Originally Posted by
lowfareair
I don't see any South African holidays on or near January 25th. Are there any that I'm missing?
I can't think of anything. But it is a Monday and in order to connect to your HDS flight you will need seats on a flight in the morning peak commuting time. You can check if this effect is there by looking at award availability on other days of the week.
Originally Posted by
lowfareair
Finally, assuming I can't get seats on miles, when is the best time to purchase tickets in South Africa? I know in the US it's usually ~8 weeks out or so, but I don't know if that changes at all there.
Not really sure. But with small craft on the HDS route there is always the risk that a tour group books all the low fares in one fell swoop so I wouldn't want to leave it too close to departure. I'd be getting nervous from 6 months out. On the CPT/JNB route there is so much capacity that (the reasons I mentioned before apart) there is seldom any urgency and 8 weeks is probably about right.