Originally Posted by orbitmic

Well, the first thing is to decide whether you want JNB or CPT (or the new Durban?) They are very different areas with completely different highlights and quite far apart (about 2 hours flight). CPT is a lovely city and coastline. By contrast, JNB is a much better access point if you intend to do safaris and even though many may not agree, I sort of like Pretoria too. Johannesburg has some really interesting areas too though that is not the best season to be there.

If you want to use your Lloyds or your Amex that will have to be BA from the UK and that's it. IB, QR or from other countries even on BA and the likes are simply not an option in that case. You may be able to lower the cost a bit by going from ABZ which avoids APD, but of course, that means adding two flights (assuming that you still return to London) and some uncertainty (you don't want to miss what would now become the first ABZ-LHR segment of your long haul itinerary and of course, weather in November/December makes problems very possible, including rerouting to other nearby airports.

You are right that CPT in particular can be hard, but it tends to be easier from LGW. Things will be really hard for the end of year but if you book for November/early December, this should be less tricky and it is arguably one of the best seasons in much of South Africa. It's unclear whether upgrading to F on the CPT route is all that worth it as those are not the greatest F cabins whilst the UD 747 from LHR is undoubtedly the best J experience BA has to offer. I'd say F is always nicer than J, but this is one of the "smallest differentials" around (compared to, say, flights operated by 388 or 789 or even 77W).