Hi all -

I'm scheduling travel to South Africa for my boss. He'll be flying out of LAX, and currently we have him headed eastbound for a layover in London on his way to South Africa. Out of curiosity though, are there options if we wanted to fly another way and have a layover in Hawaii or Australia or Mumbai? Does any have any experience with that?

Thanks so much!

Most transpacific routes to South Africa from the US cost a lot more than those via Europe or the Middle East. Here are some questions that will help arrive at an answer, however:

Is cost a factor? Are you free to divulge a rough budget?
Is he flying in economy or business class?
What airline(s) is he using? When is this trip?
How long is his current layover in London?
How long will he be in South Africa and where?
Does he have other stops to make?
How about other travel within North America in the coming year - does he travel frequently on business?

The reason for asking these questions is that some airlines have special ticket products that might be beneficial in his circumstances, but the devil is in the details, as they say.

No, they take longer that way. You can book him to jfk or IAD and direct to JNB on SAA. Or to ATL direct to JNB on Delta. I have lots of online "friends" on the west coast that fly through Europe, too. Lots of Europe and Middle East layover airline/airport options. Nobody goes east from the west coast that I know of. Check www.kayak.com for options. Book direct with the airlines. Flying to CPT, you'll have to go through JNB - or some European airlines and Emirates fly to both direct from their hubs.

If you can avoid very long layovers, it's better. Sometimes I go on an overnight flight (from jfk) to LHR, then a full day layover until another overnight flight to JNB. Ugh.

One tip - if you/he haven't decided on exact dates, avoid coming home around time changes. The long flights, jet lag, etc, are plenty without another hour change soon before or after the flights. I have a "friend" who suffered for weeks from jet lag plus the time change flying from the west coast. But she lived it so much she's going back just a year after her return (I tried to warn her - it's addictive!!).

If he can go biz or use frequent flier miles to go biz, it is well worth the added cost for many of us. Yes, biz flights are very expensive but those long flights in coach are tough the first few times. I'm used to it now and go coach but it's hard. Especially with the extra five hours in the air....

Most of your options are round about, some even unnecessarily circumnavigating the globe, since you mentioned Hawaii,Australia and India. At best your boss can accumulate air miles and arrive dog-tired.

You should be ideally looking at South African Airlines, which has code sharing with Jet Blue Airways. LAX - JFK - JNB , with a 3 hr layover at JFK.

Goodluck

Another airline to check is British Airways. We've flown both BA and SAA. For us (on the east coast) SAA has better flights. We've connected in London, and Amsterdam, but one of the best flights is from Dulles (outside DC) and goes more or less directly to JNB. We stopped in Accra (Ghana) but only a few people got off as most were headed to JNB. It is SAA flight 208 (and the return flight is SAA 209).

Cathay Pacific goes LAX to Hong Kong to JNB.