Chammer

I'm looking at my first Ex-EU fare. I'm hoping to go to JNB, and return from CPT (though happy with a return from either and getting an internal flight). Turkish is coming out massively cheaper than BA (or any OW airline). Am I doing something wrong, or does TK just generally offer much cheaper fares?

All in J.

The cheapest I've found:

Outbound: 27th/28th/29th April
Inbound: 12th/13th/14th May

TK routing
DUB-IST-JNB
CPT-IST-AMS
�1731

BA routing
MAD-LHR-JNB ret
�2781

Flying Doctor

South Africa is one of BA's most profitable regions and since SAA became a regional carrier and VS only operates to JNB (and CPT peak season) they can pretty much whack up the fares which is what they have done....
FD.

BA or bust

What is the prime objective?
If it is price then it is what it is (assuming you have exhausted all options using ITA Matrix).
If it is the TPs, you can probably get those easily with some longer EU short hauls for less than the price difference.

GavT_london

Take a look at QR from the nordics (Sweden, Norway sometimes Finland)

There was a odd fare I found a while ago which my friends actually booked for Xmas this year which was QR vie>doh>cpt/jnb then cpt>doh>cdg
(I don�t think I�ve ever heard vie being a cheap eu start point!)

Chammer

Ultimately price, though I would be happy to pay a bit extra for the avios/TP. I'm just surprised by quite how much more BA is over some of the other carriers.

orbitmic

You might get a cheaper fare at some point, but in general terms, OW is an expensive alliance at the moment for everything except transatlantic, and quite overwhelmingly, you'll likely get much cheaper fares on TK or even LH-LX, and you can get them from the UK with a fully protected one stop trip (as opposed to first going somewhere else to position, no protection nor through checking, and then take another one stop trip from wherever).

In other words, varying the point of departure will usually enable you to lower the cost of your trip with BA compared to the same trip from the UK, but will overwhelmingly not enable you to get anywhere near the cost of one stop itineraries with other alliances either from the UK or from another country except on some transatlantic routes on which the three main alliances often match each other's prices due to JV effects (it is routine for the three US majors to act oligopolistically and match each other's fares to the dollar, it is not usual for the three European majors to do so. It seems that JV routes from either origin are typically following the US rather than the European tradition)..So if you want BA/OW regardless of third country departure, you will pay a significant premium over TK, LH and some middle eastern competitors (SV and MS - which are respectively part of ST and *A - and typically cheapest of that lot). Ethiopian (also *A) often has cheap deals to South Africa too.

Horatio

I've done SA way less than others on here, but I think five times (although not since Covid) and as mentioned above TK or ET will probably be the cheapest. Back in 2015 we did Kenya via NBO, which was only alright, but good for the price, and ex-AMS with BA for something crazy good like EUR1,700 pp. I've not seen anything like that post-Covid. Not sure I've ever actually paid full price ex-LON on BA. I've got fairly close to pushing the button on TK or ET but never quite got there.

Deckter

There�s also VIE-JNB with SV for 1255�. No booze airline, if that�s important to you.

Swanhunter

Post Covid BA's fares to SA are HIGH. Family were looking at regular WT fares over the UK summer and were seeing �800+. Once upon a time that would have been sub �500. ex EU J fares at �1500 (AMS was a fav) are long since gone.

SK AAR

Yeah, those ex AMS J/C fares do not come up anymore

Why don't you just book with TK? In all aspects superior to BA IMO...

stevie

I have flown TK in J class for last couple of holidays to Asia. As previously said it is much better than BA in all respects....but the 777 is a 2-3-2 cabin, which is fine when my wife is sitting beside me. The 787 is a nice plane and the wifi has worked great on all flights I have taken with them. Given price is driving your decision go with TK, you will be pleasantly surprised.

jamestg

I got approx �900 return in WTP from DUB to CPT this November on BA.

lhrsfo

Go with TK. Overall a good experience. It does some things better than BA and some things worse but is very solid. Plus its FF programme is solid and has some very strong redemption values.

gnomeza

I fly LHR-CPT a couple of times a year. Most recently in September.

These are the routes and prices I was tracking:

• �1405 ET CPH-VIE-ADD-JNB 13-26 Sep
• �1416 EY BRU-AUH-JNB 12-25 Sep (b787, b787)
• �1521 EY FRA-AUH-JNB 10-25 Sep (b787,b789)
• �1524 EY LHR-AUH-JNB 12-25 Sep (a380,b789)
  • EY20, EY602 (1h15AUH)
• �1563 EY GVA-AUH-JNB 10-25 Sep (b787,b789)
• �1631 CDG-KGL-HRE-CPT RwandAir 9-25 Sep
• �1655 LX,SA OSL-FRA-JNB-CPT 5-25 Sep (a340)
• �1659 EY MXP-AUH-JNB 11-25 Sep (b78x,b789)
• �1777 DUB-AMS(+10h)-CPT 11-27 Sep (b777)
• �1804 LX,WK OSL-ZRH-CPT 16-25 Sep
• �1838 MAD-AMS-CPT 12-26 Sep
• �1901 LYS-CDG-AMS(+12h)-CPT (b777) 12-27 Sep

Maybe there's something fruitful in that.

EDIT: Although I might add that the LHR-AUH-JNB with the minimum connection resulted in my spending an extra 24hrs in Abu Dhabi.

Etihad were proactive with the rerouting - even though AUH-JNB was actually *also* delayed enough that I could have made it...

Nice hotel and got to see the Grand Mosque and other bits of Abu Dhabi which wasn't bad...

Chammer

Thanks! I've decided to book the following on Turkish.
DUB-IST-JNB 29th April
CPT-IST 12th May
IST-OSL 15th May

�1602

I'm planning on spending a night in Istanbul, booking a BA reward flight back to LHR on 14th, and dropping the IST-OSL leg