British Airways |
16 May 2008 flights |
This is super-fantastical, I think I've died and gone to heaven. Once again British Airways, who offer the best flight in South Africa, are also offering the cheapest flight. We surveyed flights from Durban to Cape Town on the 16th May 2008 (leaving between 1349 and 2146), and British Airways (South Africa's latest low cost carrier) are cheapest at R790.
Flights from Durban to Cape Town |
Bus trips from Durban to Cape Town |
||
British Airways |
790 |
Baz Bus (7 day pass) |
1020 |
Kulula.com |
no flights |
375 |
|
Mango Airlines |
799 |
360 |
|
Nationwide Airlines |
no flights |
480 |
|
1time Airline |
799 |
399 |
|
SAA - South African Airways |
821 |
510 |
|
Taking nothing from British Airways, it must be mentioned that if you used the promotional code "PNMS01" when booking your Mango Airways flight, the flight price reduces to R688 (cheaper than British Airways).
British Airways' time in the sun
Airlines seems to go through periods of offering great flight prices. In the first 11 months of 2007 (i.e. before Nationwide were grounded), Nationwide Airline was without a doubt most regularly the cheapest. Now, over the last month, British Airways of all airlines, are going through a purple patch. In the last 5 survey BA have been cheapest on 3 occassions:
Survey date |
Flight date |
Flight route |
Cheapest airline |
Cheapest flight price |
Average flight price |
18 Apr 2008 |
Johannesburg to Cape Town |
British Airways |
550 |
819 |
|
25 Apr 2008 |
Cape Town to Durban |
Mango Airline |
960 |
1297 |
|
2 May 2008 |
Durban to Johannesburg |
1time airline |
409 |
543 |
|
9 May 2008 |
Cape Town to Johannesburg |
British Airways |
550 |
665 |
|
19 Apr 2008 |
16 May 2008 |
Durban to Cape Town |
British Airways |
790 |
802 |
Well done British Airways, long may it last.
SAA's cheapest flight in a while
South African Airways (SAA) flight price of R821 is the cheapest flight price they've ever offered from Durban to Cape Town (although it's still the most expensive of the airlines in today's survey) since August 2007. Congratulations to SAA on this pricing achievement. We look forward to seeing you top our survey (in over a year of surveying flights in South Africa, SAA have never been cheapest).
Bus prices on the up
Most bus prices have increased from last week, and City to City have dethroned SA Roadlink, and are offering the cheapest bus trip from Durban to Cape Town (R360).
Cape Town Car rentals
Once you get to the mother city, you may want to rent a car. Car rental prices are from 2100 on the 16th May until 1300 on the 18th May. Vehicles picked up and returned at Cape Town International Airport.
Imperial car rental (now Europcar) |
||||||
513 |
343 |
409 |
479 |
332 |
326 |
386 |
Tempest Care Hire is still cheapest. Avis and Hertz car rental have seen their flight prices increase since the last survey of Cape Town car rentals.
Hotel accommodation in Cape Town
So you've flown British Airways from Durban Cape Town for R790 (or taken the City to City bus for R360), hired a Tempest Car for the weekend for R326 - now where do you book your hotel room? Hotel prices listed below are for the evening of the 16th May.
Protea Hotel Break-water Lodge |
Court-yard |
City LodgeV&A Water-front |
Town Lodge Bellville |
Road Lodge Cape Town Airport |
Southern Sun V&A Waterfront |
StayEasy Century City |
Garden Court De Waal |
Sun Int |
710 |
855 |
831 |
532 |
355 |
808 |
535 |
594 |
3600 |
The evening of the 16th May is a good time to book a night's accommodation in Cape Town. The Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge is costing R710 (down from R955), the Southern Sun at the Waterfront is R808 (down from R1325) and Sun International's The Table Bay is a mere R3600 (down from R4775). Cheapest as usual is the Road Lodge at Cape Town International Airport.
Nationwide error messages
Nationwide Airline can offer more accurate error messages when there aren't any flights available. Currently, we get the following error message which doesn't make it clear whether the flight is simply sold out or whether Nationwide doesn't in fact offer flights on that route, unecessarily putting the onus on the person browsing the site to do some detective work.
Error - We were unable to process your request.
Common reasons why your request may have been unsuccessful include:
-
Nationwide Airlines may not operate flights on the day or time you selected.
-
The flight dates you selected may be sold out and no longer be available.
-
An error occurred in the search process. Please try again.
-
With regards to our London Services, flights depart Johannesburg on SUN, TUE, WED, FRI and depart London on MON, TUE, THU and SAT.
Please check Nationwide Airlines Routes and Schedules for additional information.
British Airways flight special
British Airways are currently running flight specials, with flights from London to Cape Town being from £509 and there also being good prices for flights from London to Johannesburg.
Durban to Cape Town flight price history
We now of a year's worth of data of flight prices on the Durban to Cape Town flight route , so it's a good time to look back:
Survey date |
Flight date |
Cheapest airline |
Cheapest flight price |
Most expensive airline |
Most expensive flight price |
19 Apr 2008 |
16 May 2008 |
British Airways (BA) |
R190 |
South African Airways (SAA) |
R821 |
4 Apr 2008 |
Mango Airline |
R739 |
South African Airways (SAA) |
R1476 |
|
22 Feb 2008 |
Nationwide Airline |
R691 |
South African Airways (SAA) |
R1450 |
|
11 Jan 2008 |
Mango Airline |
R725 |
South African Airways (SAA) |
R2076 |
|
30 Nov 2007 |
Mango Airline |
R725 |
Kulula Airways |
R1451 |
|
19 Oct 2007 |
Nationwide Airline |
R630 |
South African Airways (SAA) |
R1015 |
|
7 Sep 2007 |
Nationwide Airline |
R630 |
British Airways |
R1032 |
|
27 Jul 2007 |
Mango Airline |
R477 |
Kulula Airways |
R869 |
|
15 Jun 2007 |
Nationwide Airline |
R600 |
Kulula Airways |
R999 |
Looking at flight prices on the Durban to Cape Town flight route over the last year we can see that Nationwide Airline and Mango Airlines have each been cheapest on 4 occassions. Most expensive airline on the flight route has been South African Airways (SAA) who have been most expensive on 5 occassions. Happily, Kulula Airways' patch of being most expensive seems to have ended.
Jessica visits South Africa
Jessica visited South Africa (flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Cape Town), and what I like about her blog is that she's sharing tons of pictures. Normally I link to a single blog post, but in her case I'm linking to her entire blog. According to Jessica:
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she wonders why they call it Boulders Beach...ha ha
-
her first week in South Africa was a blur as her body struggled to adapt to the change in time zones
-
South Africa has the biggest crickets on earth (and she's not talking about the Jacques Kallis variety)
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warning - if you get your hair plaited like an African woman,the next day it will be frizzy
Lufthansa in Cape Town
A Lufthansa plane parked at Cape Town International Airport. Note all the cranes and construction going on in the background - the photo was taken in January 2008. Behind the various cranes is Devil's Peak.
Foreign flight news
Passengers in seat 1A will be "killed on impact"
"Smith claimed that during her training she was told that any passenger sitting in seat 1A on a Ryanair flight would be killed on impact in any crash because a piece of metal used to attach a handrail would go straight into their head." Extract from Alan Ruddock's biography of Michael O'Leary (the head honcho at Ryanair flights),: "A Life in Full Flight
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