Flights to South Africa

[WeLoveABD]

We are booked to do the ABD trip to South Africa in Dec 2009--so we have plenty of time to book airfare (can't do it yet, in fact). But using Dec 2008 flights to see what is out there (flying from Southern California) the trip looks challenging. Any tips out there for a good (and reasonably priced) airline and relatively direct flight?

 

[bekkiz]

I don't know how reasonably priced you can get Anything close to $2000 a ticket would be a really good deal.

However, my guess is the easiest way to get there would be a non-stop LAX-LHR (London) and then a non-stop from LHR to Johannesburg. If you can get those, it will take at least 24 hours in both directions, so I would push for it. Adding extra stops in New York/East coast will add like 4-5 hours.

I know you can do that routing on Virgin Atlantic and British Air. I've had great luck with both of these airlines when travelling overseas, the US based airlines (united, american etc) aren't as awesome, in my experiance. Of course, everyone is different. Lufthansa also flies to JNB, so that's another place you could look.

Good luck, I'm supremely jealous that you get to go on this trip!

 

[abdmom]

I am looking at flights to S.A. in July '09. I will be flying NWA because it's the major carrier here. I plan on getting a flight on the Airbus 330 - they have the video systems in the seats. It makes the time pass much faster. I wouldn't recommend flying thru here in December though. I'm considering a 4-5 night stay in London to get over some of the jetlag and see the sights.

 

[WeLoveABD]

Thanks--from a map, it looked like an LAX flight to Rio, and then over to Cape Town would be ideal, but alas it isn't that easy and there are many small flights in between. So...looks like a direct LAX to London, stay an extra day and then fly to Jo'berg/Cape Town might be the best way. We may actually book this one through Disney--the other trips we booked our own flights. All part of the Adventure!

 

[Traveling Tinkerbell]

So far we are seeing airfare prices for roundtrip tickets from Atlanta, GA to South Africa running from $1400 (South African Airlines) to $2400 (Delta, United, Northwest) per ticket. The fuel charges and taxes included in the airfares can be a shocker. We hope to lock into a July 2009 flight fare sometime over the next four months. Maybe the price of oil will come down and the airlines will pull back on some of these fuel charges by then. Wishful thinking on my part!