Trip Report - South Africa on AA and SAA
Jan 10, 1999 | 8:28 pm
#1
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Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 340
Trip Report - South Africa on AA and SAA
Well, here it is. My trip report on our vacation to South Africa over the December Holidays. Coming from South Africa, this was a combination of a visit home for me to see my family and friends as well as a vacation for my wife and I (we took off for 10 days by ourselves and drove up the extremely beautiful east coast, otherwise known as the Garden Route).
I must preface this trip report by providing you with a point of reference. My FF travels occur mostly within the North America continent, so I do not have vast experience on trans-oceanic flights. The extent of my overseas flights include one business trip to Germany (business class) and St. Petersburg, Russia on AA/Lufthansa and a vacation to London on AA (coach). All my other trans-oceanic flights have been to/from South Africa in coach (or economy as SAA calls it) on AA/SAA.
The planning of this trip started a year in advance. We used miles in order to obtain our tickets, so we booked early in order to try and get the dates to suit us. The first thing that I learned was that you cannot book a ticket 365 days in advance, you can only book approximately 330 days in advance. I entered the said date in my trusty Palm Pilot (my pre-Palm III days) and dutifully called AA following the sound of an alarm. Lo and behold, although no blackout dates were stipulated, I could only get seats for more than a week earlier than we had hoped to fly, so December 15 became December 8, otherwise we would have had to wait until the 22nd. The one big plus, though, is that a roundtrip economy ticket on AA/SAA to S.A. is 70,000 miles, compared to only 80,000 miles for a business class ticket no brainer!!! The return date was equally as ugly, if we wanted business class seats. Either we flew before New Year's Eve (i.e. 12/30 or 12/31) or New Year's day, else we would have to wait a week to get seats home. In addition, we could not get seats from Cape Town (CTN) to MIA on the return, we had to fly through Johannesburg (JNB) and JFK. Side note: This situation may have improved by now as I believe that SAA has daily flights between MIA and CTN which they did not have back when we booked. Besides the fact that we do not have that much vacation and our bosses would have had heart attacks, my wife has a client deadline the second weekend in January every year. Ok, so now we have tickets, SFO-MIA (AA), MIA-CTN (Cape Town) on SAA, departing December 8, returning CTN-JNB-JFK-SFO starting 5 p.m. on New Year's day (hopefully enough time to recover). All things considered, our connections looked good (only three hours in MIA outbound and two hours a piece in JNB and JFK on the return).
Fast forward to November. Gut instinct told me to call and confirm our seat assignments for our upcoming trip. Firstly, one has to call both AA and SAA independently as neither can see or have control over the other's seat assignments no surprise here, I guess. Secondly, our flight number and return assignments from JFK to SFO have changed? I have come to expect the flight number changes as the flights between SJC and DFW change numbers every few months even though they depart at roughly the same times. While talking to the agent, I realize that the flight departure time from JFK to SFO has changed by SIX hours! AA cancelled the 10 or 11 a.m. (cannot remember) flight from JFK to SFO and nobody had bothered to pick up the phone and notify me. I checked to ensure that there were no earlier flights and also checked on the then newly added direct flight from JFK to SJC, but it was leaving three hours later than the one to SFO. My wife and I decided to skip the option of a connection through ORD or DFW to get in two hours earlier based on past experience with connections, so we landed up taking the 3:30 p.m. flight. Don't forget fellow FF's, these were mileage tickets, so the extra miles do not count! Our decision turned out to be a good one in the end because of the disastrous weather conditions with the huge storm in the mid-west. That would have really thrown an unwanted kink in an already long thirty six hour commute.
Finally December 8th arrived. We decided to spend the night of the 7th at the SFO Airport Marriott so as not to inconvenience a friend for our 7 a.m. flight (and it works out about the same as cab fare). The shuttle was not an option as they wanted to pick us up at 4 a.m. The Marriott was having a special for $79, and I hoped for a chance encounter with Rudi I asked, but he was not there maybe next time (I will plan to leave the night before a home 49er game next time. The SFO-MIA flight was uneventful. As always, I derived much pleasure from flying with my lovely wife as she does not get to fly first class unless she is with me. She is like a little child in a toy store and appreciates everything from the bigger seats to the little salt and peppershakers, real glass and real plates.
We checked in at the business class counter for SAA in Miami (AA cannot check you in and get a boarding pass for you). The lady who checked us in was a sourpuss of note (no offence to your feline friends CATMAN). She was unfriendly to the point of almost being rude. This disappointed me greatly as all my prior experiences with SAA, were completely the opposite. After a minor bout of the requisite duty free shopping (Miami must have the worst duty free shops I have experienced other than Ilse Da Sol, I'll explain later, oh for LHR duty free!), we headed on over to the Admiral's Club in Concourse E. That is by far the worst Admiral's Club that I have ever been in. From the second that you walk in the door you are inundated with cigarette smoke, no matter where you sit. I guess that I am spoiled being a Californian as there is no smoking allowed anywhere, even in bars! I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, in South Africa I have friends that smoke, even at restaurants that we go to, but nothing was as bad as this. We left after about fifteen minutes, preferring the "fresh air" of the airport terminal, besides we did not have a lot of time to spare.
Omni notes: The flight from MIA to CTN is the longest commercial flight in the world, in miles/distance. The flight from JFK to JNB is the longest commercial flight in the world in time (about fifteen hours) although it is slightly shorter in distance. SAA's Boeing 747 aircraft are equipped with oversized fuel tanks by Boeing. The plane loaded at JFK carries approximately 160 tons of fuel. You can burn a few tons before take-off sometimes. The reasons that the plane has to stop to refuel in Ilse Da Sol on the way back are threefold. Firstly, because of the altitude, they cannot fill the tanks with fuel otherwise the plane will be too heavy to take off. Secondly, because the plane is being fueled at altitude, there is less pressure, so less fuel can be crammed into the tanks. Finally, the flight to JFK is against the normally prevailing west-east trade wins.
The flight from MIA to CTN was full in coach (packed like sardines, lots of screaming kids), but business class was maybe a third full wonderful. First class had three people, two of which were the pilot's mother-in-law and his wife. I should make mention here that SAA flights are normally always full in coach. Talking to the flight attendants, this relatively empty flight was an unusual situation as all their flights are normally extremely full. BAOBAB, I pity your experience in '97, today there is no smoking allowed on the trans-Atlantic flights, but coach will always be full. Additionally, someone mentioned in the previous SAA thread that they were disappointed with the food and bar service. All the SAA trans-Atlantic flights are overnight. SAA specifically does not keep coming around with bar and food service in order to allow people to sleep and not disturb them. If you ring your flight attendant call button, or go to the galley, there is always both food (normally cheese, biscuits, cold meat/cold-cut sandwiches, fruit and chocolates) and a full bar service. Trust me on this, I have spent many a night drinking most of the way to/from the U.S. and having very pleasant conversations with the air crews and other sleepless passengers. Additionally, as I do not normally sleep, I have seen flight attendants come around periodically with trays of water and juice - and I am talking about coach, not business class. If you do fly coach, do as I always try to and you will have a very pleasant flight. By this I mean, make sure that you sit upstairs in the bubble and either in the bulkhead or exit row. I prefer exit row. Both have loads of legroom, but the exit row has more space. There are convenient bins on the side for storing stuff (so take a window seat, as you can easily get out without disturbing the person next to you). HOWEVER, SAA will NOT allow you to take wheeled "flight attendant type bags" upstairs as the overhead bins are limited in space. They will offer either to re-seat you downstairs or check you bag. Upstairs has a three, three configuration. There are plenty of flight attendants upstairs and there is certainly no "coach" feeling, other than the size of the seats. You feel like you are in superior lounge rather than coach on a long flight. As for business class:
Seats - ok. I was very disappointed with the footrests. You cannot extended them like on AA, so they do not adjust to you leg length. I found that to be a little uncomfortable as I could not stretch out my legs. The angle of recline was pleasant and I managed a few hours of shut-eye, a bonus which I am not accustomed to on a plane.
Service - excellent as always. Friendly staff, always available and happy to have a few words with you.
Food - ok. I was definitely more impressed with the food on AA business class. No china, just plastic food containers. This was a big disappointment for me after my experiences in SAA coach. Even though coach is more crowded (i.e. always full), the quality of the food was better than AA coach from JFK to LHR. Food service was rushed, although you may request food service at any time that you choose, so this may be an option (i.e. do not have it at the same time as everybody else).
Entertainment - disappointing. No games (not a big deal to me but maybe to some), and the videos run on different channels and restart when they are finished, so you never really know when they will start. I much preferred the AA personal videos! You can watch what you want, when you want and even take a break in the middle of the movie for a catnap.
VISIT TO THE COCKPIT!!!!!! - Outstanding. My wife is afraid of flying. Before we took off, she asked the head chef (1st class) if it would be possible for her to visit the cockpit. The chef said that it was up to the captain, but that he would ask him after dinner. To his credit, he remembered to ask and whisked us away to the cockpit. After being cautioned by the chef not to stay too long, the crew seemed to enjoy the company and would not let my wife leave. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
South Africa itself was outstanding. The weather was good, the animals were fantastic (we were even charged by an elephant on a narrow and windy jeep track while we were going uphill and had to reverse down the hill to get away). The beaches are beautiful and people extremely friendly wherever we went. The bed and breakfasts that we stayed at were absolutely relatively cheap and outstanding, two on beaches, one on a lagoon, and one on a farm. When I say cheap, I mean in dollar terms (i.e. $60/night for both of us which is more than most hotels). The food was too die for darlings. We ate oysters by the dozen at a shack on the Knysna lagoon ($4.50/dozen). We ate dinner at an excellent steak restaurant and had one of the best steaks of my life (two appetizers, including escargot, two filets, two sauces, two deserts, one beer and a bottle of wine - $25). RUDI - the wine route was both wonderful and disappointing at the same time. We went to Stellenbosch and Paarl. The wines were excellent and cheap, but due to U.S. restrictions and trying to protect their wine industry, you cannot ship wine to the U.S. without and import permit, so we came home with only half a dozen bottles. I do like to partake in the odd cigar now and then, so I enjoyed a few Cubans at very reasonable prices (Montecristo no. 2's - $5.50, Partagas, Romeo y Julieta and Cohibas all for less). We bought some lovely African art dirt-cheap. Most of the stuff we bought at the markets, we did not bargain for as it was so cheap that we felt bad (beautiful hand crocheted doilies, 3 for $1.50). Another highlight was a fish braai (pronounced bri i.e. a barbecue) at a restaurant on the beach and I mean on the beach. You sit at little round tables with your feet in the sand and a green net above you to keep you out of the direct sunlight. It is an all you can eat affair, 10 courses starting at noon and ending at 5 p.m. They have an evening session too. You can swim in the ocean between courses, or play beach bats as we did. They bake bread in large metal drums over the fire, make their own jams, cook coffee on the fire and have everything from line fish to crayfish (like lobster - the only thing that is limited in quantity). Everything is cooked on open flames, including the coffee (the bread being the only exception) and costs $14/head. The only thing that I would say is expensive in South Africa is the game drives / game farms. They are all catering to foreigners and are expecting dollars, marks and yen. Nevertheless, if you look carefully you can find reasonably priced places, not cheap, but definitely worth spending the money. I forgot to mention that I have just been recruited by the S.A. Tourism Board just kidding!
Reluctantly, we started our journey home. SAA domestic business class from CTN to JNB (they do not have 1st class - the longest flight is only 2 hours) was very good. One fun thing was they randomly pick two people to sit in the cockpit for take-off and have a competition to choose two people for landing imagine that in the U.S. right! Everything went well in JNB, except that the VAT line/queue was long, so we have posted our receipts. In JNB, there was no preferential boarding for first and/or business class passengers - it was a free for all. However, I must add that that it was relatively efficient and I was surprised at how quickly the flight was boarded for such a large plane. Once again, coach was packed on the way to NY, but business class was pleasant (about two-thirds full) and 1st was half full. The flight was pretty much the same in all respects, except that you have to stop I the middle of the Atlantic, in the middle of the night to refuel and change air crews, at an island called Ilse Da Sol (I think it is in/near the Canaries).
N.Y. was fine, customs gave us no problems, six-foot wooden giraffe and all. The Admiral's Club in Concourse B (not the main one) was very pleasant and with an eight hour layover, provided ample opportunity to watch play-off football and log on to FlyerTalk at the HP Business Center. There were bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, plenty of cookies, pretzels and the like to enjoy. We settled for TGI Fridays for lunch (a disappointing $24 snack with no main courses, after our South African cuisine).
The flight from JFK to SFO was pleasant. AA domestic business class was fine adjustable footrests to boot. SFO was a disaster waiting to happen. We were waiting to be picked up outside baggage claim, people were parked curbside and there are two more lanes. An accident occurred in the middle lane, right in front of a cop, and they did NOT move the cars until everything was written up and finished TWENTY minutes later. It took our friends 20 minutes to get from the airport entrance to us.
All is well that ends well. We had a wonderful trip and would highly recommend South Africa to anyone. Stay away from Johannesburg, go on a game drive, spend lots of time in C.T. and the winelands, as well as on the Garden Route.
Till next time, travel safe.
TCrazy
I must preface this trip report by providing you with a point of reference. My FF travels occur mostly within the North America continent, so I do not have vast experience on trans-oceanic flights. The extent of my overseas flights include one business trip to Germany (business class) and St. Petersburg, Russia on AA/Lufthansa and a vacation to London on AA (coach). All my other trans-oceanic flights have been to/from South Africa in coach (or economy as SAA calls it) on AA/SAA.
The planning of this trip started a year in advance. We used miles in order to obtain our tickets, so we booked early in order to try and get the dates to suit us. The first thing that I learned was that you cannot book a ticket 365 days in advance, you can only book approximately 330 days in advance. I entered the said date in my trusty Palm Pilot (my pre-Palm III days) and dutifully called AA following the sound of an alarm. Lo and behold, although no blackout dates were stipulated, I could only get seats for more than a week earlier than we had hoped to fly, so December 15 became December 8, otherwise we would have had to wait until the 22nd. The one big plus, though, is that a roundtrip economy ticket on AA/SAA to S.A. is 70,000 miles, compared to only 80,000 miles for a business class ticket no brainer!!! The return date was equally as ugly, if we wanted business class seats. Either we flew before New Year's Eve (i.e. 12/30 or 12/31) or New Year's day, else we would have to wait a week to get seats home. In addition, we could not get seats from Cape Town (CTN) to MIA on the return, we had to fly through Johannesburg (JNB) and JFK. Side note: This situation may have improved by now as I believe that SAA has daily flights between MIA and CTN which they did not have back when we booked. Besides the fact that we do not have that much vacation and our bosses would have had heart attacks, my wife has a client deadline the second weekend in January every year. Ok, so now we have tickets, SFO-MIA (AA), MIA-CTN (Cape Town) on SAA, departing December 8, returning CTN-JNB-JFK-SFO starting 5 p.m. on New Year's day (hopefully enough time to recover). All things considered, our connections looked good (only three hours in MIA outbound and two hours a piece in JNB and JFK on the return).
Fast forward to November. Gut instinct told me to call and confirm our seat assignments for our upcoming trip. Firstly, one has to call both AA and SAA independently as neither can see or have control over the other's seat assignments no surprise here, I guess. Secondly, our flight number and return assignments from JFK to SFO have changed? I have come to expect the flight number changes as the flights between SJC and DFW change numbers every few months even though they depart at roughly the same times. While talking to the agent, I realize that the flight departure time from JFK to SFO has changed by SIX hours! AA cancelled the 10 or 11 a.m. (cannot remember) flight from JFK to SFO and nobody had bothered to pick up the phone and notify me. I checked to ensure that there were no earlier flights and also checked on the then newly added direct flight from JFK to SJC, but it was leaving three hours later than the one to SFO. My wife and I decided to skip the option of a connection through ORD or DFW to get in two hours earlier based on past experience with connections, so we landed up taking the 3:30 p.m. flight. Don't forget fellow FF's, these were mileage tickets, so the extra miles do not count! Our decision turned out to be a good one in the end because of the disastrous weather conditions with the huge storm in the mid-west. That would have really thrown an unwanted kink in an already long thirty six hour commute.
Finally December 8th arrived. We decided to spend the night of the 7th at the SFO Airport Marriott so as not to inconvenience a friend for our 7 a.m. flight (and it works out about the same as cab fare). The shuttle was not an option as they wanted to pick us up at 4 a.m. The Marriott was having a special for $79, and I hoped for a chance encounter with Rudi I asked, but he was not there maybe next time (I will plan to leave the night before a home 49er game next time. The SFO-MIA flight was uneventful. As always, I derived much pleasure from flying with my lovely wife as she does not get to fly first class unless she is with me. She is like a little child in a toy store and appreciates everything from the bigger seats to the little salt and peppershakers, real glass and real plates.
We checked in at the business class counter for SAA in Miami (AA cannot check you in and get a boarding pass for you). The lady who checked us in was a sourpuss of note (no offence to your feline friends CATMAN). She was unfriendly to the point of almost being rude. This disappointed me greatly as all my prior experiences with SAA, were completely the opposite. After a minor bout of the requisite duty free shopping (Miami must have the worst duty free shops I have experienced other than Ilse Da Sol, I'll explain later, oh for LHR duty free!), we headed on over to the Admiral's Club in Concourse E. That is by far the worst Admiral's Club that I have ever been in. From the second that you walk in the door you are inundated with cigarette smoke, no matter where you sit. I guess that I am spoiled being a Californian as there is no smoking allowed anywhere, even in bars! I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, in South Africa I have friends that smoke, even at restaurants that we go to, but nothing was as bad as this. We left after about fifteen minutes, preferring the "fresh air" of the airport terminal, besides we did not have a lot of time to spare.
Omni notes: The flight from MIA to CTN is the longest commercial flight in the world, in miles/distance. The flight from JFK to JNB is the longest commercial flight in the world in time (about fifteen hours) although it is slightly shorter in distance. SAA's Boeing 747 aircraft are equipped with oversized fuel tanks by Boeing. The plane loaded at JFK carries approximately 160 tons of fuel. You can burn a few tons before take-off sometimes. The reasons that the plane has to stop to refuel in Ilse Da Sol on the way back are threefold. Firstly, because of the altitude, they cannot fill the tanks with fuel otherwise the plane will be too heavy to take off. Secondly, because the plane is being fueled at altitude, there is less pressure, so less fuel can be crammed into the tanks. Finally, the flight to JFK is against the normally prevailing west-east trade wins.
The flight from MIA to CTN was full in coach (packed like sardines, lots of screaming kids), but business class was maybe a third full wonderful. First class had three people, two of which were the pilot's mother-in-law and his wife. I should make mention here that SAA flights are normally always full in coach. Talking to the flight attendants, this relatively empty flight was an unusual situation as all their flights are normally extremely full. BAOBAB, I pity your experience in '97, today there is no smoking allowed on the trans-Atlantic flights, but coach will always be full. Additionally, someone mentioned in the previous SAA thread that they were disappointed with the food and bar service. All the SAA trans-Atlantic flights are overnight. SAA specifically does not keep coming around with bar and food service in order to allow people to sleep and not disturb them. If you ring your flight attendant call button, or go to the galley, there is always both food (normally cheese, biscuits, cold meat/cold-cut sandwiches, fruit and chocolates) and a full bar service. Trust me on this, I have spent many a night drinking most of the way to/from the U.S. and having very pleasant conversations with the air crews and other sleepless passengers. Additionally, as I do not normally sleep, I have seen flight attendants come around periodically with trays of water and juice - and I am talking about coach, not business class. If you do fly coach, do as I always try to and you will have a very pleasant flight. By this I mean, make sure that you sit upstairs in the bubble and either in the bulkhead or exit row. I prefer exit row. Both have loads of legroom, but the exit row has more space. There are convenient bins on the side for storing stuff (so take a window seat, as you can easily get out without disturbing the person next to you). HOWEVER, SAA will NOT allow you to take wheeled "flight attendant type bags" upstairs as the overhead bins are limited in space. They will offer either to re-seat you downstairs or check you bag. Upstairs has a three, three configuration. There are plenty of flight attendants upstairs and there is certainly no "coach" feeling, other than the size of the seats. You feel like you are in superior lounge rather than coach on a long flight. As for business class:
Seats - ok. I was very disappointed with the footrests. You cannot extended them like on AA, so they do not adjust to you leg length. I found that to be a little uncomfortable as I could not stretch out my legs. The angle of recline was pleasant and I managed a few hours of shut-eye, a bonus which I am not accustomed to on a plane.
Service - excellent as always. Friendly staff, always available and happy to have a few words with you.
Food - ok. I was definitely more impressed with the food on AA business class. No china, just plastic food containers. This was a big disappointment for me after my experiences in SAA coach. Even though coach is more crowded (i.e. always full), the quality of the food was better than AA coach from JFK to LHR. Food service was rushed, although you may request food service at any time that you choose, so this may be an option (i.e. do not have it at the same time as everybody else).
Entertainment - disappointing. No games (not a big deal to me but maybe to some), and the videos run on different channels and restart when they are finished, so you never really know when they will start. I much preferred the AA personal videos! You can watch what you want, when you want and even take a break in the middle of the movie for a catnap.
VISIT TO THE COCKPIT!!!!!! - Outstanding. My wife is afraid of flying. Before we took off, she asked the head chef (1st class) if it would be possible for her to visit the cockpit. The chef said that it was up to the captain, but that he would ask him after dinner. To his credit, he remembered to ask and whisked us away to the cockpit. After being cautioned by the chef not to stay too long, the crew seemed to enjoy the company and would not let my wife leave. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
South Africa itself was outstanding. The weather was good, the animals were fantastic (we were even charged by an elephant on a narrow and windy jeep track while we were going uphill and had to reverse down the hill to get away). The beaches are beautiful and people extremely friendly wherever we went. The bed and breakfasts that we stayed at were absolutely relatively cheap and outstanding, two on beaches, one on a lagoon, and one on a farm. When I say cheap, I mean in dollar terms (i.e. $60/night for both of us which is more than most hotels). The food was too die for darlings. We ate oysters by the dozen at a shack on the Knysna lagoon ($4.50/dozen). We ate dinner at an excellent steak restaurant and had one of the best steaks of my life (two appetizers, including escargot, two filets, two sauces, two deserts, one beer and a bottle of wine - $25). RUDI - the wine route was both wonderful and disappointing at the same time. We went to Stellenbosch and Paarl. The wines were excellent and cheap, but due to U.S. restrictions and trying to protect their wine industry, you cannot ship wine to the U.S. without and import permit, so we came home with only half a dozen bottles. I do like to partake in the odd cigar now and then, so I enjoyed a few Cubans at very reasonable prices (Montecristo no. 2's - $5.50, Partagas, Romeo y Julieta and Cohibas all for less). We bought some lovely African art dirt-cheap. Most of the stuff we bought at the markets, we did not bargain for as it was so cheap that we felt bad (beautiful hand crocheted doilies, 3 for $1.50). Another highlight was a fish braai (pronounced bri i.e. a barbecue) at a restaurant on the beach and I mean on the beach. You sit at little round tables with your feet in the sand and a green net above you to keep you out of the direct sunlight. It is an all you can eat affair, 10 courses starting at noon and ending at 5 p.m. They have an evening session too. You can swim in the ocean between courses, or play beach bats as we did. They bake bread in large metal drums over the fire, make their own jams, cook coffee on the fire and have everything from line fish to crayfish (like lobster - the only thing that is limited in quantity). Everything is cooked on open flames, including the coffee (the bread being the only exception) and costs $14/head. The only thing that I would say is expensive in South Africa is the game drives / game farms. They are all catering to foreigners and are expecting dollars, marks and yen. Nevertheless, if you look carefully you can find reasonably priced places, not cheap, but definitely worth spending the money. I forgot to mention that I have just been recruited by the S.A. Tourism Board just kidding!
Reluctantly, we started our journey home. SAA domestic business class from CTN to JNB (they do not have 1st class - the longest flight is only 2 hours) was very good. One fun thing was they randomly pick two people to sit in the cockpit for take-off and have a competition to choose two people for landing imagine that in the U.S. right! Everything went well in JNB, except that the VAT line/queue was long, so we have posted our receipts. In JNB, there was no preferential boarding for first and/or business class passengers - it was a free for all. However, I must add that that it was relatively efficient and I was surprised at how quickly the flight was boarded for such a large plane. Once again, coach was packed on the way to NY, but business class was pleasant (about two-thirds full) and 1st was half full. The flight was pretty much the same in all respects, except that you have to stop I the middle of the Atlantic, in the middle of the night to refuel and change air crews, at an island called Ilse Da Sol (I think it is in/near the Canaries).
N.Y. was fine, customs gave us no problems, six-foot wooden giraffe and all. The Admiral's Club in Concourse B (not the main one) was very pleasant and with an eight hour layover, provided ample opportunity to watch play-off football and log on to FlyerTalk at the HP Business Center. There were bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, plenty of cookies, pretzels and the like to enjoy. We settled for TGI Fridays for lunch (a disappointing $24 snack with no main courses, after our South African cuisine).
The flight from JFK to SFO was pleasant. AA domestic business class was fine adjustable footrests to boot. SFO was a disaster waiting to happen. We were waiting to be picked up outside baggage claim, people were parked curbside and there are two more lanes. An accident occurred in the middle lane, right in front of a cop, and they did NOT move the cars until everything was written up and finished TWENTY minutes later. It took our friends 20 minutes to get from the airport entrance to us.
All is well that ends well. We had a wonderful trip and would highly recommend South Africa to anyone. Stay away from Johannesburg, go on a game drive, spend lots of time in C.T. and the winelands, as well as on the Garden Route.
Till next time, travel safe.
TCrazy
Jan 11, 1999 | 8:11 am
#7
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 1,433
Great report, TCrazy...
OMNI: As an impartial witness (i.e. as a non-South African), I will support everything he says - Cape Town, the wine route, the wildlife, etc are wonderful. Don't leave the Jo'burg airport... but be sure not to miss the KWV duty-free wine shop!
OMNI: As an impartial witness (i.e. as a non-South African), I will support everything he says - Cape Town, the wine route, the wildlife, etc are wonderful. Don't leave the Jo'burg airport... but be sure not to miss the KWV duty-free wine shop!
Jan 11, 1999 | 1:47 pm
#8
Commander Catcop
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 10,259
Thanks for the excellent report, TravelCrazy
and giving us a review of what SAA is like.
IT seems like the service is hit (on plane staff) or miss (Ms. Sourpuss gate agent, don't worry, the cat people are not offended by that word!)
One thing caught my attention tough: allowing people in the cockpit for taking off and landing? You wrote: One fun thing was they randomly pick two people to sit in the cockpit for take-off and have a competition to choose two people for landing imagine that in the U.S. right!
I think F-A-A regulations don't allow non airline people in teh cockpit for takeoff and landing, although I would LOVE to sit in there for part of the flight! As long I don't have to man the controls!!! CATMAN
and giving us a review of what SAA is like.
IT seems like the service is hit (on plane staff) or miss (Ms. Sourpuss gate agent, don't worry, the cat people are not offended by that word!)
One thing caught my attention tough: allowing people in the cockpit for taking off and landing? You wrote: One fun thing was they randomly pick two people to sit in the cockpit for take-off and have a competition to choose two people for landing imagine that in the U.S. right!
I think F-A-A regulations don't allow non airline people in teh cockpit for takeoff and landing, although I would LOVE to sit in there for part of the flight! As long I don't have to man the controls!!! CATMAN
Jan 11, 1999 | 7:05 pm
#9
Original Poster
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 340
Thanks for all of the kind comments. CATMAN - I asked the pilot about the cockpit thing. He said that it was an insurance liability thing, not an FAA thing - possible? ONEFREEMAN (sounds like a contradicition these days) - the pooch arrived home on Saturday, 30 minutes after I took off. We could not get him home earlier as Continental would not take off with him as the weather was too cold before then (i.e. below 40). My wife says that he is fine, a lot bigger and definitely has much more energy (almost 7 months now). He appears to unscathed with all of the flying.
Jan 13, 1999 | 3:18 am
#11
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Boynton Beach, Florida, USA
Programs: All Airline & Hotel Programs (POINT JUNKIE!)
Posts: 806
I enjoyed reading your report - Thanks for taking the time to post it! Agree most heartly about South Africa - have visited 3X & always take home a case of wine in my roll-a-board! Hoarding 6 bottles left "Christine" @ US$9 - (cost in London @60Ls. However, much prefer to fly BA through London - the layover w/dayroom leaves us more rested when we arrive! Also prefer BA Business class to SAA! Have done both-( on Frequent Flyer tckts. of course!) By the way - the 5,000mi. award (SAA) for the Winelands Day Trip is just great. Plan ahead and put some AA miles into your SAA account and redeem when you get to CPT for lovely daytrip!