Johannesburg to Cape Town in South African Airways A343 Economy Class

I had neglected to assign seats in advance on this flight (did not even think it was possible) and my wife and I ended up in middle seats. The A343 economy class cabin has a 2-4-2 configuration and the flight was very full.

South African has a low-cost subsidiary called Mango and there is a competing LCC called Kulula. Oddly enough, this flight on South African was the cheapest option – purchased just a couple days in advance for $163.

We were bussed to the plane…and that just makes no sense to me when there were so many young families and elderly passengers traveling. We took a bus to plane then had to climb almost 30 steps to get up to the aircraft. I carried my wife’s bags up and felt so bad watching others struggling to carry their hand baggage on to the plane. Surely there must be a better way.

South African A343 JNB to CPT - 1

South African A343 JNB to CPT - 2

South African A343 JNB to CPT - 3

South African A343 JNB to CPT - 4

South African Airways is struggling under the burden of high legacy costs and an inefficient fleet of gas-guzzling four-engine Airbus widebodies, but still is very much a full service carrier.

South African Airways 317
Johannesburg (JNB) – Cape Town (CPT)
Friday, October 25, 2014
Depart: 09:10 AM
Arrive: 11:20 AM
Duration: 2hr, 10min
Aircraft: Airbus A340-300
Seat: 52F (Economy Class)

Baggage is included and a light meal is served onboard – in this case, “Rectangle Danish, turkey slice, cucumber slices, mayo spread, lettuce liner, and bran muffin” or “rectangle Danish, cheddar cheese slice, tomato slices, lettuce liner, cucumber slice, and bran muffin.” My wife slept through the flight and I had breakfast in the Hyatt Regency Club and again in the South African Voyager Lounge, so I accepted the snack just to include the photos below.

South African Airways A343 Domestic

Full bottles of water are offered along with a nice assortment of juices, coffee, and tea.

South African A343 JNB to CPT - 32

The A343 does have seatback IFE, but it was never turned on – instead we were treated to a loop of the following SA “propaganda” pictures (see what a happy family we are!).

But the flight was a quick two hours and even in a middle seat…it went by fast. Sure, the lie-flat seat in business class would have been nice, but at four times the cost of a coach ticket, it simply was not worthwhile.

South African Airways A343 Domestic

In CapeTown, our luggage was among the last on the conveyor belt despite Star Alliance Priority tags on them. Oh well.

CONCLUSION

Most interesting to me was that this flight cost less than two low-cost competitors flying the same route around the same time. As we now see with “low cost” Southwest and JetBlue in the USA, often low-cost carriers do not have the best price. Always shop around.

9 Comments

MeanMeosh Reply

February 3, 2017 at 10:42 am

“I carried my wife’s bags up and felt so bad watching others struggling to carry their hand baggage on to the plane. Surely there must be a better way.”

I’ve seen a work-around in India, where many domestic flights still depart from remote stands. If there are any disabled and/or mobility-impaired passengers, the airline replaces the stairs with this corkscrew-looking ramp. It takes a little longer to walk up, but if you have heavy baggage or a wheelchair, you can just push it up the ramp. It seems to work fairly well.

Also, do you mean “Kulula” instead of “Kahula” as the competing LCC? We looked into them when we needed to get from CPT to JNB on our tour of South Africa, but like your situation, they weren’t any cheaper than Comair.
- Matthew Reply
  
  February 3, 2017 at 11:17 am
  
  Thanks, I did mean Kulula. I guess Kahula is adult beverage.
  
  A ramp would have been so much easier.
HS Reply

February 3, 2017 at 11:32 am

Meal pic shows expiry of 2014… Was this a recent trip or old recycled article?
- Matthew Reply
  
  February 3, 2017 at 11:41 am
  
  I don’t recycle articles and the date of the flight is clearly presented in the report.
  - HS Reply
    
    February 3, 2017 at 7:05 pm
    
    Interesting.. Meal expiry is 2014 for all items.. Did you get sick after eating it?
02nz Reply

February 4, 2017 at 9:51 am

Had similar experience with an A340 between JNB and CPT. I think they bussed you to the plane because this was a domestic flight but using aircraft that primarily serves international routes. So the plane was probably in JNB’s international terminal (see Etihad plane in background of one of the pics) but they needed a way to get passengers from the domestic terminal to the gate plane without making them go through exit control, hence the bus.
- Matthew Reply
  
  February 4, 2017 at 12:36 pm
  
  That is absolutely correct. Steps were up to the jetbridge rather than direct onto the plane.
Herb Reply

February 8, 2019 at 12:17 am

Awesome review! Just a little correction here, this is an Airbus A340-600, not -300.
- Matthew Reply
  
  February 8, 2019 at 12:29 am
  
  Are you sure about that? How can you tell?