My flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on South African Airways was originally scheduled with an Airbus A350-900, but swapped at the last minute for an A32o-200 instead. While I missed out on a lie-flat seating, the A320 business class journey on SAA was pleasant enough.
South African Airways A320 Business Class Review
After spending some time in the South African Airways CPT lounge prior to the flight, I headed downstairs just ahead of the commencement of boarding. There was already a huge line which I had no desire to stand in, so I just sat down and waited a bit longer to board.
South African Airways 326
Cape Town (CPT) – Johannesburg (JNB)
Wednesday, March 11
Depart: 11:35AM
Arrive: 01:30PM
Duration: 01hr, 55min
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Seat: 3F (Business Class)
Onboard, despite waiting to board, I found most of the business class cabin empty, though the cabin eventually filled up.
Business Class Seat
The A320 business class cabin includes six rows of 2-2 seating with 39″ of seat pitch. These are similar to the domestic first class seats you find in the USA, though included a footrest and a bit more legroom. I took my assigned window seat in row three.
I appreciated the power outlets and the extra USB port at eye level in the literature pocket area.
Food
Lunch was served after takeoff, which began with a choice of beverage then continued with a mushroom frittata with hash browns covered in a mushroom gravy and some hush puppies (in the middle…I think this is what they were called). Admittedly, I was not hungry from my Westin breakfast and just ate the fruit. Had I been hungry, the lounge food looked better.
IFE
Apparently there was IFE hidden in one of the armrests (at least according to online seat maps). I looked for it, but could not find it. Is it possible that SAA ripped them out as a cost-savings measure? There was also a passenger control unit, which certainly suggested something was there.
Service
Service onboard was punctual and friendly, though we did not see flight attendants after the meal service until just prior to landing. While not rude or indifferent, these flight attendants were nothing like the outstanding crew I would experience on my connection to Accra.
Lavatory
The lavatory included very pungent bright orange soap…I regretted immediately using it, though on this side of the pandemic I am less fussy about the scent of soap.
Arrival Into JNB
You would think South Africa could figure out how to better manage domestic to international connections, but it was a mess. We landed in the international terminal. Instead of just letting me and other passengers into the terminal, they herded us down two flights of stairs and onto a bus, where we drove across the airport to the domestic terminal.
From there, I had to walk all the way back from where I started. A total waste of time, save for the exercise…
View From The Window
Lastly, I always enjoy planespotting when in another country and enjoyed several beautiful aircraft including a pair of now-retired British Airways 747s and a TAAG 777.
CONCLUSION
The seat in business class was fine. The cabin crew was fine. Overall, the flight itself was fine…the ground experience, not so much. In one sense, this total inefficiency on the ground in JNB reflects the greater inefficiencies that have plagued SAA for years. It is still unclear whether South African Airways will survive, but if it does, I can at least vouch for the onboard product.
How would you review the South African Airways A320 in business class?
This story is part of my An African Adventure As The World Shut Down trip report.
That food is an absolute piss take.
The deboarding process you describe is exactly the same as it was back in 2003.
Hey, your tray table had a tattoo.
That ‘parking at the international terminal and bussing to the domestic terminal’ thing isnt unique to JNB or SAA. I’ve had it happen at many other airports all around the world, most recently in Hanoi last February. What do you mean, just let you into the international terminal? Where exactly? They cant let you into the departures area as you havent gone through outbound immigration and at JNB you have to go through outbound immigration to get you into the departures hall. They cant just drop you into the international arrivals hall as you’re a domestic arrival. Where should they have dropped you? Would it be nice if they let some people with international connections with no luggage to collect into some door into the international terminal so that they could avoid the ride and walk? I guess, but that’s not how they have it, and that’s not just some idiosyncratic miss on JNB/SAA’s part. Yes, it’s not great that you parked at the international area and had to drive to the domestic area. But I’ve been on SAA’s A340-600 from CPT before and landed at JNB and we’ve parked even FARTHER away – in the remote pads on the other side of the international terminal where all the long haul international flights park before they’re sometimes towed to the gate. And then had to get on buses and drive all the way over to the domestic terminal. Which is WAY farther than where you had to drive from. Not 100% convenient, but typical of airports worldwide where airlines have airplanes that operate both domestic and international flights, and airports have divided their international and domestic terminals. I cant tell you the number of times I’ve departed FRA and taken a bus from somewhere in A to a waiting airplane at the non-schengen gates at C and had to walk up a set of stairs to a plane that was just recently connected via a loading bridge to the terminal. Sorry, not just an SAA or JNB inefficiency thing. It happens in many airports all over the world with all airlines.
It happens at FRA, it happens at CDG, it happens at LHR, it happens at MAD, where I’ve come into what I thought was a contact gate but then been bussed elsewhere, then having to backtrack walking. Not just an SAA/JNB thing.
@Jason – they used to have a “secret” passage between domestic and international for connecting passengers, but they did away with it after the renovations around 15 years ago.
Some of the international “A” gates are actually swing gates which can serve either domestic or international flights (A0 through A3 I think). They have moving walls which they can change the configuration of to link the gates to either domestic or international departures/arrivals as needed.
15 years is a long time. And regardless, the main point I made was that what Matthew described/ depicted as a major shortcoming for SAA/JNB is actually very common all over the world and not unique to his experience. Interesting about the swing gates and thanks for pointing that out; I think Matthew was there in late afternoon, a time when it’s mostly international traffic and swung back.