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Home  >  South Africa • Trip Reports  >  Introduction: A Conscientious Journey To Omicron Ground Zero
South AfricaTrip Reports

Introduction: A Conscientious Journey To Omicron Ground Zero

Matthew Klint Posted onJanuary 5, 2022January 7, 2022 23 Comments

As I alluded to a few weeks ago, I took a trip to “ground zero” of the omicron variant, South Africa, for just one day last month. Now it’s time to share about that wonderful journey.

My Conscientious Journey To South Africa

The world’s knee-jerk reaction to South Africa’s transparency about the omicron variant really rubbed me the wrong way. There’s nothing like rewarding an honest partner with a punitive travel ban, but that is exactly how much of the world responded.

(I provided more details about my thought process here)

The move to shut out South Africa from the rest of the world led me to book a ticket on United Airlines from Los Angeles to Johannesburg…with a return ticket a day later.

That will show ’em…

I’m not so prideful to think my trip made a dent on the tourist deficit problem South Africa faces, but for the restaurants, coffee shops, hotel, and Uber drivers I dealt with, I figure it was better than nothing.

More importantly, I had some wonderful conversations while there which made the trip worthwhile. I’ll share some of those in this report.

Additionally, I needed more segments to close out re-earn 1K status. I could have done another Las Vegas run, but South Africa seemed like a far worthier journey, even if just for a day.

Domestic upgrades on transcontinental flights remain difficult, even for 1K flyers, so on the way out I flew from Los Angeles to Newark via Houston  in order to enjoy an upgrade (using PlusPoints) on both segments.

Newark – Johannesburg – Newark were an easy upgrade and I flew back from Newark to Los Angeles nonstop in coach because I had an appointment with my family that evening…the flight was packed.

I won’t review the domestic first class segments on the way out and did not have time for the Polaris Lounge in Newark, but the trip report will include the following segments:

  • United Airlines 787-9 Polaris Business Class To South Africa
  • My International Arrival Experience In Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Johannesburg Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch
  • Melrose Arch, A Private City Within Johannesburg
  • Great Coffee In Johannesburg
  • Aspire Lounge Johannesburg (JNB) [Priority Pass]
  • Shongoloa Lounge Johannesburg (JNB) [Priority Pass]
  • 16.5-Hour Flight In United Airlines From Johannesburg To Newark
  • United Airlines 787-10 Economy Class Newark To Los Angeles

Stay tuned and thank you in advance for following along!


> Read More: I’m Flying To South Africa…For One Day

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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23 Comments

  1. Alan Brint Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 4:45 pm

    I still think that you taking this trip was deeply troubling and wrong. I’m actually surprised that you really thought about writing a trip report weeks after taking it. I would have thought that you might feel bad about doing this, but everyone is wrong sometimes and in this case, I deeply wish I wasn’t. You put your children in grave danger and I’m not really interested in reading a report on something that you did that put them in danger. I suspect that many of the other blog readers would wholeheartedly agree with me. I’m not going to violate your comment policy, but I am going to stick up for your children and not show my support for you when you engage in behavior that could have made them sick for your own unimportant goals.

    • Derek Reply
      January 5, 2022 at 6:08 pm

      Alan,

      Matthew did NOT place his kids in grave danger. That is COVID fearmongering.

      Please look at the actual data. This virus has posed little risk to kids. RSV has been a far greater threat, causing many more deaths than has COVID for kids. RSV is around every year and we do not take precautions for that.

      I applaud Matthew for taking this trip and having a rational view of this virus. This country needs more Matthews with rational views and approaches and not the hysteria we have seen since March 2020

      • Alan Brint Reply
        January 5, 2022 at 7:51 pm

        I actually agree with you. If I had the means, I would have done exactly the same thing. But here’s the major difference: I don’t live with two children unable to consent to such dangerous activity. This is not a COVID issue, it’s an issue of child abuse. They are two completely different issues. You, Matthew and I agree completely about the South Africa issue, but that does not mean that we get to take action on it when children are put in harms way. We get to do whatever we want for ourselves, but that goes out the window when children who are innocent come into the equation.

        • Derek Reply
          January 5, 2022 at 8:48 pm

          We disagree, however, on whether or not he placed the kids in danger. Based upon the available data, Matthew did not place them at any higher risk than he would any other year

          Contracting the coronavirus is not a death sentence. For a child, it usually means a sniffle at worst. Less symptoms than seasonal allergies

      • derek Reply
        January 5, 2022 at 8:50 pm

        I disagree. Covid has killed 1,000 kids. It has maimed thousands more, being on the ventilator or unable to smell or having neurologic problems or having the risk of pulmonary fibrosis (similar to COPD) and dying from that when they get older.

        Kids under 5 are helpless being unable to get vaccinated.

        (BTW, I am not arguing with myself, derek)

        • Derek Reply
          January 5, 2022 at 9:15 pm

          @derek

          RSV has killed more than that through the course of the pandemic. We don’t go to great lengths for RSV.

          COVID is a statistical non issue for children, compared to other common illnesses

          • derek
            January 5, 2022 at 10:32 pm

            More people have died from cancer than gun murders. According to that logic, nothing needs to be done about gun murders. If you kid or wife gets murdered, the police should not be involved. Instead, go on with life and say it was just bad luck. No!

        • Jackson Waterson Reply
          January 5, 2022 at 10:56 pm

          More people die in South Africa from violent crime perpetrated by the majority residents every year than have died of Omicron in the world (omicron variant). I’m not joking. Don’t exaggerate about Covid or omicron. It’s a mild flu or nothing for 95% of people. Morbidly obese/those who don’t keep their diabetes under control are more likely to suffer complications but these people likely would have from their chronic conditions anyway. More people have died from vaccine reactions than Omicron. Nearly all the deaths of omicron are from the vaccinated. Unvaccinated have normal immune systems not depleted by the jab.

  2. Willem Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    The only regret you should have about this trip is that it wasn’t a longer amount of time in such a wonderful nation! Given nearly a million (presumably) Omnicron cases daily in the USA now, any argument that this was an unnecessarily dangerous trip really falls apart

  3. MtheTraveller Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    As a teacher, I can’t make myself travel internationally for over two years because I have to protect myself for the kids I teach. So honestly, you, as a father, deciding to go to S.A. really makes me shake my head. It really seems like you put your priorities before your children’s.
    “That will show ’em” also sounds really childish. So sorry, that’s how I feel.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      January 5, 2022 at 6:17 pm

      Your decision not to travel is based upon at least one false premise. I also trust you don’t teach English literature, as the line you quote was a self-deprecating joke, made clear by the sentence that followed.

      • MtheTraveller Reply
        January 5, 2022 at 6:34 pm

        I can only hope that all parents are like you, so open-minded, so that I can travel. But now whether I can travel is all dictated by stakeholders in my context, namely parents, their children and the government.

        I teach Maths and live in HK (God bless us). Please forgive me for coming off on the wrong foot!

  4. Dave Edwards Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    Regardless of what others think, you did the right thing and your smart part in showing how unjust and shortsighted the backlash against South Africa was.

    Hopefully you made the holiday season a little brighter for the people you came in contact with and they realized that all Americans aren’t as uninformed as the President was when he made the same decision he mocked his predecessor for and called racist for making.

    Thank you for being a sane voice in a world that seems to be insane on the left when it comes to Covid. Then again these are same people still requiring a test from its citizens to get back into the country with the most cases.

  5. Stuart Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    I traveled 310 days in 2021 across the world. 250 nights the year before. Head on Bed. 90% was for work. But some was just because I felt like it or for fun. I am vaccinated/boosted. I support masking in reasonable situations. I have blended both an approach of going out and having fun when things looked good along with hunkering down with room service and laying low from a public standpoint when things were not. I believe the virus is real. I believe in a responsibility to each other. I trust in science. But I also believe we balance and weigh the risk/reward as we see it. To this date I have yet to have Covid. Will I? I am sure. But thus far I can at least say I did not lose two years of my life and make myself crazy in the process.

    With proper balance and careful assessment I am the perfect example of someone who did things right, respected others, respected family members, but still lived my life within that context. We have learned a great deal in the past two years and with that I will say that Matthew is more than responsible and has been an advocate for sensible and rational risk/reward.

    And of course he did this. It’s his job. To both question and show an alternative way of approaching a response.

  6. Mike1977 Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    Travel away!! I truly appreciate your trip reports and look forward to them. Personally, I would rather risk whatever might happen while traveling than sit at home where it is “safe.” There’s always a reason not to travel if you look for one, but there’s more reason to travel and enjoy life in these new circumstances. Travel makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, and I always got a lot of pushback before Covid about being “safe.” Covid is just one additional thing to navigate in life and while traveling.

  7. Arlington Traveler Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 8:02 pm

    I’m not in Stuart’s league but I have spent over 30 nights away from home overseas. I also traveled domestically when the vaccine program seemed to have put COVID behind us. I travelled to three countries beginning with C in Latin America. They all took COVID seriously. Generally speaking indoor dining was at still socially distanced and temperature checks were required to enter hotels, restaurants and retail stores (not sure about offices, but I would not be surprised). Hand sanitizer with touchless dispensers or foot pumps were generally at the entrances of all shopping malls, restaurants, and retail stores. In Chile, taking sanitizer or alcohol onto your hands was mandatory at the entrance to retail and restaurants. In addition, Chile requires a mobility pass to dine in, take a flight, take a long distance bus or train (only journeys exceeding 200km) or stay at a hotel. The only way you get a mobility pass is to be vaccinated. You can also show a negative COVID test result but it has to be within a few days of your trip or dining. Not all restaurants or airline check in agents checked my mobility pass (which required uploading my CDC card a few weeks before entering Chile) but that’s likely because they knew I had to be vaccinated to enter Chile as a tourist. All the hotels did check my mobility pass. The truth is I felt safety dining in Latin America because they take precautions and their highly vaccinated. I don’t really feel so safe in the USA as we have freedom to do whatever the **** we want. America!

  8. Michael Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 8:22 pm

    I stayed at the Marriott Melrose Arch in September. I overnighted in Joburg on my way to a safari at Mala Mala and Kirkman’s Kamp. It was very nice! My Emirates first class flight crew stayed there too. I saw the ladies who served me as they were arriving and I was leaving for dinner. They were as surprised to see me as I was to see them! And your “city within a city” description is spot on. I’ve tried to explain the layout of the completely walled off neighborhood to others, but it’s difficult to do unless you’ve been there. So, I’m stealing your “city within a city” description. And for what it’s worth; I agree 100% that S. Africa should not have been punished like they were, so I agree with your reason for travelling to S. Africa. Looking forward to your trip report

  9. 747always Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    When you announced this trip, I thought it was more bravado than anything
    However the weeks since have shown that Omicron spreads faster but the severity of disease is less, so I’ve moved back to being neutral.

  10. Mattt Reply
    January 5, 2022 at 11:37 pm

    Lol these comments. Matt you put your healthy young kids in GRAVE DANGER by being vaxxed and following travel policies. I wonder what the end goal for people like Alan Brint is? Even if we comply with all the regs, it’s still morally wrong to travel? Man what a life.

    And the kids being unable to consent to their father’s presence is a warped worldview we should reject out of hand. Unless Alan and his ilk refuse to let their kids ride in cars, cross the street, or live on a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe (lol) then it’s all talk and shaming without a real belief or stake in the outcome. Show > Words

    Keep doing you Matt. They gave up on covid fearmongering and now believe blindly in unwritten rule following fearmongering. Strange religion to take up, but I guess we all need a religion after all. Will be interesting to see how it develops given its lakc of roots, meaning, or substance. Suicide cults seem the obvious evolution and absorbing barrier.

  11. Gerda Reply
    January 6, 2022 at 1:55 am

    Wow, as a South African I was really sad and shocked at the reaction of the rest of the world. It felt like the middle aged and the rest of the world had their pitch forks and torches out! Omicron is not something to fear like the previous strains. It’s like getting a sinus cold for most of the people I know of that had it. And I’m convinced that we weren’t ground zero at all. The UK’ numbers are were staggering even before SA identified the new strain. After SA got blamed other countries realized they had it anyway. Our numbers aren’t even that high. We are one of a few countries that actually follow protocol. We wear our masks. We sanitize at every shop. We go to restaurants, the mall, the beach etc. We just got our curfew lifted and we can have bigger gatherings. Our hospitals aren’t overflowing like with the previous strains. I’m glad the author took this trip. Stop living in fear.

  12. Steve Reply
    January 7, 2022 at 4:04 pm

    It blows my mind that there are others on here telling you to not travel. This is a travel blog.

    Keep traveling, and do it safely (as you are); it’s not irresponsible. Everyone has different levels of risk tolerance – some choose to lock themselves at home and others choose to continue living. It’s exactly that, a choice, and I applaud you for continuing to travel to provide content such as this for your readers.

  13. Jittery Eric Reply
    January 7, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    “… on the way out I flew from Los Angeles to Houston via Newark.”

    Don’t you mean

    “…on the way out I flew from Los Angeles to Newark via Houston”?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      January 7, 2022 at 4:45 pm

      Oh yes. Thanks.

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