18/02/02 SA280/QF304 JHB to Perth

JHB airport check-in staff are the most slack and incompetent bunch of morons we have ever met. It took 30 mins to check in 2 pieces of luggage and 2 passengers, no hand luggage, all documentation at the ready. They had no idea what an electronic visa for Australia was, despite our prolonged explanation and production of proof of purchase of said visas. Perhaps this was due to the language barrier, with us not being able to speak the native African language.

Customs and immigration smooth however, perhaps as the gentleman was able to speak English!! Large queue at Tax Refund office. Good shops and souveniers on offer in duty free.

We bought Qantas tickets but were not informed that they now code share the route with SAA. This resulted in us flying with SAA despite our specific request from our travel agent that we fly with Qantas.

Plane was old 747-200, with the seats and interior showing their age. Entertainment poor. Good evening meal and breakfast, with fast and efficient service. Good selection of wines with evening meal, served in wine glasses. Smooth flight, landed on time.

Connecting flight was a domestic one, but the domestic terminal is 10kms from the international terminal!!!!!!!! As we only had 90 minutes between flights (which we were assured was long enough), we panicked a bit when it took an hour for our bags to come through. However luckily most of our flight from SA were also on the same domestic flight, so Qantas held the flight for us (See Qantas review QF802 from Perth to Melbourne).