Overall SAA made a very good impression. Ground staff and check in at IAD were efficient and courteous, outbound flight was on time, the economy seat pitch and comfort on the A340-600 was better than average and meals fine if nothing spectacular. The F/As made frequent passes through the cabin for at least the earlier part of the flight segment and the generous availability of excellent South African wine was appreciated. Baggage retrieval, immigrations and customs at JNB were efficient, but for those not familiar with this airport, transiting from the international terminal to domestic departures with luggage in tow can be confusing because of ongoing construction and poor signage, and information at the SAA domestic departure gates is not much better. Making up for this however my wife and I were given upgrades to business class for no particular reason that we could discern on the short (1.75 hr) JNB-PLZ flight; business class service and comfort on the B737 was excellent and a real pleasure after 15 hr in economy. Port Elizabeth is a small and well laid out airport, but baggage retrieval seemed to take an extraordinary long time given that it was not busy and the aircraft was sitting 50 meters away on the tarmac.

The return flight PLZ-JNB in an A319 economy was fine with excellent service and a snack (rather odd brie and smoked chicken sandwich) and a smooth flight with snow on the mountains en-route. Reverse transit at JNB from domestic arrivals to the international terminal is much clearer despite a long detour through the parking garage. There was a two hour departure delay leaving JNB which made the return 17.5 hour flight to IAD (including the 1 hr stop in DKR) even more tedious; the economy cabin was also extremely hot for the first two hours, but eventually they got things working properly and the F/As provided good and frequent service throughout. We had no problems at any time with lost, delayed or pilfered luggage, but hand carried both ways through JNB rather than checking through on return. Baggage retrieval at IAD on return also took a very long time; I don’t know if this is because SAA parks out on the far tarmac and uses the mobile lounges to reach the terminal or because of heightened security when we returned. SAA certainly provides a better than average product on this route and we would not hesitate to use them for our next trip to South Africa.