How cr*p is that? I was looking at SAA reward availability yesterday for a Friday night in December (about as peak season as you can get) and SAA was happy to give me an F reward seat on either of its flights to JNB that day, or indeed on the Saturday following. (Albeit nothing on the Cape Town flight, to be fair.)

Since SAA joined *A recently, BMI miles are the way to go if you want to fly to SA. Even if the SAA flights from London are full, you can fly to Frankfurt and pick up the LH and SAA flights to Cape Town / JNB. This is also a viable option for people who live nearer to City Airport (with the LH flights to FRA) than LHR.