Flight Newbie needs advice -cape town-

jimjim79

my firend is getting married in cape town south africa. Im looking to find the best deal i can on a return flight from any london airport (Gatwick is best for me) to cape town. Looking for at least a couple of weeks around march 26 to april 15 though i can be flexible on flight dates. I have found one with virgin from march 26 to apr19 for 459.10 is that a good deal?are there better ones to be had?

thanks for taking the time to help out a newbie.

Sam_Bee

Yes, that is a good deal if it is inclusive. If you go from Gatwick you have to change, often in Jo'burg, which is inadvisable. I'd pay that for Virgin, you can often look around £600, especially if it is around Easter.

You may save some money going indirect..

MissBehaving

Just had a look around soem websites. I would agree, that fare is pretty good. Virgin are a good airline too. You could get cheaper, slightly, by flying Quatar Airlines, but this would require a stopover.

http://www.travelstoremaker.com/cgit/porch?path=add/Progress&CGI_NAME=porch&agentid=weflycouk2&command=flights&tracker=WF12&externalprefs=Y&selectedticket=ETICKET&meta_do=do_power&maxfaresshown=30&maxflightsshown=10&meta_go=*&triptype=ROUNDTRIP&serviceclass=Any&outhour=07&rethour=14&ptc4=SRC&numptc4=0&loccurrency=GBP&fromcity=LGW&tocity=CPT&outday=26&outmonth=MAR&retday=15&retmonth=APR&ptc1=ADT&numptc1=1&ptc2=CNN&numptc2=0&ptc3=INF&numptc3=0&imageField.x=101&imageField.y=5&utm_source=cheapflights_IBE&utm_medium=cpc

I would book that Virgin fare in my opinion. If you can get it direct to Cape Town then thats great, but if you have to changeover in Jhb, I wouldnt worry about it to much. There is a lot to do in JHB airport.

Edit: Sign up onto Quidco and you could get some cashback to. Virgin have 1% cashback. (Better than a kick in the proverbial!!!)

jimjim79

excellent im going to book it tomorrow morning. Its inclusive and direct and I have a quidco account too.

UnitedFlyer

jimjim79 wrote:

excellent im going to book it tomorrow morning. Its inclusive and direct and I have a quidco account too.

Not that I've cheked or know, on this route, but direct in "airline terms" can mean a change of airplanes.
Just don't want you to be upset if you find you have to change planes somewhere if you were thinking it was non stop to Cape Town.

jimjim79

from the virgin site:

Outbound
Minimum stay is Saturday night
No advance purchase conditions apply
Changes and refunds are not permitted at any time.

Inbound
Minimum stay is Saturday night
No advance purchase conditions apply
Changes and refunds are not permitted at any time.

i dont really understand the minimum saturday night stay can anyone explain. Also the flight time 12 hours does that sound about for a direct flight

thanks again

Sam_Bee

UnitedFlyer wrote:

Not that I've cheked or know, on this route, but direct in "airline terms" can mean a change of airplanes.
Just don't want you to be upset if you find you have to change planes somewhere if you were thinking it was non stop to Cape Town.

Virgin do fly non-stop (as do BA and SAA).

Direct = No change of plane, but stopover / refuelling (most not you needing to leave the plane, except typically Air NZ via Los Angeles to Auckland)

Non Stop = No change of plane, no refuelling, no stopover, no nothing.

Change of plane would / should never be called direct in airline parlance.

piggy73

Try using expedia but book 1 nights hotel accommodation in with it (flight & hotel option) as this usually works out cheapert than just booking the flight.

Ensure you tick the box that stipulates that you only require a hotel for part of your stay. You can use the hotel night any time during your stay but we opted for it on arrival - to gives us a chance to rest from the flight.

We did this for our recent trip from Manchester to Cape Town & got a very good deal.

Enjoy your trip

PJ

WiseInvestor_2

jimjim79 wrote:

i dont really understand the minimum saturday night stay can anyone explain. Also the flight time 12 hours does that sound about for a direct flight

The cheapest fares are available for leisure travellers, whereas airlines expect business travellers (ie Monday-Friday) to pay more. Provided your/their stay covers at least one Saturday night, the fare on offer will be lower.

12 hours is correct for London-Cape Town direct

the_mackem

piggy what was your deal then

ollyshaw

I am off to cape town this week. The cheapest tickets for me were with KLM (dutch,airlines). Have you tried them?

Olly