Colin

US Airways ticketed a business class award trip for me JNB-DKR on SA207 as one segment, followed by DKR-IAD on SA207 as a second segment. Done because SA was offering award inventory by segment, but not for the direct JNB-IAD flight as a single segment.

When calling in to SAA for seat assignments, SAA insisted the connection at DKR was illegal and that I would be denied boarding. Spoke to two different agents on the phone to confirm. The explanations were vague, but something along the lines of DKR connections require entering Senegal and checking-in landside. With only an hour in DKR, I would miss the checkin cutoff time.

Seems BS to me - I always book direct flights as two segments, for precise seat availability by segment.

Anyway, I had US Airways cancel and void.

What do the passengers do at DKR stop? Go to a holding pin in the terminal?

bennytma

When I flew JNB-DKR-JFK in early 2011 we just stayed on the plane.

jsnydcsa

JNB-DKR-IAD. You don't get off. You stay on the plane. There are pax who do get off (destination is DKR) and who do get on. But you stay on the plane while it idles, fuels (I assume), gets re-provisioned and plane & pax go through the onboard security check pre-US arrival. Crew change also likely IIRC. But, you don't get off. There is no "connection" in DKR for an IAD-bound passenger. It's a common confusion. Itineraries often show the stop and, in the long ago past, I know they even issued two BPs - one for each leg (though that may have been for JFK-ACC/SOL/DKR-JNB) which could cause confusion day-of flight. Nowadays, it's one BP and you wouldn't have booked different seats for each leg/segment.

After I've booked travel via US (or, previously DL) awards desk, I've exclusively contacted SAA's operations in the US post ticketing for itinerary and ticket related questions. In one case, I had to escalate things back with US and put them in touch with a supervisor at SAA in the US and the situation was cleared up. But, that was the only case. SAA was always able to "handle it" (though admittedly, in some cases, only after contacting SAA HQ). I surmise that every SAA US rep has had to deal with someone who said "but I didn't want to stop in DKR ...." and has had to explain what the deal is.

It's sounds like you may not be dealing with SAA's US staff who may not be familiar with the routing. It also sounds like US's award folks may have mixed things up at the outset. I've never called them and said "I want to go JNB-IAD and had them come back with "well the award ticket for JNB-DKR is available, now let me check, DKR-IAD ... yup, here's one, you're good to go..." They've always approached it from a JNB-IAD perspective.

If you can get the booking back, you're fine. Perhaps someone has some insight on whether SAA's computers might kick the ticket back at some point for the illegal connection time based on this weird routing. But, I wouldn't know.

1kBill

The problem is that OP was not booked JNB-IAD with a fuel stop at DKR, he was booked on two back-to-back trips, one JNB-DKR and one DKR-IAD. So he would be expected to check-in at DKR for the second flight. If he doesn't check-in, his seat could be canceled.

While a rational approach would be for the SA staff to recognize this and check him in for both flights at JNB, but for whatever reasons, they claim that they cannot or will not do this. Perhaps the OP could have gambled that SA would accommodate him in JNB, however, he would run the risk of having to purchase (at last minute prices!) a new ticket JNB-IAD on day of departure or DKR-IAD a day later when he could meet the check-in time requirements.

Colin

That's was exactly my thinking and so I cancelled.

By the way, booking a "direct" flight as two segments has never been a problem for me with UA or SQ (LAX-NRT, onwards to BKK/SIN). In fact, it is very common for the airline to issue all boarding passes at origin, not just the first segment. This was a single e-ticket, same airline.

I ticketed as two-segments, being too smart by half, intentionally, as "I" availability existed for each segment, but not for the "direct' flight.

I suppose SAA wouldn't allow JNB-DKR on SA207, then DKR-JFK on SA209, either.

Oh well.

worldtraveller73

Flew IAD-DKR-JNB in Nov 2013.

As indicated, other passengers get off and transfer to terminal via bus. Continuing passengers stay on board while plane is refuelled, bathrooms cleaned and crew is changed.

SAA does offer online check in within 24 hrs of flying. Unknown if Senegal was eligible as a participating country.

You may have been able to get a Boarding Pass for the second leg prior to leaving IAD or JNB- that is, if the check in agent wasn't going to give it to you at check in.

We had headaches with SAA Information systems with ticketing mix ups on our SAA trips so it's not surprising that you've had issues.

thijsseh

Basically you were 'cheating', trying to get a fare that SA is not willing to sell. So not that surprising that they are being 'a bit difficult' about this, isn't it?

Colin

No one would accuse you of originality. I did admit to being "too smart by half".

But, no, it's not cheating. For most "direct" flights, like the specific examples I gave LAX-UA-NRT-UA-BKK or LAX-SQ-NRT-SQ-SIN, it is absolutely kosher to ticket the direct flight as two segments. In fact, I pretty much always ticket direct flights as two segments to get the best available seat on each segment and to earn full mileage(on paid fares).

DonaldW

I found myself in the exact same situation today, except that I booked the ticket online with United miles. With some persistence, though, I found a very helpful rep at United who was able to work with the folks at SAA to change the ticket to a single through-ticket from JNB to IAD without the illegal connection in DKR.