who passed a level beyond Elementary English to translate their site? Not only would it be a good investment but it would prevent people like me from taking potshots at it. That alone should be an incentive for them.

Now, why was I updating my particulars for RAM?

Well, back in July as I was preparing to leave Canada, I thought it a prudent thing to acquire a Royal Air Maroc flyer card. True, I had never flown RAM and, truer still, I have yet to fly with them - but it seemed a good idea at the time. And truth be told, sometimes it's nice to receive a piece of mail that doesn't include a "payment due" date on it. From the accompanying letter I received, I can see that my card was processed on April 24th 2006, while I actually received it last week. So it's pretty safe to say that it took 11 months for a piece of plastic to be issued and mailed to me. And for once it's not Poste Maroc's fault. Not entirely.

"With nearly 50 years of experience, Royal Air Maroc has built its reputation on the professionalism and competency of the Company staff".

Now that I actually possess a RAM ticket (purchased 2 months before receiving my points-dispensing card), I am feeling less than confident about their "professionalism" and "competency". If it takes a year to mail out a loyalty card, how long will the flight be? Perhaps I should have checked out the flight plan - is the flight to Montreal via Jakarta or Mumbai - before booking? Or worse still, how long will I be sitting in the boarding area, or on the tarmac? Should I bring extra batteries for my mP3 player? Gads, this is shades of SudanAir (a.k.a. In sh'allah Air) all over again. I can only hope that Allah wills my flight home in as swift a manner as possible, with only the "best delay". Because you know, if I'm on that flight, there will be a delay.