Hello everyone and welcome back to this series of flight reports.
This series covers my trip to Johannesburg, South Africa with LH and SA in Business Class.
Series overview
1st Part
NUE > FRA with LH153 Can be found here: LH153: NUE > FRA
2nd Part
FRA > JNB with SA261 Can be found here: SA261: FRA > JNB
3rd Part
JNB > FRA with SA260 You are here!
4th PartFRA > NUE with LH142 Cancelled!
FRA > NUE with LH140 Can be found here: LH140: FRA > NUE
Flight information SA260
Aircraft Registration: ZS-SNF
Aircraft Type: A340-600
Boarding (planned): 18:35
Boarding (actual): 18:35
Push Back: 19:35
Departure (planned): 19:20
Departure (actual): 19:40
Arrival (planned): 06:10
Arrival (actual): 05:45
Arrival Gate: 05:53
*All times are local
Flight Ticket
Pre Flight @ JNB
After an eventfull day in JNB, I arrived at about 5pm local time at Or Tambo Airport.
When you arrive by car at JNB you get a great view onto the ramp.
The British Airways A380 was not that far away :)
Check in area was not very busy and check in was very fast.
After I got my flight tickets, I decided to visit the visitor terrace.
You have a great view from there and a Etihad B787 was standing right in front of the terrace.
After my visit, I passed through security check and bought a few presents, before I went to the South African Premium Lounge.
The Lounge was very crowded as most of international South African Airways flights depart in the evening and arrive in Europa the next early morning.
I ate a few cakes and checked my E-Mails and messages.
Flight SA260
I asked at the counter if boarding for my flight starts on time - it did - so I made my way to the gate for the flight.
Unfortunately, the A340-600 stood at an remote gate. Therefore a bus transport was necessary and it took a few minutes to reach the aircraft - about 10 minutes by bus.
Again it took some time to board the A340-600. During boarding there were announcements, that refuelling is still under way and that the passengers should not use any electrical devices onboard.
Once refuelling was finished, there was another announcement, that is safe now to use electrical devices.
A pictures from the South African Airways Business Class cabin.
All A340-600 have the same Business Class cabin equipment.
As on the inbound flight FRA > JNB - the aircraft is about 14 years old, but it looked a little bit better than the other one.
The Business Class cabin was the same, still a comfortable seat.
Orange juice or sparkling wine was offered - I chose orange juice.
The same amenity kit and the noise cancelling headphones were stored in the seat.
My Singapore Airlines Teddy's enjoyed the ride.
They are travelling always with me.
Another SAA on the ramp next to my window.
I made a few pictures from the departure and Johannesburg at night.
Regrettably my mobile phone camera is very bad with low light.
About one hour after departure the dinner meal service started.
I have no photos from the menu card.
I put it in the seatpocket before I slept a little bit and it was collected by the crew during the night.
After I woke up, I asked if I could get it to take it with me home, because I collect them all.
But the steward told me, that it is not possible to give me the card and it is not allowed to take it with me.
Sad but true, there was no way to get it back.
I can't remember the choices - but there was not such a big difference compared to the inbound flight FRA > JNB.
Canapés
Appetiser
Some Duck as appetiser.
Main course
Chicken with vegetables and rice.
Desert
I took the cheese plate as desert.
Once again, the food was very good.
When I finished my dinner, I did some work and followed the flight map while we were heading north towards Europe.
Later on, I slept and relaxed a little bit until the breakfast was prepared.
The breakfast service started 1.5 hours before landing and I choose the continental version.
The rest of the flight was very calm and I enjoyed the great view of the rising sun in the east. Luckily my window seat was on the right side of the aircraft which gave me the perfect view towards east.
One of my favorite pictures … A340-600 wing and sunrise :)
Landing at FRA.
The landing was very smooth under, I guess, very good conditions on an early Sunday morning in Germany. :)
After Flight @ FRA
As the aricraft turned off the runway, I deactivated the flight mode of my mobile phone and guess what …
The first message I got was from Lufthansa "Unfortunately your connecting flight LH142 was cancelled - you are rebooked onto flight LH144".
Now you have to know, LH142 departes at 9:55 am - LH144 at 1:15pm local time.
I still not understand why Lufthansa did'nt booked me onto LH140 with a scheduled departure time at 7:05am.
Luckily I know about LH140 - so I thought "No way - I will not wait 7 hours for a 25 minute flight - I want to get that 7:05am flight".
So I tried everything to reach a LH service center and get rebooked onto that earlier flight.
More on that in the last part!
I will also tell you on the next part, why I gave FRA just 3.5 out of 10 points in Efficiency.
