Once again, my thanks for your constructive input ^
Certainly I now have an enhanced reluctance to do ANYTHING on plastic in ZA!! Anyway, two of the hotels have already responded to my email ... one was booked with Visa, and that's OK. Another [Amex] has my old card details, and is just waiting for my new card ... I take your point that re-booking on-line, with
https, might be a good answer. The third is a chain in CPT, who are moving ponderously to respond.
Depending on your travel timelines, I'd STRONGLY suggest just a basic confirmation email to each establishment. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Reconfirming reservation XXX for [date] to [date] for party of Y for [such and such room type] at rate Z" Don't even mention the card info/issues. And, deal with it on arrival at the establishment of just presenting your current valid. Why? See first comment above.
Point taken ... I'll see how they respond to the new card. I could suggest a new booking, having checked for
https first!!
Sorry to be so hit and miss. My experience is with SA (and mostly, Western Cape). You half get used to it, half expect it, half just know how to deal with it and half shrug it off and deal with the frustration (or drink). Yes, that's four halves. Sometimes, SA requires 200% of the effort.
Yes, we only booked due to bargain BA reward availability being available on a new route (LGW-CPT) costing us GBP 420 each, in Business/Club World, to somewhere we've never been. This will however, sadly, be our first and last visit to Africa ... I'm too old to be bothered with this sort of aggravation ... it could trigger the alternative version of
T.I.A. 