Introduction: Star Alliance To South Africa

05/18 AA5986 Los Angeles to Vancouver departing 7:05PM arriving 9:55PM
05/18 AA5987 Vancouver to Los Angeles departing 7:00AM arriving 10:06AM

how did you manage these flights cuz both are on the same day 🙂

How in all your travels and nights with Starwood have you never stayed at a Four Points before?

You have a dead link that should be no link: "Mashonzha Lounge Johannesburg Airport"

@lucky @tiffany

You haven't looked at the route maps if you think that SAA has a monopoly out of South Africa, EVERYONE flies out of there. BA, Virgin, Emirates, Qatar, Turkish, Ethiopian, Kenyan, etc. Etihad, Delta, KLM, Air France, etc. etc. I live in DC and have a dozen different carriers to get be back to DC with only one stop.

If you meant traveling inside SA then SAA does have the monopoly (Comair operates too but barely), but otherwise South Africa is one of the best covered markets in Africa with carriers.

As far as getting to South Africa, I'm surprised you never mentioned Delta's flight from ATL-JNB. Seems like a great way to get down there with nicer seats than South African.

Looking forward to the full reports!

@Neil SA is more exotic of an airline and I'd much rather read a review on them instead of Delta.

Can we have a quick post about what you did in Cape Town? Love to know your thoughts on the sites

I hate flying diagonally. What's the obsession with the herringbone or reverse seats. You can't really see out the window anyway it's business class flat beds. It's private enough. I like QRs 777s

"After all, [South African is] not an airline which has to be especially competitive, given that they more or less have a monopoly out of South Africa."

Absolutely false. There are a multitude of airlines that fly international flights out of South Africa.

This is just a list of international carriers out of Johannesburg:
Air Austral, Air Botswana, Air China, Airlink, Air Madagascar, Air Mauritius, Air Namibia, Air Seychelles, Air Zimbabwe, Arik Air, Fastjet, Iberia, Kenya Airways, LATAM (in October), LAM Mozambique Airlines, Malawian Airlines, Mango, RwandAir, Saudia, Swaziland Airlink, Singapore, Swiss, TAAG Angola, Turkish , BA, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay, Qantas, Delta, Emirates, Egyptair, Qatar, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Etihad, South African, Ethiopian,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._R._Tambo_International_Airport

@ JJ - I think he said those that were based out of South Africa, in which SAA's really the only "internationally known" airline that does. For example, if people have the choice between Cathay Pacific and South African, they'd probably go with SAA given Cathay Pacific is totally the cheapest airline in the world.

@Alvin

"I think he said those that were based out of South Africa"

Where does he write this? I only see the sentence where he talks about SAA having a "monopoly out of South Africa".

Where did you buy a ticket to get triple points on citi prestige card? Can you buy a ticket throught travelodge or priceline to get a mileage either?

"I was excited about South African Airways because they’re one of the best ways to get to South Africa, so I was curious how their product was. After all, they’re not an airline which has to be especially competitive, given that they more or less have a monopoly out of South Africa."

I take issue with this. SAA are nowhere near a monopoly operating in and out of South Africa. There are countless airlines operating in and out of South Africa, across all major alliances, as well as gulf carriers. As you flew via Europe to go to JNB, you could have easily used 15 or more different carriers to get into SA. Not quite the definition of a monopoly.

Hi,
Really enjoy your blogs and based in Vancouver, I was especially intrigued to read your local and Air Canada reviews. I wanted to ask how you got such a low fare for such a long J itinerary? Did you use a consolidator? Typically, from YVR, lowly premium Economy can cost well above $2,000 YVR-LHR and that's a sale..........

Thanks!

Lucky - I think $2,200 USD for the YVR-YYZ-LHR-JNB-CPT and back in J is a steal! I missed out on a similar fare out of SFO earlier this year and regret it. Well done.