£300 Price hike

[Helol]

It's my own fault, been meanig to buy a London Joburg ticket for the past couple of months, for June 2016. Prices been at £600, logged on to BA just now, it's shot up to over £900. Are they likely to go one way - even higher? £300 increase isn't a small increase.

[750XL]

Have you tried deleting your cookies and searching again? Or trying kayak.co.uk.

May bring the price down

[Metro man]

You've still got 7 months left so I would be inclined to hang on a bit longer or try another airline. QATAR have some decent sale fares and are OneWorld members so you'll still get the points.

Have a look at Skyscanner and Expedia as well.

[esa-aardvark]

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[Phileas Fogg]

Try "fly dot com" for LON/JNB

This schedule available with Turkish for GBP403 (ish):

LGW JNB 17:10 10:20 16h 10m 1

JNB LGW 18:45 9:05 15h 20m 1

Or with Ethiopian this schedule for GBP416 (ish):

LHR JNB 20:15 13:05 15h 50m 1

JNB LHR 14:15 7:55 18h 40m 1

[Helol]

Thanks everyone for the tips.

I have deleted cookies, and all of that, also checked out Expedia, and the others.

I think the main consideration for me, when choosing an airline, is whether I feel 'safe' I don't think there's really any logic to it, except I think it's just a feeling of familiarity with the airline, etc. Nothing more nothing less.

Despite being able to fly to Jo'burg for probably half the price of BA etc, I'm still a bit reluctant to do that.

I'll hang on a couple of more weeks, then try again.

I might try SAA, never flown them. Any opinions...?

Lufthansa have quite good prices too - I could give them a go I suppose....

Qatar also a possibility too.

In a nutshell - I suppose what is important to me, is safety/reliability, when I have a choice of airlines. Comfort isn't such a big deal, as I'm only 5ft nothing.

[alserire]

I like Lufthansa. Haven't done long haul yet with them but they're excellent (when they're not on strike )

[PAXboy]

SAA are certainly reliable and I am not worried about their maintenance my sister uses them. I have not used them on this route for some time, as I usually go on VS to JNB (and CPT in the past), in whom I have high confidence over many years on several routes.

[Phileas Fogg]

I think the main consideration for me, when choosing an airline, is whether I feel 'safe' I don't think there's really any logic to it, except I think it's just a feeling of familiarity with the airline, etc. Nothing more nothing less.

During one of my previous lives during a 6 week BA Cargo contract I, weekly, needed to position a flight crew DXB/NBO and back again, NBO/DXB, three days later and the only airline that operated on the days we needed were Ethiopian via ADD.

Well one should have heard the kicking, screaming and/or racist remarks regarding us positioning them with such an airline but faced with no choice they did as they were told.

When the crews returned at the end of their contract stints to a man they all voiced their appreciation of what a fantastic airline Ethiopian were/are, our crews were turning up in uniform getting free upgrades and pampered to hell and perhaps the loudest of the protesters, a hard nosed Brit, actually asked us to write to Ethiopian thanking them personally.


I'm a Brit and, no longer, would I touch BA with a bargepole, my two most recent experiences with them, 10+ years ago, were when they cancelled my flight for commercial reasons, lied to me that it was for technical reasons, invol rerouted me on an airline with no UK representation and then refused to do diddly squat to assist me in claiming for my trashed suitcase. I gave them one more chance thereafter and we flew a bumpy AMS/LGW with the gear down because the silly sods had overfuelled the aircraft never mind that they had seated me in a broken seat!

[Heathrow Harry]

Agreed - you can do a lot better than BA

On most major routes the only place they have a lead is over any US Airline across the pond IMHO

[Phileas Fogg]

Helol,

Swiss are a fantastic airline, I've flown with them many times inter Europe as well as long-haul to/from HKG, I am always left thinking "what a pleasant experience that was".

Well I've just checked their website for June 2016, at today's exchange rate they are offering LHR/ZRH/JNB/ZRH/LHR for GBP548.81 and for such good service that has to be a bargain!

[ATSA1]

I have flown UK-SA 7 times since early 2012, I paid £680 that time, and the fare has been in the £620-£900 range ever since.

I mostly fly KLM, but have also flown Lufthansa, SAA and Virgin too

Bottom I would put Virgin...terrible service and uncomfortable seats..
Then Lufthansa, quite good cabin service, but seats as hard as rock!
SAA are fairly good, if only the IFE worked!
KLM win for me by a country mile...great service, great IFE, and a nice comfy seat..
My mother in law prefers Emirates when travelling to SA, but says that EgyptAir are very cheap...not sure that last one is a good option now!

BA I wouldn't touch with a bargepole either!

Keep looking at the fares, they go up and down like a fiddler's elbow!

But with oil prices staying low, you may yet get a bargain...

[Phileas Fogg]

ATSA1,

Noting your location (in a previous life I had a CF62 postcode) you might consider Swiss from BHX, lovely modestly sized airport and lovely airline, GBP538.54 JNB (return) at current prices.

[ATSA1]

Interesting....I put in my requested dates,travelling from BHX with Swiss, and came up with over £1000 for my flights, (I fly to PLZ after JNB), whereas KLM and SAA are considerably cheaper than this.

But I will keep it in mind for future trips! (next 2 trips already paid for!)

Thanks Mr Fogg!

[Metro man]

KLM have a good network of regional airports in the UK and are worth looking at rather than going via Heathrow. Emirates also fly to a few major UK cities besides London.

If you enter LON into the search engine rather than Heathrow or Gatwick you can make some savings if you don't mind which of them you depart or arrive from as many airlines fly to both airports. With the extensive ground transport options available it may not make much difference, some people prefer Gatwick as it is smaller and has trains.

[Heathrow Harry]

emirates fly to 5 UK Destinations + Dublin

that's not far short of BA from LHR (7) + Dublin

[Helol]

Thanks ever so much for all your replies, apologies for not getting back sooner, work got in the way.

Given that I am flying alone (hubby not coming with me), I have the luxury of deciding whether I go via a 1 stop (Emirates etc), or direct with SAA, BA.

I quite fancy trying the A380, as never flown on it before, neither have I flown on 777, and both those options are available.

Given that I am one of probably very few people left who still marvels at the sights down below when looking out of the window on a flight, then as long as I get a window seat, I'm as happy as Larry, and don't really mind about the rest (with the except of safety!).

[Metro man]

Take the A380 over the B777 and try and get on the upper deck as it's much quieter. Avoid the T7 in 10 across configuration and avoid the B787 in 9 across if you can as they are like sardine cans. QATAR T7s are 9 across and very comfortable, however new deliveries will be 10 across and they use the B787 on JNB in the 9 across config.

Have a look at Turkish Airlines as well, they are showing some cheap fares, though you may have to suffer a narrow body between the UK and Istanbul.

[Phileas Fogg]

Helol,

Well for safety, comfort and a window seat then it has to be Swiss

Statistically the safest airliner in the skies, an A340-300 ZRH/JNB/ZRH, a modestly sized long-haul airliner with the safety of 4 engines and in 2-4-2 config in economy so only a maximum of one person to climb over to/from your window seat.

[PAXboy]

If you do book a 787, Helol, since you have stated the importance of the window (as does any sensible person ... ) then these threads are useful ...

http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf...ow-blinds.html

This thread does go on a bit (unlike most PPRuNe threads ... ) and the main point is about checking the number of seats across as mentioned by others.
http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf...raft-ever.html