Hi all, I managed a Business Class cabin award on SAA's JNB => Perth service, but wasn't successful adding a domestic segment from CPT. Since the Perth flight leaves ~9 p.m. and I don't want to risk missing it due to delays, I'm planning to fly CPT => JNB in the morning, perhaps also on SAA. Despite the separate tickets, would SAA thru-check my luggage from CPT to Perth in this scenario? I'm comfortable using luggage store for the day at JNB if not, while I either go shopping at the malls or visit the Cradle of Humankind or similar

(If they're not likely to thru-check I might just choose my preferred airline Airlink for that route!)

I�ve had SA check through on separate tickets but YMMV.

+1. My experience was all pre-bankruptcy.

No problem with through-checking on different tickets whatsoever. You may need a supervisor to assist however as not all frontline checkin staff are clued up

How about international to domestic connection at JNB? I'm planning to fly on MRU-JNB-CPT route under the same PNR. Where would I collect my luggage?

Unless something's radically changed, you need to collect your luggage at JNB to clear customs then recheck.

Thank you very much for your reply. According to some other sources there's no radical change. South Africa requires you to complete customs formalities at the point of entrance.

Most countries outside Europe, and Japan IIRC, do.

I flew into JNB from DXB earlier this month, and onward to PLZ on a single ticket. I had to clear customs, and therefore had to collect my bag. There�s a small check-in section on the left before the main arrivals hall where you can re-check bags. It�s usually (but not always) manned.

As a recent data point, I was just travelling CPT-JNB on one ticket and then JNB-MUC on another and the counter in CPT checked my bag all the way through. I had to ask about it but it was no hassle beyond asking.

Outbound has long been possible. The query was inbound.

Admittedly, this is a bit tangential for CPT-JNB-Perthfontein but pre-bankruptcy SAA experience only for me CPT-JNB-USA was to NEVER trust SAA when they said they could through check - whether on one ticket (CPT-JNB-USA) or two (CPT-JNB, JNB-USA) with SAA. It was always hit and miss - no matter what bag tags got printed out. I suspect it was more of USA-related security thing (recalling the additional hand luggage and passport checks at the gate in JNB for USA bound SAA flights). But I would say 50% of the time, we arrived in USA (JFK, ATL, IAD) to find our bags still in JNB. We made it a practice of going to the JNB carousel for the arriving CPT-JNB flight to see if our bags ended up on the carousel rather than in a can headed to the hold of the JNB-USA flight. Just in case. Since we had priority tags due to FF status or flying premium classes, we would watch for the first or second tranche on the carousel. If our stuff didn't appear, we were sorted and off to the departure lounge. If it did, well... we loaded it onto a trolley and headed off to international departures to check it ... again. Strangely (at least to our untrained security eye), SAA would just load the unaccompanied bags on the next JNB-USA flight and we'd come back to the airport the next day to fetch them (I honestly cannot recall from which airline's "lost luggage" desk).

YMMV nowadays on the outbound and USA specific issues. Also if you're dealing with outbound CPT-JNB then JNB to USA via a US carrier (DL UA, right?), then it may also still be an issue - security-wise or just between different airlines.

I didn�t read the lengthy, barely paragraphed post in detail, but operative word was �possible�. Inbound has never been possible. Outbound, it�s possible but down to the vicissitudes of various airlines.