I hope our experience helps.

Just back from South Africa, flying on Emirates. Had a problem leaving from Houston on August 1st. The Emirates firearms declaration document had a number wrong for one of the firearms. Their error. My travel agent had sent them an imaged copy of the 4457. Both that and the SAPs form had the correct number. When checked at the ticket counter, it was noted that the leading digit was off by one number on the Emirates form. Should have been 3xxxx and it was 2xxxx. I received this form from Emirates on July 11th, but didn't check to be sure the serial number was right. That was my error. But changing the serial number to get it wrong on the form was THEIR error. And they weren't going to let me travel with that firearm. Took three hours and a couple of call to Kathy at Wild Travel to unravel what had happened, hop around and argue a bit, and to finally gain permission to travel with my double rifle.

The second tip has to do with scheduling a PCR Covid test for the return trip. We used a private hospital in Vryburg for this. Our return flight was on a Tuesday and we were set to get the test on Monday. I tried to get this done on Sunday, just in case something went wrong. Turns out they don't administer that test on the weekends. And in any case, the swabs have to go to a lab in Johannesburg for processing, which won't be open until Monday anyway. My wife and I both got a negative test result - hers about 10 PM Monday night and mine at 8 AM Tuesday morning. We were able to get a printed copy made and head to Jo'Burg in time to catch our return flight. My tip here - try to fly out on a Wednesday or later in order to not have to sweat getting the Covid test result in time.

Like I said, I hope this helps.

I had similar problems with the sn 2 years ago in Joberg. Ben Franklin solved it for me.