I’ve been to South Africa four times this year with a fifth trip planned for this month. It’s been an interesting time and I’ve learned a fair amount about emerging market business, politics and culture. Still, the first thing most people ask when I tell them where I’ve been traveling is: “How do you get there, anyway?” Weird. Few start with questions about game parks or Jo’burg’s tough reputation or weather; those questions come later.
Most of the time, people go straight to the process and wonder about the state of global air transportation. So, to lay it out for all, here’s my experience thus far. First, I’ve not done it twice the same way. I’ve flown into O.R. Tambo International Airport on South African Airways and Delta Air Lines, and will soon add Air France to that list, but the routing has been different each time:
- DEN ATL DKR JNB -> JNB DKR ATL DEN (9710 miles / 15620 km)
- DEN IAD JNB -> JNB DKR IAD DEN (9590 miles / 15440 km)
- DEN LHR JNB -> JNB LHR DEN (10290 miles / 16560 km)
- DEN JFK DKR JNB -> JNB DKR JFK CVG DEN (9590 miles / 15440 km)
Coming Attraction!
Flights from the US almost invariably stop in Dakar, Senegal. Flights from Europe go straight through. The eastbound trans-Atlantic flights are overnights, the westbound are daytime flights. Southbound flights from Europe to Jo’burg are usually daytime and northbound at night. Trans-African flights are typically the same as the Europe legs, heading south in the day and north at night. But there are exceptions: the trip I made through London had overnight flights for 3 of the 4 legs. Best to have a neck pillow and get used to sleeping in coach airplane seats if you need to fly like this often. And plan to spend a minimum of 24 hours in transit which can stretch to well over 30 hours if you have bad connections (like my next trip which will have no less than 18.5 hours of layovers for the round trip).
The best? For me, it has to be United Airlines to IAD and South African Airways from their, racking up miles on Star Alliance the whole way, but the tickets aren’t necessarily the cheapest that way, hence the variety of routes and airlines.
*UPDATE 23.Jul.08* Umm. Yeah. So going via CDG is not so great if you have the itinerary I had, which included a MASSIVE layover at JFK on the way home: took me 36 hours from aircraft door close in Jo’burg to door open in Denver. Suboptimal to say the least.
