Originally Posted by
eeners
Thank you everyone for contributing to this very helpful thread! Hoping someone may be able to provide their thoughts on my situation:
I will be flying with SAA from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, with a stopover in Johannesburg. I would like to store some bags at JNB during my layover, since I will be flying home from JNB after my safari.
Arrival time at JNB is scheduled for 0815, TERMINAL:B (SA 308).
Departure from JNB to VFA is scheduled for 1050, TERMINAL:B (SA 40)
So about 2.5 hours layover at JNB. Fingers crossed that the arriving flight isn't delayed, do you think I will have enough time to get to the luggage storage at Terminal A arrivals, then back to Terminal B for my flight to VFA? Since the whole ticket is booked through SAA, I'm hoping my checked baggage will be transferred from CPT to VFA without me having to worry about it at JNB. Then I'm hoping to just bring the luggage I hope to store at JNB as carry-on from CPT>JNB.
Some questions I have are...
- Does this sound reasonable?
- How long is the walk between terminals?
- Will I have to wait in any line-ups just to exit Terminal B to get to the baggage storage in Terminal A?
- How long do you think it will take me to go through security again when returning to Terminal B?
- Does the CPT-JNB flight tend to run on schedule, or is this too risky? Will I have to wait for a bus to bring me from the plane into the terminal?
Also, in the pinned Wiki description under "Domestic-International connections", it says: "Please see post #36 for an illustrated guide." I can't seem to find this illustrated guide in post #36... anyone able to help?
Thanks so much...
This is a dom-int'l connection, so the same as my reply above. The key is to understand that it's not a 'transit' in the usual sense, ie you don't stay airside but exit domestic arrivals back into the main terminal, and then do through the usual int'l departure procedure (security and immigration).
Therefore, to answer your points in turn:
- yes, very reasonable, you should have plenty of time.
- the 'terminals' aren't physically separate, they are just two ends of the same building, B is nominally domestic and A is international, but there is no real indicators of A or B in the terminal, and in fact your VFA flights, being international, actually departs from terminal A.
- from domestic arrivals to int'l departures is about 5-600m
- as noted, there is no separation between terminals so no wait
- iirc, luggage storage is one level down, underneath international departures. From dom arrivals, walk straight ahead through a hallway of shops and a food court. At the end, you come to the main atrium, walk around that and you'll be at int'l departures. Bear left (there's a security point straight ahead) towards int'l checkin, and after you've gone past KFC on the right there will be an escalator down to parking and left luggage.
- from left luggage, it's back up the escalator and through security and immigration. At that time, I would think anywhere between 2 and 15 minutes.
- flights do sometimes run late, but I would personally be very relaxed about that connection. If you do arrive to a bus gate (not uncommon on SAA) then you gain much of your 'lost' time back by being dropped right in the baggage reclaim area, saving quite a lot of walking.
Relax - this is an easy connection. Just make sure that your bag is well secured (probably worth investing the R20 in getting it polywrapped, facilities available throughout the airport) before leaving it.