I often find myself wishing to advise prospective clients about flight and travel options within South Africa. Before going any further, I must say that I always tell them to use a professional travel agent - but I very often wish to be able could give good "after or before the hunt" holiday touring advice.

What I mostly wish to know about is availability timetables and cost of flights between Bloemfontein to/from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and other destinations within South Africa.

Now, I do know that in addition to the likes of South African Airways from where one can get availability of flights and costs, there are also many "Cheap Flight Tickets" sites on the Internet. Sue, it is easy to simply call the SAA Enquiries and wait, and listen to music, and wait, and listen to music, and wait and, wait ,,,,,,,,

However I've found that it is much easier for me to simply use Search Travelstart and do an Internet search. This will give me a lot of possible options with costs. My concern is: Can one trust the search results? If, for example a search for a flight from Cape Town on 11th June 2014 to Johannesburg should arrive in time for a passenger to still catch a late night KLM flight scheduled to depart at 23:35, show a large number of options. But can I advise a client that ",,,, according to Travelstart you can get a Kalula flight at 16:00 in Cape Town and land in Johannesburg at 18:15, as just a theoretical example?

What is the experience of persons who have used such searches and made arrangements accordingly? In my own limited experience I've used Travelstart to find, book, pay and fly without any problem. But that was for one trip only. Any remarks about good and bad experiences when using Travelstart - or any other similar service - to plan and book flights within South Africa?

In good hunting.

Andrew,

I have no experience with booking flights within South Africa.

But, I have several friends here in Dubai who do travel quite a lot. Sometimes they do book their own tickets via the Internet.

The only ones who have ever complained - for one reason or another - were those who had booked that particular flight on the Internet, and somehow have forgotten some little detail.

Some have even been refused travel as they arrived at the check in counter - because they had not re-confirmed their seats a suitable time ahead of the flight.

There are many people who do their own bookings, and seems to never have any problems though.

I just "self-booked" and flew from JNB to Port Elizabeth and return. I already had a Delta Ticket to JNB and arranged my own connection to get to PLZ. My arrival in South Africa was on Delta 200 arriving at 5:00 p.m and I booked a SAA flight to Port Elizabeth about 7:45 p.m.

Even though I wasn't staying at Afton House, I had the folks meet me at SAPS with a pre-approved permit and then get me over to the SAA check-in, then to "internal" SAPS for their check. It went very smoothly, but I only had 45 minutes to spare after customs, two SAPS, security again, etc. If I hadn't had the help, I'm not sure I could have gone through all the checks and made the plane (and I didn't want to spend a night in JNB if I could help it.)

Returning was pretty simple. I booked a flight that arrived at JNB several hours before DL201 was scheduled back to ATL. You simply pick up your firearm at the "internal" SAPS office, roll it over to the Delta Counter, go through the check-in process with them, through departure SAPS (which took all of five minutes) and go to through security to the Air France lounge and drink some sleeping potion.

So... my advice, particularly if you are self-booking and doing all your gun permits, give yourself at least three hours between planes.

All that said, I bought my "internal" SAA ticket about 3 months in advance through Travelocity.com. I had zero problem with the eTicket I printed out coming or going.

And, Andrew.... are there any airlines that fly internal SA flights that don't allow guns?

Finally... I only booked my flights because I didn't want to bother a professional agent with a $238.00 RT flight and I've done it 20 times or so. Still, the peace of mind that comes from using an African travel pro, particularly for those not versed in African travel, is well worth the little bit it may cost to use such a service.

Andreww

I do all my flights thru them and never had n problem yet.

Luan

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
.....................................
....
And, Andrew.... are there any airlines that fly internal SA flights that don't allow guns?

....................

Thanks JudgeG for asking that question. So easy to forget checking and then land up in a situation where your client is in really deep smelly with a flight booked and paid for, but no arrangement for his firearm!

Here quote taken from web page of Kalula, one of the South African "Low-Cost Flight Operators"
" http://www.kulula.com/flights/...irearms-and-toy-guns
.................
firearms
Whether for sporting, professional, recreational, military, hunting or any other purpose, all firearms, parts thereof and ammunition can no longer be transported on board kulula.com or British Airways (operated by Comair) flights. The reason for this new rule is that the cost of handling has become excessive. This cost is passed on to our customers and in most cases can exceed the cost of the ticket.

Absolutely no firearms will be allowed onboard, whether on your person, in checked or hand luggage, or anywhere on our flights. This rule is effective from 1st March 2013. If you have already booked your tickets for travel after 31 March 2013 and you intended to travel with a weapon, please call our Contact Centre to find out what your options are.

full definition of firearm:
A firearm is a weapon that launches one projectile or more at high velocity caused by igniting gunpowder. The following are examples of firearms:

Rifles
Shot guns
Hand guns
Pistols
Long guns
Automatic weapons
Sub machine guns
Antique guns
If in doubt please call our Contact Centre 0861 KULULA (585852).

toy guns
We’re sorry but this rule will affect our younger travellers too. With today’s technology guns can be made from plastic and even appear to be a toy. To ensure your safety, from the 1st of July all toy guns will be prohibited from all kulula and British Airways (operated by Comair) flights as checked in or hand luggage."

I'll see if I can find any other info on the firearms transportation policy as published by some other air carriers!
Just found that, as expected Mango Air also does not carry firearms at all!

"
http://www.flymango.com/upload...%20of%20Carriage.pdf

8.15.4 Firearms: MANGO does not permit carriage of any kind of firearms (including,
without limitation, hunting rifles and ammunition of any nature) whether on your
person or in your Checked or Un-checked Baggage. MANGO does not provide storage of such items under any circumstances. "


Just shows you, that: "Always use a professional travel agent! And best one with specific experience in arranging flights for sport hunters with firearms as checked in luggage!" At least then you have someone to blame if things go south!

When traveling in my home country I book my own travel arrangements thru Orbitz. When traveling out of the country, I use a professional travel agent. If there is a problem when out of the country, I have someone to help sort out the problem. I have used Kathy Klimes and Gracy Travel both with complete satisfaction.

If I had traveled in South Africa or anouther foreign country as much as Judge G or some of our other members, I would be more comfortable booking my own flights. I certainly do not mind paying a little extra for a pro to help me find my way.

Andrew,

I've self booked a few flights to Africa and from Atlanta to RSA, it easy. However, I've been to Africa several times now. Even so, within RSA, the firearm travel regulations between Tambo-Durban-Port Elizabeth are IMO too irregular for the first time African hunter. I would recommend someone like Steve Turner to help coach the traveler through these destinations.

George

Booking your own flights is relatively easy but it's when you want to change or there is changes or problems with those flights and you are in a foreign country, often with limited telephone/internet access, that things can become difficult. A good travel agent will "fix" everything for you with one call. Worth every penny on foreign travels for me and typically they can scope out cheaper flights anyhow.