syrahnose

I'm headed from EU to Cape Town next week and looked a several connections from PDX. There was a direct Houston to Lagos, which I'm glad I didn't take in the end with ebola situation. The problem was connecting from Lagos to CT.

in the end I flew into EU and had several options on Turkish Air (I opted out of Lisbon and coming back via Toulouse). The one issue was having to fly via Istanbul to get to CT. About same distances as anywhere from EU to CT, but adding another 3 plus hours getting over to IST.

But then the Turkish Air star lounge looks like it may be best one on earth, so I'm happy with that. And if I'd had the time I would have stopped over in Istanbul.

Prices on Turkish Air were dirt cheap compared to any other star carrier. Full miles accrued too.

FlightNurse

The DL flight is full 95% of time in both cabins, so not too sure why UA wouldn't think its not a money maker! Unless they do not have an aircraft to make it without a stop in both direction.

bhrubin

I wouldn't be concerned with flying through Lagos because of Ebola; after all, there hasn't yet been a single case of transmission from flying with anyone infected, even after many confirmed cases of people infected flying onto other destinations from afflicted areas. The transmission mechanism is such that Ebola is not a big risk to fly with--only a big risk when an infected passenger gets to his/her destination and then transmits fluids to another person (something that would be extraordinarily difficult and rare on a flight, obviously). That is why the CDC and WHO have been cautious in limiting flights--the risk isn't in the flying but in the spread of infected people to non-afflicted areas.

I was primarily concerned with flying through Lagos simply because of baggage theft and the difficulty of transit according to many friends/colleagues who have done so.

There aren't direct flights from LOS to CPT, but we were scheduled for CPT-JNB-LOS-IAH-SNA on our way home from South Africa in Jan 2015. (Our outbound was LAX-LHR-JNB on UA/SAA so much easier.) So it is possible to get from the USA to SA on UA/SAA by flying IAH-LOS-JNB using both UA/SAA.

Again, the issue with LOS seems to be security, theft, and difficulty of transit, especially if you have checked baggage. Consider http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/5/...+Lagos+Airport from 2012; I'm not convinced the situation has improved sufficiently for me to consider LOS a viable transit point.

We switched our return to EK CPT-DXB-LAX in F for a steal of a price ($3200 per person OW in F!). It was our first time ever purchasing F tickets for international travel, as we've always used miles (as with our UA miles for the outbound LAX-LHR-JNB in F/C and our canceled CPT-JNB-LOS-IAH-SNA in C).

kevanyalowitz

Not a chance. Just flew SA HKG-JNB and can say that SA J seat is awful compared to both the pmCO and pmUA seats. It's really a first generation lie flat business class seat. The soft product was better than UA (but not massively). That being said, if the seat is uncomfortable, I don't care how good the soft product is. The SA on board staff were nice, but the ground staff in JNB and CPT were awful.

bhrubin

I'm surprised. What equipment? SAA's new J seats are supposed to be very comfortable.

sbm12

I've enjoyed my few flights in their new C product.

UA-NYC

They are comfy,but visually it just looks like an older angle lie flat that somehow goes to 180 degrees. I remember the duvet helping.

bhrubin

I will be flying the SAA C Class from LHR-JNB on A340-300 in Dec and will share my evaluation when I return in Jan.

Always Flyin

Good service on BA? BA is United with an accent and more arrogance than indifference.

UA doesn't want to compete with anyone.

You might want to check your route map.

DL is already available non-stop from Atlanta, with a C product superior to United's.

Because JFK is New York and EWR is Newark. SA apparently doesn't need the connecting traffic on UA and most avoid EWR if they can for a host of reasons (yes, I live on the West Side and still fly out of JFK).

Because UA doesn't do competition.

I slept on it ok from JNB to JFK, but I am not in a rush to repeat the experience.

bhrubin

This comment suggests all that is needed for the remainder of your commentary. Perhaps you've had arrogant and indifferent service on BA, but that has not been my experience.

Which is why UA competes with AA and DL on most of its Euro and domestic routes, why UA competes with LH, BA, AF to Euro and SQ, CX, OZ, KE, and CA among many others to Asia, and with QF to Australia. No carrier WANTS to compete, but all carriers compete on almost every route I can contemplate--except for NZ on the LAX-AKL route. And it's competing against the best Asian carriers on almost every one of those routes.

Sorry, you're right--I jumped too fast. UA only has flights to Asia with the following routes: LAX-PVG, LAX-NRT, SFO-PVG, SFO-HKG, SFO-ICN, SFO-NRT, SFO-TPE, SFO-KIX, SFO-CTU, ORD-PEK, ORD-HKG, ORD-PVG, EWR-PVG, EWR-HKG, EWR-PEK, and IAD-PEK. Me'thinks UA offers the best route map to Asia of any US carrier.

Yes, DL does offer ATL-JNB but ATL isn't convenient to the entire US market...nor do I agree that DL's C product is superior to UA's. The hard product I prefer on UA; the soft product is sometimes but not always better on DL.

The fact that one US carrier offers nonstop service to JNB should not nor does not preclude the fact that another US carrier can offer competing nonstop service. If the loads on the SAA and DL flights to JNB are so high, then the future demand and loads should easily permit another UA nonstop from EWR-JNB and/or IAD-JNB.

You have a bias against UA--fair enough. Yet UA earned more in profit in its Q2 than any airline except for DL and AA--worldwide. So many other airlines might have wonderful soft and hard products subsidized in various ways by their state-owned enterprises, but the US carriers (and BA and LH, to name a few) do not have such subsidies that permit that. Nor does the American (or even European) market support it in the same way as Asian and Gulf markets. It competes, and it earns more profit than any of the "top rated" world class airlines. It may not be your cup of tea, but it is doing something right. It still hasn't emerged from its UA-CO merger debacle as it had hoped, no doubt--but the future isn't so dim nor its product so poor as you'd like to suggest for UA.

UA may have other, bigger priorities for service growth compared to South Africa. But I think a US-JNB nonstop route would be a good addition to the UA network. I'd fly it in a heartbeat before I'd fly DL's ATL-JNB.

Mbenz

Yeah true in tried to make that work for me but wasn't in the cards. AC through LHR was a good Z fare i got in the past.

Mbenz

Anyone try the Ethiopian flights? From IAD the connection to inn doesn't add much time compared to the SA flight from IAD and their business class fares are competitive. I never pulled the trigger on booking somehow however...

kevanyalowitz

My long haul was on the A340-300 with the standard SA seats. There is an Iberia A340-300 that they also have that has 170 degree "flat" seats but I was not on that aircraft.

I connected to CPT on the newer A340-600 and the seats were identical. I'm 6' and my feet were hanging off the end of the seat and touching the seat in front of me when in bed mode.

I had high expectations but ended up wishing I was on UA. I'd even take the crappy pmCO 3 inch footwell seat over the SA seat.

mduell

How did you determine LH doesn't have enough subsidies to permit wonderful soft and hard products?

LH receives billions in subsidies.
LH has a wonderful soft product.
LH has a wonderful hard product.

Xyzzy

That was my pint.