Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - JNB SAA Arrivals Lounge Shower Wait Times

I recently flew into JNB for the first time in a few years. I was flying SAA J from MUC and was looking forward to taking advantage of the new lounge facilities ahead of an onward connection to DUR.

My first impression with the arrivals lounge wasn't particularly inspiring however. The food offerings were limited compared to the *Alliance and AC arrivals lounges in LHR T1 and T3 respectively. My main complaint though, was that I had to wait 30 minutes for an open shower. Is this usual? My understanding was that the main point of an arrivals lounge was that so arriving passengers can quickly grab a shower and move on to get to a morning meeting. The delay wasn't a huge problem for me as I had plenty of time to make my connection, but I could see it bothering others if they had a tight schedule.

For future reference, are the showers less crowded at the domestic Baobab lounge?

There must have been some or other anomaly during your visit.

I have used this lounge on about 6 occasions this year. Never once has this lounge been at capacity.

On two or three visits I was the only guest in the lounge.

my arrival times have been on JFK, HKG, FRA, and LHR SA flights so pretty much from 7am - 10am.

Good to know... thanks SAWorldvoyager!

It did seem kind of odd. I arrived at around 09:00am, so I thought I was going to miss the early morning rush and indeed When I got there, there were only about 5 other people in the lounge area and only one was waiting for a shower. Yet it still took 30 minutes. I wonder if one or two of the showers were out of service or something. Either that or the staff just really took their time cleaning the used showers.

I arrived in early June with my family (with a 2 year old son) in early June, and we almost had the entire lounge to ourselves. Had to wait for about 10 minutes for showers and all in all I think about four other people entered and left the lounge. Staff were friendly and attentive so cant really cpmplain. The only thing were the pretty dismal food offerings.. The sandwiches were rather tasteless however the cappuccino was good :-)
Used the Bidvest lounge in the domestic terminal which was so and so..

On anoyher note, I cannot wait for my next SAA flight in J! Absolutely wonderful.. Seats, beds, staff, food, service. Everything was perfect!

The four times I have used the lounge, I was the only one there, and never had to wait for the showers:)

Food is average, but at least you can have a coffee, fresh toast, cereal and fruit. A nice light start to the day:)

30 minutes does seem a long wait, but the lounge can get quite busy in the mornings when the European flights arrive and people are transferring onto regional flights.

There are only six showers in the lounge, which seems low for the size of the lounge. However, the showers are all clean and you can get a decent cup of coffee while you wait.

I don't understand why SAA does not put cereals out in the mornings.

I don't understand why SAA does not put cereals out in the mornings.

If I remember, I had cereal when I was there - but then again I had been on a plane for 11+ hours from Perth :)

I was pleasantly surprised with the lounge when I used it last month for the first time after learning about it here. No-one else was using the showers and we (2) had immediate access. The food choice is limited, but after the breakfast on the plane just before arrival, it was fine.

Well done SAA!!

Cheers
Overrun

I was pleasantly surprised with the lounge when I used it last month for the first time after learning about it here. No-one else was using the showers and we (2) had immediate access. The food choice is limited, but after the breakfast on the plane just before arrival, it was fine.

Well done SAA!!

Cheers
Overrun