South Africa and codeshare question

Hi All

I have just hit the 200k airmile mark and me and the wife are planning a Christmas trip to south africa in 2015/16. Now I have seen the bad news about stopping the cape town direct service so it looks like we are going to have to go through joburg.

Due to the cricket being on out there we want to get our seats as soon as they are released which will mean sorting each leg individually. Now how does this work with codeshare. London - Joburg or capetown is currently 100k one way for 2 people. Now with a code share will I only get this towards the trip to joburg and will I pay for the joburg to capetown flight separately? or if I call virgin will they bundle add in the joburg to capetown flight? A bit like they do with the little red flights? I am not sure the website will allow me to even look at these sort of options!

I appreciate that reward seats may not even come up but when i did a dummy version of this for this Christmas earlier this year I got an idea of what might be available!

Cheers

The best way to do this for a rewards redemption is to call FC direct.
You will never be able to do it online..
Don't get your hopes up too high though as they have to request availability from South African Airways (VS Codeshare partner) which can take a while to respond to rewards requests.

Even then, if rewards are available, they will probably be stupid amount of FC miles, just for an internal flight.

You may well do better by booking your reward to JNB and paying real cash for your internal flight in S.A.
I usually pay around £80 for a quick return economy flight to DUR.
Or £140 in business class if I'm feeling really flush!
This way never fails for me.

The exchange rate is particularly good right now so fill yer boots with a good deal with SAA.

Hope this helps
Paul

Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply, that sounds like the best way to do it, shame there is an extra cost for the last flight but since they have cancelled the direct I think that was always going to be the case.

Will keep an eye on the website to see when the reward availability pops up and go from there.

I was looking at SAA, not sure if you would know the answer but if i fly virgin upper and make use of a bit more luggage allowance (say around 25 - 30kg) if I then do a normal SAA flight I know the allowance is 23kg. The only thing i can see on the SAA site is that excess baggage is charged at 250 rand per bag, do you know if there is a way of paying for a bit more allowance in advance. Haven't seen that option on the website?

Cheers

Phill

Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply, that sounds like the best way to do it, shame there is an extra cost for the last flight but since they have cancelled the direct I think that was always going to be the case.

Will keep an eye on the website to see when the reward availability pops up and go from there.

I was looking at SAA, not sure if you would know the answer but if i fly virgin upper and make use of a bit more luggage allowance (say around 25 - 30kg) if I then do a normal SAA flight I know the allowance is 23kg. The only thing i can see on the SAA site is that excess baggage is charged at 250 rand per bag, do you know if there is a way of paying for a bit more allowance in advance. Haven't seen that option on the website?

Cheers

Phill

Hi Phill

SAA use the "peice" concept. Even in Business class you are only allowed 1 piece but at a higher weight limit (32Kg) than in Economy (23Kg).
The correct excess baggage info is here: http://www.flysaa.com/gb/en/flyingSAA/b ... ggage.html
I don't think there is an option to pay in advance.

If you do manage to get a VS flight and then pay for a SAA connection separately, you will be able to check your bags through to your destination but remember to collect and re-check at JNB. There are a couple of re-check desks just after the customs hall to save you lugging your bags to the domestic terminal..about a 6 to 8 minute walk.

On your return, again the check in agent will check your bags through to LHR, even though they are on separate tickets.

Do OLCI for all flights and then you're not in a panic if you have a short connection time.
Hope this helps.

Out of interest, where is your final destination in S.A?

Paul

Hi Paul

Thanks for that, I will just budget for the excess charges and sort it when I need to. Final destination is Capetown. Spend Christmas and New Year out there and work in 5 days at newlands for the England test!

Cheers

Phill