Brenno, I've flown 1st class on SAA four times from the US to SA. Sometimes it's very good and other times it's not good at all, you never know what to expect. I've always flown using a Delta Air lines award ticket. From what I've experienced I'd never pull $10,000 out of my own pocket to fly SAA first class from the US to SA. SAA doesn't even come close to BA or SQ first class. You'll see surveys that rate SAA as being one of the best, but I honestly don't know who is completing these surveys. I talked to one lady who, along with her husband, payed for 1st class tickets from ATL to Cape Town and she said they'd never again fly SAA, they'd go through Europe the next time.

PLEASE NOTE: On two of the occasions my electric sleeper seat was broken. Always put your seat in the the bed position as soon as you board just to make sure you don't have a broken seat. On my last flight I was flying JNB to ATL and didn't realize my seat was broken until after we took off from JNB. No of the FAs could fix it, fortunately the flight was scheduled to stop in Cape Town before continuing onto Atlanta. 45 minutes into the 1 hour stop a mechanic finally boarded to fix my seat(only after I threatened to get off the plane if my seat wasn't fixed). On another flight I discovered my seat was broken, FAs couldn't fix it, but the flight wasn't full so I changed seats and one of the SAA pilots took my broken seat. BE CAREFUL!

The food is good on SAA, especially the breakfast. On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate the service a 6.

[This message has been edited by bluewatersail (edited Feb 16, 2004).]