Routing :
CDG – MUC / Airbus A320-214 CEO SL D-AIUT Lufthansa LH2239 Economy K / 6 AM Beer City Flug [THERE]
MUC – SOF / Airbus A320-214 CEO SL Lufthansa LH1702 Economy K / Eastern Orient Express [THERE]
SOF – VIE / Airbus A320-200 CEO OE-LBP Austrian OS796 Business C / Vienna coffee [THERE]
VIE – FRA / Airbus A319-100 CEO OE-LDG Austrian OS125 Business C / Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 [THERE]
FRA – JNB / Boeing 747-8i D-ABYO Lufthansa LH572 Business C Upper Deck / I’m leaving on a jet plane, (I know) when I’ll be back again [THERE]
JNB – SZK / Embraer 135 ZS-SWN South African Airlink SA8865 Economy Q / A different kind of animal [THERE]
SZK – MQP / Cessna Caravan C208-B ZS-MLT South African Airlink SA8930 Economy Y / Dreaming of Cessna [THERE]
MQP – JNB / Embraer 140 ZS-ALR South African Airlink SA8828 Economy Q / Outclassing the road [THERE]
JNB – DUR / Airbus A330-200 ZS-SXV South African Airways SA559 Business C / Comfy old cabin [THERE]
> DUR – CPT / Boeing 738WL ZS-ZWU British Airways by Comair BA6310 Business U / On the ‘Business’ again [YOU ARE HERE]
CPT – GRJ / Embraer 135 ZS-SWN South African Airlink SA8631 Economy Q / Lost Gardenrouteflightpath [THERE]
PLZ – JNB / Boeing 737-800 Split Scimitar winglets ZS-ZWH British Airways by Comair BA6242 Economy O / From PE with chill [THERE]
JNB – FRA / Boeing 747-8i D-ABYR Lufthansa LH573 First C Nose / "Luck" [THERE]
FRA – VIE / Airbus A320 CEO OE-LBL Austrian OS128 Business C / Good Morning Austria
VIE – SOF / Airbus A320 CEO OE-LBM Austrian OS795 Business C / Foodstock
SOF – MUC / Embraer 195 D-AEMD Lufthansa LH1705 Cityline Economy K / …6.5 hours later
MUC – CDG / Airbus A319-100 CEO D-AILY Lufthansa LH2238 Economy K / Clap-my-end or "I (don't) love Paris, in the summer…"
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Welcome back !
This flight was booked using AAdvantage miles and it may be difficult to believe, but this is actually in 15 years of fying my first award flight.
Why ? Because I do not have millions of miles and that the awards never seem attractive to me.
This time was different though :
- I have no use of my/our AAdvantage account(s) which only served to get twice the amount of miles for the same ticket (IB+ and AAdvantage)
- 17,5k miles seemed reasonable
- there were only 62€ or so to pay as tax (same as the Economy award).
The only problem was that I just had over 20k miles on AAdvantage and you cannot do a family account with this FFP, so I had to book separately with both our accounts.
Once booked with AAdvantage, you generally have the BA PNR and can manage your booking online
It shows 96 ZAR per seat as I was only Ruby with AA and not Sapphire like with Iberia, meaning I had to wait T-7 days to choose my seat
Our check-in on the BA iPhone app was incredibly seamless for an app check-in (sorry, the app was in French)
Getting the BP was easy
Our journey started in the Protea Umfolozi River near Mtubatuba this morning. We had a 2hrs drive to DUR with our guide who dropped us off at the check-in counter (very unusual to be noted).
The check-in agent, a woman from Indian backgrounds was so nice with us. She attached the tag to our bags really hard so it wouldn't detach and be lost.
Landside it is clean, clean and clean, and modern. But it is not very well indicated. There is no priority lane for security. It seems that South African authorities do not allow this… hum.
Airside, on our way to the lounge
Both the stairs and the elevators are located at the left of the Fego café
Great, we are at the right level (3)
You have to turn right after the SAA lounge and pass between it and the Bidvest lounge
Stylish logo and motto
The view from the lounge : high
The seating areas are comfortable and clean. The lounge wasn't too crowded
A coffee machine
Please tell me. What is that ?
Plethoric breakfast
My selection : croissants,
Danish pastries,
Sausages (ok I ate them before taking the picture hehe)
Some power outlets everywhere
Washrooms : plenty of them, individual, well maintained : perfect
At boarding (on-time), priorities were strictly respected and the staff was efficient (Gate A12)
Our aircraft was ZS-ZWU, a former Air Berlin 737-800 WL.
Very tonic welcome from our female FAs inside this 2-3 layout cabin. I would have liked to choose 2 seats on the other side but I wouldn't have had any view of Table Mountain upon landing, which would be crazy when landing in CPT!
The overhead panel has not been changed
The seats are wide enough for me : I have plenty of room on both sides
I took water as a PDB but there was a choice of fruit juices as well
We were also offered newspapers
Let's take a look at the safety card
The aircraft drawings are approximative… the second one looks like a MD80.
Furthermore, I though that flights to St Helena were cancelled due to the high winds there ? It's not that I don't want to wake up Napoleon's soul but…^^
We had a relatively short taxi as the runway 06 threshold is not far from the terminal
Climb over the "gardens". Some pax can spot whales from time to time
Our meals were filling ! Let's look into this together :
Hot oshibori : check
Tray table : ready
Apéritif with a drink : done
General view of the tray : the main was a beef course with mushrooms, bean peas and a spicy tomato sauce. It was surprisingly spicy but more than excellent. I'm honestly surprised by the catering quality in South Africa, especially on Comair
Metal cutlery BA branded
Close up on the salad
On the cheese/crackers
On the butter and the chocolate
And on the raspberry stuffed cake
The toilets were really clean but they were used by Y pax as well as J pax! You can see its origins with the german writings.
I saw several times a female FA accompanying a blind person and an old man going to the toilets by holding them, it was heart-warming to see this
Back to my seat shortly before the Top Of Descent (TOD)
Ahhh what would be Africa without the zebra ?! What a wonderful animal
We had little if no turbulences at all during our flight, which helped the experience. The top altitude was FL320 according to our Captain.
And the best part ! The famous Table Mountain
I like the views over this city, wherever I took them
Landing all too soon, 5 minutes ahead of schedule :(
Our taxi to end this flight was quick
The FR's cover
Our bags were on the carousel as I walked to the beggining of it : well done Comair !
For our transfer, we had chosen Blacklane… the driver itself was kind and well dressed but he really had no idea where he was going. It took us a bit less than an hour to get to the Radisson Blu Le Vendôme in Sea Point, whereas the normal trip should be 30 minutes, GEEZ ! I had an helicopter flight afterwards (ok, it will go into the bonus)
We were at the car park's exit just 5 minutes after the schedule landing time ! Incredible^^
As soon as we could, we went to the Cape Town Helicopters office near the Victoria&Alfred Waterfront where we had a flight to the Cape Peninsula
Thank You for another great flight report :)
The catering looks pretty good for a flight of this length. Wonderful view to the Table Mountain ;)
- Please tell me. What is that ?
Looks like a spacy water tap where you can also get hot water if you want a cup of tea :D
Thanks for reading it :)
Catering was indeed more than decent !
This is what I though at first sight but I couldn't see where the water was coming from, anyway, I guess we discover new things each day^^