Honestly, in Y, go direct!
The long flight is very doable, I did the 19hr return JNB-DKR-IAD this year, and it was adequate, lots of snacks in back galley, good AVOD, good legroom
No reason to add a connection via Europe, and fly UA/LH Y.

 

I tend to agree. I've done Y through Europe but especially on the way out with two long redyes with 8-12hrs in an airport in between, even with a nice lounge is pretty grueling, followed by a potential layover and flight once you get to Africa.

However, on the outbound through Europe my favorite way to do it is take UA922 at 9:30am out of IAD getting into LHR same day around 9pm. Then you can have almost 24hrs in London, get a real hotel room for the night and bum around the next day in London. Heathrow Express makes it easy to get to Paddington. That is of course if you have the time...

SAA economy is bearable, just stay away from their leased A340-200 which does not have AVOD in economy and seems to be like it had less legroom than the 600s and 300s. I believe they run these on some CPT-LHRs flights and some of the EZE flights and maybe Perth so should not impact your friend coming from the States.

 

Honestly something like CPT-XYZ-BRU-IAD is probably a nice option- SN has a great product- arguable superior to SA's Airbus 340-200s

 

Interesting thought. But wouldn't that require taking SAA to central or North Africa, relatively short flight on SN, the connecting onto UA in BRU to Dulles? Am I missing something?

 

I haven't seen it posted yet, but JFK-JNB nonstop on SA in business with flatbed is an excellent product.

I wouldn't hesitate booking that over F via LHR/FRA considering the extra transit time involved in going via Europe.

 

Yes, that's right. It's a great opportunity to visit sub-Sahara Africa for "free"- and also the flight on SN is not that short and the business class product is better than that of SA.

 

Opened up on Sep 29 for flights in June 2012. Change fee is $25, cancel/redeposit $100.

I'm missing something. I cant find this flight on the *A website or via the various award tools. LH shows the route on their website but says it is operated by another carrier (SA). Also when I try to book it gives me a connection through JNB for LH metal. What is the flight number? Is it daily?

Most likely because OP is ex IAD. If the IAD flight didn't have the technical stop it would be the stand out winner in my mind. If however you want the F experience, have the time, and can get it for both long haul segments, routing via Europe makes sense.

 

It's a seasonal flight operated during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Getting this flight over other European connections to CPT has also caused me much gnashing of the teeth, because it benefits from the soon to be gone 100% bonus for *G all the way from one's USA hub.

I've just booked BOS-JFK-JNB-CPT-JNB-JFK-BOS over the Christmas holidays (All in Y I'm afraid). I'm eager to see how this goes on my first attempt at the direct flight.

I've done mostly JNB-DKR-IAD and CPT-LHR-EWR/IAD and while there's nothing quite as good as flying directly in or out of Cape Town (really quiet and easy on the international side), I dread nothing like connecting through LHR. The DKR stop is annoying though, so it's one peeve vs the other.

 

To the OP: Take the flight home on SAA. Their J product is really quite good, and avoiding going through Europe is well worth the travel time savings -- especially when weather is bad in the Northern Hemisphere. There would be no doubt for me, especially since you can get seats, and when you are coming home it's always nice to just get back.

To the person who posted that JNB is "crime ridden and dangerous" -- certainly there are areas that are, but there are also some very nice suburbs and safter places. But as a connecting airport, I might actually prefer JNB to FRA. Smaller and more manageable.

 

How is the connection of the CPT-LHR flight to the LHR-IAD flight? That's just come up as an option, so I wouldn't have to connect through JNB, and it's literally 10 minutes difference in itinerary time between the CPT-JNB/JNB-IAD flight.

The fact that the JNB-IAD flight has a technical stop makes it really like two 8.5hr flights, so it's not like you can sleep for long b/c they'll make you put your seats upright.

I worry though about which terminal the SAA flight arrives and the UA flight leaves - LHR is a maze to get through in the best of times.

 

I just returned from a trip to ZA. I did the IAD-JNB with the refueling stop in DKR this time, and have done the connection through FRA on LH in the past. To me, the IAD-JNB route is the winner, hands down. SA runs full flatbeds in the C cabin, the A/V is great, the catering is good, and I've enjoyed good service on all my SA flights. My experience has been the connection through Europe requires long layovers, and generally isn't worth the hassle (especially if, god forbid, you have to change terminals at FRA!).

I took the LH 380 back, eager to get my first ride on a 380 (JNB-FRA-SFO; so I had ~24 hrs on the LH 380s). I was disappointed that they have their old lie-flats in C. No matter how good the catering, A/V, service, direct boarding lounge, etc., there's no way to make up for the 8-10 degrees of difference in the angle of the seat given that you're going to spend a large chunk of time sleeping. I'm sure it's fantastic in F, but if I'm choosing between SA C and LH 380 C on this route, I'm going SA.

Just one man's opinion.

 

We ended up returning JNB-MPM-LIS-LHR-IAD and loved it for one big reason: MPM-LIS is a daytime flight, and avoided another redeye!

 

Both SA and UA are in T1 unless it changed recently.
I'd still take the SA flight.

Connecting in JNB is much better than connecting in LHR, IMHO. And while I haven't priced it out, I'd be willing to bet the taxes will be lower as well.

 

Two men's (and my wife) opinion.

I was excited to try my first flight on an A380 a few years back, when I did SQ SIN-MEL in Y (upper deck), and that was a nice experience...but in LH C, it was awful and easily something that I won't book again.

I'm sure it's nice in LH F, but good luck finding an award for that! If it were an option and the only option, I'd take LH Y on the 380 over C and save the miles.

This thread is good as I'm planning my next trip down there now...and didn't know about a handful of these flights (CPT-FRA in the Southern Hemi Summer; it wasn't available for me in August, and even the MPM-LIS, only Thurs/Sat)...but these are neat options!

-jeremy

 

Thanks so much for all your great responses!

I was finally able to snag the following itinerary:

SA C: CPT-LHR
UA F: LHR-ORD
UA F: ORD-ATL

It's got great connection times, short, but not stressful, and I get to fly in First. I know it's UA first, but I have flown in UA C a number of times and have always wanted to try UA F. Plus it's on the 767 so I'll be guaranteed the new first class suites.

I'll probably be continually obsessive and look for an LX F award (my travel isn't until September 2012) but I am pretty darn happy with this routing.

Funny enough, the CPT-JNB-IAD-ATL routing wasn't available for the date I really wanted anyway, so it wasn't even a choice I had to make in the end.