MysticFlyer

I have to make a personal trip to Capetown in the near future and I was wondering if anyone had a clue what airlines to take to allow me to get miles. I am AA EXP.

I didn't see anything but South Africa Airways on the AA site. Don't think they are a OW or codeshare partner.

tovaz

Just one option:

Trans-Atlantic
AA to LHR, BA to Cape Town

Trans-Pacific
BA

I'm sure there are others.

olafman

I fly to South Africa 2x a year. I think I've almost flown every imaginable way.

SAA used to be partner with AA but dumped them for DL. Bad news all around.

BA is a good option if you live near one of their US cities. I just hate not getting AA miles on the Transatlantic portions so I tend to boycott BA. I'm not sure whose fault that is but I've written to ONEWORLD several times saying what a stupid rule it is.

CX is my favorite option from the West Coast. Great service. In fact, I'm in the The Wing in HKG as we speak on my way home from South Africa. It's a couple of hours more but worth it to me.

Qantas is also an option that my CX trip planning software offers me when I try to book the trip. You couldn't pay me to fly via Sydney.

Iberia is another horrible option from the west coast since it involves an extra stop in NYC or MIA. Plus there is the dismal service.

CX has the cheapest FC award ticket: 140,000 AA miles. BA is 200,000 and IB is 200,000 I think too.

Bottom line: Fast=BA. Service=CX

olgabolga

i flew BOS-JNB earlier this year. AA to LHR and BA to JNB, which worked out fine. One note, if you are lucky enough to fly in J, there are two flights from LHR to JNB each evening. The later one has the flat bed in J, the earlier one does not. Ditto on the way back, but I think the order is reversed..

Irvine

If you are flying on coach, then I do not think you EARN miles on CX. I think you only earn in business or first.
Also, I think BA can fly you straight in to CPT, so it saves the connection in JNB to SAA. I do not think the other OW partners do this. (Also may mean you have to buy the JNB-CPT portion.)
Connection through LHR (AA-BA) is quite long, and if you want to go in to London, it may not allow enough time to justify the expenses.

Whichever way you go, it is a "schlep".

I am originally from JNB, and have done a number of trips, but not since SAA withdrew from AA. I did the AA-BA trip a few times, and it was OK, just loooong.

If you can buy the kelloggs products and get enough miles, then you can get a fairly good deal using miles, rather than earning them.

Eugene

That's not correct. Y, B and H fares on CX also earn AAdvantage miles (even better for Canadians, K, M, L and S fares on CX are also eligible for AA mileage).

Travelcrazy

I agree with the above posts. One note, however. If you do the CX route via Hong Kong (which uses ONLY 100,000 miles for sa business class ticket ... well worth it for this LONG trip ... did it in January), you have to PURCHASE a R/T between Jo'burg and Cape Town (i.e. the free ticket only takes you to Jo'burg and back).

MysticFlyer

Hmmm. I could have sworn I flew iin a pretty discounted class last year on CX and still got miles. Granted, we did get tickets at the last minute so perhaps I'm wrong on this.

Thanks for the advice on SAN to CPT. Does BA fly transpacific to LHR (or somewhere I can catch a connection to CPT for). I agree that the Transatlantic rule is silly, but till it changes I won't fly BA transatlantic.

MarkinDallas

Last year I flew AA to Frankfurt and then Lufthanza to Cape Town (both in economy class)
I was impressed with Lufthanza.

Lunalilo

According to the SAA and QA timetables, there is a flight going between the RSA and Perth, Western Australia (home of the old Perth Heat!). So you could fly down to Sydney or Melbourne or even Brisbane, transfer to Perth then take the trans-Indian codeshare. Probably one of the least-travelled trans-oceanic routes out there. Good luck on your itinerary.

MysticFlyer

From a cost perspective, I actually found that a RTW explorer ticket is in the same price range as a round trip ticket via LHR (SAN-JFK-LHR-CPT). And since it allows for a little extra exploring with no real cost (except the time involved) I think it might end up being the best deal.

Hmmm, SAN-JFK-LHR-CPT-JNB-HKG-TPE-LAX-SAN???

Travelcrazy

FYI ... I am not implying no miles in discounted coach ... I have no idea on this as I flew using miles/reward ticket.

MysticFlyer

I looked back at last year and discovered that my flight to HKG was a Y class ticket. I guess I thought we had discounted tickets, but I was wrong.