Originally Posted by Pascoe

One thing for JNB connections (and it's not much help this time but might be for another time) is to book the concierge / assisted transfer service that whizzes you through immigration and straight to either your connecting flight or a lounge depending on timings.

We did this and it was well worth the money. Not only did we queue jump at immigration (with our 14m old, which is not to be sniffed at as a benefit) but they also helped us at baggage claim and delivered us to the lounge relatively unflustered.

As my wife had become increasingly unwell on the LHR >> JNB flight (not sufficiently bad to alert CC, just a quite upset stomach and a headache) this was really appreciated. And if we had had tighter timings (which in the end we were happy we didn't) it might well have made the difference between making a connection and not.

Can't however do much about the need to claim and recheck baggage unless you're on one ticket, so however well these guys perform there's a natural floor to transfer time. But it certainly shaved a chunk off at immigration fwiw.