BA connection to SAA via JNB
 

Hi all,

I'm looking a flying from LHR to Gaborone via JNB with the first leg operated by BA and the second via SAA.

My question is, do you know if the two airlines have a agreement in place to allow flights to connect or baggage to transfer all the way through removing the need to come out of the airport in JNB and check back in again.

The reason for asking is that flight A lands at 0705 and flight B departs at 0955.

Thanks

There is a baggage interline agreement, so if both flights are on one ticket, then a baggage through-check should be possible.

However, I don't know whether BA would be able to issue the SA boarding pass at LHR - others may have better information about this. But even if BA can't, I think that should be no more than a minor inconvenience at JNB. With a 2:50 international-to-international connection, there shouldn't be any issues if the bags are through-checked. (I think you'd have a reasonable chance even if they aren't.)

Ah excellent, so the booking itself would be placed as two separate bookings,one with BA to JNB and the second directly with SAA to Gabarone, will that still be ok to check all the way through from Heathrow?

BA will not interline bags on separate tickets. It won't even do it BA to BA.

Nope, BA won't check bags through on separate tickets.

In my experience JNB early morning can be quick, a nightmare or anything in between. It just depends what lands in which order. 3 hours could be tight for collecting bags and rechecking.

No.

You should book one ticket, typically with BA as the first carrier, connecting to BA. Booking is irrelevant. All that matters is the ticket and it will have two segments. That is the entire purpose of an interline ticketing agreement. You may find that you need to book this by phone although start online to see what turns up.

My experience - admittedly a couple of years ago - of arriving in JNB on BA and transferring to SAA for their Airlink flights to Swaziland or Lesotho was that through baggage does not work, so I had to immigrate into SA (long queue in the morning when lots of flights arrive, but at least it's free), pick up the bag, take it to SAA desk and drop it off even though I had already checked in, and back through security and emigrate...

So for example this booking would work fine as a straight through transfer to Gabarone as it's booked completely with BA even though its two separate airlines?

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7c075f080f.jpg

If booked on BA.com it will be on one ticket & BA 125- stock. I don't think BA.com can sell things like two tickets, one PNR, or other more complex variations a OTA or TA might be able to do.

If you are booking this as two separate tickets I would say there is no chance that BA will send your bags onto SA. You will need to clear immigration, collect your bags, pass through customs and then re-check your bags at JNB. Like the USA in SA you clear customs at the port of entry, not the final port of your journey. The EU is a bit of an outlier in this respect.

If your bags don't get tagged, there is an efficient bag drop in the international arrivals area at JNB. Its several years ago since I've done it on separate tickets and I cannot remember if the agents at LBA tagged the bags all the way through to CPT (it was two redemption tickets). I think they did and erroneously told us we would next see them in CPT - which I knew wasn't right. So just be careful to check your baggage receipts.

That's one booking for all flights so will work. If you book a return to JNB and then book the other flights and go through the process twice the through bag checks will not work.

Just thought I'd mention that in the OP the departure time from ORT is given as 09:55 but the screen shot of your flight details it says 09:15. I don't know if this will make any difference to you overall however.

I haven't actually booked the ticket yet I'm just in the planning stage however that BA option which allows me to book it all in 1 go is the one I'm looking at.

Based on that ticket booking with BA should be a straight through, 1 ticket, bags checked all the way ticket?

Thanks

Yes, if you book the flight via BA.com it will be a single ticket even with a mix of airlines. Sometimes when calling BA you can get them to book odd combinations of flights that are not available online, a good travel agent would also be able to do this for you.

International transits at JNB are fairly easy, whereas going through immigration, waiting for you bag, rechecking it then going though security and exit passport control is a pain and could easily 2 hours or more on a bad day.

While this is true it doesn't really match the OP's journey as he is heading for Botswana.

BA used to check through bags on separate tickets, they have stopped doing this over the past 2 years or so.