Which airline Dub - Jo'burg

Slunk

Looking at going to Johannesburg in November. Ethiopian is cheapest at 438 return, Turkish at 580, emirates 618 and eithiad 614. Looking at airline quality review there's bad reviews on all. Some have problems with food and IFE which would be a concern as partner is veggie plus need something to entertain on long flight.
Others have said flights into Dubai are very frequently delayed and as such have missed connections. Again, Turkish are not very helpful if your delayed and need hotel/ temp visa.

Can anybody give some honest feedback from economy flights out of Dublin with these airlines? All I want is decent grub, working ife and that they will look after you in case of delay/ missed connection etc

Thanks

billie1b

British Airways thru LHR on a lovely new A380, they take special meal orders too for Veggies, Kosher etc

Van.Bosch

Slunk wrote: »

Looking at going to Johannesburg in November. Ethiopian is cheapest at 438 return, Turkish at 580, emirates 618 and eithiad 614. Looking at airline quality review there's bad reviews on all. Some have problems with food and IFE which would be a concern as partner is veggie plus need something to entertain on long flight.
Others have said flights into Dubai are very frequently delayed and as such have missed connections. Again, Turkish are not very helpful if your delayed and need hotel/ temp visa.

Can anybody give some honest feedback from economy flights out of Dublin with these airlines? All I want is decent grub, working ife and that they will look after you in case of delay/ missed connection etc

Thanks

Can only comment on a return sector to Istanbul with Turkish. IFE was good, food and drink was good. Didn't like Istanbul airport, the queues were mental but that was mainly getting airside which you should avoid. Have heard good things about EK and they will look after you if you miss a connection, if the connection in DXB is tight though it's worth checking when their next flight to Joburg is, same for all I guess.

Going through addis would be more direct I guess and flying on a 787 would be nice so I would prob choose that option. Cheapest too.

andy_g

Moved to Travel Forum, Travel charter now applies

Todd Gack

How about BA as well?, they fly an a380 to Johannesburg, IFE is good and food is decent enough. It's also a shorter flight time than the other 4 options mentioned.

Never flown Ethiopian but they have a fairly good reputation and that's a great price. Wouldn't hesitate to book that one myself.

Emirates, Etihad and Turkish are all good airlines. Turkish may not have IFE from Dublin to Istanbul though (it's a 737 and didn't when I've flown that route). I'd pick Etihad over Emirates personally.

Zippie84

I know it's airline reviews you're interested in, not prices, but out of interest are you flexible on dates / is price an issue?

I can find as little as £300 return in November, but obv your dates could be completely different... just thought I'd ask though..

Halloween Jack

Todd Gack wrote: »

How about BA as well?, they fly an a380 to Johannesburg, IFE is good and food is decent enough. It's also a shorter flight time than the other 4 options mentioned.

Never flown Ethiopian but they have a fairly good reputation and that's a great price. Wouldn't hesitate to book that one myself.

Emirates, Etihad and Turkish are all good airlines. Turkish may not have IFE from Dublin to Istanbul though (it's a 737 and didn't when I've flown that route). I'd pick Etihad over Emirates personally.

I was on that BA flight at xmas, advertised as a380, but was a 747 for both legs, oh and they lost my bags....

Last year I took air france, a380 as advertised, very comfy, bags arrived on time.

Slunk

I'm flexible with dates. Just put in 3 November for three weeks for rough estimate. Could consider BA if price is OK.

wandererz

I've flown both the Etihad and BA routes in the past month and a half.

530 with Etihad in early Feb and 520 with BA during Paddys day weekend.


Etihad:

• Land in Terminal 1 and Depart from Terminal 3 in Abu Dhabi.
• LONG queues for toilets - there's like one set of toilets at the gates, it's almost as if they forgot about this.
• Both Terminals can be busy, but if you have to spend time then go through to Terminal 3. It is newer and there are more options for shopping and eating. It just involves a walk of about 5mins and a security scan. There is an "Irish" pub upstairs that serves american style food.
• The city is about 45mins-1hr away. If you can do an overnighter and stay in a hotel in the city, then at least you can split the travel. But you'd need at least 15+ hours for this. Or look at the bus travel time to Dubai and stay in Dubai instead.
  
• Etihad provides a food menu upon takeoff so you know what options you have for eating. That's a nice touch. Even so, don't depend on getting the meal you prefer by the time they come around to you. It could be all given out to others by that time. Book this in advance if you have a special meal type. If you do so, then you get served first (i suppose if vegetarian or Halaal meals).
  
• If they don't offer you any alcoholic beverages, then ASK for it if you have to. They seem to forget this if flying into Abu Dhabi for some reason.
• Service staff on Etihad are very polite and courteous.

BA

• In my case it was a Boeing 747 from Heathrow to Joburg and a A380 from Joburg to Heathrow. I guess it depends on which time slot.
  
• 747 was slightly dated, screen seemed older, but no complaints.
• A380 was cattle class so nothing special either even on upper deck. Newer seats of course, perhaps a bit more leg room, but unless you're flying business or first class it's just another flight. Touchdown was....well i did not realise we landed until the announcement.
  
• BA DUB to Heathrow gets into Terminal 5 Gates A.
• Heathrow to Joburg leaves from terminal 5 Gates C.
• This requires an underground TRAM between these gates. Allow for 15-20mins for this! Don't hang about at the C Gates thinking your next flight is from the same Terminal so you're OK. You also need to go through security checks. If it's busy it could be longer.
• Service staff on BA were so/so as always. However, on the A380 on the way back, i asked for a glass of red wine and was given two. Next guy comes up and sneaks me another one! I could have kept on ordering if i wanted to. Sometimes it pays to be nice to people!
• BA flight times are great (i.e. overnight) so if you can sleep then you can arrive in SA in the morning with a full day ahead of you. Also, it was a shorter flight/connection time compared to Etihad, so i did not arrive wrecked.
• Flight out of Dublin at 17.30 on Friday evening, arrived in Joburg 09.30 on Saturday morning. Out of airport by 10.20 or sooner.
• On the way back, Flight out of Joburg at 20.25, arrived Dublin at 0830.
• Online Check-in opens 24hrs before, so make sure you login & select your seats ASAP. Upper deck is preferable on the A380.

I had no problems with the IFE selections on either airlines.
If IFE is a concern, they why not take a tablet computer along with a few movies and music loaded onto it? Between the IFE and the entertainment stored on your mobile devices, you should be OK. You can also get a headphone adaptor that allows you to plug two headphones into the same device. That way you can both watch the same movies from your devices, at the same time and with your own headphones each.

Also, bags checked all the way through. Take ear plugs on whichever airline you travel with. Etihad provides this, but BA does not.

I don't know about missed flight connections, but i'm sure that with both they would book you on another flight if delayed as it is them all the way through. Actually i do know something about this. Some years ago i flew Virgin from London to Joburg. The Virgin flight was delayed overnight getting out of Heathrow. They put us up in a hotel. However, upon getting to Joburg a day late they wiped their hands off us in Joburg and the flights we missed to Durban were of no concern to them. Their contract and/or duty was to get us to Joburg, which they did.
All very polite and all, but ultimately a FU very much dear Sir/Madam.

I now always travel with annual multitrip travel insurance and ensure i have enough reserve on my credit cards for unforeseen circumstances.

Also remember, if for example on your way back you fly Mango or SAA or Kuhlua or similar from Cape Town to Joburg and it is delayed. Then neither BA nor Etihad are responsible for this as that is not their airline and have no control over it.
Better to be back in Joburg the day before for example, spend a night in a B&B or hotel and fly out the next day.

I have travelled Turkish Airlines at least twice to Istanbul and it's been fine. Nothing wrong with the airline itself at all, just the passengers, who can be a touch sensitive.

On another note, the only time i've encountered Ethiopian recently was since the Late late Show competition this past Friday.
The only African Airline i would ever fly (no matter how cheap it is) would be the South African ones, i.e. SAA for long haul and Mango or Kuhlua for internal flights.

if you are flexible with dates then look at February instead. Weather still great, people no longer on holiday, prices are cheaper.

Zippie84

Slunk wrote: »

I'm flexible with dates. Just put in 3 November for three weeks for rough estimate. Could consider BA if price is OK.

Can do you £290.65 return via budgetair.co.uk flying with Ethiopian Airlines, 8th to 29th November.

Not sure if this link will work but worth a try. Depends probably on whether price or other factors are a priority. http://www.budgetair.co.uk/checkout/flightresults?#&_fromhome=true&p_type=F&__lanid=2057&oneway=0&out0_dep=DUB&out0_arr=JNB&out0_date=20151108&out0_time=&in0_date=20151129&in0_time=&in0_dep=JNB&in0_arr=DUB&adt=1&chd=0&inf=0&cls=Y&pagesize=10

sarkozy

I find the Arabian Gulf route so annoying. It ads hours to the trip, not to mention being so much more exhausting.

A few years ago, I often flew Dublin-Jo'burg via Frankfurt with Lufthansa or South African Airways. The former was functional, reliable; the latter was also very good and I found them a bit more pleasant.

Frankfurt airport itself is large, but quite easy for transfers, which makes the layovers a bit more pleasant, I thought.

The other options are good. For me, personally, I just felt the extra hours on the middle-east route weren't always worth the savings.

I'm not sure if there's an option also to go KLM via Schipol.

I believe Ethiopian Airlines have got quite good, particularly since they've begun to use Dublin as a corridor to link the US to Africa and have bought a load of new stock in recent years.

ProudDUB

I've flown on Ethiopian a few times and they were grand. Don't remember what the inflight entertainment was like, but the food was bog standard airline food. It wasn't anyway special or out of the ordinary, just because it was an Africa based airline. My only real complaint was that checking in at the airports took forever, as they had very few ground staff doing the basic check in grunt work. The first time I flew with them, they only had one staffer manning one desk and I think I was standing for nearly 2 hrs waiting to check in. Torture !

Other than that, they were fine. My sister uses them a lot. She goes to Addis twice a year (from the US) and I don't ever remember her telling me any major horror stories.

faceman

With the route options you're considering, put some thought too into which routing is quicker. I'd imagine South Africa via Heathrow is shorter than routing via the Middle East? Is it worth paying the extra price for convenience?