Having been anti-SAA for many years, I was very pleasantly surprised at how their standards have improved. The 15-hour nonstop flight from New York to Johannesburg was comfortable and enjoyable, something I would not have expected given the airline and length of flight.

All the airline's B747-400s have been refurbished. Seats in Economy have the movable headrests, footrests and appear to be larger than the old seats. Fabric is a calm blue and green mix. In-seat P@ssport entertainment is awesome - video and music on demand. You can scroll through a selection of movies and tv programming - start watching whenever you want, scroll through. The CD Jukebox is a great feature - it allows you to compile your own choice from about 12 featured CDs. In terms of aircraft, I could not fault SA Airways. The B747-400 is the only aircraft I would feel comfortable flying on for 15 hours nonstop.

Meals were very good and served with generous offerings of soft and alcoholic drinks. Cabin crew suggested wines, brought around a second serving of after dinner aperitifs and chatted with the passengers. Although I did spot a couple of surly miserable airhostesses, most were very pleasant. All the praise in the world to one of the airhostesses who handled a difficult situation very delicately - an obese passenger complaining about not being able to fit into her seat, and demanding that the airhostess re-seat other passengers in order to give her four seats to herself.

The Delta terminal in JFK is shabby and tired, requiring you to queue outside to place your bags through the x-ray machine. The SAA arrivals terminal in JNB is also shabby and tired, though will be upgraded and refurbished in 2003.

Altogether, a very plesant experience. Certainly beats flying via Europe !