Originally Posted by
Cheetah_SA
I don't think the immigration or baggage handling experience in JNB is relevant here.
I'm not even sure why you would collect luggage in JNB though I am aware that you go through a kind of immigration process as you pass (airside) from arrivals to departures. I believe
henkybaby has the details.
(There was a recent report of someone being told by a check-in agent that baggage could not be through checked to HRE - I think it was - but the consensus was that the agent was clearly wrong. Apparently the cabin crew may also announce that luggage must be collected in JNB but again that is wrong and only applies for connections to domestic SAfrican destinations.)
Even if you do want to re-check luggage and wish to go through the procedures you should have plenty of time for that -
provided your flight arrives on time. My delays have always been caused by sitting on the tarmac at LHR while some or other problem gets resolved. Once you've lost a few hours that way there is no way to make many connections - even ones that are well in excess of mct (which btw is only 60 minutes for int/int at JNB - I imagine the mct should give a fair idea of how things are supposed to work in most cases).
Having flown the BA055 recently, I can confirm that the correct annoucements are given: viz, for SA domestic connections you need to clear immigration, collect baggage and check in for domestic flight in domestic terminal; for international connections (such as VFA) baggage should be through checked and you only need to go through flight connections at JNB.
MCT for JNB is 90 minutes. For my flight I was through immigration, collected baggage, checked in on for JNB-CPT flight in domestic terminal and in SLOW lounge in under 20 minutes. I had a 100 minute connection time and never felt that there was any threat of failing to make that flight.
Probably a post World Cup thing, but JNB luggage handling was mega efficient, with bags arriving as I reached the carousel (and I was first off the plane) and priority bagage worked correctly (something that rarely happens at LHR).
I would echo the sentiments making the decision based on how inconvenient/problematic/disastrous a misconnect could be. If your flight is very late, then you may not make it. However, Comair are exceptional at sorting things out/making sure that you are ok. Probably best if all flights are on one PNR though, if you want to be absolutely sure.
If I were very cautious and arrived a day early, I would not want to spend 24 hours at an airport hotel. The Gautrain provides a fast and reliable link to better places such as Sandton, which have far more to offer than the airport.