[laeof]

Hey there,
Does anyone have any recommendations for flying to south africa or even any other cheaper methods of transport.

[SillyEddy]

Maybe not the cheapest, but Emirates were superb between Manchester and Durban. They went via Dubai.

[stevop21]

SAA are usually the cheapest to fly direct

I'm going to assume your destination is Johannesburg and starting airport Heathrow:

Here's a few ways

LHR-JNB direct. Check South African Airways, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways
LHR-Doha-JNB - Qatar Airways
LHR-DXB-JNB - Emirates
LHR-AUH-JNB - Etihad Airways

Also check LHR-FRA-JNB - Lufthansa, BA and South African Airways
LHR-MAD-JNB - BA and Iberia (you can get it cheaper here by flying with either Ryanair or EasyJet from a smaller UK airport into Madrid-Barajas then connecting onto Iberia. The same with Paris-CDG by using Air France for CDG-JNB and easyJet to CDG)

For domestic flights in South Africa the main players are: South African Airways, BA, 1time, mango, SA Airlink and SA Express and maybe Velvet Sky but I think they may have gone bankrupt.

There are busses around and there are plenty of both legal and illegal taxis. Agree a price with the taxi driver before you set off as they rip of foreigners. Avoid the mini-vans, a lot of them are hardly roadworthy and they can drive pretty dangerously. Don't let any personal belongings out of your sight for a second.

It's a beautiful country and you will have a great time!!!

[laeof]

(Original post by stevop21)
SAA are usually the cheapest to fly direct

I'm going to assume your destination is Johannesburg and starting airport Heathrow:

Here's a few ways

LHR-JNB direct. Check South African Airways, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways
LHR-Doha-JNB - Qatar Airways
LHR-DXB-JNB - Emirates
LHR-AUH-JNB - Etihad Airways

Also check LHR-FRA-JNB - Lufthansa, BA and South African Airways
LHR-MAD-JNB - BA and Iberia (you can get it cheaper here by flying with either Ryanair or EasyJet from a smaller UK airport into Madrid-Barajas then connecting onto Iberia. The same with Paris-CDG by using Air France for CDG-JNB and easyJet to CDG)

For domestic flights in South Africa the main players are: South African Airways, BA, 1time, mango, SA Airlink and SA Express and maybe Velvet Sky but I think they may have gone bankrupt.

There are busses around and there are plenty of both legal and illegal taxis. Agree a price with the taxi driver before you set off as they rip of foreigners. Avoid the mini-vans, a lot of them are hardly roadworthy and they can drive pretty dangerously. Don't let any personal belongings out of your sight for a second.

It's a beautiful country and you will have a great time!!!

Thank-you so much for the info!

Our destination is cape town, sorry I forgot to mention that. It's not a continent i've ever been to before so didn't want to jump straight into joburg :P.

Regarding the cab services, is there anything you could recommend in making sure to find a legal one? Getting in a non-legit cab is the last thing we want to do haha!

[stevop21]

OK for Cape Town check all the carriers that I have mentioned but obviously select your destination at Cape Town, they all fly there. A lot of the time it's cheaper to connect in JNB, Mango and Kulula often offer cheapish flights from JNB-CPT.

I'm not familiar with the way it works in Cape Town but from the parts of SA that my family live in legit cabs are obvious. Lots of people will approach you in the airport (they do in JNB anyway) offering you taxis. The non-legit guys are easy to spot. If you go to the info desk at CPT airport they will point you in the right direction. Even if they are legit, agree a price before you get in.