Review of Mango flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town in Economy

Continuing my journey in South Africa, I first flew to Johnannesburg for a conference and had a little bit of time to sneak in a safari :P

Not quite the big 5, but I did see a leopard, he was just too quick to get a photo you have have a giraffe instead!
After a week in Pretoria/Johannesburg it was time for me to fly to Cape Town for the next part of my trip. All the flights are below:
BRS-AMS KL1046 http://flight-report.com/en/report-11545.html
AMS-JNB KL591 http://flight-report.com/en/report-11547.html
JNB-CPT JE161
CPT-JNB JE168
JNB-AMS KL592
AMS-BRS KL1051
So I was flying with a low cost orange coloured airline - no not EasyJet - Mango. When I booked my flight the time for departure was stated as 18:30. I downloaded the Mango app and checked in online. I was surprised to see that the flight time was now showing as 19:30. I don't think I was send any information about the change in flight which was strange.
I was dropped off at the airport well in advance of my flight so I had plenty of time to kill and have a look around the airport. In the background you should be able to make out the Gautrain Station which will whisk you into the centre of Johannesburg or Pretoria with a change at Sandton in a safe, reliable and cheap way.

Departures, my flight wasn't even on the board yet!

I was told not to check-in too early as this gives the baggage handlers plenty of time to look through your suitcase for anything they might like. So instead I made my way down from the departures floor to the middle floor which is full of restaurants and takeaways. I went for Wimpy, it reminded me of my childhood before the Wimpy in my hometown was replaced by Burger King. In WImpy you get actual plates, knifes and forks and have waitress service.

After sitting around for a couple hours it was time to explore a bit more
Looking down to arrivals:

The airport terminal is split into two halves: international and domestic. Both have a viewing area

On the way up there is this sign. I'm not really sure why muslims need separate toilets….

This is the international side of the terminal. There are a few shops here but to get to the actual check-in area you need to pass through some security and and show somekind of proof that you are flying. (I should be able to get some more pics of this area when I fly back).

This is the domestic departures check-in area complete with Mango booking office.

I finally checked-in and went through the security. This all proceeded swiftly without any hassle.
It had been another couple of hours since I had my meal and as Mango are low cost I knew there wouldn't be any free food on offer so I decided to try to have some dinner. Unfortunately the choice airside is much more limited and I ended up having to have another Wimpy meal! I had a little laugh with the waitor there as some woman was complaining that the floor was dirty telling them they needed to clean it. It had been raining outside and clearly some people had brought some dirt in from the rain but it was hardly very bad - she needs to get herslef to the UK and look at the mess it causes there!

Here's the departures board again with my flight on it. It's showing the original flight time of 18:30. Earlier it was showing delayed until 19:30, which is the time of departure on the boarding pass. Now the flight was delayed even more to 19:55.

I headed towards the Gate E5 which was shown on the boarding card (not noticing the change in gate to D2). Gates E appeared to be bus gates. As I arrived everybody started to move to the new gate D2, so back upstairs we all went. D2 had no seating available and was just a queuing area. Despite the delay people were deciding to join in the queue. Not wanting to miss out I joined them.

From the queue I got to see out. It was strange to see so many small BA planes here.

Eventually my plane arrived.

Our boarding cards were scanned and we proceeded down the airbridge where we were split into two rows, those people at the front and those people at the back of the plane like my self. Another angry woman was now complaining that she had queued up for a long time in order to get on the plane first but now she'd have to wait even longer as she was in the front of the plane.
After waiting a bit more, we were allowed on board and our tickets were checked again. I was shocked to discover the bland interior - no orange lockers or orange anywhere!

Leg room not too bad here due to the seat pocket being high up

The safety card and magazine.

The view through the window.

We took off and were offered things from the menu, I didn't take anything as I had already had my two Wimpy meals. The flight was pretty bumpy all the way to Cape Town, but the service is what you would expect from a low cost carrier so nothing interesting to report and as it was an evening flight there wasn't anything to see out of the window. (Unfortunately now view of Table Mountain this time). Strangely there was no mention of the delay to the flight or why the flight had been put back an hour (minus points there!).
Arriving in Cape Town, we disembarked and were bussed to te terminal.

I was in the last bus and my luggage was already on the belt when we got there, so that was a bonus and meant that my friend didn't have to wait any longer to pick me up.