Has anyone flown economy class on South African Airlines direct from JFK to JNB? I'd love to hear your feedback on the level of comfort. Were you crawling out of your skin by the time you got to Johannesburg or was economy fairly comfortable.

We'd love to book biz class seats but can't quite justify the extra expense. Any thoughts?

Andrea

If you can swing it, I'd go for the business class seats. We just did the trip from DC to JNB, and there's no way I think I could have done it in coach. But in business class, it was pretty painless. I didn't get a good night's sleep the night before, so I was able to go to sleep right after dinner (about 8:30 central time) and got at least 7 hours. That put me in great shape time change wise, and I really didn't feel any jet lag at all.

When we visited, we did "last class" from JFK via JNB to CPT. SAA had Coach seating on the upper deck where we had our seats on the outbound to Africa. Every seat was taken, but we did just fine. When some paxs deplaned at Cape Verde we had a bit more space, but by then, almost 10/hrs flying we weren't feeling any pain. In fact, both of us did sleep for quite a number of hours.

I wouldn't though suggest upper deck seating (if SAA still configures this way) for a tall person. Not so much the seating/leg room, but for the height if you choose to walk about. Ceiling really isn't that much lower than in the lower cabin but can feel claustrophobic.

On return to the States, we were in lower deck Coach seats, and again... no problem and we slept. It's a long flight wherever you're seated. Business would be somewhat better, but if this class is too hard on the pocket, there's not much choice.

Once landing in JNB, we had a 2/hr layover for connection to CPT which was another 2/hr flight. Upon landing then thru Immigration, collecting bags and into CPT, arrived at hotel at about 10pm. A shower and off to sleep. We were both perfectly fine the next morning to start our holiday.

My partner had no jet leg whatsoever. Neither did I at the outset, rather it hit me 6/days later when we were in Botswana; all I needed was a good nights sleep and was fine thereafter.

We did SAA JFK-JNB via Dakar in economy this past September-I'd spring for the business class seats if possible.

To be fair, the flts were not full in coach either coming or going and if you play your cards right you could find some open seats and sprawl yourselves out. My husband I were not so observant or fast.

Husband and I are slim, reasonably fit people in our early 30s; he's a little over 6' while I am just 5'-4", to give you an idea of the range. We've done long haul flights before to the Asias but they couldn't compare with the discomfort we both felt on SAA coach. Some armrests are fixed, some don't go all the way up, seatbelts are located such that, though the flts weren't full, sprawling over some open seats was some what uncomfortable w/metal bits poking you (though it seemed many did manage to sleep that way.) The Dakar stopover-some passengers will get off but new passengers do get on. If you found a comfy set of seats on the first leg of travel, you may be in danger of losing them on the second leg. Also, something they did on the return to JFK but not on the way to JNB was an onboard carry-on bag inventory at Dakar. This impacts coach more than business as all passengers are asked to remove their bags from overhead bins and claim them as security searched for any abandoned bags or parcels. There's more room to do that in business and first; in coach-esp w/people who insist on carrying-onboard their entire lives-it starts to get crowded.

We loved our safari in Botswana but did not think through how this hellacious flight would almost-almost but not quite!-manage to wipe away all the good vibes from the trip. I'm not sure if SAA/Star Alliance will let you use points to upgrade to business but I'd certainly explore that option.

Have a wonderful time, regardless!

I did that flight in Jan '07 and was able to stretch out since the flight was not very full. Husband & I took seat assignments for the 4 middle seats (it was a 2-4-2 configuration) and had the 4 seats to ourselves. I took 3 of the seats and slept till Dakar, then I moved to a vacant window seat while he slept from Dakar to J-berg. I am fairly petite, he is 6'.

There were "gift bags" on each seat when we arrived with toothbrush and eye cover. Plenty of pillows and blankets to help soften the poking seatbelts.

Food wasnt great, but not as bad as I had heard from other travelers. Nice selection of movies and shows with individual monitors on the seat backs.

I did a lot of long-distance flying when I lived in Asia and Australia, and I'm familiar with both coach and business. (I flew business when I was on "business"; I flew coach when I was on my own dime.) Since my flight to South Africa in July was on my own dime, I flew coach. It was a 15-hour flight from Washington, D.C. to JNB and I would assume the plane would be similar to what would be flown on the JFK-JNB (Airbus 340-600).
IT AIN'T THAT BAD! In fact, with my neck pillow I was able to sleep several hours--more than I ever slept on the flights to Asia and Australia. Each of the seats has an individual TV screen which you can use to watch movies and TV shows whenever you want (and there was a wide variety of choices). You can also play video games if you like. The legroom was good and my 6'2" travelling companion actually had no complaints. You do get a little "goodie" bag with eye cover, socks and a toothbrush and toothpaste. The food was...airline food, but edible.
My only caveat is to avoid the bulkhead seats. Some friends travelling with us booked them thinking they'd have extra legroom. They did get a bit of extra legroom, but they also got a bulky seatbelt that they couldn't get out of the way when they didn't want to wear it. (They were bulky because they contained an airbag!) I saw these seatbelts and they sure looked uncomfortable.
For more info on your plane and seating, you might want to look at www.seatguru.com. If it were me, I'd fly coach and use that extra money for an extra day of safari!

I've always complained about the JFK-JNB flight as being too long in the air, but after my last trip (overnight in Honolulu, 10 hour flight to Taiwan with a two hour layover, 2 hours to Hong Kong with an 8 hour layover, 8 hours to Dubai with a 5 hour layover and 8 hours to JNB)-give me the JFK-JNB anytime! I'll never complain about this flight again! SAA economy is the same as any other economy-grin and bear it.

Thanks everyone. All of your comments are very helpful! We'll need to figure out what we want to do. We may also try to upgrade on Delta using miles if we have enough Amex Membership Rewards to transfer to make it happen.

Keep in mind that to upgrade on the Delta ATL-DKR-JNB flight with miles, you need to buy a minimum of a M economy fare which I think is around $3000 on this route. Check upgrade availability before you buy and transfer your Amex points. I personally wouldn't pay a M fare and gamble on the upgrade waitlist clearing.

Both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways (both via London - yuck) have premium economy seats that offer significantly more leg- and butt-room. Usually they're around 50% - 60% higher than conventional coach, but not the 300% or more that business class requires. I advise clients and friends who want to pay for business class tickets to Africa (or Oz) from the US that it's often cheaper to buy round-the-world tickets and travel via the Atlantic in one direction and the Pacific in the other. Depending on where in N. America you start, it's often a wash in travel time to/from SA all things considered. Plus you earn enough miles to make the upgrades easier the next time.

Look at Air France biz from London to jnb. Better rate. We bought BA coach tickets jfk to heathrow and then the af.

Also if you don't have enough Amex points, they now have a points advance feature. Don't know if you knew that. For Plat card members, they can advance 60,000 points and for Gold card members, they can advance 15,000. I forget what it is for Green (I think around 5000). You have one year to earn back the advance. Otherwise, you're charged $25 per 1000 for any outstanding negative point balance after a year (same cost as buying the points) which leads me to in addition to the points advance feature, you can also buy up to 500,000 Membership Rewards points a year. Don't advance or buy anything to top off your account until you have confirmed availability as this can be done pretty much instantly with Amex.