Ok, seems kinda odd, me asking this with the amount of flights I've made back and forth in my life. However I have good reason.

At one time SAA was the best game in town. The service they provide is been circling the bowl headed for the drain the last couple years. This past trip was really disgusting watching two male flight attendants rubbing each others asses and kissing behind the curtain of the galley. Their giggling and disgusting behaviour was likely the last straw for me using them.

Delta seems to be another good option with nealry identical flights and costs. They are a little more expensive.

I don't really care to connect through Europe as that just adds more travel with the long layovers and more people handling the guns/luggage.

Oh yeah, one other thing. I had SAA lose my luggage this last trip. It was the 4th day before I saw it and the guy who had it knew who I was. SAA delivered it to the wrong address in Ellisras and just by dumb luck it went to somebody who knew me! I was told it would be delivered by 10PM that night. The next morning it was still not here. About 10AM the next day the fella who did have it was calling around looking for me. He eventually found me and I got my cases back.

With that said, BA might be an option from Seattle. Non-stop to the UK and then non-stop to Joburg. If SAA lost the guns then how much worse can BA be? at least maybe they can find me straight away and not deliver to somebody else! BA certainly has much better service and a more professional operation then the SAA offers. Oh yeah, another little gem with SAA customer service, I handed a flight attendant an empty juice carton when she was standing in the galley near the curtain. She looked at me and said "you better hang onto that, it's much safer with you" Then she turns and walks away giggling to her co-workers???????

They are simply the most uneducated pathetic staff of people to ever work in the airline business. For the 3rd out of the last 4 trips the entertainment system has not worked in about 1/2 the seats.........you got it, been in one of those seats every time too!

My Letters of concern to SAA with times dates and names has gone unanswered as of today. A more worthless group of people in a single industry would be hard to find.

So I guess the question is who has used BA with guns in the last couple years. How has it gone for you. At one point BA would have been my laet choice for travel with firearms. It seems that they have made significant improvements to the process and they might be a functional option now?

JJHACK,
I went through hell on my flight with Delta. Long story-- won't bore you.
I found a good way to get their attention: Call you Congressman and Senator and ask them to file a complaint with the DOT. Mine did. Delta's offer and attitude changed 180 degrees. I told them to contact my elected Representatives. They don't like being reported to mucky-mucks. Especially one that sits on the Transportation Committee.
Use your elected officials. That's why we pay them.

Randy

JJ- I have the last two trips with archery equipment which is now handled by BA just like a firearm. I went from Montana- Seattle- Heathrow. Ended up in JBRG once and Lusaka once. Some general impressions are that they seem to be just BETTTER at what they do than Delta or SAA. I have multiple trips on those carriers and will try my best not to use them. This season , in Seattle, the agent I checked in with(after claiming my bags from Horizon and making sure they were on BA) seemed to have a little bit of an attitude. When she realized I was in possesion of all current policy/procedure the attitude went away. In fact she then made sure I was notified in the aircraft that my bags were confirmed on board! Maybe it was my imagination! But is it not the way of the world now that if "they know you know" things just seem to go a little more smoothly? The "dark side" of the BA/Heathrow set up is this: terminal 4 is a clusterfuck of biblical proportions. It is THE first world hub for the third world. The first time it was entertaining but not so on this last trip. If you choose to do the route it will mean ~ 6-7 hours in terminal 4. There are some well hidden showers there that have(had) a permanent attendant assigned and they were spotless the times I used them. Take a small towel in your carry-on. There are a couple of decent places to eat. Maybe the biggest selling point BA has is the compentency level of their staff in Africa. You said it all about the SAA staff. Delta is not that far behind.

JJ,

I use BA and highly recommend them. My clients have had excellent experiences with them. Gracy Travel tells me that BA has the best record of guns and luggage arriving with the passenger of any airline servicing Africa. Service is excellent and they know what they are doing with guns having one person assigned to seeing your guns actually get on the plane. This month will be my 8th trip with them and I'm looking forward to it. KLM and Air France are just not in the same league. I hear so many horror stories on SAA I really don't care to even try them. The disadvantage with BA is there usually a long layover between Seattle-Heathrow and Heathrow-Africa but I'm never in a hurry.

Mark

We flew BA from Toronto/Heathrow/Jburg and BA was very impressive. The inflight service was excellent, the other neat thing is World Traveller Plus, it's a category in bewteen economy and business class, 4 inch wider seat, 7 inches mroe foot room and 7 degrees more recline, the cost is abotu 50% higher than economy. To me at 6'3" 245 it was worth it after 20 hours of flying to be able to walk and talk when I got to Jburg.

Any time I fly internationally I will look to BA first from now on.

No problems with rifles by the way.

I've flown SAA since 1988 but last year was all I could stomach. Delta may not be any better but I've gotta try someone else. Doesn't Delta realize if they play their cards right and just treated people like customers, they'd be the only game in town in short order?

...just a bit of advice when traveling with BA.

Just prior to boarding your flight, ask the agent at the gate to be kind enough to check LIBRA and verify your luggage/sporting firearm(s) are aboard. The agent will "run" your bag tag numbers thru a computer, and can tell you right then, and there the dispostition of your kit.
LIBRA: Local Inventory Baggage Reconciliation Authorization.
Worked for me in '03

Good luck

Can you do that with any of the airlines?

same here. I used BA on my 2 trips to JBRG/Zim and Lusaka. As a matter of fact I picked up my PHs double in London and flew on to Lusaka. Not a problem..I did use "PDQ Freight" to handle the Firearms transfer in Heathrow. BA Is my only Africa bound carrier.steve

I have flown over 2,000,000 air miles in my business. Mostly international. I have flown with spare equipment parts and with guns on many occasions. One trip I carried 15 peices of luggage.

For my money, I fly American or British Airways followed by Delta and Lufthansa. I found Singapore Airlines to be the absolute best but don't go to the Far East all that often. I have found that being one of the Platinum Club members or whatever the name for the particular airlines, is a big help. Flying business class helps also. I have only lost bags twice flying business class internationally - that includes a 17 flight segment trip to New Zealand, Australian, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Tokyo in a 18 day period. THe bags showed up a couple of days later. It happens.

Also, try to always have 2 hours minimum to make a connection, three hours is better. Join the various "clubs" and take some time to clean up and recheck your flights.

It is an adventure and not a cab ride. Problems happen, so have a plan B out there. On my two trips to Africa, I asked the operator to have spare guns available in case my did not show up. They did and all was well. Frankly, next time, I may just shoot their guns due to the hassle factor.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Can you do that with any of the airlines?

UEG: Yes you can. It's an off-shoot of the Patriot Act. Basically, Homeland Security takes GREAT umbrage at the airlines if the bags & passengers don't match. This is to minimize placing bombs on board like happened with Pan-Am 109. I do it as a matter of course whether I'm flying with guns or not. jorge

Those of us in the southern US have real problems flying SAA because we have to change planes a couple of time just to get to Dulles. This pretty much leaves flying Delta to Joburg or going with another airline via Europe.

I tried Delta my last flight to Joburg and it was not worse than SAA in terms of the flight times, stops and distances. The cabin crew at Delta seem to be trying really hard, something we noticed on our trip in May to France.

If Delta would buy a couple of those 747-400 that SAA had, they be in like flynn with me. That was a great bird; roomy and nonstop.

I will look at BA and Europe next time I fly, but I have heard such horror stories about them loosing weapons in England on the change over. What about that problem?? Kudude

no experience with BA as of yet. Last time to Africa in '03 was on delta/SAA (when they were still flying the 747) and with nothign to compare against, the flights were okay and no lost luggage/guns issues. With all the horro Ive read on herein the last 18 months on SAA I vowed to saty away from them on the intenational flights for next years May?june trip, so since I had enough airmiles gathered I chose BA and am getting to go in business class so will see how this works out even tho for years I too heard/read BA was not user friendly with travelers with guns. My internal flights after I get to Joberg will be on SAA, not much choice there so will see how this all works out. I know didn't really answer your question, but its what I'm trying next year and while the flights and layover from Seattle to Joberg are a bit longer, I'll give it shot.

dogcat's advice is excellent, although I don't necessarily agree with him on American, or on any US carrier these days. I commuted over a million miles around the world for thirty-nine years, many trips to the identical spots mentioned by dogcat, and I logged over a quarter million on BA alone. Flying coach is not all that hot, and I've flown all three classes on BA, but the professionalism of their staff, with only a couple of exceptions, is about the best there is.

I've never flown BA with guns, but I've flown down to Africa on BA a couple dozen times and was always treated very well, regardless of the part of the aircraft I was seated in.

Hell will freeze solid before I climb on SAA again. I used to commute regularly from Miami to Joburg when it was a real airline, but it appears that the current batch of flight attendants have been brought straight in from the bush, given a bath and a week's training, and turned loose upon the unsuspecting public. Never, never again.

I just returned from Uganda recently and flew British Airways as usual. On each of the four legs of the trip, either the Captain or the First Officer personally came to my seat and informed me that both my Rifle and my bag with my ammunition were in fact on board. Outstanding service.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at one time BA would not transport firearms into Zim. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that point. Have they changed their policy.

A few years ago my flight on SAA to Joberg was late and I missed my connection to Zim. I was put on the next flight to Vic Falls which was a BA flight. I specifically asked about my guns and was told no problem, but neither my guns or bags arrived in Zim. The folks there told me BA wouldn't fly them to Zim and they had to come in on a SAA flight the next day. My guns arrived the next day, but my bag didn't arrive until three days later. Left a bad taste in my mouth regarding BA.

Just guessing, I would imagine that has something to do with relationships within the Commonwealth and not just BA's policy.

After reading about problems with SAA, I flew Delta from Tucson to Johannesburg via Atlanta earlier this year. No problems, but I sure miss the old 747s.

Bill