Cheap South Africa Flights

Batgurl

Just got these from HolidayPirates; return flights to Johannesburg. Look to be error fares.
https://www.holidaypirates.com/flights/fly-to-johannesburg-south-africa-from-just-gbp-259-return_22016
That's about EUR300 return from Dublin. I had a play around and they are valid from Shannon and Cork too.

Not bad!

absolutegroove

Just booked it for two weeks(ish) in October for £258.22

Thanks OP

acquiescefc

Recommend the tip, book with airline(BA), more chance of it being honoured.

absolutegroove

I tried booking with BA but for some reason it was giving me errors. I then booked through Opodo and payed via PayPal.

I got my confirmation and checked the BA website and all my flight information is there.

I'll still wait for a month or so to book accommodation etc as BA may still cancel the flights.

acquiescefc

absolutegroove wrote: »

I tried booking with BA but for some reason it was giving me errors. I then booked through Opodo and payed via PayPal.

I got my confirmation and checked the BA website and all my flight information is there.

I'll still wait for a month or so to book accommodation etc as BA may still cancel the flights.

use googleflights and find the cheap ones and then choose same options on BA

schemingbohemia

acquiescefc wrote: »

use googleflights and find the cheap ones and then choose same options on BA

I just held the fare on ba site for €20 will complete booking tomorrow hopefully

Del007

How long can u reserve the flight for?

flangemeistro

schemingbohemia wrote: »

acquiescefc wrote: »

use googleflights and find the cheap ones and then choose same options on BA

I just held the fare on ba site for €20 will complete booking tomorrow hopefully

How did you get to hold the flights?
On the BA website it won't give me a price to purchase?

FLOOPER

I was just about to post a thread on this.

Booked my flights to S/A for 320 with BA. Going Mid March (13-22) and used Kayak to search.

schemingbohemia

flangemeistro wrote: »

How did you get to hold the flights?
On the BA website it won't give me a price to purchase?

It gives you the price after you've selected the flights. Best way is to use Google Flights to find shortest connection time and BA flight then use BA website. Then it gives you option of holding the price for 72 hours for a price of €10 per person which is refunded if you complete the purchase.

Slipshaney

Thanks OP!

schemingbohemia

Was a bit worried about this as charge was pending on my credit card for 5 days, but went through yesterday. Thanks a million OP! Nice November/December trip to South Africa for me and my wife.

Slipshaney

I was the same! Are we 100% OK now do you think?

schemingbohemia

I would think so, big worry was the pending charge now it's gone through I would find it difficult to believe they'd cancel and refund.

jive

schemingbohemia wrote: »

I would think so, big worry was the pending charge now it's gone through I would find it difficult to believe they'd cancel and refund.

They do that all the time. In this instance I don't think there's any error, just a cheap flight, so it should be safe. Either way I'd leave it at least another few weeks if I was booking anything non-refundable.

Basq

Wouldn't assume anything just yet.. even after payment has gone through!

acquiescefc

Basq wrote: »

Wouldn't assume anything just yet.. even after payment has gone through!

Reminds me of Alitalia's (Florence to Dusseldorf) via New Zealand and Japan in Business for £700 fares in December.

Slipshaney

Getting worried now! Will hold off a few weeks before booking anything else...

jive

Slipshaney wrote: »

Getting worried now! Will hold off a few weeks before booking anything else...

They should be fine, most dates still bookable with BA for €438 so €138 of a difference does not generally indicate an error. I've flown further with BA for <€300 without cancellation.

Flights to Aus/NZ were an obvious error due to how they were structured, as were the Alitalia flights mentioned above (unlimited stops, you could literally travel around the world multiple times on multiple airlines in business for €650).

Best practice is don't book anything non-refundable for at least 3 weeks but i don't see these being cancelled.

Slipshaney

I contacted BA on this, and they have fully confirmed my flight - so we should be OK

acquiescefc

Slipshaney wrote: »

I contacted BA on this, and they have fully confirmed my flight - so we should be OK

How did the conversation go?
Hi ive not paid enough for my flight can you check its ok?

First rule of cheap deals broken. You are only alerting somebody of a possible mistake. Their revenue assurance will make the decision and not some call centre bod.

In all fairness i think this one will stand but this will only increase the chances of clearly too-good-to-be-true fares being cancelled.

Slipshaney

Nope - I didnt mention the price of the flight in my dealings with them, I queried if all was in order as the charge took a number of days to be cleared from my CC

kn

Why oh why do people contact them to confirm that they are honouring offers? Its just inviting them to cancel it.......'sher yer not going to really honour that flight offer are ye?'!!!!

"Miss do we not have any homework tonight?" :pac:

kn

For the benefit of those who booked this flight I was in SA for the last 2 weeks. The Cape Town region was great but the contrast with Joburg was stark. The only word that comes to mind re Joburg is Detroit. In terms of urban decay its got to be up there. There is not a lot to interest your average tourist there either and while on the City Sightseeing bus service the fact that White SA's have just abandoned the place was for everyone to see. There was literally not a single White face in the entire city centre.

My advice is to keep you time in the Joburg/Pretoria region to the minimum and get a domestic flight to Cape Town which is really great from a tourists perspective.

amber2

kn wrote: »

For the benefit of those who booked this flight I was in SA for the last 2 weeks. The Cape Town region was great but the contrast with Joburg was stark. The only word that comes to mind re Joburg is Detroit. In terms of urban decay its got to be up there. There is not a lot to interest your average tourist there either and while on the City Sightseeing bus service the fact that White SA's have just abandoned the place was for everyone to see. There was literally not a single White face in the entire city centre.

My advice is to keep you time in the Joburg/Pretoria region to the minimum and get a domestic flight to Cape Town which is really great from a tourists perspective.

I see a similar offer appearing on holidaypirates again out Of Dublin but slightly more expensive, just For anyone who is interested or missed out last time.
Flights with either Qatar Airways or Ethiopian Air.


Flights to South Africa from £331rtn - incl. luggage & meals
https://www.holidaypirates.com/flights/flights-to-south-africa-from-gbp-359rtn-incl-luggage-meals_22868?utm_medium=share&utm_source=app&utm_campaign=ios

schemingbohemia

I availed of this offer, thanks again OP. In reference to the new offer, might be worth people checking out Ethiopian Air as they weren't hugely more expensive when I was looking around at the time.

Pro2ac

Hi guys,

Did either of you have any bad experiences with these flights? As I was thinking of using the same service potentially.

I'd appreciate your hindsight input.

Del007

What same service?

Pro2ac

Apologies I should have explained better.

Did you have any trouble with the tickets you bought off "secretflying.com"?

Where the flights themselves okay?

jive

Pro2ac wrote: »

Apologies I should have explained better.

Did you have any trouble with the tickets you bought off "secretflying.com"?

Where the flights themselves okay?

Secret Flying is essentially Bargain Alerts. Secret Flying provide a link to a third party search site e.g. Expedia, Momondo, Kayak, etc.

The only site I would avoid booking with is eDreams because they are notorious for cancellations and I'd rather not be waiting on €€€s being returned.

You will have no issue with flights booked via Secret Flying. If you have any concerns then go directly to the airline website (usually slightly more expensive) but in general, other than eDreams, every site they link to is well regarded.

Pro2ac

Perfect, thanks so much!

I was a little worried about any complications related to cancellations, or if baggage went missing would you have an issue claiming due to a 3rd party website being used etc.

That helps a lot!

ScouseMouse

Pro2ac wrote: »

Perfect, thanks so much!

I was a little worried about any complications related to cancellations, or if baggage went missing would you have an issue claiming due to a 3rd party website being used etc.

That helps a lot!

I went to Hong Kong with one of their bargain alerts. They don't actually sell anything. They tell you how, where and what to do, to get the deals. In my case, I had to go to Expedia.hk, then put in certain info, and I got dublin - Zurich - Hong Kong with Swiss International. Was a proper full service flight and the dogs bollix.

ruddy1987

http://www.secretflying.com/posts/dublin-ireland-johannesburg-south-africa-e399-roundtrip/

Dublin, Ireland to Johannesburg, South Africa for only €296 roundtrip

1 STOP / AFRICA / DEPART UK & IRELAND / DUBLIN / FLIGHT / STANDARD ROUTE AUGUST 25, 2017 0 COMMENTS

Cheap flights from Dublin, Ireland to Johannesburg, South Africa for only €296 roundtrip.

DEPART:
Dublin, Ireland

ARRIVE:
Johannesburg, South Africa

RETURN:
Dublin, Ireland

DATES:
Limited availability from September 2017 to February 2018 (excluding Christmas/New Year)

Example dates:
21st-30th Sep
12th-21st Oct
20th Jan – 3rd Feb

possibly more…

STOPS:
Addis Ababa

AIRLINES:
Ethiopian Airlines

MayoSalmon

jive wrote:

The only site I would avoid booking with is eDreams because they are notorious for cancellations and I'd rather not be waiting on €€€s being returned.

Had no problems with edreams myself and have used them loads