Review: South African Airways Business Class A330 Johannesburg To London

Maybe I missed it in your review/photos but where is the TV?

this trip report series is way too long and a bit boring due to it's repetitiveness....where are the exciting trip reports?

So Air Canada vs. South African Airways...who had the better food overall, in your opinion?

I'm trying to get my head around a Dutch woman who didn't speak English.... Did she speak Afrikaans to they flight attendants?

What did they spray the cabin with?

Lucky, what does this mean:

"Around the same time, the cabin crew sprayed the cabin, as is the case when flying to/from certain regions."

@JC just wait for the Kuwait airways trip

@Jay I believe they are on the armrests and when folded they are under it.

The cabin is sprayed to kill any insects that may be on board.

This is done only on certain routes.

@Williams22314 @zow: It's common for many countries to enforce airlines to spray the cabin with a pesticide/disinfectant primarily to kill endemic airbone germs and insects (i.e. Zika through mosquitoes). I have had this experience on flights to/from South Asia, Israel, England, and many many more. http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-02-19/why-flight-attendants-walk-airplane-aisles-with-bug-spray

Here's an article about the cabin spraying

http://www.travelstart.co.za/blog/airplane-cabin-spraying/

The only time it's happened to me was flying air China to Australia. Some friends of mine arrived in Oz on the same day flying Emirates from Singapore and it didn't happen to them

Any chance of a review of the United arrivals lounge?

The theme I'm seeing on all the recent trip reports is that airlines need to start cleaning their seat controls with a toothbrush.

SO MUCH GRIME...

Per the BC layout I would not want the Window seat when your seatmate elects to stretch out for a snooze unless a small empty area exists to walk through. . Enjoyed your review and pictures
In Australia , landing in Sydney from Vancouver on Air Canada we had to wait after landing for the plane to be sprayed inside by the FA's. Ended up coughing more than dry air 🙂

Lucky, does getting a bad business class seat like this make you question doing this for a living? I can that it might be quite fun to be in a nice seat long haul, but being jetlagged AND unable to sleep because of a bad seat must be seriously unpleasant.

I highly doubt a Dutch woman flying business class CAN'T speak english. Just because she didn't talk to you doesn't allow you to question her foreign language skills. Jeez.

@ Pfft -- She couldn't speak English to the flight attendant either. Jeez.

You should've ordered the springbok loin for dinner! I had a springbok steak for dinner one night in Cape Town; definitely one of my more memorable meals, especially with a fine glass of South African red to go with it.

"One of them caught my attention, talking about “SAA Voyager, Africa’s first revenue based frequent flyer program.” Since when is that something to be proud of?"

Intra-Africa flights can be very expensive, even more expensive than flying to Europe or the US from Johannesburg. It is for this reason that the revenue based model works better for Africa travel. Sometimes it costs more to fly from Johannesburg to Cameroon than it would cost to get to the UK or Germany.

I am a South African citizen and Voyager Member since they started the program around 25 years ago. Three years ago I joined Lufthansa Miles-and-More and rather try to build up miles with them. SAA was a top-rated airline in the good old days. Before 1994, SAA won the "Best Airline of the year" award for several years. The last few years it went into such financial problems because of bad management, that it is technically bankrupt. I don't know how they can still take off into the air.
Because of this, the Voyager program is getting less and less attractive and will much likely stop to function. For example: as of 1 April 2018, they increased the miles required for a business class reward round-trip ticket to Europe from 130000 to 180000 miles.
I was just in time to redeem my award and get my certificate with 130000 miles. Now I battle to book a flight on Lufthansa, 340 days before, and I am told that they did not release seats yet. I contacted Lufthansa in Germany to ask how long before a flight they release seats for award flights. They replied today and promised that someone will contact me. To fly on a Star Alliance partner with Voyager miles, one cannot book online. You have to call. Voyager told me to call then every two days ! This is Africa !

The standard of flights comes through the Business Class and First Class is the vast amounts of not only leg room but also fully reclining seats with the fully comforted area with all accessories of our entertainment.

@Robbie - You're misleading the public with your incorrect facts about pre-1994, and if I were to guess, you're slightly harbouring racist thoughts. SAA has won many awards post 1994 as well and the rebranding was much needed compared to the old livery. Yes, I agree with you on bad financial management and so forth, but those are not determiners for being a well rated airline, as airlines are rated on service product and offering, not on the state of the balance sheet. A simple search on the SAA website will show you the awards they have won since 1994 https://www.flysaa.com/about-us/leading-carrier/media-center/saa-awards

Other than that, I agree with you that the Voyager programme is becoming ridiculous and pricing itself out of competition.