Originally Posted by jsnydcsa

Admittedly, this is a bit tangential for CPT-JNB-Perthfontein but pre-bankruptcy SAA experience only for me CPT-JNB-USA was to NEVER trust SAA when they said they could through check - whether on one ticket (CPT-JNB-USA) or two (CPT-JNB, JNB-USA) with SAA. It was always hit and miss - no matter what bag tags got printed out. I suspect it was more of USA-related security thing (recalling the additional hand luggage and passport checks at the gate in JNB for USA bound SAA flights). But I would say 50% of the time, we arrived in USA (JFK, ATL, IAD) to find our bags still in JNB. We made it a practice of going to the JNB carousel for the arriving CPT-JNB flight to see if our bags ended up on the carousel rather than in a can headed to the hold of the JNB-USA flight. Just in case. Since we had priority tags due to FF status or flying premium classes, we would watch for the first or second tranche on the carousel. If our stuff didn't appear, we were sorted and off to the departure lounge. If it did, well... we loaded it onto a trolley and headed off to international departures to check it ... again. Strangely (at least to our untrained security eye), SAA would just load the unaccompanied bags on the next JNB-USA flight and we'd come back to the airport the next day to fetch them (I honestly cannot recall from which airline's "lost luggage" desk).

YMMV nowadays on the outbound and USA specific issues. Also if you're dealing with outbound CPT-JNB then JNB to USA via a US carrier (DL UA, right?), then it may also still be an issue - security-wise or just between different airlines.