VS to Johannesburg?
 

Anyone ever fly VS to JNB?

What are your thoughts?

How would you compare it to SAA?

I go LAX-LHR-JNB
 

We go every year for Christmas on Virgin Atlantic and we stay at Ulusaba.

I've not done SAA internationally only within SA.

Where are you from and what class of service would you take?

Steve

SFO and economy class.

Uh.... yikes.
 

I'm very partial to Virgin Atlantic but I think its A LOT shorter on SAA because you go through either JFK or IAD and then direct to Johannesburg, and on Virgin its London (Heathrow) then direct to Johannesburg.

Here is a dummy booking for SAA:



Departing:09 August 2012, 08:04 - Terminal San Francisco
Arriving:09 August 2012, 15:59 - Terminal Washington (Dulles)

Aircraft:777
Operated by: United Airlines (UA)
Class:Economy (Y)
Stops:0

Departing:09 August 2012, 17:40 - Terminal Washington (Dulles)
Arriving:10 August 2012, 17:35 - Terminal O.R. Tambo Intl Airport

Aircraft:343
Operated by: South African Airways (SA)
Class:Economy (Y)
Stops:1

and for Virgin Atlantic:

Depart Airport Arrive Airport Duration Flight No.

10,989 miles earned
6 tier point(s) Thu 09 AUG
16:30 San Francisco
(International) 10:40
(+ 1 day) London
(Heathrow) 10 hrs
10 mins VS020



Fri 10 AUG
20:30 London
(Heathrow)

Fare breakdown 08:35
(+ 1 day) Johannesburg
(International)

Fare conditions 11 hrs
05 mins VS601


Steve

You can go here to convert the arrival times in Johannesburg to see how many hours it takes to get there: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

My best guess is 24 1/2 hours on SAA and 30 Hours on Virgin Atlantic, which may not seem like a lot since you're going so far but in coach it could feel like an eternity.

The IAD trip includes a stop in Senegal... the JFK one is non-stop.
 

SA203 – Johannesburg/New York, departs Johannesburg at 8:35 p.m., arrives in New York at 6:40 a.m. the following day.
SA204 – New York/Johannesburg, departs New York at 11:15 a.m., arrives in Johannesburg at 8:40 a.m. the following day.


To book seats on SAA's flights, please call 1-800-722-9675, visit www.flysaa.com, or call your travel agent.

"South African Airways features the most service to South Africa, with daily morning non-stop departures from New York JFK and afternoon direct service from Washington Dulles (with a stop in Dakar, Senegal) that offer travel convenience and award-winning service. Travelers in Premium Business Class enjoy 180° fully flat-bed seats, and in Economy Class enjoy the most legroom versus competitors. Every seat on board offers an individual on-demand entertainment system, plush pillow, warm blanket and amenity kit. SAA's unrivaled network, featuring seamless connections to nearly 20 destinations within South Africa, and more than 25 cities across the rest of the continent, makes the airline the savvy traveler's "gateway to Africa."

Are you sure? Is that nonstop JFK-JNB? As for IAD-JNB is not good. Instead, you have fly JFK-JNB nonstop and saving the traveling time. You don't have go through LHR. Because it will have more hours.

This is for the SFO-JFK-JNB route.
 

Like I said, SAA takes much less time to get to JNB than Virgin Atlantic because Virgin has to go through Heathrow BUT the problem in choosing between the IAD and the JFK flights is the layover.

You'd have to find a flight that would get you to JFK at least an hour before the SAA Flight to JNB from SFO.

SAA Dummy Booking uses JetBlue...

Departing:09 August 2012, 21:00-Terminal I San Francisco
Arriving:10 August 2012, 05:22 -Terminal 5 John F. Kennedy Airport
Aircraft:320
Operated by:JetBlue (B6)
Stops:0
Departing:10 August 2012, 11:15-Terminal 4 John F. Kennedy Airport
Arriving:11 August 2012, 08:30 -Terminal A O.R. Tambo Intl Airport
Aircraft:346
Operated by::South African Airways (SA)
Stops:0

So it leaves on JetBlue at 9pm PST on the 9th and arrives JNB at 8:30am on the 11th which would be 11:30pm on the 10th..PST. that looks like 26 1/2 hours.

So its about the same because there is a 6 hour layover at JFK from the JetBlue flight to the SAA flight.

FlightStats.com says that SA204:

SA 204 Flight Status. (SA) South African Airways 204. (JFK) New York ... Duration: 15h 15m. Equipment: Airbus Industrie A340-600

The 15h 15m flight is much, much, better BUT you have to get to JFK and I don't see any flights from SFO to JFK that would shorten the layover significantly: I only see an AA that would be a layover of 4 hours at JFK.

The last thing I would do on such an itinerary is book separate flights to JFK and then to JNB - the risk (especially in the US) of the first flight being late is to great and then the second airline has no obligation to move you to another flight. Does the booking with Jet Blue come on one PNR if not that could, in the event of lateness, prove very expensive.

Looking at ITA the quickest routing is actually via Amsterdam on KLM at 22 hrs 20 mins, the cheapest in Y is booking on United via JFK (which then books you onto SAA as a *A partner).

VS to Johannesburg?
 

VS offers a higher class of service than SAA in all cabins. Food is also of a better standard although fares are usually slightly higher!

I believe Delta also flies direct to JNB from ATL