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SAA's cheap weird pricing

1 May 2009 flights
surveyed on 4 Apr 2009

1 May is Workers' Day. The government-owned carriers, Mango & SAA, are offering the cheapest one-way flights from JHB to CPT (R625 & R654 respectively). Interesting that SAA, a full service carrier, is cheaper than 1time & Kulula - given these dubious pricing strategies, it's no surprise that SAA is costing the country billions of rands (which could otherwise have been used for service delivery to the poor). These are the cheapest flights we have seen since 22 Mar 2008.

Flights from JHB to CPT *
Bus & train trips from Joburg to Cape Town

Mango lowest price
flight JE169 leaves 1735 arrives 1950

625

Shosholoza Meyl economy class
leaves JHB 1230 arrives CPT 1530 (+1)

180

SAA economy class
flight SA365 leaves 1840 arrives 2050

654

Shosholoza Meyl tourist class
leaves JHB 1030 arrives CPT 1240 (+1)

340

Kulula Airline from Lanseria Airport
flight MN455 leaves 1845 arrives 2055

676

City to City coach
leaves JHB 1300 arrives CPT 0635 (+1)

380

1time economy class
flight 1T137 leaves 1930 arrives 2140

707

SA Roadlink coach
leaves JHB 1400 arrives CPT 0815 (+1)

399

Kulula Airline from O.R. Tambo Airport
flight MN109 leaves 1830 arrives 2040

866

Translux coach
leaves JHB 1515 arrives CPT 0915 (+1)

450

Mango Flex
flight JE169 leaves 1735 arrives 1950

1011

Intercape coach
leaves JHB 1830 arrives CPT 1400 (+1)

510

Mango Plus
flight JE169 leaves 1735 arrives 1950

1121

Greyhound coach via Bloemfontein
leaves JHB 1800 arrives CPT 1230 (+1)

510

British Airways economy class
flight BA6431 leaves 1800 arrives 2010

1985

Baz Bus (7 day pass)

1250

SAA business class
flight SA365 leaves 1840 arrives 2050

2808

Premier Classe train
(Thursdays & Sundays)

1500

British Airways club class
flight BA6431 leaves 1800 arrives 2010

3275

Blue train

9955

* one-way flight prices (incl tax) from JHB to Cape Town, leaving JHB between 1729 & 2036 on 1 May 2009

Kulula cheapest ever from Lanseria

Kulula's R676 is the cheapest one-way flight from Lanseria to Cape Town we've surveyed (previous best was R706 nearly a year ago, on 3 May 2008). Only Kulula currently offers regular scheduled flights from Lanseria to Cape Town.

Expensive Greyhound

The Greyhound price of R510 for a bus trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town via Bloemfontein, is the highest we've surveyed for them on this route.

East London AirportMissing a flight to Mthatha

Nicholas's mother had always worried about him oversleeping, but at 0430 in the morning he found himself with a different problem - he couldn't close the door of his house (the wood had swollen), and the idea of leaving somebody to carry out the repairs unattended was not appealling (welcome to life in South Africa). Eventually at 11am help arrived and he packed his Toyota Yaris and made his way to the Airport. As he was 8th on stand-by he decided to rather fly to East London Airport, where he hired a VW Polo at Avis Car Hire and drove to Mthatha. Congratulations to Nicholas on a really well written piece, which my comments don't do sufficient justice to. He's a deserved winner of SouthAfrica.to's travel blog posting of the week.

Being a flight attendant is like endless school trips

"I have always thought that working as a flight attendant is not that dissimilar to a life of endless school trips. The way they are looked after, collected from the airport in buses, ferried to the hotels, given their daily spending money, the drinking, the partying, the bad behaviour - it's all rather similar to releasing a group of teenager for the first time in Paris." Imogen Edwards-Jones, as quoted from Air Babylong (obtainable from Kalahari books).

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