Accra transit turnaround experience
 

I've just returned from doing a transit turnaround in Accra (Ghana) as part of an AONE6 that went very smoothly. A visa was not required for the transit. My routing was HKG-LHR-ACC-LHR on CX/BA.

The LHR-ACC-LHR flight is on a 3-class 767, with two rows of 1-2-1 in First. Biz is 6 rows of 2-2-2 (not NCW). There were 5 people in 1st and only two in Biz for the flight down. The cabin does feel a little cramped and more like office cubicles as the wood trim is a lighter wood (maple?) rather than the burled finish in the 747s. The video screen is also smaller (5") than on the 777/747. The 3000 mile flight is about 6 1/2 hrs each way (good for QF status credit as it is over 2700 miles). The flight departs at 2:10 PM from LHR and is scheduled to arrive at 8 PM. The return flight departs at 10:25 PM and arrives the next morning at 6:25. We were 45 minutes late departing due to slow catering in LHR, but made up some time and arrived in Accra at 8:30 PM. This was still plenty of time to complete the transit. On arrival, you walk across the tarmac into the terminal as there are no jetbridges although the terminal does appear to be fairly new. There is a Transit area off to the right and up the stairs after entering the arrivals area. I didn't have a return boarding pass, so the person at the transit desk escorted me through immigration to the checkin counter and back again. When returning through immigration, make sure to tell the offical that you are in transit otherwise he will look through your passport for 5 minutes looking for an entry stamp like he did with mine. :) Otherwise, the whole transit process can easily be done within 30 minutes. The transit official who escorted me through immigration did want a tip at this point, a few dollars should suffice. Since I was in First, the checkin counter gave me a pass to the lounge. The VIP lounge is past immigration but before security. It is very basic, free drinks and a few sandwiches. There is a duty-free store across the hall. I sat in the lounge for about 40 minutes before going through security, which can have long lines as there are several flights leaving Accra at the same time and there is only one X-ray machine. Once past security there is only one departure gate, which again gets pretty full. They will call boarding for the BA flight (on a megaphone!) and the process was very orderly, they do enforce boarding by class/row. We started boarding around 10:20 due to the late arrival. You walk down the stairs and across the tarmac to the plane. Sleeper suits were provided for the return trip. All in all though an easy experience, probably much easier than transiting LOS!

hauteboy, am I missing something about your post? You flew to Accra on a "transit" from LHR? Why?

Over the years, I've had the good fortune to travel to a lot of places - there are places I'd love to go back to, some places I wouldn't mind seeing again, a fair number that I'm indifferent to - and some I would never, ever go to again under any circumstances, Accra being one of them.

Admittedly, I was there in 1977 - maybe it's better now. In those days, you walked across the tarmac to a large, open-on-one-side shed, where the luggage was piled on the ground. Within half an hour of arriving, I was in a backroom, negotiating with an immigration officer (t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, cigarette hanging out of his mouth) about the validity of one of my vaccinations.

In many ways, I think everyone should go somewhere like Accra at least once in their life - it gives you a much greater appreciation for a lot of the things we otherwise simply take for granted. That said though, I'm still mystified as to why you went there....

Part of the OWE rules states that two entries/exits from Europe are allowed if one of them is a transit (via LHR) to/from Ghana/Nigeria. I had an AONE6 and I was trying to maximize mileage and status credits. I remember reading about someone (tfung?) who had also done an Accra transit some time ago, but hadn't heard of anyone doing one recently. There weren't any problems this time around so I assume things have improved considerably since the 70's!

Well yes, but if you hadn't gone to Accra then you would only have needed to buy an AONE5. Is the extra cost of the additional continent justified by the extra miles/credits obtained? What does that work out at in terms of miles/dollar?

The price ended up being about $600 more for an ex-CAI AONE6 vs AONE5 (36930 EGP vs 33050). It's not much worth it on a per-mile basis, but it is for status credit earning (QF) at ~$2 a status credit. I was also limited on time and routing, I only had a 5 days to finish up the last 8 segments on my RTW (my routing was sin-cmb-hkg/hkg-nrt-hkg-lhr-acc-lhr-dxb all in one go).

hkg-jnb-cpt-lhr would have earned a few more miles (but less SC's) and I've already been to South Africa a few times. Nigeria didn't seem so appealing a destination even as a transit (although on a 747 vs 767), but I have heard good things about Ghana.

Why did I go? Well, one reason (besides miles of course!) was I'd never been there and thought I'd have a look around. :) I definitely would have liked to have stayed a few days given more time. I've traveled around Africa a bit independently (though not to Central/Western Africa) so know generally what to expect. Libya was another option I was looking at now that US citizens are allowed to go, but I wouldn't have had time to get the visa and definitely wanted more time to look around.

Speaking of hassles... I think coming back through customs and immigration into the US after three weeks away was much more difficult than Ghana... that says wonders.