gsalem94122

Business class. Multiple cities to/from Johannesburg. Via Europe using UA, LH, LX, and/or AC.

Saw BOS RTs from $3331. (SFO RTs from $3649).

https://www.google.com/travel/flight...wvypoz5Ju1sSK6

I booked SFO -> JNB -> BOS for $3582 in early December. Booked via United for PQPs and used United credits (even having no UA metal).

dvs7310

Is this a good deal at all? There are deals from JFK to SE Asia for $2000-$2500 quite regularly, similar BIS miles. Unless maybe you need to be in JNB or elsewhere in ZA... Sounds pretty standard in today's climate. If it were F, then yeah, very noteworthy. But in Biz.... not at all.

Quail

Yes, seems like standard discount. I flew LAX-JNB a few times this year for a bit less than $3k on *A P fares, and as far as I can tell there was no sale.

dkc192

Yeah this is the standard US-JNB P fare. Often the hard part is finding P availability.

tkelvin69

Yep, nothing to see here.

cheltzel

I've been watching fares between North American an JNB for a while. Fares to JNB were a bit cheaper as recently as 30 - 60 days ago (at or below 3300 USD). The most readily available *A discounted business fares I can find (at least out of ORD) are on LX. I personally would prefer other *A carriers (LH or TK) as they have shorter connections and not charge for the better business class seats. But these two carriers are often well over 3500 USD.

JALsnipe

I'm seeing some dates for ~$2300 but much more limited with shorter stays and longer travel time:

https://www.google.com/travel/flight...ewL8ez7vQqV8n8

gsalem94122

Sorry.

Maybe these fares are common. But I'd been on the look out for this Summer (Summer in South Africa) and prices were consistent at over $4500. And well over $5000 to get 1 stop flights and no hideous connection times. I jumped on the fare when it was ~3500 and flights I actually wanted.

boggs

Thanks for sharing!
In terms of pricing, what may have been normal 6 months ago, is no longer so with oil and travel spiking.
P.S. I did get SFO-DOH-JNB about 9 months ago for $2,600 for travel this past April but I feel those were different times...and a whole diff airline. Anyway, while it may not be a great price, this may be the best you can get for a while. I would lock in and cancel if you can find something better down the road.... if you can cancel of course.

cheltzel

With regards to travel between the US and South Africa I see three distinct sets of fares: Pre-Covid, the height of Covid and Recovery. You refer to the fares in the height of Covid. I was seeing similar fares on QR, TK, and VS. There was a time where I could buy a VS UC ticket from JFK to JNB for $2300. But then the airlines would sell you a ticket and then you would find out whether or not they were flying that route when it cam tine to travel.

IMO we are slowly getting back to normal (typical business fares > $4000 for JNB, maybe even higher). Luckily I still have a fair amount of AA and UA miles in the bank and can get either *A or QR award flights form ORD to JNB fairly easily. I am not looking forward to paying for these seats when my miles run out.

Gertjaars

😴😴😴
this is not a deal. There has been wide open *A and skyteam US hubs-JNB/CPT for as low as $2K RT in J as long as you book a few months out.

cheltzel

Can you post a couple of examples?

jimrpa

Could you please provide an example of ~$2,600 US-JNB/CPT on SkyTeam (presumably including VS)?

tr3k

There was this one , admittedly in February.
There was a similar *A deal about the same time. *That* was a deal - still kicking myself for not jumping on it.

cheltzel

Have you seen anything to South Africa below $3000 since then? I've seen a couple, but all were not bookable.