South Africa & Namibia on South African and SA Express

Flights
Cape Town - Walvis Bay on SA Express 1721
Windhoek - Johannesburg on South African 77

CPT-WVB
My least favorite airplane to fly on is the CRJ200 and this is what SA Express offers if you want to fly non-stop from Cape Town to Walvis Bay with one flight per day.  The CRJ200 has extra small seats, and windows in a position which requires quite an upper body contortion to really see out.

At CPT we dropped off our rental car, smoothly went through security and waited in a very empty wing of the airport.  British Airways 747s provided some nice viewing as we waited.  When they called our flight we went down a flight of stairs to the gate.  Of course, no skybridge for the CRJ so we loaded up a bus and then stood in the bus for about 10 minutes.

Our little CRJ

It was a 2 hour flight over the dessert to Walvis Bay, which is a 30 minute drive south of our destination of Swakopmund.  They served a full meal in the air and looking down there wasn't much besides the dessert.

Departing CPT

Just after take-off looking North.  Being on the right side of the plane we didn't have the view of the city.

We made a lot of turns on approach to Walvis Bay which seemed a little strange since there was nothing around and I can't imagine a lot of traffic going in and out of this airport.  After landing the plane just rolled to a stop and we got out and then walked across the tarmac to the terminal.  This was a bit of a hike and I immediately learned that this part of Namibia is completely devoid of color.

Arrival in Walvis Bay

We don't check bags

In the terminal, you immediately go to immigration and the very friendly agent stamped our passports and we were officially in the country.  I had arranged a rental car through a travel agency and there was someone waiting for us with our 4 wheel drive truck in the parking lot.

Desert view in all directions.  

We drove all through Namibia including Damaraland and Etosha (this will be in another report).  I arranged for our truck to be picked up in Windhoek when we arrived at the airport and this was a little confusing as we could not find the guy we got the car from.  Eventually, he found us after I was about to leave it with another rental car agency.

WDH-JNB
The airport in Windhoek is mostly served by Air Namibia.  In fact, one of their two A340s was quite impressive as we drove up.  Inside the terminal I saw that today's flight to Frankfurt had been cancelled.    I wonder how much demand there is for the Windhoek-Frankfurt route?  We had a couple hours to kill in the airport and got a snack in the only cafe past security.

Our A319

Boarding was about 20 minutes late and involved a short walk to the plane - no jet bridges here.  Once we were in the air, drink service was immediately started.  Initially, there was some severe turbulence which did not make my wife happy, but it was pretty smooth the rest of the way.

I love the clouds that I saw all over southern Africa.  They are look little poofs of white that contrast so well with the blue sky.  We had a nice view of these flying away from the setting sun towards Johannesburg.

Of course, since this isn't a United States based airline we received full meal service on this 2 hour flight.  It was curry chicken rice and some pretty poor vegetables.  On the side was a pasta salad (a little too much mayonnaise for my taste), bread, cheese and crackers and a chocolate dessert.  Overall, it was nothing speciall, but it sure beat expectations when you are expecting a drink and peanuts.

On arrival at JNB, we headed through immigration and took the Gautrain to Sandton to our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton Sandton (35,000 Hilton Honors Points), which was a nice place by a large mall in Sandton.  On the train, there was a man that immediately put me on alert, as he stepped on without any luggage and kind of hung out in the back of the train.  Eventually, two policeman passed through the car and kicked him out.  One then checked the seat he was sitting in.  I noticed all the trains and platforms seemed to be very well patrolled by police.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't take a picture of the train.  But airport, to hotel was about 30 minutes each direction.  The Hilton Sandton had a van that would pick you up if you called the hotel from the station.  Here is a review I wrote on Trip Advisor of the Hilton Sandton.

Lunch on the plane to JNB. 

Nelson Mandela Square

London to Port Elizabeth via Jo'burg on South African Biz Class

Christmas in London - The sign is lit, but no trains running. 

Cheers from London on Christmas Day.  It was cold, but only a little rain throughout the day.  We were flying on South African using US Airways Dividend Miles and there was no way to get to the airport.  No way that was reasonable at least.  Busses, trains and tube were all shut down for the holiday.  Our hotel booked us a private car (they claimed it would be cheaper than a taxi), and for £65 we got a quick painless ride to the airport.  If you are wondering, the cab ride was half the cost of each plane ticket.  

We arrived at Heathrow and watched as the unfortunate man in front of us presented an expired passport at check-in and was denied a boarding pass.  After some confusion, he was sent off to a different ticket counter.  Without bags to check, we breezed through security and headed to the Star Alliance Lounge. 

Check-in for SA 237

Christmas night in the lounge was a pretty quiet affair.  I counted less than a dozen people and we had a few beverages, read the newspaper and made some FaceTime calls home to family, just waking up in California.  Food in the lounge was pretty disappointing.  They had a beef stew, sad looking salad and plenty of sugary snacks.  The bar and drinks were "self serve".

Finally it was time to board, and it was quite a long walk to the gate.  The departure board in the lounge went from "on time" to "flight closing" so there was a sense of urgency to get to the plane.  It seemed like most people had boarded when we arrived and we were on the plane in the business class cabin almost immediately.  

Pre-departure Champagne

This very new A330 had a nice clean interior with earth tone colors... lots of browns and tans.  The flight attendants identified me by name and we relaxed and I checked out the seat.  South African has a 180 degree lie flat business class seat in a 2-2-2 configuration.  Unfortunately, we were in the middle but had the bulkhead in seats 1D & 1G.  

The up and down button was the most useful function

Plenty of legroom

I asked the FAs if I could see the cockpit and I was told the pilots were busy.  About 10 minutes later, I was beckoned up to the front.  The captain and first officer were on their laptops.  I went back to my seat and told my wife we were in good hands with a bald brother at the controls.  It was nice they let me in there, but they didn't seem very interested in having guests.

Flight Deck of the A330

 Menus were distributed before take-off with the drinks.

Before we pushed back from the gate, there was an interesting little argument between flight attendants in the galley in front of me.  It involved whether the emergency exit had been properly set.  They went back and forth for a few minutes.  I think it probably wasn't armed properly.  The debate stopped when someone hit the call button, one left to attend to the passenger and the other flight attendant made some adjustments to the door.  The captain announced just over 10 hours in the air to Johannesburg.

Straight shot to South Africa

Food service began pretty quickly once we were in the air.  I will say it was a much better meal and presentation than my experience in British Airways Club World.  The appetizers were very good and fresh.  Smoked salmon and shrimp was the highlight of the meal.  My steak was well done, but very tender.  My wife's fish had a strange creamy sauce on it that I would have preferred going without.

A little Amuse Bouche

Soup and Salad

Salmon and Shrimp Salad

Tasty steak, green beans and mashed potatos.

The fish

The dinner plates sat on our trays for awhile and then we were brought a cheese plate.  The pepper was quite spicy.  This same cheese plate was offered as an inflight snack later in the flight but I declined.

Cheese after dinner

Dessert

I was ready to go to sleep, and they brought chocolates before bed which was a nice touch, but not what you want lingering in your mouth before you go to sleep.  I put on a movie and laid the bed flat.  South African provides you two blankets for the bed: one for the seat and one to cover yourself.  I found this to be a little too warm as I woke up a few times in the middle of the night trying to adjust to cool down.  The headphones provided for the IFE didn't work very well to begin with and were even worse lying done.  I think SA could improve this product.

Pralines

Lousy Headphones

I slept okay.  As I mentioned before it seemed a little warm in the cabin and being by the bulkhead made it seem kind of bright from the galley.  The cabin lights came on for breakfast and I put my seat back upright.  Now I had 2 blankets and I didn't really know what to do with them so I stuffed them under the leg rest in front of me.  They were pretty much in the way for the rest of the flight.

Breakfast Spread

Hot breakfast

Breakfast was excellent: good fruit, yogurt and Museli (which I soon learned is a South African breakfast staple), and the hot course was good.  It seemed like they cleared the plates and then we were about to land in Johannesburg.

South African A330-200

On arrival, it was a long walk to immigration and then we hit the arrivals lounge.  The lounge was a little hot and very small, but the showers were huge.  A nice hot shower and a cup of coffee and we were good.  We still had about 90 minutes before our flight to Port Elizabeth, but we decided to get out and walk around.  The airport has it all: shopping, food and lots of people.  We sat down by the gate for about 20 minutes waiting for our flight.

South African 737

To board, you take a bus out to the plane and then walk up some stairs.  We were in economy for this leg and the seats felt even smaller after our previous flight.  This flight was pretty uneventful and we landed at Port Elizabeth just needing to collect our rental car.

The rental car was quite an ordeal as I wanted to pay for the car with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.  If you have not seen this card, it is blue with a metal inside.  The numbers, name and magnetic strip are all on the back and this thoroughly confused the young lady that was trying to get us our car.  I explained it was a credit card from the United States, but she had to call her manager who said not to accept the card, because they only accept cards with "numbers on the front" and it didn't say "credit card".  I offered to call Chase to confirm it was an acceptable card, which they decided to call their bank.  After a lot of back and forth and a line forming behind me I relented and used a different card with numbers on the front.  After she ran the card I pointed out that this card didn't say "credit" on it either.  I don't think I'll do business with First Car Rental again.

Finally in Port Elizabeth

We drove our little car out of the airport and being the first time driving on the left side, we missed most of the turns needed to get to our Bed and Breakfast on Richmond Hill in Port Elizabeth.  I say "we", but my wife was driving as I don't know how to drive a manual transmission.  I acted as navigator and pointed out the lane we should be in on each left and right turn.  It was a nice little introduction to downtown Port Elizabeth.  Finally, after some help from a local in the neighborhood we found it.  We were the only guest staying at the Richmond House B&B.

View from our B&B

To London on British Airways Club World

I do not advise trying to book an award ticket on a month's notice for a trip during the holiday season.  The only One World ticket from the West Coast I could find was Las Vegas to London Gatwick on Saturday, December 22.  50,000 AAdvantage miles gets you a business class ticket from the USA to Europe and we booked two on this non-stop flight.

Left Santa Barbara at 5:30am in a one-way rental with a stop in Victorville along the way.  We arrived in Las Vegas a little before noon, ate lunch, stocked up on some snacks and headed to LAS.  Check-in was a breeze with no one in the Club World line when we arrived.  We weren't checking a bag so we went straight to the lounge.

"The Club at LAS" is a shared lounge for all the international carriers in Terminal 3.  It had standard assortment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, snacks and sweets.  After already eating lunch I wasn't interested in a sandwich, but the ones I saw being brought out were quite generous in size.  We had a few hours to kill so I also checked out the other planes at the gate.

Volaris A319 - destination Mexico City 

Virgin Atlantic 747 - also flies to LGW

The incoming flight from LGW was about 40 minutes late so we waited in the lounge to be called.  Finally they announced BA 2276 and we walked out to a hoard of people all crowding around the gate.  The plane was not in fact ready to board, so we probably waited another 15 minutes.  It was very difficult to hear the announcements from the gate agents.  Finally, it was time to go down the jet bridge and we turned left at the door into the Club World cabin.  

Our 3 Class 777 arriving at the gate in LAS

Lots of Room in the Club World Cabin - only about 1/3 full.

We pushed back about 45 minutes late and then took a long time taxiing before take-off.  The sun was just setting over Las Vegas as we set off for London.  Unfortunately, being on the left side of the plane I didn't have a view of the Strip.  Also, flying in Club World in seat 4A was a new experience facing backwards.

Plenty of legroom

Looking west towards the South Point Casino on climb out.

Ten minutes into the air we had menus and drinks.  Since the cabin was only partially full the Flight Attendants were quite attentive throughout the whole flight.

Dinner Menu

Breakfast Menu

Special Drinks

Wines

 I've always been intrigued with the amenity kits that are distributed on premium cabin flights.  It was kind of like opening a present to see what was inside.  The British Airways product is done by Elemis.  The outside kit was a bit disappointing and inside were the standards and some socks that were too small for my feet.

I chose the poached main lobster as the appetizer.  This was probably the best dish of the flight.  The salad also seemed quite fresh.  How the Club World cabin is laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration makes for a lot of reaching over people to serve the window seats.

Steak for the main.  I like a steak anywhere from medium-well to well done, but this piece of meat was beyond well done.  It was difficult to cut with the provided cutlery.  I thought of sending it back for the fish, but that was after I already pretty much had finished it.

 The cheese plate was good, but I was already quite full by this point.  The menu said it would come with fresh raspberries, but I never saw those.  I washed it all down with a cup of hot tea.  After they cleared this, it was about 8pm Pacific Time and I was pretty exhausted after the early morning drive and  airport.  To make the Club World Bed, your seat reclines and you kick down the footrest in front of you.  Because of the seat configuration, if you want to get out, you step over the legs of whoever is sitting in 5B.  I woke up when the cabin lights came on about an hour out from LGW.  Breakfast was served immediately.

Air Show

Sunrise over the Atlantic

Looking backwards after I woke up.

Breakfast - fruit, smoothie, tea and a muffin.
 Later they brought out ham on a soggy roll

Looking down on LGW

After arrival at LGW we went right through immigration and with no bags to pick-up we were out of the airport within 30 minutes.  We made a stop at the BA arrivals lounge which is located in a hotel across the parking lot.  We were the only ones in the lounge and after the hostess called our hotel we decided to head to the hotel instead of showering there.  

Overall, I was quite happy with British Airways Club World, mostly because of the comfortableness of the seat.  The cabin could be a little cleaner and the food improved, but I slept well on this flight which is priority number 1.