Airlines and Airports

• Silver status on British Airways is hard to get (I got mine through asking nicely to be upgraded) but it really compares to "Gold" status within One World.
• Airport lounges are a great way to get away from the general crowd at airports. Except maybe when dealing with SAA Lounge at OR Tambo, which seems to be overcrowded all the time.
  
• Priority lugage handling is not what it is promised to be ... except at OR Tambo, where my BA priority tag was read as belonging to SAA :)
• SAA is far better than Lufthansa, at least on the long haul between South Africa and Germany.
• Lufthansa however gives more frequent flyer miles than SAA on cheaper economy class tickets
  
• Finnair has an ad on TV (at least in Europe) on how different they are ... it is a lot of hogwash.
• Frankfurt airport is usually a pain; but Terminal E is quite nicel and it is possible to travel between a few terminals without requiring a visit through the (thorough) security checks.
• Berlin's Tegel is probably the worst airport I have been to in Europe when it comes to ease of use and facilities.
• Helsinki's airport is rather uninspiring.
• Finnair's lounge in Helsinki however is very cool with lots of funky seats.