Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - SAA C class from LHR

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the seats from LHR-JNB. Right now we are booked on flts. 236 and 237 on this route but may be able to change to fly out of CDG or FRA if the seats/service are better. We were very disappointed with the airline's business class from ATL-JNB in '03 and are hoping to at least get the "flat seats" this time. We're not flying until Aug. '05 so does anyone know which a/c will have the better seats then? Thanks.

SA 234 and SA 235 have the lie-flat beds in business class to and from LHR.

There may be other 747-400 converted as well, but I have never seen one yet.

The A340-600s are all with the lie-flat seats as well as some of the A340-300s. There are not many ways to predict which planes will have this when, but by Aug 2005 there could be more than there are now.

The conversion to lie-flat on the 747-400's is proceeding apace. I'd be surprised if you didn't get the new configuration (there should be only 3 rows aft of the galley).

Surprised you hated the seats on ATL/JNB. Was it the A340 with the old configuration? The new lie-flat seats on the A340 are fantastic.

SA 260/261 JNB-FRA are 340-600s with flat beds.
Cheers, Thomas

My employer (as always) put me in Y for both LHR-JNB and JNB-LHR and I can confirm that the business class seats on both flights had me crying into my beer while I tried to drink enough to get a sort of a night's sleep! These seats look very nice and seem quite wide compared to other flat bed business class seats I've seen.

Consensus seems to be that the SAA A340-600 C Class seat is the best out there by far. I, too, have only been able to cast envious glances, but as the proud owner of a one-way FRA-JNB upgrade voucher I hope to sample their business class product sometime this year.


johan

I just got back from a long trip... LAX-CDG-JNB AF F, then JNB-CPT SA Business. On my return from CPT-JNB, i was lucky and had a A340-600 with the new business seats. Let me just say that the leg room and seats were great. They were A LOT better than the old F seats on AF. For future flights, I'll probably save money and look for the new business class rather than old first class seats.