I think the most important factor in securing good redemption seats for SA is to be flexible with when you would like to holiday. Trying to book during the northern holidays is next to impossible in premium cabins. However, October and November are fairly quite months and the weather is almost as good as during the African summer.

You benefit from not only avoiding the crowds and paying off-seasons rates once on the ground (making an already cheap destination even cheaper), but you also have some more flexibility within that off-season period usually, especially if you plan ahead.