AVOID LUGGAGE LOCK UP AT JOBURG
 

They took everything out of my bag that they could. I didn't mean to leave anything in it, but some things fell under the bottom and they stole my ipod, my sunglasses, and brand new headphones from BO.
Of course they don't repond to theft - so just do the smart thing and avoid.

Where is Joburg?

Joburg is Johannesburg, South Africa

Ekferszt,

Sorry for your loss. I hope your trip was enjoyable if a pleasure trip and successful if a business trip.

Sorry you lost stuff but was your bag locked before putting in the lock up? I've used the luggage lock up, my bags were locked and had no problems.

i have previously written that i left my "life" for three weeks in that left luggage without incident.

just at the entrance there is a $5 USD wrapping service. did you not avail yourself of this very practical form of insurance?

that plus a combination lock seems like a prudent step.

in general, items of value should always be in your carry on to whatever extent that is possible. sunglasses, ipods are all carry on items.

sorry, but i had a great experience at that airport's left luggage. i even had to go into one of my bags mid trip and they retrieved it speedily.

kerikeri :)

what is the alternative of leaving your luggage at the Johannesburg airport? I am travelling for 2 wks so even if I pack light i dont think my bag will fit on the charter flights.

If you spend a night at the Sun, I believe they will hold luggage - but please check that.

I would have locks on all bags and have them shrink wrapped, we lost a cheap pair of bino's and a couple of sweatshirts when we used the Jo'burg facility.

Can you explain what you mean when you write that some things fell "under the bottom??"

i confirmed. if you stay one night in the sun hotels at the airport, they will hold your luggage. i assume that is safer than having it at the airport storage? correct?

Fluke,

Storing at hotel is safe..... still keep them locked!

If you use Wilro Tours, they have a great luggage torage service. They meet you at the airport, take your luggage from you and store it with them and return it to you when you return and the cost is about ZAR500.00 and the length of time they keep it does not matter

Do you have the link to the Sun Hotel at the airport that allows you to store luggage? Thanks!

I would shrink-wrap them before leaving them at the hotel...



http://www.southernsun.com/

It's not easy, but it is possible to pack light enough to meet the charter flight restrictions. I packed for a 3-week trip in a 22x12x10 duffle weighing 22# (plus 7# carryon -- or less if I put heavy stuff like batteries in the pockets of a travel vest)...because we never returned to the same location to pick up any stored luggage.

OK, admittedly this did NOT include camera equipment (DH carried it) but it did include all family supplies (travel documents, first aid kit, insect repellant, sunscreen, books, etc.) Plus DH promised never to comment that I was wearing the same (but clean, courtesy of the bush laundries) outfit again. Start with the great LyndaS packing list....

We can pack light, but the problem I have heard is with hard luggage on the smaller flights. We love our 4-wheeled luggage, it makes traveling so much easier, so we want to take that. We will be traveling for 3 weeks between Europe and Africa, so the luggage is needed. I just like the idea of leaving the hard luggage somewhere and just take what we need in a duffel bag for our safari. We would actually leave very little in our luggage that would be in storage.

once we were travelling back and forth between kruger and southern africa and the OR TAMBO interconti was our "base" we left some luggage there, came back and exchanged/repacked, left again and came back again and so forth...

it was fantastic! no hussle and extremly friendly and attentive porters!

of course we stayed there occasionally while cruising.

div

Do you mean no hassle or no hustle??

eke
BOTH ;-)

div

<hard luggage on the smaller flights.>

We were told that hard luggage was not accepted on smaller flights. So we got a 27' duffel with wheels. Since it was squash-able, it fitted in all the planes. It also was lighter, which was good. ((*))

Jef, what airline did you fly?

We flew Virgin to J'burg, 1time to Cape Town, Air Namibia to Windhoek, then 5 small planes around Namibia and Botswana, then back to US.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35086423 ((*))

so, it sounds like you are saying that if our luggage is shrink wrapped, we should be OK? We will be traveling over our winter holidays, so will have the warm clothes that we were wearing when we got on the plane. I would really like to stash them somewhere, along with some clean ones for the trip back. Are the shrink wrap area, and the luggage storage areas easy to find?

Momliz,

In case you have difficulty finding the shrinkwrap machines a trick that I have seen my visitors do is not shrinkwrap their cases but simply buy 2 rolls of Saran wrap and wrap their cases themselves. Works like a dream

Hope this helps.

Very proudly part of the wonderful ((r))nation of South Africa

Thanks, Selwyn! good idea, I'll make sure we have a roll or 2.

The tour company we traveled with the last two weeks (of September 2008) appears to have the luggage theft problem narrowed down to SA Airlines at JNB, by using cable ties.

Three weeks ago the tour had 17 out of 34 pieces of luggage with cable ties broken into.

On our tour, which went through JNB several times, 2 out of 25 pieces were broken into on one of the flights. One had a cell phone stolen and in the other they appeared to be looking for jewelry as every pouch/small bag was emptied into the main space of the suitcase (not good when you can't carry liquids).

There was absolutely no problem when flying with BA through JNB.

We were instructed each time we went through JNB to take a set of clothing in our carry-on bags and to put two sets of clothing in our partner's suitcase.

There is a product now available called the luggage glove, much like a cellphone cover but with a lock on it - www.luggageglove.com
To my knowledge it is not availabe at the airports yet but there are luggage shops in Johannesburg and Cape Town and I am sure elsewhere that are selling this product as they do export.
It is brilliant and I have worked it out that on the medium size I bought it will take 4 return flights to recoop the costs based on what shrink wrap costs at the airports (that is without taking into account them putting their prices up).
The luggage glove doesn't come with that big logo on the front (that you see when you go onto their website) unless you buy one that has a company logo on it.