Firstly, I should explain this is my first trip report, so please be gentle with me!
Heading off to Durban for 10 days over Christmas and New Year, I’d booked flights in C on SAA, via Johannesburg – this was my first experience on SAA and it was very chalk and cheese; a little underwhelming on the way out and excellent on the way back
A little background to this should help. Those of you in the UK around now will now the weather has been extremely cold with a large amount of snow and ice leading to chaos for most travellers and certainly air travel was not exempted. There were two of us on the trip, but my friend had opted to fly the day before, also on SAA. Unfortunately for him, he ultimately was delayed for over 24 hours due, not to the weather, but incompetent ground crew at Heathrow who’d stuck a hole in the side of his plane when removing the air-bridge. There are two SAA flights to Johannesburg every day, the first using (at 19.00) an A340-600 with the later one (at 21.05) slated for an A340-200. He’d been due to fly on the earlier flight, but was eventually off-loaded past midnight having been on the plane for 3 hours (they’d been late departing anyway). The following day having meant to have left at 15.30 he ended up flying at 20.00 (only an hour before I was due to go) due to the problems at Heathrow. Due to more delays at Heathrow and baggage checks, their captain had decided to leave without their bags (this is important for later!) and they’d all be carried on my plane later on. Knowing the problems he’d had, I got in touch with SAA and they assured me my flight was ok. The earlier flight (19.00) that day had been postponed to the following morning, but again the later flight (mine) was unaffected. This was due to the smaller aircraft being in use on the later flight so the passengers couldn’t all be transferred.
However (and this is where my trip begins!), being aware of the problems I thought it wise to get to the airport early just to make sure I got on board! I took the Heathrow Express from Paddington and instead of the normal 15 minutes the train crawled through West London eventually arriving 30 minutes late. However, no problems and I got to a bizarrely deserted check-in with 2 hours to the flight. The agent explained that due to the problems most people had checked in between 3 and 4 hours before the flight. Check – in was fine and I got my pre-allocated seat (3K) and my boarding card for the Jo’Burg to Durban flight. The agent explained that at Jo’Burg I would have to pick up my bags, clear customs and then drop the bags off at another desk, which is fine. I then wandered through to duty-free, bought the fags and went in search of the Star Alliance lounge. Oh dear! Firstly finding the lounge is a bit tricky. One sign on the departure lounge and that seems to point to a set of non-existent stairs. After 10 minutes of searching, I eventually came across it, tucked away in a corner past all the shops. And once you’re in, it continues to disappoint. Compared to the various new Galleries Lounges in T5, this is verging on the disgraceful. Dark and pokey and lacking any really nice seating the only good point about it was the small number of people in there.
The Star Alliance Lounge at T1 Heathrow - poor
The food selection was poor with only two counters offering limited selection of salads, cold meat, sandwiches that had clearly been sitting there for a few hours and some soup. The computer area had two fixed PCs, one of which was broken and the other having a queue of 3 people. The wireless connection in the lounge was also apparently down. Just not good enough.
I could see no point in staying in there and as I wanted to eat before the flight, I went off to get a decent sandwich from one of the restaurants outside. Bearing in mind the moves of Star Alliance to T1, they must address this lounge issue sooner rather than later.
22/12/09 SAA 563, Airbus 340-300 – Scheduled Departure 21.05, actual departure 00.00, arrival @ 13.30
I glanced at the board and was surprised to see the flight was boarding an hour before departure, so I wandered off to find the gate and they’re not kidding about a 15 minute walk! At the gate, chaos. The premium line was to the right but as I was a bit late to the gate this had now been abandoned and it was a free-for-all, so boarding took 15 minutes.
SAA 237 - An A340-300
At the door I was invited to turn left to my seat 3k, a window one. I also at this point realised that we were flying on a -300 rather than a -200, as there was a smaller Premium cabin behind the main one. The only difference between the two for me was AVOD, but since I’d pre-loaded my laptop with a bunch of films and TV, I wasn’t too worried about this.
The SAA Premium Cabin
But once in the seat I was surprised to be ignored by the crew, who seemed more interested in chatting in the forward galley than looking after their premium customers. On the plus side, the seat on SAA is a delight with plenty of room and options for seat arrangements. By now the cabin was fairly full and at this point the crew came around with the obligatory juice or champagne. Opting for juice, I was disappointed to find it was plain concentrate orange. Again, not good enough. It’s not that expensive to provide fresh orange juice and shows the airline’s not penny-pinching.
We were now 10 minutes late and the captain apologised for the delay but we were waiting for the de-icing truck which was just doing the Air New Zealand plane next to us. Half an hour later and still nothing, the captain came on and apologised that the truck had disappeared, but he understood it had just gone to replenish its de-icer. This went on for another 90 minutes, but the captain kept us informed throughout, with his frustration with BAA clearly coming over. Unfortunately, throughout this the crew ignored the Premium customers and we didn’t get the offer of another drink at all. Finally we pushed back from the gate to be de-iced and after some more faffing around we finally hit the runway at midnight, 2 ½ hours after we should have left. But throughout all of this I was thinking of my mate’s 27 hour delay and wasn’t too annoyed!
As soon as the plane had taken off and the seatbelt lights had gone off, I decided to get some sleep. It was gone midnight (or 2am) in SA and as I’d eaten dinner at Heathrow, I wasn’t too worried about eating now. I grabbed the duvet from the locker and adjusted the seat to the bed position. Comparing the seats to other Business beds, I’d say this is somewhere in the middle. No doubt the space is excellent. I’m 6 foot and was able to comfortably stretch out as well as be able to roll over, even with the seatbelt on. Unfortunately, the bed is quite hard and lumpy in places, so Virgin wins for their Upper class product and the flipping mattress. On the return journey, as the cabin was half full, I was able to grab a spare duvet and lay it in the bed which improved the comfort, but not significantly. However, compared to the BA offering, SAA’s streets ahead. But bizarrely enough, for me, the best seat remains the Thai business offering. Although it’s one of the angled ones, I find I get the best night’s sleep on them – no idea why!
Unfortunately, I did not get the best night’s sleep as the plane was hit by heavy turbulence on at least 5 occasions – one about 2 hours outside of Johannesburg was especially bad and forced the crew to suspend breakfast service for half an hour. Although I didn’t sleep that well I didn’t get up until we were three hours out of Jo’Burg. I pressed the call button for a coffee and after 5 minutes no joy. Rang again and another 5 minutes passed so decided to get up to go and investigate. Unfortunately the person in the seat next to me was still fast asleep and as I had a window I had to climb out over her. But here I discovered a cunning little addition to the SAA seats, namely a little step between the seats and a grab handle on the back of the seats in front, making it very easy to climb over a sleeping partner – nice touch. Anyway, I found the rear galley empty, and found one slightly stressed FA in the front one. I asked for a coffee and she said she’d bring it to me in a few minutes. 20 minutes later, it turned up. I have no idea what was going on with the crew on this flight, but I’ve rarely come across a bunch of FAs who seem to have paid so little attention to their passengers. As I’m not a breakfast person, I passed on it when it was eventually served and relaxed for what was left of the flight.
The African Sky, with the colourful SAA logo
We finally landed about two and a half hours late, meaning I’d missed my connection to Durban, but the senior FA assured me I’d be put on the next available flight. At Jo’Burg you have to clear immigration, pick your bags up and clear customs before checking your bags in at a transfer desk. As soon as we were off the plane, my phone rang and it was my mate asking me to pick his bags up as they were on my flight and put them on the same flight to Durban that I was on. He’d checked with the SAA ground staff who’d said this would be okay and once through immigration, I checked with them again and they confirmed it was not a problem. On the way through the baggage hall, I noticed that the two BA flights from London were both delayed for 5 hours and the Virgin one for 4, so on the night my flight had been the least badly affected – small mercies! So, once I’d got my bags and my mate’s and trundled through customs I headed to the transfer desk and this is where the fun began. Obviously staff at SAA don’t talk to each other, so the transfer agent refused to accept what I was telling her. We argued for a good 10 minutes as I asked her to phone a manager or the baggage team, which she refused to do. She said that the bags couldn’t go on the flight as I hadn’t packed them – I pointed out that they were going to have to be flown down anyway as they had to be returned to their owner, and actually I was doing SAA a favour as it meant they didn’t have to be returned to him in Durban! She conceded this point but then said as I was checking them in, I’d have to pay the excess charge for his golf clubs (I had my own set) of around £200! At this point I got more than a bit annoyed and demanded to see her manager and suggested, politely, she should probably take a course in customer service. At that point (and I hasten to add, I neither swore nor raised my voice), she called a security guard over to escort me away! Rather than argue further, I was taken by the security guard to see another manager upstairs at the domestic check-in. I suspect he thought I was an unreasonable trouble-maker, but once I’d explained the problem, he immediately agreed that I was correct and that he’d make every effort to get me on the next flight with all the bags! The next flight left in 30 minutes and the bags went off and I went off to the gate.
23/12/09 SAA 563, Airbus 319 – Scheduled Departure 15.05, actual departure 15.15, arrival @ 16.05
At this point, I’d calmed down and was only a bit disappointed to find that I’d got a middle seat instead of the window I’d asked for. But as I was still in Premium and was actually on the flight, I couldn’t really complain. We were on an A319 and it had the 2-3 layout. We left on time, but if I thought the turbulence was bad on the way down, it was nothing compared to the short hop to Durban. The flight was only 50 minutes, but the FA’s didn’t move from their seats for the entire journey and I don’t think anyone could blame them! I’m not normally a nervous flyer but this was nasty all the way.
Storms over South Africa - means a bumpy flight!
Once on the ground de-planing was nice and quick and the bags came through within 10 minutes – except the two golf bags…. Once it became obvious that they weren’t on the flight (and given the journey so far, I wasn’t that surprised) I went to the ground-staff who were very efficient. They confirmed the bags were on the next flight but they’d get them sent on that day to the house we were staying at. I finally escaped the airport for the first time in 18 hours and after meeting up with my mate’s Dad, sparked up a very much needed cigarette! True to their word, the golf clubs turned up about two hours later to the house and thus ended a trial by SAA, though on meeting up with my mate whose journey had taken nearly 40 hours, I was somewhat grateful!
The Return – 1/1/10
01/01/10 SAA 578, Airbus 319 – Scheduled Departure 18.40, actual departure 18.30, arrival @ 19.30
Bearing in mind the problems on the outbound leg, I was more than slightly concerned about the return leg! I was due to take a flight at 6.40 for a connection at 9.30 to London. We left the house at 5pm for the quick 30 minutes drive to the airport and arrived with plenty of time to spare. The check-in agent was very efficient and confirmed that my bags would be checked all the way through to London. She pointed me in the direction of the lounge airside and that was that. Durban’s due to get a new airport in a few months, and the current one’s showing its age a bit. Saying that, I’ve been through much worse places (T1 @ Heathrow!!) and found the lounge an excellent place, even having its own smoking room with views over the tarmac
The SAA Lounge at Durban Airport - even has a smoking area!
There were only 4 of us in the lounge and one of the attendants came round at about 6.15 to tell us the flight was ready to board nice and early. A quick walk to the plane and we were pretty much ready to go.
SAA A319
The flight was pretty empty with only 4 of us in premium and we pushed back 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Again, it was a bumpy ride up to Jo’Burg, but this time we got some food, a very nice beef dish and very attentive service. On landing, 15 minutes ahead of schedule, a quick wander through to security and immigration and into the departure area for the flight back to London.
Although I needed to do some shopping, I was keen to see what the lounge at Jo’Burg was like, with a number of threads on various forums about it. The first lounge I tried was, I was told, reserved for first class (even though SAA don’t have much first class anymore!) so I wandered off to the temporary lounge, which really is as bad as advertised! It doesn’t even have any toilets! I left the lounge and on the way down saw the new one and from the state of it, it’s still a long way from being finished.
01/01/10 SAA 236, Airbus 340-200 – Scheduled Departure 21.30, actual departure 21.30, arrival @ 06.55
Once my shopping was done with the obligatory toy lion for the nephew under my arm, I was pleased to see the flight was already boarding an hour before departure. Getting to the gate I was slightly disappointed to see it would be a remote gate, but not the end of the world. Straight onto a bus and a quick drive across the tarmac to the plane, this time the -200 as scheduled. Being one of the last to board, I was pleased to see the cabin was pretty empty and I sat down in 6K, a window seat again. Once the doors were closed I had an empty seat next to me; even more room to spread out!
A nice empty cabin - only one other person in my row
This time, the pre-take-off drinks were served well and a proper orange juice was served. We pushed back bang on time and a short taxi to the runway followed – I’d been warned by a friend that the -200 take-off at Jo’Burg (due to the altitude) can be a bit slow and low, but whether it was due to a relatively empty flight or another factor, we were off nice and quickly. As soon as the belts sign went off, the crew came round offering pre-flight drinks and I went for a lovely Cape Merlot. Feeling in the need for more beef, I went for that option for dinner and it was well prepared and very tasty. Unlike the downward leg, the crew on this flight were fantastically attentive and quick to clear away the empty plates and once dinner was over, I decided to turn in. Whilst I was putting the seat in the bed position an FA came over and got me my duvet and I asked her for a second one, which she grabbed as well.
Excuse my socks! Stretched out fully on SAA's flat-bed
Certainly the seat’s better with the second duvet as a mattress and I was quickly to sleep. I managed to sleep for a good 7 hours on the way back, which for me is pretty good.
On waking I buzzed for a coffee and one was with me within a couple of minutes, again chalk and cheese to the first flight. I again declined breakfast, (but got the scorchingly hot towel!) and pretty soon we began the descent into London. Astonishingly for a flight coming in at that time, we didn’t circle at all over South London and came straight in over Central and West London – I’m not sure if there’s a nicer view on landing than Central London early in the morning, though the right hand side’s definitely the better side for a great view. We ended up touching down at 6.55, 25 minutes ahead of schedule. On the taxi round to the gate we passed 3 A-380’s parked next to each other at T3 (2 Singapore and 1 Qantas) and I have to say they are pretty big beasts, especially compared to the Qantas 747 next to them. The only slight hold up was a 5 minute wait before docking as there was no agent at the gate, probably due to our early arrival.
One of the only advantages of T1, at the moment, is they don’t have the far-east heavies coming in, so immigration was deserted and it was straight through to reclaim. Astonishingly my bag was already on the belt when I got into the hall and I went to get my golf-bag which was also waiting by the outsize bag belt. So through customs, outside for a quick smoke, back down to the Heathrow Express where to complete a great journey there was a train ready to go, and finally back to Paddington, arriving home at 8am, only an hour after landing. Quite astonishing.
So, dear readers, for those of you who’ve stuck with me through this, thanks and I hope it was worthwhile – certainly cathartic to write! Sorry for not more pics, but you can also find a video of the Durban take off at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNJHibMe--E . Next trip is a Thai special to Phuket, so hopefully a trip report will follow for that in March.
. As requested, though, a few pics of my trip below
