Like I said, SAA takes much less time to get to JNB than Virgin Atlantic because Virgin has to go through Heathrow BUT the problem in choosing between the IAD and the JFK flights is the layover.
You'd have to find a flight that would get you to JFK at least an hour before the SAA Flight to JNB from SFO.
SAA Dummy Booking uses JetBlue...
Departing:09 August 2012, 21:00-Terminal I San Francisco
Arriving:10 August 2012,
05:22 -Terminal 5 John F. Kennedy Airport
Aircraft:320
Operated by:JetBlue (B6)
Stops:0
Departing:10 August 2012,
11:15-Terminal 4 John F. Kennedy Airport
Arriving:11 August 2012, 08:30 -Terminal A O.R. Tambo Intl Airport
Aircraft:346
Operated by::South African Airways (SA)
Stops:0
So it leaves on JetBlue at 9pm PST on the 9th and arrives JNB at 8:30am on the 11th which would be 11:30pm on the 10th..PST. that looks like 26 1/2 hours.
So its about the same because there is a
6 hour layover at JFK from the JetBlue flight to the SAA flight.
FlightStats.com says that SA204:
SA 204 Flight Status. (SA) South African Airways 204. (JFK) New York ... Duration:
15h 15m. Equipment: Airbus Industrie A340-600
The 15h 15m flight is much, much, better BUT you have to get to JFK and I don't see any flights from SFO to JFK that would shorten the layover significantly: I only see an AA that would be a layover of 4 hours at JFK.
Originally Posted by
N830MH
Are you sure? Is that nonstop JFK-JNB? As for IAD-JNB is not good. Instead, you have fly JFK-JNB nonstop and saving the traveling time. You don't have go through LHR. Because it will have more hours.