Originally Posted by
konagirl2
Originally Posted by
lcheval
An other question regarding the lounge : if I have time to kill, is there an arrival lounge in JNB that I could visit before getting through customs/immigration, and visiting next the SLOW lounge in domestic terminal so that I can split the time to spend. I read on the SLOW website that there is a limit of 90 minutes before departure time to be allowed to get into the lounge…that confuses me a bit (maybe isn't it applicable on connecting passengers). Don't really wish neither to spend 4h in the public areas before being able to enjoy the lounge for only 90 minutes!
If you are travelling HBO then 1:45 hrs should be enough time to get through immigration and re-clear security for your domestic sector. My understanding is with checked luggage you would need to collect in JNB and pass through customs before re-checking for your domestic sector (whether on one ticket or two). I am sure someone with recent experience can confirm.
With regard to lounges, there is no BA arrivals lounge but this board helpfully suggests there is a paid-for arrivals lounge with showers for (probably) ZAR300 per person:
JNB arrivals. Again I don't know the details about gaining entry to the domestic SLOW lounge a long time ahead of your flight, but remember you are on a separate ticket not a connecting flight so you could be out of luck there.
I've never encountered a time limit on using the domestic SLOW lounge in this situation, and have sometimes had about 4 or so hours to kill between flights. The fact that you're on separate tickets should make no difference; I think that we do these international --> domestic connections on separate bookings more often than on the same booking.
Also, AIUI there should be no need to worry about a misconnection if your inbound international flight is delayed even if you are on two separate tickets. BA/Comair ought to rebook you on the next available flight.
1:45 is possible, but it leaves little leeway. You must collect your bags and clear customs and then take them over to domestic check-in yourself. If the immigration queue is long, this can eat significantly into your connection time. In particular, you may find that you have little lounge time and no time for a shower (the SLOW lounge only has one shower). The last time I had a connection of this length and I had to use the "others" passport queue, I ended up getting into the shower just as my onward flight was being called for the first time. Fortunately, I knew exactly where the gate was, so after a very quick shower I was still able to make it.