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Johannesburg to San Francisco

Flights from Johannesburg to San Francisco are epic in terms of their length, with the quickest being some 27 hours. There are no direct flights (SATAWU was furious about the length of flights from OR Tambo to New York, and they'd be toyi toying for a long time if JNB-SFO flights were introduced), and only a few 1-stops.

As crazy as it may seem, since one has to fly in the wrong direction first, Emirates is often the cheapest and is right up there amongst the quickest. An interesting alternative is to fly the other way round the globe to San Francisco, with Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific.

Check the flight prices of all airlines (use the tool on the left) flying from JNB to San Francisco (California, US) to find the cheapest. There aren't any direct flights, but here's a list of 1-stop flights on the route (note that all flights take off from O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg):

Airlines

We carried out a point in time survey of airfares from JNB to SFO and then listed the airlines from the cheapest at the top.

Airline	Airports	Stops
Emirates	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) Dubai (DXB)
Qatar Airways/US Airways	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	2-stops (33 hours) Doha (DOH) Philadelphia (PHL)
British Airways	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) London (Heathrow)
Lufthansa	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) Frankfurt (FRA)
Air France	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) Paris De Gaulle (CDG)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (46 hours) Amsterdam (Schipol)
Virgin Atlantic Airways	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (29 hours) London (Heathrow)
Cathay Pacific	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (33 hours) Hong Kong (HKG)
Delta Airlines	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) Atlanta (ATL)
Singapore Airlines	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (32 hours) Singapore (SIN)
South African Airways/United Airlines	JNB to San Francisco (SFO)	1-stop (27 hours) Washington (IAD)

Another option is to fly from Johannesburg to New York, and then travel on a low cost carrier from New York to San Francisco. This sometimes works out to a lower price, because of the greater competition on the JNB - New York flight route.

San Francisco architecture...