Does anyone know for 100.00% sure, what happens when you fly Delta to JNB, then transfer to SAA same day for HRE. Do the firearms get stuck at the SAPS office? Or can they be checked all the way? Or do you have to claim them in baggage claim and recheck them without leaving baggage claim? As you know, in JNB you can't check firearms yourself as you do with normal baggage. The "Security Service" has to handle them.

The issue arises because Delta is no longer an SAA codeshare. We had to buy two separate tickets.

I've always booked straight through with no SAPS issues. When you get off the bus you enter the terminal via the TRANSIT doors, claim baggage there and simply check it there for onward flights, if I recall correctly. However, it is Africa and things can change.

100.00% sure????? It's Africa. In Dec ,2008 they went through to HRE like they are supposed to do. Feb 2008 they were hung up in JNB for 14 days with everybody saying they didn't exist.
When they finally surfaced all the tags were intact. Everyone blames someone else.

When I was there in Sept, they no longer require you to claim your firearms in baggage claim and sign a log, they just automatically take them to the SAPS office. That would be a disaster as by the time we get them back for recheck, we would be down to the wire. We have 2 hours in JNB.

Delta says they do have a baggage agreement with SAA and that we can check them through to HRE. But that's just phone talk. I need to confirm with people who have actually done it.

I just made the same trip and have made it over the past 2 years as well. If you fly from Atlanta to Jo-burg on Delta and then transfer to SAA to Harare and do not spend the night in Jo-Burg, you can check the bags all the way to Harare. If you stop and spend the night in Jo-Burg you have to have a RSA gun permit and check your guns through SAP. You exit customs with your baggage (-guns) and the guns are brought to SAP where your pre-arranged SA gun permit should be waiting as well.

Thanks, 505, we are going to go with your confirmation. Worst comes to worst, we claim bags at JNB and recheck without exiting customs.

Russ,

You should be able to check your guns all the way through. When you check in with Delta just have them add the SAA part (flight #s) of the trip to the baggage tags, with HRE being the final destination and not Joburg.

I've never done this in Africa but I have when traveling to other countries, when portions of the tickets were purchased separately.

Each to his own, but I never, ever check my guns through JNB to another location. It gives me a lot of peace of mind to actually pick up my guns in JNB and recheck them through to my final destination. I do this both coming and going.

I know that I should be able to check the guns straight through -- and I know that lots of folks do it without a problem -- but I don't trust the JNB "system" such that it is and can't bring myself to try it -- even if it means obtaining SA firearms permits and staying over an extra night in a hotel at JNB.

Lots of things can go awry on an African trip, but the worst of them involve having your guns not arrive with you at the final destination. With no guns, there is no hunt and almost any amount of extra trouble is a small price to pay to minimize the chance that situation occuring.

let me see:

1. check straight thru and be happy.

2. unload everything in RSA and subject your firearms, etc to scrutiny of the SAPS boys. A couple hundred extra dollars and a few hours there standing in various lines there. Then pay for a taxi to go to Afton House, etc and pay for another night's stay instead of being in Harare, thru Customs and on my way to hunting camp. Then, get up the next morning, subject myself and gear to the airport shuffle, SAPS, etc one more time, and repeat in Harare. That's not my idea of extending the adventure.

I used Plan #1 last December. It worked like a charm. I think I'll stick with it.

Rich
4-bore shooter

Most of us going to Africa spend quite a bit of time and money getting our kit tweaked to fit our personal needs let alone buying or having just the right rifle built plus working up the perfect handload for said rifles. To not take the extra step to make sure that all that gear gets to the safari area with us seems silly to me. The travel leg from JNB to your final destination seems to be the point that the luggage often gets messed up etc. Receiving your luggage in JNB and rechecking it on to the next flight even if it means overnighting in JNB lets you know first that your bags and guns got as far as JNB and secondly that they were put in the hands of the carrier going to your final destination. If your luggage does not arrive you know where to start the search. Of course overnighting in JNB also gives your baggage an extra day to arrive if it did not make the international flight. I remeber standing beside some folks who had started their jouney in the midwest somewhere and checked their luggage all the way through to Bulawayo and were trying to trace back 3 of their bags that of course had all the important stuff for their safari. It was a nightmare.

If your spending thousands on a safari, all the gear etc. allow yourself enough time for you and your gear to arrive. Just because some people are getting away with checking all the way through does not make it the best option.

Mark

I checked my luggage with Delta in SLC this June, all the way through to HRE. No problems, no muss, no fuss. This is the 5th time I have done this, and will always check my firearms straight through to avoid Jo'berg. I believe the earlier post is correct, if you plan to overnight in Jo'berg, then you need to claim your firearms.
Of course things can change before next spring, but it worked fine this summer.
Bill

Well to close the loop on this, two of the party traveling on DL checked bags to JNB only (from LAX) (against my advice). One checked his all the way flying SAA all the way. And I checked mine all the way flying DL to JNB and then SAA to HRE.

Here is what happened: upon arrival at JNB, we went to the transfer desk and informed SAA that two of the party checked their bags to JNB only. They said, no problem, give us the baggage receipts, we will send a rep down to baggage claim for you and check the bags on to HRE. That sounded great. Until we told them two of the bags concerned were rifle cases. That is when the system went into TILT mode. We were told we would have go through immigration, claim our normal bags, go through customs, get a firearms permit at SAPS, then go back to checkin and check all the bags including the firearms. No shit. We had 2 hours on the ground. They had the decency to escort us through immigration. We then split up to find the bags. Lo and behold, at the oversize area, not only did the 2 rifle cases from LAX show up, but my case (supposedly checked thru to HRE) also showed up!!

Now you are not allowed to touch your rifle cases. The security company lady showed up and off we went to SAPS with all 3 rifle cases. Mine was OK, it would be rechecked by the airline (yeah right, it was standing in the SAPS office and the airline had no clue it was there). The other 2 would require transit permits. Of course, the clients had forgotten to bring the letter of invitation from HHK for the hunt. And of course, the computers were down. What to do? Well a little green stuff solved the problem, guns were released on a hasty transit permit, reunited with regular baggage, and those two guys went back to check in upstairs and made it to the gate with minutes to spare. Their bags did show up at HRE!

I went back through immigration with no bags, just a ticket. I found a helpful guy by the name of NEO, some kind of supervisor. He made some phone calls and then disappeared. The ladies at the transfer desk got annoyed with me because they couldn't tell me whether my rifle case had been retrieved from SAPS. I went to the gate not knowing. "Neo" reappeared at the gate 15 mins prior to departure and told me my rifle case was on the plane. So my two bags also made it to HRE.

The smartest of the group, who had flown SAA all the way, couldn't understand the fuss. His bags showed up in HRE. No idea whether they went via SAPS or not.

Moral of the story: if you check your rifles straight through, there is a risk they will be offloaded to baggage claim at JNB, whence they will automatically go to SAPS, where they may sit for a day or two before someone wakes up and puts them on a plane to HRE. The risk of this happening appears to be greater if you fly DL to JNB, but I can't be sure about that. The HHK people told us that about half the time, clients arriving on the late evening flight have baggage problems. The bags normally show up at HRE at lunch time the following day.

So if you plan to check through, at least make sure the airline knows you have a rifle case and that it may be sitting in the SAPS office. Better yet, go through immigration and check for yourself in baggage claim that your rifle (and regular bag) are not offloaded. If they are, you can get the regular bag rechecked but you will have to find "Neo" to get your rifle bag retrieved from SAPS. If you have time, go look in the SAPS office yourself. You can't do all this unless you have at least 2 hours (and that is the bare minimum ... you may find yourself spending the night at JNB anyway, if you don't make the boarding gate 20 mins before departure).

Two other hints. It helps to fly SAA all the way. I think. And do your sight seeing at the beginning of the trip, in case your bags are delayed. Once you leave HRE for the hunting area, you won't see your bags until you get back to the airport, or back home.