South African Airways

Munich to Jo'burg. Friendly check-in small welcome gifts for the night. Good entertainment food and wine. Water at a bar to take whenever you want. Very friendly stewardess.

PER-JNB. After initially booked to fly on a Friday night they cancelled Friday night flights. The aircraft was an old A340 economy class had no seat back entertainment and movies had to be viewed on screens at the front of the cabin. Only one of the screens worked and service after the meal was non existent.

LHR-JNB-LLW return. Really impressed. Economy cabin compares very favourably to British Airways good seat width and leg room and the food was perfectly adequate. Return flight from JNB on a 2 day old A340. Short flights to Lilongwe were fine. All flights were more or less on time and crew professional.

LHR to Jo'burg and back. Both trips had exceptional cabin service in Business Class and good food and wine. Seat allows a full flat bed and almost any other combination of seat shape you would like. Curiously the bed in the older airbus outbound seemed slightly more comfortable than in the new plane on the return trip. Businesselounges good if a little crowded at Jo'burg but the additional arrivals side lounge at Heathrow was small but very nice with good quality showers available. Highly recommended.

JNB-MPM return. EMB190 (LAM) and A319 (SAA). In first flight was a LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique) a codeshare SAA/. The plane was new staff was very kindly. The food was good (snack). SAA flight the A319 was new too. Very good the colors of the interior of the plane. The crew was Kindly too.

London Heathrow to Cape Town - travelled this route a few years a go on A340-600 which was new at the time clean and the IFE system was good. However SAA are now using an old A340-200 which is cramped hard seats with no IFE system in the back of the seat. This is very poor for an expensive airline. The food was appalling only served 1 drink on 11 hour flight.

Business class return flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. The distance between seats is good and seat can be changed to a flat bed. The quality of the blankets is also good. However the entertainment programme is rather poor (choice of movies size of video screen) and the food and friendliness of staff leave a lot room for improvement.

IAD to Joburg and back to Dakar. Time savings because of the route is unbeatable and the wine selection is excellent. Everything else is very mediocre for an airline that charges that much for its business class tickets. The service is very average. The flat bed is okay but it is not a brand-new seat and no privacy. Food is just okay. SAA needs to improve its reservation/ticket service which seems outdated.

CPT-JNB-HKG return A340-600. Ground staff efficient and friendly in CPT less so in JNB but not enough to spoil our day. Air crew on all flights professional and efficient. Requested veg meal for our daughter - was onboard for all our flights. All meals were smallish portions of food (Qatar Airways is way better) not the greatest quality but edible. Decent wine selection Moet highly welcome! Did not try the full dinner service on return midnight flight - we had eaten at our hotel earlier so can't comment on it. We found they leave the breakfast service quite late so a bit of a rush trying to get through service and tidy cabin for landing. Duvets are a nice touch flat bed comfortable. Choice of entertainment not as wide as some other airlines but due to it being a mostly night flight and we slept most of the time not an inconvenience. We would use SAA again if the price was competitive. Good timetable for this flight - time change seems to have minimal effect on one's perception of night and day.

LHR-JNB-LHR. Excellent service on both flights. Food and drink good. Clean and comfortable aircraft. Check in a breeze at both airports. Only minor problem IFE had to be reset a couple of times. Far better experience than BA.