My wife and I are flying Business Class in the spring and have arranged to visit the spa at the airport Intercontinental Hotel first. We arrive JNB at noon and have until 6:45 pm based on Delta's latest schedule (was 6 pm). They say from Hotel to terminal is a 15 minute walk. Question is when should I leave spa for a 6:45 pm flight? Normally, I'd leave about 4:30 pm but I saw something here about slow check-in.

I am hoping to be able to check luggage through from CPT on BA 6410. Have heard conflicting stories as to whether I can do that or not. If I can, we will only have carryons with us. My agent says that the BA flights operated by Comair have a luggage agreement with Delta Airlines and that 6410 is one of them. Is she correct?

Anyhow, does it take less time to check in without luggage or is it the same line? Even if not the same, please recommend timing with checked luggage anyway as who knows what they will tell me in CPT as the CPT-JNB flight is not on the same record as the Delta JNB-ATL flight.

When is the earliest I can check in? I heard it was about four hours before flight time. If so and if I cannot check bags through, I may be dragging two or three to be checked bags over to the hotel. No sense in hanging around the airport from noon to 2:45 pm or later.