jmappleby

We are set to travel to SA from the end of December through mid-Jan. At the time, BA was the least expensive option.

On the way out, we have a 12h layover and we were planning on seeing family. On the way back, it’s a shorter layover.

it seems like they combined the two JNB flights into one, BA56/57, but that’s fine. It also seems the UK requires us to book and pay for a day 2 PCR test to leave the airport, even though we are leaving the. country the same day. There appear to be no travel restrictions for transit passengers from red countries. The US will require a rapid antigen test within 24h of departure from JNB.

Am I missing anything here? It seems like there’s some minor additional inconvenience but no huge deal.

I ask this because the BA flights are fully refundable and direct flights EWR->JNB are at a reasonable price right now. They were $8000 a seat before, now down to $2800 which is equivalent to what we paid for BA. We would miss out on seeing family but we are supposed to isolate anyhow.

KARFA

So for the JFK-LHR-JNB if it’s same day you don’t need to buy any day 2 test. Currently tho if you leave the airport you need to head on to your departure airport or to a hotel for self isolation. If you went to a household instead you don’t have to self isolate from people in that household but you do have to self isolate from any visitors. You would need to fill in a PLF of going landside.

When coming back if it’s a same day airside connection you don’t need any test bookings. You shouldn’t need a PLF but this is recent change and some check in agents are not up to speed so it may be worth doing one just to avoid any issues.

umgowah

As well as combining the two daily flights into one, they have switched flight times to daytime flights, for the immediate short term. (This week only?) As far as I can see that is for the northbound leg only, presumably to avoid the need for staff to overnight in SA and thus be caught by restrictions on return, but be aware that the timetable is volatile at present.

Globaliser

The daytime JNB-LHR flights are in place for all of December (including 1 January JNB-LHR as the inbound half of the 31 December rotation). As a matter of detail, the flight numbers will change from 9 December (LHR-JNB) / 10 December (JNB-LHR). The pair in use is currently BA55 / BA56, but after that it will be BA57 / BA54 for the remainder of December.

umgowah's point is therefore an important one. If the daytime schedule for JNB-LHR is extended into January and then includes your flight, you will not be able to make a same-day connection to JFK but will have to overnight at LHR. This is possible, and (under present rules) I don't think you need to go into the 10-day hotel quarantine for those who are arriving and staying in the UK. But you will need to keep an eye on this. In addition, you will want to check whether the US pre-flight testing requirement in force at that time can be satisfied by a test in JNB, or whether you will need to test again when you reach London before you fly on to JFK the next day.

In your shoes, these potential complications and the uncertainty about schedules would strongly tempt me to change to direct (non-stop?) flights between NYC and JNB. I think you would have fewer points of potential failure if you do this.