RJames

Any suggestions on which websites are good for airfares in Africa would be appreciated. Thanks.

cjstobbs

South African Airways has good deals going on right now. If you doing this from the states, however, I don't think you can book it. I use Premier Tours in Pennsylvania. Gave us great airfare.

jrruff

You might try www.airgorilla.com to view, price or even book internal S.A. fligts. But, my experience is that that site will not show Kulula Air flights, which may be less expensive. But it certainly is helpful for purposes of comparison shopping.

tashak

You can book SAA tickets in Africa from the US-- I've done it easily and without a problem. But don't do it at the last minute...they mail you a paper ticket from their Atlanta office. (There is a way to get around this, too...but better not to have to do this.)

ArthurSA

Forget about SAA if you're looking for the lowest fares CPT/JNB. Although SAA and BA/Comair will have more flights, the lowest will usually be Kulula.com (the budget airline of the local BA franchise Comair) and 1time (a relative newcomer). Followed by Nationwide.

The websites are:
www.kulula.com
www.1time.aero
www.flynationwide.co.za

sandi

Contact the websites as listed by ArthurSA in above response. Here in the States, I've also used Premier Tours located in Phila, PA, who can be reached at:

www.premiertours.com

- while a tour operator they have as separate consolidator air department, so select this when entering the site. If they don't have a o/w fare listed, just call them and they can provide price available for when you plan to travel.

Or, like Premier Tours, contact 2Afrika, located in Jersey City, NJ, also have a separate air department. You can contact them at:

www.2afrika.com

Finding o/w tickets shouldn't be a problem with any of the US-based companies. So contact all listed here and other responses and compare schedules, fares, equipment - whatever is of greatest importance.

Selwyn_Davidowitz

Go with ArthurSA's mail. It is spot on and definitely the best way to go.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

ac23

It seems there are varying costs for the same flights. One if booking outside of South Africa and one if booking internally. I have been unable to book JNB/CPT flights via SAA or Nationwide at the rate listed in Rand because I do not have a South African credit card (I am in the US). Am I missing something or is there a way around this?

ArthurSA

Some of our airlines cite credit card fraud as the reason for not accepting foreign cards. There was a bit of publicity about this in the papers a few months ago, with correspondents complaining about SAA in particular. I thought I had since read that they had got their act together on this, but seemingly not.

It sems that you are not considering Kulula.com, I don't know if that's because they are run as a "no-frills" budget airline or because of inconvenient flight times or flights that are full. But as I said earlier, they are an arm of the BA operator Comair. And they do now accept non-SA cards.

traci_local_in_sa

I'm always disgusted when there is a double standard between rates quoted to locals and international visitors - but this is not such a case.
I have just checked the SAA website and a JNB/CPT return ticket with a week's stay is quoted at R2699 including all taxes. Changed the country of origin to the US and the price quoted for the same is $475.42 - which translates to R2961.87 at 6.23/1. Now I don't think that a difference of R262.87 or $42 is excessive to cover bank charges on international cards, the vagaries of the exchange rate and foreign issuing costs. If you are looking to try to snag one of the JNB/CPT one way tickets advertised at R752 then forget it! The fine print shows that these are very limited (usually one or two per flight), often do not include airport taxes and are hugely restricted in terms of dates. And I'm not going to cry over the fact that these deals are not available internationally - the draw for the return flights between SA and the US was only open to US citizens so it all evens out in the end. So sorry, ac23 - there is no way around this and I think you may be looking in the wrong place. SAA (and to a lesser extent Nationwide) are more focussed on business travellers. The best bet for cheap flights are Kulula or 1time as advised by the other posters.

And for the locals - don't you just love the ads for 1time?! I spotted the estate agent one last night and was howling with laughter! It's the first truly multilingual ad that doesn't end up patronising.

ac23

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, SAA had the 6am return flight I was looking for and I did not see this on the other carriers. The flight I was looking at (Aug 12-Aug 14) was listed at $474.42 with US as the origin country and R977 with South Africa as the origin, so there was a bigger cost difference there (using 6.23/1 it looks like a difference of $325) . So that's why I had wondered if there was a way around purchasing in South Africa - or if I was just doing something wrong when I punch everything in. Additionally, if I do use Nationwide, it looks like I need a South African credit card as well. Is there another way to purchase these with out a South African credit card?

ArthurSA

Try contacting a S.A. travel agent. The largest is I think Seekers Travel: www.travel.co.za. Another is Flight Centre: www.flightcentre.co.za. But I haven't checked if they'll accept non-SA cards.

At the risk of seeming to be too pro-Kulula (I don't own shares, and I don't work for them!), and you probably have a very tight connection, but I see that they seemingly have seats for:

Aug.12 6h45 R669
Aug.13 6h30 R489
Aug.14 7h00 R569

Prices include taxes.

traci_local_in_sa

Okay - I've figured out the reason for the difference. I had entered the flight dates as within the next few days, once I had the real dates I entered these and came up with exactly what you quote = R977 for SA. The reason for this greatly reduced amount is that it's more than 2 weeks away, the price goes through the roof booking within a week of departure. Does not explain the reason for the difference to international visitors though ...
Unfortunately, there just is no way to trick the system. The only alternative I can suggest is that Kulula and 1time both have a 7am flight on the 14th, and they both come in at about R1000 return. I think you will need to make a decision between an hour difference in departure time and cost.

traci_local_in_sa

Arthur and I are "tripping" over each other! Good suggestion on the big travel agent - if you want I'll supply the contact details of someone in SA who found the most amazing domestic air within the US for me (R2090 for LGA/MSY & MSY/SFO!).

uhoh_busted

When we were checking in to our J-burg/Cape SAA flight in J-burg, the lines for SAA were REALLY long. I noticed someone looking terrified at the lines and said "It looks like we're all in the same boat here -- the lines are long, but they seem to be moving." She said, no, she was looking for Kulula -- I left Steve with our bags in line to see if I could help her (and I was curious) --

We finally spotted the Kulula desk with three agents and NO line -- so she smiled and said "Thanks" and zipped right on over and through. I went back to stand in line for another 20 minutes.

I know I'm checking out Kulula (I keep thinking of coffee licquers...) next time we need internal SA flights.

ArthurSA

Traci, "shall we dance"?

In case it's not clear, those prices I quoted were one way, because that's what you asked in the subject. Return fares won't necessarily be exactly double, because as you'll see from the one-way figures the prices can vary.

sandi

Wouldn't it be nice if the original poster RJames came back here to let us know what success he/she had with the information provided?

We're all falling over one another and not a word!

ac23

Thanks for all of your input. I am looking into moving our connecting flight on the 14th to later in the day (it is currently a 9:15am departure - too tight for the connection) and booking on Kulula and I will also contact on of the South African travel agenta ArthurSA mentioned to see if they will accept non-SA credit cards. One of these options should work. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

ArthurSA

Just in case it got lost in the flurry of posts . . . If you do decide to go with Kulula, then you don't need a travel agent because Kulula accepts non-SA cards. You may even find that a travel agent is reluctant to book with Kulula or even doesn't use them at all, because of their reduced comm. I think the latter may have been the case when Kulula first started, I don't know about now.

ac23

ArthurSA, I took your suggestion of contacting Seekers Travel and they were able to book our 6am flight at the internal SA rate and we wired them the payment. Thanks again.