jlt6518

I am in the beginning stages of planning a trip to Capetown next year and was looking at flight schedules to get an idea of the best way to go.

I will be traveling from Houston and would prefer to travel directly into Capetown versus J-Berg. From what I've seen I would have to have a stop in Paris or in Dubai. Both of these places seem really out of the way, especially since I want to go south!

Suggestions? It seems to me going through South America would be more logical...but I could be wrong.

HariS

If you plan to take the new Emirates service to Dubai, then the flight to JNB from Dubai is 8 ish hours. Several connections to Cape Town i would think from JNB.

Although, Emirates is very good and i highly recommend ....... the Dubai airport is quite frankly a zoo and is getting more and more difficult. However, the Emirates skywards miles program has been very helpful to me.

Grcxx3

Don't know about going thru South American, but I know that Lufthansa has a direct flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town - it's about 11+ hours each way, but allows you to avoid Jbg. we did this flight last year.

MisterAviator

The easiest one-stop routing I found is the following:

IAH-AMS-CPT on KLM (2hr layover in Amsterdam)

I'm not sure you will find a quicker way to go that doesn't involve going through JNB.

DonTopaz

Lufthansa's service to Cape Town is season -- it operates only during the northern hemisphere winter. However, South African Airlines does operate year-round FRA-CPT srvice, and they are partnered with Lufthansa/United/Star alliance. So, you could take the LH non-stop from Houston to FRA, then connect to SA's flight to CPT.

South America might be more logical from a geographical POV, but I don't know of any flights from S.A. to CPT.

mistadobalina

We did flights in and out of London Heathrow on British Airways. This was from LAX, but I would think there would be comparable flights from IAH. The layover was about 4 hours as I recall, which was long enough so that we weren't worried about missing our connection.

As for flying north to go South, it actually doesn't make much of a difference. Even when flying due East-West, most planes fly in an arc - because the earth is a globe and not a flat object. So for our flight to LHR from LAX, we actually flow over Hudson Bay and Greenland.

Patty

Malaysia flies from Buenos Aires to Cape Town, but I think the flight only operates once a week. From Houston you could take the Continental flight to Buenos Aires, but your overall travel time would be greater than some of the connections available through Europe.

Another option is Houston-Atlanta-Dakar-Cape Town on Delta but you'd have 2 connections. The Delta Dakar-Cape Town flight operates 3x weekly.

Personally, unless you want to also include a visit to Argentina, I'd take one of the connections via Europe.

kpha

I'm flying to Jo-Berg in November on South Africa Airways from JFK in New York--might be an easier route for you to try.

kak113

I could have sworn I heard something about Delta flying direct to CPT, and from their website it looks as though they do, from Atlanta. It stops for a refuel in Senegal. Flight 34 to Dakar, Flight 128 DKR to CPT.

return is flight 129 cpt to dk, 35 dkr to Atl. looks like it may be seasonal and only on certain days, but Dakar is where the "direct" SAA flights from JFK stop since it's on the way.

Gardyloo

Never mind the much higher cost, going via South America is actually farther than going via NYC and Dakar.

Houston - Buenos Aires - Cape Town = 9,350 miles.

Houston - New York - Dakar - Cape Town = 9,329 miles.

Patty

kat113,
DL128 which will operate 3x weekly to CPT starting in June actually originates from JFK. However, as you pointed out, it's possible to to take DL34 ATL-DKR to connect with DL128 DKR-CPT, but this would involve a change of aircraft at DKR.

jlt6518

The flight to Dakar is a milk-run flight, which my friend in Nigeria says typically turns a one-hour stop for jet fuel, into a 5 hour mess. So I think I'd prefer to fly into CDG or AMS. And the more I thought about how flights can be managed out of S. America, I'd prefer going with a European connection regardless.

Crazy KLM wants to charge me $5000 for a IAH-AMS-CPT round trip, where as the fare for IAH-AMS-CPT, return IAH-AMS-Detroit-IAH is $1600. Ridiculous. I want to fly SkyTeam for the miles (or to use miles), but this is getting crazy!

sniktawk

As you probaly know there are no direct flights from US to Capetown.Flights into Cape Town from almost anywhere are extremely limited. The following airlines fly directly from Europe SAA, BA, Lufthansa and KLM, on a daily basis all year round. In the case of SAA and BAA from Heathrow, KLM from Amsterdam and Lufhansa from Frankfurt. Emirates will be flying to Capetown from Dubai effective 30th March. Connecting via Joburg will add at least three hours to your travel time.