Here's the second part of my holiday with SAA.
For other legs you can find them here:
SA287 HKG-JNB A343 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-9566.html]
SA359 JNB-CPT B738 [This Report]
SA334 CPT-JNB A346 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-9625.html]
SA286 JNB-HKG A346 [http://flight-report.com/en/report-10136.html]
After spending two days visiting the attractions near Joburg, we headed for the next stop in SA: Cape Town.
We enjoyed a wonderful grill with the company of jet blasts..
Including this stunning beauty, Qatar Airways B788:
Sadly this was the only widebody arriving on the time we had lunch, since most widebodies arrive in morning.
We then shopped in an nearby mall till 90 minutes before the departure time.
This is the domestic arrival hall in OR Tambo:
And the check-in hall.
No one was waiting on the bag drop counters apart from a ground staff giving out free papers to passengers.
Domestic departures FID.
For South African domestic flights you can bring your own liquid aboard, which might be a factor on speedy security..It was really quick.
Pictures on airside:
There are Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the airport yet you need to register(too complicated!) for just 30min/50MB. Nor there are many commercials in the terminal, mostly restaurants.
We would be leaving at gate D5.
Many information boards were installed.
OR Tambo isn't a photo-friendly airport for certain.
Our ride today, ZS-SJB, a 14-year-old B738. SAA is actually phasing out their B738s, replacing them with A320 series. That makes SAA an all-Airbus airline. (Bad news for our copilot..)
Our neighbor, another B738.
Classic shot
When boarding, there were several thunderstorms approaching the airport. All the operations were paused and landing flights were holding. An SAA A346 even performed a touch-and-go on the runway.
The pitch was bearable for a two hour flight. You can really feel the age of the plane:
This cover appeared to be missing..
Miraculously the pilots still managed to keep our flight leaving on-time. By the time we pushed back the runway directions were changed from 03 to 21. That gave us a good aerial view on Joburg center.
An Air Namibia ERJ135.
Sad face: a BA B744 was written-off due to a collision on JNB ground.
Look at the impressive lineup of the giants!
Some more photos in JNB.
Joburg downtown in distance.
Catering services commenced as soon as the pilots leveled the plane.
Two options were available: fish with mashed potato..
which was a bit of tasteless..
And for the second option: beef with rice:
9/10 for the beef, 1/10 for the almost uncooked rice and beans.
Yet it wasn't the worst part: the salad(or appetizer?) was really inedible..
On this flight we tried some booze, all for free even on domestic flights.
There were 3 different wines, all from South Africa.
Since I'm not good at wine tasting I have no comments on them.
The lavatory was clean and tidy.
Soon we were approaching. For some reasons I was feeling incredibly bad on my ears during this decent. It wasn't getting better even when we disembark..
Atlantic in sight.
Moments before touchdown: Table Mountain was covered by mysterious clouds.
The International section of the terminal. Three LHR-bound flights were waiting..
And one BA B744 was pushing back.
This is the 'Business Class' section. Configured in a 2-3 layout, there isn't any 'significant' difference with Y seats. Moreover the cabins were divided by a tiny soft curtain so no extra privacy either.
A South African Air Force B738 was in the apron.
Though the baggage were soon on the belt our group was interrogated by a trouble-making local police. We wasted more than half an hour waiting for some nonsense inspections. That's not the way to welcome your guests, Cape Town!
It's such a shame that this flight ends unpleasantly.
Stay tuned for next!
Choice of 2 hot meals on a domestic flight is nice. Such a shame it did not meet your expectations...
The clouds on Table Mountain are its tablecloth ^^
What was the police looking for ?
Thank you for this FR !
Tablecloth doesn't appear every day..We were so fortunate to witness the magic on the following day:)
Since they only asked our tour leader for questions I couldn't figure out the reason he stopped us.:(
He just checked our documents, made some calls and let us go 30 minutes later..
The incident started when someone in our group asked him where the restroom was. He didn't point out the way but began to query us instead.
Hi,
Thank you for this report.
Nice spotting at JNB.
This 737 is very old, but the seats seem to be confortable.
I'm very surprised about the catering, it is quite exceptional on a domestic flight !
Thank you,
Though having a wide range of beverages to choose and the portions were OK, both main courses were not delicious while the appetizer was definitely inedible. Thus the rating on catering.
Well, I admit, that these not-so-good hot meals are million times better than nothing or cold snacks.
Although the food was not great, it's nice to see a hot meal on a domestic flight. I believe SA flies some widebodies between JNB and CPT which would make for an even nicer experience between these two major South African cities. I find the 2-3 configuration in Business class odd on SA narrowbodies. I would not want to pay Business class and have the possibility of getting stuck in a middle seat that is barely wider than a regular Y seat. Thanks for sharing this report!
I mean on AY&SK they even don't block off the middle seat..So there isn't any difference with Y class seats.
I was on an A346 when returning from CPT to JNB which I will be sharing on my next report:)
The similar seats also appears on JL domestic narrowbodies. Nevertheless on AY&SK you even don't get that extra width but an ordinary Y seat.
Great! The domestic A346 will make for a cool report. Didn't know domestic JL narrowbodies had this 2-3 config in business. Not only AY and SK, but most European airlines just use regular Y seats for short-haul Business class, although at least, most of them block off the middle seat.
Those 737s sure look like they've got their fair amount of use!
The catering looks disappointing its a shame it ruins the perk of having free meals in a domestic flight.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for a great FR from SAAs good ol days (I am South African and I'm nostalgic about the times when you got a meal on SAA JNB-CPT flights. Now it's just cranberries)
The service has really deteriorated (as mentioned before). I recently flew w/ SAA CPT-JNB. You used to get a free meal, now you only get peanuts. Their other domestic service has also been terrible nowadays. SAA has been mismaneged by the government owners recently. A lot of infrastructure in South Africa is government owned. The government gives itself a monopoly on some buisnesses and then mismanages them (ex. Eskom the power supplier is now causing power outages because they are mismaneged by government owners, and have a monopoly). The resault of this is is bad infrastructure (and the knock-on effect of that is that SAA service has deteriorated).
-Max