Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Beware SA not honoring confirmed C reservations and the intl/dom connection in JNB

Experienced SA flyers probably know about the situation I recently experienced, but I thought I'd post it for others.

Recently had an SA business class ticket, connecting through JNB from Lilongwe, Malawi to Cape Town. Flights themselves were fine, but a few disappointing elements:

1. Right now JNB is undergoing substantial expansion, which means that to connect from the international to the domestic terminal is at least a 15 minute walk, partly through the parking lot. It's pretty clearly marked, but a bit of a hassle. I fortunately was traveling light, but can see how lugging a lot of luggage would increase the hassle factor.
2. Once I got to the domestic JNB terminal, there was a very long line to get my domestic boarding pass, which SA hadn't been able to give me in Lilongwe. And I'm talking about the business class line. I'd say the wait was at least 30 minutes, quite possibly longer. I had a couple of hours between flights, but in a shorter time frame I would have been SOL. The line was likely moving slowly because...
3. SA was bouncing many C passengers such as myself to later flights because it had overbooked even confirmed C tickets with specific seat reservations. For me it was no big deal, with only about a 30-minute delay until the next flight, except that I needed to call my Cape Town hotel to let it know that the car that was picking me up should arrive later (which the helpful SA agent let me do on their phone). But there were many unhappy fellow passengers there, including some who had longer waits. A couple of them let me know that this is far from an unusual situation on SA. Seems extremely unprofessional of SA. Would give me pause about flying SA internationally in the future (which I've done once previously, and which was fine), since it raises all sorts of concerns about reliability.
4. Also (as I learned from another leg of this trip), be aware that the regular SA C lounge in the international terminal is closed while undergoing renovations and perhaps expansion right now, so the substitute facility is pretty cramped.

Again, no tremendous inconvenience for me. But I'd especially advise taking #3 into account in flying SA domestically and planning connections.

1. Right now JNB is undergoing substantial expansion, which means that to connect from the international to the domestic terminal is at least a 15 minute walk, partly through the parking lot. It's pretty clearly marked, but a bit of a hassle. I fortunately was traveling light, but can see how lugging a lot of luggage would increase the hassle factor. I could swear someone posted that this was now a thing of the past and that there is an entirely indoor connection between terminals now. Was I dreaming?
2. Once I got to the domestic JNB terminal, there was a very long line to get my domestic boarding pass, which SA hadn't been able to give me in Lilongwe. And I'm talking about the business class line. I'd say the wait was at least 30 minutes, quite possibly longer. I had a couple of hours between flights, but in a shorter time frame I would have been SOL.I've often experienced very long lines in Business and sometimes wonder if the Y queue isn't faster given that there are normally many more agents attending to the Y queue. Even flying internationally from CPT the Y queue eventually was empty before the 2 slow agents serving J got to me so I ended at a Y desk anyway. (And then didn't pay attention and my luggage wasn't tagged with priority tags - which caused a long delay at LHR! :mad:)

The line was likely moving slowly because...
3. SA was bouncing many C passengers such as myself to later flights because it had overbooked even confirmed C tickets with specific seat reservations. For me it was no big deal, with only about a 30-minute delay until the next flight, except that I needed to call my Cape Town hotel to let it know that the car that was picking me up should arrive later (which the helpful SA agent let me do on their phone). But there were many unhappy fellow passengers there, including some who had longer waits. A couple of them let me know that this is far from an unusual situation on SA. Seems extremely unprofessional of SA. Would give me pause about flying SA internationally in the future (which I've done once previously, and which was fine), since it raises all sorts of concerns about reliability. How very concerning. As you say on a domestic it's just a minor irritation and inconvenience. On a long-haul it could be a disaster. One of the only reasons I pay for J domestically is to avoid precisely this sort of situation.

Of course it didn't help that you hit the start of the school holidays!
4. Also (as I learned from another leg of this trip), be aware that the regular SA C lounge in the international terminal is closed while undergoing renovations and perhaps expansion right now, so the substitute facility is pretty cramped.I hope the new lounge is a big improvement - and considerably larger. The old one was getting so tired and crowded that I sometimes prefer to use the Bidvest lounge instead.

I could swear someone posted that this was now a thing of the past and that there is an entirely indoor connection between terminals now. Was I dreaming?


The new International arrivals is very close to the domestic terminal, and really is only a couple of minutes walk, entirely indoors.

Well, I am doing this same thing on 19 DEC (int C to dom C in JNB), so it will be interesting and I will post my experience here (including the obstacle course or otherwise between the int' and dom' terminals;)). To be honest, I am VERY surprised about the heavy overbooking in C. My gut feel is that there were one or more flight cancellations that day (unusual but not impossible in itself) and the overbooking resuted from the backlog. Not an acceptable situation, but maybe an explanation......

The new International arrivals is very close to the domestic terminal, and really is only a couple of minutes walk, entirely indoors.

Well, now you've got me thinking...I did do the connection in reverse, also. Perhaps what I'm recalling is the connection from Domestic arrivals (I flew in from CPT) to International departures. But it was a long walk through the parking garage for at least one of those connections. My apologies if I'm confused on this point and for not recalling for sure which one it was.

I guess the other possible explanation is that I simply missed the signs for the easy transfer, but if so I certainly wasn't the only connecting passenger in that boat.

Well, I am doing this same thing on 19 DEC (int C to dom C in JNB), so it will be interesting and I will post my experience here (including the obstacle course or otherwise between the int' and dom' terminals;)). To be honest, I am VERY surprised about the heavy overbooking in C. My gut feel is that there were one or more flight cancellations that day (unusual but not impossible in itself) and the overbooking resuted from the backlog. Not an acceptable situation, but maybe an explanation......

Could be the explanation, though none of the SA folks were offering it and my own (original) flight was not canceled or delayed. They simply said that they were overbooked. Even if your plausible explanation is correct, it does mean that SA does a ripple effect in event that a flight is canceled, pushing back folks from flight to flight.

Well, now you've got me thinking...I did do the connection in reverse, also. Perhaps what I'm recalling is the connection from Domestic arrivals (I flew in from CPT) to International departures. But it was a long walk through the parking garage for at least one of those connections. My apologies if I'm confused on this point and for not recalling for sure which one it was.

Yes, it is quite a long walk from Domestic arrivals to International departures, routed through the parking garage and a temporary passageway while construction is still in progress.

Transferring through JNB to CPT from FRA soon (in C) - does anyone have recent experience with their int/dom connection in JNB?

Transferring through JNB to CPT from FRA soon (in C) - does anyone have recent experience with their int/dom connection in JNB?

From international arrivals to domestic departures it is only a short walk and entirely under roof. The other way round is a bit of a schlepp - at least it still was when I was there some two month ago.

Transferring through JNB to CPT from FRA soon (in C) - does anyone have recent experience with their int/dom connection in JNB?

depending on the arrivals hall of your intl airline it will be anything between a 30 and 100metre walk + 2 escalator rides.

now that the plans are coming together JNB looks to be really well thought out.

depending on the arrivals hall of your intl airline it will be anything between a 30 and 100metre walk + 2 escalator rides.

now that the plans are coming together JNB looks to be really well thought out.

And what about connecting from international to another international flight?

Any updates on SA new international lounge in JNB?

Tks,

never done it personally, but it appears you go through doors leading onto the Mez level, which is where the SA business class lounge and BA departure lounges are.