Transit in JNB with two different tickets
 

Hi,

in September I will go to WDH passing through JNB.
I will arrive in JNB from FCO and then I will make JNB-WDH. As said in the title, unfortunately I have two seprate tickets: FCO-JNB with ET + JNB-WDH with Air Namibia (inbound WDH-JNB with SA).
So I will have to do an international-international transit and I wonder if I will need to go through custom and pay for the visa only for collecting my bag dropped off from ET and go back to transit area for boarding with Air Namibia.

Do I have any hope to avoid to pay visa?


Thanks

You do not pay for a tourist visa when entering South Africa

I'm very sorry for my really idiot question

No visa, but how long is your connection? You may have to clear immigration and pick up any checked luggage, then re-check-in with Air Namibia. The lineups to get through JNB immigration between 6a and 10a can take over an hour. Ethiopian may not check your bag through on separate tickets. I don't recall seeing an airside transit at JNB and all passengers are channeled to the immigration/customs hall then landside.

Thanks for the info ^

I've 5h15' connection.
I hope it will be enough :D
Inbound I've 4h50' connection but I'll be flying with SA and as *G member will it be maybe faster?

Not true. Well, you may not recall seeing it - but it's there alright.

Absolutely correct. It has it's own immigration checkpoint, security, and airline transit desks. You then get fed straight into the departure duty free area near the Protea Transit Hotel.

is this transit area ever used and available for int-int pax?

no clue why you're freaking out over cnx times longer than 90 minutes

no *g recognition anywhere in jnb except their crappy saa international lounge.
food medicore
overcrowded
wifi doesn't work

I'm not sure what you're asking. The transit area being spoken about is only for int-int pax.

Basically, if your international flight arrives at a contact stand, instead of going down the escalators to immigration, you go straight and there is the international to international transfer facility (separate immigration and security check, and transfer desks). If your flight arrives at a remote stand, instead of going straight to immigration you go up the escalators to the transfer facility.

how are you unsure what i'm asking, it was clearly written in english.

i dunno if you're aware but in the rsa things very often do not really work the way they're supposed to. so if a sign says "TRANSIT AREA INT-INT PAX GO HERE" more often than not compared to the rest of the world that area would be inexplicably closed/cordoned off/etc

so i'll take your reply to mean that yes there is always a transit area available in jnb whenver there is a int flight arrival.

It is available and operates during the same times as the regular arrivals immigration is open.

PS no need to be snarky. I have lived in South Africa my whole life.

There is not a lot of traffic using Air Namibia at the outstations and with that amount of connection time, the counters may not even be open that far in advance.

The South African Air Namibia counters are pretty quiet in my experience. Barring any delays, you should be A-OK. ^

The counters in the transit area are not always airline specific, but specific to the ground handlers (Menzies, Bidair or Swissport). I'm pretty sure Air Namibia use a handling agent in South Africa, so they would likely be available.

FWIW I have used the outbound SAA lounge a number of times and always found it perfectly acceptable. (Above United, Below Turkish)

I'm on SAA for VFA-JNB nonstop arriving at 14:45. Revenue ticket booked by travel agent (it's a group trip). Then a separate PNR on SAA booked J via ANA award on JNB-LHR 20:55. Headed on to EWR from there. I will have carry on only. So two questions: what do I need to know to make this go smoothly. And should I try to link SAA flights (per other FT thread)?