Originally Posted by
purch
Something I don't think anybody mentioned is the duration of a potential Europe stopover. It usually entails an early morning arrival and long layover until another overnight flight.
You can do the JFK to JNB journey with a short stopover on BA (daytime TATL) or Virgin (daytime TATL) and IAD-JNB on Emirates (daytime to Africa) or Ethiopian (daytime intra-Africa). The Virgin connection is very tight, exactly MCT, so could be considered to be courageous.
(Let's just take any yammering about BA YQ charges as read and carry on, shall we?)
The "sleep in Europe" advice above is sensible if in Y. If in J/F, flying with short connections may feel less harsh, particularly if the seats are fully flat.