I'm arriving in Johannesburg via Virgin Atlantic at 8:35AM. Would that allow me plenty of time to catch a 11:10 or 10:50 flight to Lusaka, Zambia with a different airline? I've never flowin internationally. I don't have to go through customs to catch a connecting flight right? Will my baggage be taken to my connecting flight or will I have to pick it up and check it again? The other thing I'm trying to keep in mind is the possibility of a delay and not arriving in Johannesburg at 8:35. Any thoughts?

Sounds like separate tickets to me so it's NOT a connecting flight.

If so then you will have to pass through immigration in order to collect & recheck your luggage

Whether or not OP is on separate tickets is not the determining factor.

If Virgin Atlantic can check your bags through to your final destination, then you can bypass immigrations/customs and follow the signs to International Transfer when you arrive in Johannesburg. If you don't already have your boarding pass, that's ok: you'll just need to stop at the transit desk at the International Transfer area.

However, If Virgin Atlantic can't check your bags all the way through, or if they tell you that you need to recheck your bags in Jo'Burg, then you do have to go through immigration, and pick up your bags. After you pick up your bags, follow the hallway to Connecting Flights, where you can recheck your bags and go to the departure hall.

In either case, you will have ample time, unless of course your incoming flight is very late.

Don

It would be a separate flight. I actually haven't bought the ticket Lousaka yet so I could buy a later one, but I'd like to get to Lusaka sooner rather than later.

My last experience transferring in Jo'burg was in 2007 and things may have changed since, but for what it's worth...

Arrival on time from London on BA, with transfer to BA onward flight to V'Falls, Zimbabwe, 3-hour connection time not enough, we missed the only flight that day and had to spend a night and catch another flight the next day. No need to claim luggage and recheck because we were carry-on only, so that didn't slow us down. And we were checked in for the onward flight and had boarding passes so that wasn't the problem either.

The problem was there were many large international flights all arriving at the same time and all of us, 1000s of passengers, queuing for passport control and visas. Then those of us connecting to other flights had to pass through the single security screening. We were in lines for literally hours, finally raced to to our departure gate and watched the flight leave without us.

Hopefully things have changed and its all being handled more expeditiously now.

Thanks julia1. That's making me want to play it safe and take a later flight.