quote:

Competition on airfares and flying on a 777. I don't know how this can be anything but great news

Terry,

I agree 100%! For too long SAA has had a monopoly on this flight and the prices and service reflect that! We can now vote with our pocketbooks and if prices don't come down maybe they will at least stabilize....Good news indeed. Wasn't there a startup 5 or 10 years ago that tried to compete but just didn't have the capital to hang in there? Flew out of NY or Washington.

quote:

Wasn't there a startup 5 or 10 years ago that tried to compete but just didn't have the capital to hang in there? Flew out of NY or Washington.

I,m not so sure this one has the capital either.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060209/bs_nm/airlines_delta_bankruptcy_dc

For a couple years I was buying round trip tickets that originated in RSA. They were half the price even if I had to change the dates for the return later on. I was flying back and forth so frequently that this saved me a ton of money even though I had to throw away an original return coupon from the ticket I bought in the USA. The RSA citizens fly for about 1/2 the price of an American. They eventually saw this and told me that as an American I had to buy my original Ticket in the USA, I would no longer be able to buy an RSA citizen ticket even though I was an RSA temporary Resident.

SAA knows that Americans can afford a more expensive ticket then thier own people can and charge that way. I think Anyone else flying this route will fix that problem.