Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Misconnect on SAA with FF tickets

Does anyone have any experience of how SAA handles mis-connects on *A FF tickets.

I'm scheduled to fly IAD-JNB-CPT with the family in July on MileagePlus Awards. A schedule change means that the JNB-CPT connection is likely impossible but there isn't award inventory and SAA hasn't cleared the change. I understand that SAA flys this as a quasi-shuttle -- does anyone have experience to know if they will they just put us on the next flight regardless of fare class, or only if NY seats are available?

Thanks

Just to understand this properly: Have you currently got an award ticket, with a connection in JNB, which originally worked (i.e. one PRN)? Have you still got this same routing, i.e. SAA have not changed anything but you discovered yourself that the connection is likely to be too tight? If so, I would just travel and not try to change anything. If you miss the connection, SA will put you on the next CPT flight (never more than an hour later). If you start trying to change things yourself you may run into the no "X" (or "I") availability situation and you have created a problem.
I am not sure of your exact situation, but I hope this helps a bit!

You captured the essence of the situation

I have a paid ticket and my family is on FF tickets. SAA called me to say my schedule had changed and they had rebooked me. But United wasn't able to confirm the family on the later flight. I think you are confirming that SAA is likely to handle this as a simple (?) misconnect when we get to JNB....

I think if you have a ticketed, confirmed, legal connection and you misconx, they'll treat it like any other disrupted journey and put you on the next available flight to CPT.

...snip.... I think you are confirming that SAA is likely to handle this as a simple (?) misconnect when we get to JNB....

That is correct. No guarantee of course (as with anything concerning airlines ;)) but in your situation I would not worry.

After years of lurking, I have finally registered and here is my first of what promises to be many many many posts...;)

Travelling Canada-IAD-JNB-JFK-Canada - the travel agent in JNB booked the SAA trans-Atlantic legs on stand-alone SAA tickets (one passenger on a Voyager business class reward ticket and one passenger on upgraded revenue ticket). I have propopsed a flight into IAD with a 90 minute connection from Canada using United (a *A partner of SAA) but the agent has balked and is insisting on a lengthy connection in IAD (6+ hours) to avoid risk of mis-connection (which the agent says SAA would treat as no-show and forfeit of round-trip tickets). :mad:

On the return, the problem would seem worse - I cannot identify a *A connection JFK-YYZ (plus we have an onward domestic journey ex YYZ). :td:

My question(s) for my new FT friends - any and all advice welcome:

-can Voyager tickets be booked like other *A rewards to include *A partner legs/North American connections (ie. Canada-IAD-JNB-JFK-Canada, rather than just the IAD-JNB-JFK legs on the SAA ticket;

-if not, can booking references/tickets be cross-referenced so that in the event of a mis-connection into IAD, the SAA tickets are not forfeited;

-if not, is there some other solution to avoid the risk of forfeiting SAA tickets in the event of mis-connection into IAD;

-can bags be checked in with UA in Canada all the way to JNB via IAD, in the situation where the UA ticket (Canada-IAD) and the SAA ticket (IAD-JNB) are booked separately;

-the return will likely involve SAA to JFK, Delta to YYZ and then a domestic AC flight ex YYZ - any advice on how to ticket, cross-reference, check bags and otherwise deal with this potential nightmare is appreciated;

Your suggestions are most welcome. All that is 'confirmed' thus far are the SAA tickets (business class) IAD-JNB-JFK.

Passenger #1 is *A Gold (AC); Passenger #2 is *A Silver (UA) - neither have SAA status.

I thank you in advance...

-FFFlyer