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New BA Routes 2018: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (DUR)

New BA Routes 2018: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (DUR)

Old Oct 30, 2018, 12:21 am
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New BA Routes 2018: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (DUR)



Greetings from sunny(but then rather rainy) Durban.

Key facts
- New direct LHR-DUR service started on Monday 29 October 2018
- The service runs 3 days a weeks from London Heathrow Terminal 5 on Mondays, Thursday and Saturday.
- Flights leave London late afternoon as an overnight flight, arriving early in the morning in to Durban King Shaka International Airport
- From Durban to LHR the service runs as a long daytime flight on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays mornings.
- On other days of the week there remains the indirect flights via JNB and possibly CPT, with connections provided by BA-Comair.
- It's a relatively long flight, 11 hours and covers 5,900 miles
- The service is operated by 787-8 aircraft, which have Club World, World Traveller Plus and World Traveller cabins, there is no First cabin sold on this route.
- Flights are currently operated by Mixed Fleet crew
- Currently the cheapest return fares from London are 488 in World Traveller, as a Basic (HBO) fare.

BA links
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ghts-to-durban

Ten things to do in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...-kwazulu-natal

The inaugural service
We start with a photo of the arrival of G-ZBJH on 30 October 2018 at dawn in Durban, having left London Heathrow Terminal 5 at 15:24 the previous day. So that's a flight of 11 hours and 4 minutes, take off (16:08 GMT) to landing (05:12 local time) to cover the Great Circle mileage of 5,903 miles, or 9,500 km. As you can see there was quite an arrival party. There wasn't a water salute, given that South Africa is recovering from a drought, plus BA don't allow water salutes on B787s, fearful that the water pressure from the fire brigade hoses would damage the aircraft.



It's not the first time that the scale of festivities for an inaugural has been kept low key at the London end. If you look carefully you will see some mention of the special day on the screens.



Whereas at the Durban end we got a band to serenade our arrival: There was quite a crowd of people there for this, and several television crews.





There was also a trolley of wine, juice and doughnuts, though I doubt many of the passengers would have been hungry at this point.




But to rewind a bit, just before departure from London on Monday afternoon, we rolled past the 747 that has been marked up for the 2018 Poppy Appeal.



After departure there was a bit of slow trundle to departures, but soon enough we were on our way southwards. The flight was fairly smooth, I think the seat belt lights came on just once mid flight for turbulence, and not at all for the return flight.

Here was the main meal menu, which is in line with the new CW catering standard.



The wine and other drinks were the same on the return flight, and details are in the second post in this thread below.

The service involved two rounds of drinks first and a fairly leisurely roll into the meal service. Given the long flight and we were airborne just after 4pm I could see the point in not rushing out food too soon after lunch. See timings below but the starters arrived 97 minutes after take off at 17:45 hrs GMT, which seemed OK to me. All meals were prepared fully in the galley and brought to passengers, there was no trolley run at all in Club World in either direction at any point.

For the starters I went for the soup and salad, which tends to work well on the new CW menu. As it did here, though a bit of extra seasoning in the soup lifted it somewhat.



Then for the main course I went for the vegetable curry, and it was pretty stunning - creamy and flavoursome with a bit of a kick without being anti-social about it. I would definitely have this again given the chance.


I am glad I asked for both the dessert and the cheese, since the Afrikaner dish, Melktert (milk tart) was distinctly ungenerous. One gulp and it was gone! Luckily the cheese board was a shade more lavish.



And so to bed. Breakfast was served 75 minutes before arrival. The menu was almost identical to the breakfast served to me in First a few weeks before on LHR-KUL, certainly in terms of the hot options. I didn't get that far, it was a bit early for me to tackle the lower section of the menu.




Most unfortunately, from my perspective, the crew could not get the Moving Map to work in either direction. The crew tried to kid the system by entering that we were flying to or from JNB, but nothing seemed to work. It did feel odd not to have the Map available, not least because the route through Africa was to my mind very interesting. Highly annoying.



Note about the crew
This is the first longhaul service I can recall where the inaugural was handled by Mixed Fleet, BA management tends to prefer Worldwide crews to at least start the service, and perhaps handing over to MF a few months down the line. I was very pleased with the service I had on this flight, and indeed the return too since it was the same crew. The CSM had a background on Virgin and was excellent, her IBM (line manager) was also working the flight - that's the norm on inaugurals - and she was supported by a clearly hand-picked crew. I was mainly served by the CSM and referred to by my surname by all crew throughout both flights. There weren't that many status passengers on board, strangely. Outbound was nearly a full flight in all cabins, inbound was only half full. The outbound was characterised by a high proportion of fairly elderly passengers, which can sometimes add to the pressures on crew given that few of them seemed to be seasoned travellers. But the mainly young crew seemed to enjoy looking after them, despite the extra work involved. I would see their efforts were appreciated by these passengers.

Flight timings

All times GMT.
15:24 - Doors closed
15:27 - Airbridge disengaged
15:41 - Pushback from stand B48
15:56 - Arrival at 09R queue point
16:08 - Take off from 09R
16:15 - Seat belt sign off
16:45 - Drinks
16:55 - Meal order
17:15 - Second round of drinks
17:45 - First course served
18:15 - Main course
18:40 - Dessert / cheese
18:55 - Tray removed
01:55 - Breakfast served (orders were taken immediately before service, there were no cards)
03:13 - Landing in DUR
03:23 - Doors open, gate 20. This was 05:23 South African time.

Scheduled times were depart 15:30 GMT, arrive 05:20 South African time.

Arrival comments
From doors open to the taxi pickup area didn't take long, in sharp contrast to some experiences at CPT and JNB, probably not more than 15 minutes in all from leaving the aircraft. I waked straight to an immigration officer with no queue, and they seemed to have about 6 agents out for the BA service, which was the only international flight arriving that morning. Before that, there was a slightly odd experience since the Customs service wanted to run their sniffer dogs through the hand luggage. The procedure in the UK is to allow the dogs (often Springers) to run past the passenger and they are picking up a bit on the passenger's reactions to some degree. However in Durban we were herded into blocks of about a dozen and asked to leave our bags on one side of the corridor, and stand clear on the other side, well away from the dog working his way through the line of bags (a Lab cross from the looks of him, which also made me wonder about effectiveness). I suppose it only took a few minutes in all but the Customs officers made it a bigger deal than the UK version.

I used Uber from the airport. This required several attempts, because the taxi drivers aren't yet used to services arriving at this hour. The collection area is Arrival Pickup, which is the exit door just past the airport branch of Woolworths. Moreover the App doesn't show the taxi moving towards you, due to a local block on GPS tracking. So you're best to send an in-App message to the driver after ordering saying something like "standing on the left side of the pickup area", and seeing if it gets auto-acknowledged as delivered. And/or ring the driver. This is likely to be a temporary issue, the airport run is a sought after fare by drivers so over time there will be better supply. 280 ZAR to the Hilton Durban. Otherwise Uber works well in Durban and uMhlanga.

Route map



History of the route

With a grateful thanks to DrBernardo who has once again done a great job in giving some background to the route. The rest of this section comes from him.

Durban was first served by air from the UK on Imperial Airways Flying Boat services, which began in June 1937, on the following route: Southampton – Marseille – Rome – Brindisi – Athens – Alexandria – Cairo – Luxor – Wadi Halfa – Khartoum – Malakal – Butiaba – Port Bell (Kampala) – Kisumu – Mombasa – Dar es Salaam – Lindi – Lumbo – Quelimane – Beira – Lourenco Marques – Durban (plus some optional stops along the way!). There is a nice description of the journey from a traveller’s diary on this webpage (http://www.fad.co.za/Resources/aviation/FB/eye5.htm).

With the start of the Second World War, commercial flying ceased and Imperial Airways was merged into BOAC, which took over the flying boat services for official purposes and – realising that routes across the Mediterranean might become blocked – established a base for their flying boats at Durban. In 1940, when services from the UK via the Med indeed had to end, Durban became one end of the so-called “horseshoe route” for flying boats, which saw them flying up to Cairo, then East to Singapore, and down to Sydney and Auckland and back – to connect the “rest” of the Empire now that all their previous routes (many of which connected in Cairo/Alexandria in any case) originating from the UK were blocked. Once BOAC acquired flying boats with a long enough range, during the war, they were once again able to link into this route from the UK with a flight that went via Lisbon down to and around West Africa, and then East across Central Africa to Khartoum.

After the end of the war, commercial services resumed on the earlier routes, but the growing ability of longer-range land-based aircraft to fly routes and lack of commercial demand meant the flying boat service to Durban ended in March 1947 (although military services continued for around 10 years thereafter). The new services operated to the more major cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, however.

British Airways (as BOAC had by then become) next ventured to Durban in January 1981, as a weekly beyond point on one of the two weekly Heathrow – Harare services (the other one going on to Cape Town). By 1988 this weekly service had moved behind Jo’burg instead (possibly with a short break from ’87 – ’88, though it’s hard to find evidence of this – if anyone has a Worldwide Timetable for Summer 1987, I’d be interested to check). Services to South Africa were a rather fraught matter during the 1990s, owing both to the South African government’s extreme reluctance to allow more services (despite a burgeoning tourism industry and a lack of capacity – protecting SAA seemed to take priority) as well as a long wrangle between BA and Virgin for rights for new flights.

In any case, the gradual increase in services, and relative strength of the Durban market (compared to Joburg) in the first half of the decade, saw the number of frequencies to Durban (still behind JNB) increase to 4 per week. A combination of the increasing focus on the JNB market, the new franchise arrangement with South African carrier Comair, and the expense of operating short end-sectors beyond Joburg, finally led to them being dropped in March 1999. At the time, the number of air services to South Africa allowed by the government was “maxed out” by BA and Virgin, so there was no question of a direct London-Durban service, even if there had been enough traffic to justify it as a standalone.

Route promotion
There is some advertising in Durban for the new route, and a number of people I met there were aware that the service had started.



There are also some good deals on BA Holidays to Durban, feature hotels and fly-drive options. There is also a promotion, valid until approximately 12 December, on some Amex cards, allowing 100 off the direct fares to Durban:
Gaming the Amex Durban offer

Launch background

And the background to this new service can be found here

Would Durban be viable? [starts 29th Oct 2018, 3 x weekly, 787-8]
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Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; Nov 5, 2018 at 3:12 pm
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Old Oct 30, 2018, 12:22 am
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Key information
- OLCI: works as normal, both self printed and App boarding passes are available, and work for the lounge too. If HBO there is no need to visit the check-in desk.
- From central Durban, it takes about 30 minutes to get to the airport using a good highway. From uMhlanga under 15 minutes.
- Check-in opens 3 hours before departure, check-in desks are numbers 46 to 54, not the same as the domestic Comair BA desks, which are in the next aisle along. It's quite ok to check in 75 minutes before departure, the BA service is the only flight in the international terminal.
- It took me under 5 minutes to get from the taxi drop off to the airside lounge, clearing security and then passport control. If I hadn't been taking photos it would have taken less time. Security: laptops and larger tablets out, liquids can remain in the bag.
- Lounge: uMp(h)afa Premium Lounge - details below and in the Africa lounge guide via the Dashboard.
- Airside: there is a caf and a medium sized duty free shop, the latter does have a range of South African wine. There are very few other facilities.
- Departure gate: likely to be gate 20, the final gate in the international area, a couple of minutes from the lounge. There is an id check just before the gate. Group boarding is in operation.
- Ground agents: Menzies.


Durban to London Heathrow flight
And so home to England. As I pulled up in the Uber taxi to the airport, the first thing I saw on the building was G-ZBJG reflected on the glass.


When I turned around the aircraft was rather more visible, being prepared for my flight, having arrived an hour or so earlier.



The check-in area is not handled by Comair British Airways, which is on the left most side, instead it is handled on the next aisle along by Menzies. I suspect that is due to the fact that with only a limited international service, only Menzies' staff have been cleared to work there.



One big advantage of using Durban over CPT and JNB is the slick and efficient departure experience, given that BA is the only flight using the international side of the terminal. It takes just a few minutes to get from the drop off area to airside.

The facilities in the airside area of DUR are quite limited. After security and then passport control, there is this caf, a medium sized duty free shop, the lounge and the 3 sets of international gates - that's it. For more details on the lounge arrangements see here
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30387901-post86.html





There wasn't much a view at take off due to low clouds, but I think that the A side will have the best views on departure. I was in 3A and got this shot of the uMhlanga resort town from the airport, we were in the clouds by the time we got over Durban itself. We did a sharp right turn there to head towards Johannesburg and Botswana.




Given the early start I was pleased to see there was a proper breakfast menu - SEZ which is slightly shorter but leaves at a similar time, goes straight into lunch.



Breakfast was served swiftly after take off - 47 minutes with a prior drinks round. Starting off breakfast with sliced fruits, yoghurt with granola and that day's copy of the Daily Telegraph.



The sausage was rather more meaty than a UK sausage, but it was undoubtedly a decent hot breakfast effort.




And rather later on in the day, here is the dinner menu, with the extended list of starters and dessert options, but just 3 main course. This was served 3 hours from landing, and 45 minutes before the time suggested in the service standards. The crew were right to do this, it was already quite some time after breakfast by this stage - over 7 hours - and everyone was up and about by this stage and it certainly avoided a big rush to complete everything before landing.




Now I asked for the salad and the Brinjal, without looking fully at the details. It turns out that grilled brinjal (aubergine) featured heavily on both dishes and the difference in cheese was between feta and goats cheese. So maybe not the best combination.




I had the hake for the main course, and though it was fine if unexciting, I did for once wonder whether I should have gone for the beef instead since it did look quite impressive.


For desserts I had the apple crumble, though it perhaps should have been called apple cobbler, and the generous cheese plate. Overall there was a a lot of food here and it was a good meal overall, but I really should have gone for soup + salad and the beef.



Flight timings
South African time except where indicated

07:33 - Doors closed and airbridge disengaged, gate 20
07:34 - Pushback
07:53 - Take off (quite a long taxi at DUR)
08:00 - Seat belts off.
08:20 - Drinks
08:40 - Breakfast tray delivered
08:55 - Main course breakfast delivered
09:10 - Tray removed
16:00 - Dinner tray / first course delivered
16:35 - Main course
16:50 - Dessert / cheese
17:00 - Tray removed
18:47 - "Twenty minutes to landing"
19:07 - Landing 09R again
19:14 - Doors open gate B34, 17:14 GMT

Scheduled time was depart 07:30, arrive 17:40 GMT

Drinks menu
This applies to both sectors, it was the same menu. The all important Champagne menu.....



Here are the red and white wine menus, it's a bit surprising they didn't include a South African product here.





Route map

Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; Nov 5, 2018 at 3:08 pm
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Old Oct 30, 2018, 12:22 am
  #3  
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Just some general notes about visiting Durban, however my previous visits to Durban were in 1988 - my first ever visit to South Africa - and February 1990. I was in Durban when Nelson Mandela (Madiba) was released from prison. So though I've made more recent visits to the Cape, this was my first visit to KwaZulu-Natal in nearly 30 years and quite a lot has changed since the days of Apartheid. Nevertheless I can hardly set myself up as an expert on Durban, so I hope those more familiar with the area can give their suggestions in the posts below. I stayed at the Hilton Durban, which has been recently refitted and provides luxurious accommodation in the centre of Durban, but as will perhaps be apparent isn't necessarily a good option for tourists.

Durban was founded as a protected Indian Ocean port in 1824, when it was named Port Natal by its British setters, who had negotiated a land and trading deal with the warrior King Shaka of the Zulus. The town was renamed Durban in 1835, being named after then governor of the Eastern Cape. Its natural harbour, sugar cane planations and location facing India led to rapid growth, and it is now the third city of South Africa with a population of 3.5 million.

I think it is fair to say that the city itself has some attractions for tourists, notably the tropical climate, clean beaches, surfing opportunities and many good places to stay and eat. However I suspect that for tourists the main attraction will be as a gateway to the extraordinary countryside and beaches around the city, up to the Drakensberg mountains and the Great Escarpment. The fly-drive possibilities are endless, including wildlife tours to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, which is more affordable that the Kruger and in some ways easier to tour.

Durban - things to see
- Botanical Gardens
Open daily, this gives an interesting insight to South Africa's flora and fauna. The orchid house is particularly educational. It was opened in 1848 and is very well maintained. There are tea rooms there, or you can bring a picnic. That is if the ducks don't get to your food first.
- Esplanade / Harbour area
This would include the area around the Royal Natal Yacht Club - the oldest yacht club in Africa. A good spot to admire the Durban fleet. Airbnb has a listing for cheap accommodation in the club house.
- Golden Mile
The high rolling beach that connects North Beach and South Beach is well known as challenging for surfers, and gets the occasional shark or even whale incursion. There is a shark net outside the breakers. Sharks can also be seen at the uShaka Marine World Aquarium. There's also a small surf museum on Lower Marine Parade.
- uMhlanga / Umhlanga
This is an upscale and generally crime free beach resort a few miles north of Durban, half way to the airport. I found it amusing in a way, because when I visited before Durban was the resort, popular with students in the Season (when the universities and colleges closed up for their long break) whereas uMhlanga was not considered a suitable location to visit. Now it almost appears to have swapped over, and is probably the more sensible place to stay particularly if staying for a few days before heading off into the many other attractions of KZN. The "hl" in the town's name should be pronounced with the Welsh rolled double l sound.

Getting around
Car hire is very popular in South Africa and fairly good value too. Taxis are the other option, and these are easy to use. Uber is also available, see post 1 for some comments.

Crime in Durban
South Africa has a bad crime problem and it is best addressed rather than hidden, it dominates everyday life in the cities and Durban isn't immune. The practical impact is that those with money tend to use cars or taxis to get between safe areas, even if the distance is walkable, and steer clear of known danger zones. Durban's crime rate sits between Cape Town and Johannesburg, and the murder rate is almost as bad as Detroit. Tourists aren't usually so exposed to this, but areas like the Central Business District - which is frankly somewhat run down - would not be sensible to visit late at night. It was in a fairly ramshackle state even 30 years ago and now suffers from "slumlords" - properties whose owners can't afford to update or modernise. You can't assume on a police presence. Daytime on the other hand should be fine in the CBD, with the usual sensible precautions, as are the out of town shopping areas and the more upmarket suburbs, where bars and restaurants are very much open to visitors late into the night. I didn't see any crime while I was there, but I was once politely approached to put away my telephone, to prevent it from being snatched.
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Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; Nov 5, 2018 at 2:45 pm
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Old Oct 30, 2018, 4:49 am
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Seemed topical but just been advised there's a flash sale for DUR on at the moment, bookable until 31 Oct.

I'm not able to confirm departure dates at the mo, also, there is a good chance it is a Tour Op Flash Sale, so have a look at prices with a few nights accommodation / car hire if you don't see something special, but the prices are good..
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Old Oct 30, 2018, 10:15 am
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Good news that this is starting now, I'm sure we'll be on board at some point soon as the in-laws live in KZN.

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Old Nov 4, 2018, 4:06 am
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Thank you for posting what I assume is the menu from the return trip. I’m on the similarly timed day flight back from Joburg soon and I was vaguely curious as to what would be served, hoping it wouldn’t be breakfast and afternoon tea.
What was the food like? I’ve always been distinctly underwhelmed by the quality of the food ex-South Africa.
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Old Nov 4, 2018, 4:23 am
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Originally Posted by BA235
Thank you for posting what I assume is the menu from the return trip. Im on the similarly timed day flight back from Joburg soon and I was vaguely curious as to what would be served, hoping it wouldnt be breakfast and afternoon tea.
What was the food like? Ive always been distinctly underwhelmed by the quality of the food ex-South Africa.
I'm still uploading photos, so it will probably be tomorrow before the first few posts are tidied up. I hadn't realised that BA50 (JNB-LHR) has nearly identical timings to BA42 (DUR-LHR), which is one of the furthest day time flights operated by BA (BKK is 50 miles longer than DUR, PVG is 150 miles shorter). But on the DUR-LHR service it's a full breakfast and full dinner service on the new CW menu format. I enjoyed the food, but the issue isn't so much the country, as the kitchen allocated for the service. I don't know, but I guess BA had to create a kitchen arrangement at DUR since there are very few other international service departing that airport, EK being the only longhaul. So that may well make it different to JNB and CPT.
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Old Nov 4, 2018, 5:10 am
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I always look forward to your reports, so thank you, and well done.
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Old Nov 4, 2018, 5:36 am
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Originally Posted by BA235
I always look forward to your reports, so thank you, and well done.
+1. Thank you c-w-s, I was particularly interested in the content of your post # 1 (regarding the history of the route). Fascinating stuff.
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Old Nov 4, 2018, 5:57 am
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A decent english breakfast ex durban. The one i had on the way back from LAX last month didnt look half as good and the taste reflected that.
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Old Nov 4, 2018, 6:49 am
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I wonder how having a direct flight works with Comair? The reason I ask is have done the BA LHR - JNB - DUR for many years (it was that or EK to Durban. Each had its own pros and cons). So the LHR flight must have been a major feeder of the comair JNB - DUR route. So I wonder that Comair feel about the direct flights and how it works with BA I'm guessing for the lost revenue. But I guess we will never know!
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Old Nov 5, 2018, 5:05 am
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Originally Posted by madmax_uk
So the LHR flight must have been a major feeder of the comair JNB - DUR route. So I wonder that Comair feel about the direct flights and how it works with BA I'm guessing for the lost revenue. But I guess we will never know!
I've also wondered this, LHR-JNB-DUR being a regular route for me too.

However, I have noticed that the dynamics of JNB-DUR seem to have changed gradually, not least with SA's progressive withdrawal from the route. It's sometimes hard to avoid a JE aircraft!
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Old Nov 5, 2018, 3:14 pm
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I have now completed posts 1, 2 and 3, though I may update them further if something else useful comes to mind. An enjoyable pair of flights and a very interesting new, but not so new, destination.
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Old Nov 5, 2018, 3:34 pm
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
I have now completed posts 1, 2 and 3, though I may update them further if something else useful comes to mind. An enjoyable pair of flights and a very interesting new, but not so new, destination.
thanks for sharing this report, its clearly taken you some time to write and is very informative.

just a question if i may, did you have any particular reason to be in durban, were you a guest of BAs, or did you just fancy a jolly on the inaugural?

Ive always fancied South Africa but the safety situation spooks me for going (as a solo traveller) and would probably worry the family to death.
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Old Nov 5, 2018, 3:44 pm
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Originally Posted by bmibaby737
Ive always fancied South Africa but the safety situation spooks me for going (as a solo traveller) and would probably worry the family to death.
No, it really isn't like that! I think that there are worse places on the BA network for personal safety.
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