Originally Posted by
anabolism
That's what worried me, but I think it means a passport that's been extended to remain valid beyond it's stated expiration. Apparently, with so many government offices of various countries being closed so much due to COVID, a number of countries have blanket extended their passports. So I think this text just means that if anyone has a machine-readable passport that's past its expiration date but has been extended by decree, South Africa won't accept it.
That rule, language has been around since well B.C. (before Covid). I think since 2014. And, to be honest, I haven't heard - and you'd likely hear it in this thread - of anyone encountering a situation entering or departing SA during Covid restrictions based on passport/visa expiration due to closure of govt offices.
Originally Posted by
anabolism
My best guess now is that it all depends on where and when I get BPs. QR can often do check-in and provide BPs for flights up to 48 hours away (not including flights to the U.S.), while many airlines are limited to 24 hours in most cases. So, I think I need to assume that I won't be able to get a BP for CPT until I'm in DOH, so I need to ignore all the earlier flights and just count the DOH one as the first, even though it'll be the fourth.
Again, as thoroughly discussed in this thread. It's the time of the first flight on the PNR that includes your flight into SA. You say your PNR that includes your flight into SA starts includes at least 2 days (~24 hrs + ~33 hours) of stops. Technically, true layovers shouldn't be a problem. And, why wouldn't you get all your BPs for your full long layover itinerary? In all of my flying over 20+ years, I cannot ever recall not getting all the BPs at the start of my journey on the PNR, even if I had long layovers. Granted some of those BPs may have become invalid and torn up b/c of delays, missed connections, rebookings, etc. If your layover is really a stop thus ending "part one" of your journey on your PNR and then you're restarting your journey after a "stop", one might experience problems or be required to test.