Delta Flights To Johannesburg

[Dee S]

Just FYI for those wanting to book flights.
I've been monitoring flights to Johannesburg for the past few weeks and Delta, if they had flights, were running around $1600+ from either San Antonio or Houston. Qatar was running about $2600. It looked like United was the new way to go over as theirs are running, from San Antonio, $1454. I even have a price tracker set up to send me alerts when the price goes up or down on the flights that I have saved to track. It had just dropped to that $1454 from $1550 last week.
I got online last night and noticed that Delta suddenly opened up a bunch of flights and I was shocked to see that from San Antonio, to Atlanta, to Johannesburg was $1050. I almost bought tickets last night as the plane was showing empty, with only about five seats were reserved. I held off, not sure why, but I woke up this morning with a new alert. Price dropped to $984 during the night. I doubt very seriously it will go below that price, so I locked it in.
This will be my fifth trip over and the first time that I will get the chance to fly out of San Antonio. In the past, no matter the airline, if I selected San Antonio over Houston, it would add, on average, $700 to the price of my ticket. Which meant I'd make the three hour drive to Houston, pay for two weeks parking at a nearby lot, and catch the hotel shuttle to the airport. That added a meal stop along the way, on both trips. Three hours driving each way, worried about traffic and weather. Paying $80 for two weeks parking, plus $15 at Whataburger coming and going.
This time, from SAT it is the $984 and out of Houston it is currently $1444 for the same route. Even with United, it was $10 cheaper to fly out of San Antonio versus Houston. Great for me, living 45 minutes from San Antonio International.
Thought you guys would want to know, now is a good time to buy it looks like. And these prices are for late June, early July, which typically run higher as it is in the peak of travel season for Americans.
Delta added an option, for $200 extra it will provide 100% refund, well, minus the $200 for the guarantee. Trip insurance with Cancel For Any Reason will only cover 75% of the airfare under CFAR.

 

[Deleted member 40394]

I booked my flight in August and it hasn’t changed much. Checked out United the other day and the same flight was like $1400 from Charlotte to Newark to jberg to port Elizabeth. I paid I think around 1290 with insurance.

 

[gizmo]

It’s good news flight prices are going down. I paid 2500 to get to Namibia back in April on Ethiopian Air. It was the only sure bet at the time. That was a tough pill to swallow but everything worked out well.

 

[Dee S]

I booked my flight in August and it hasn’t changed much. Checked out United the other day and the same flight was like $1400 from Charlotte to Newark to jberg to port Elizabeth. I paid I think around 1290 with insurance.

Then maybe it is just the flights I watch for out of Texas? I know I've been watching flights since December, all the airlines that fly into South Africa, and Delta had few options and the ones they had were high priced. I checked on Friday and these flights were not there at that price.
The tracker is very convenient and it's pretty handy to use.
I told my wife on Friday, if that United flight drops below $1300 I'm buying it. Then on Saturday I see the Delta flights and the price for $1050 out of San Antonio. I wanted to buy last night and she told me to wait until morning, sleep on it. First email I see this morning is the notice of the price drop. Leaving out of SAT, saves me time, money, and wear and tear on my car.

 

[outwestidaho]

Air freaks me out with the price differences. We booked cattle class on United from here in Idaho to port Elizabeth. 1245.00 per person.
So after reading this I put our details In to Delta app , it came up 4245.00. I've mainly flew Delta every trip to Africa. Never paid more than 1800.00 . So they must be dropping your price and raising ours . When we checked at the time we booked United, Delta was 2800.00 . So it came up another 2400.00 in 2 months. Strange

 

[Dee S]

I use GOOGLE FLIGHTS to search.
It has all sorts of analytics applied to it. You can very the dates, the airlines, how many stops, duration, etc. It will show price graphs and has a date grid. Then it will let you track the flights you select. I got an email this morning letting me know the flight I just purchased yesterday for $984 went back up to $1050, which is normal. All airfare will fluctuate and that is where the price graph comes in handy.
It is really useful if you don't have a hard date set for your hunt as far as arrival date and departure date. You may think you want to depart on the 1st and return on the 12th, but by using the graph and the date grid, you may see that you can save a couple hundred bucks by departing on the 2nd and adding another day to your trip, returning on the 14th. I have done that in the past, finding it was cheaper to add two days to my hunt so that it lowered the airfare enough to cover those two extra days in country, so it was a trade off. Even my wife will tell me, you're already half way around the world, you might as well add the extra day or two if the money washes out.
But I agree, especially in this COVID age we are living in, the most stressful part of the trip planning stage is often the airfare, not only with prices but also dependable routes, and routes that don't add extremely long layover times in multiple airports.

https://www.google.com/travel/flights

 

[buck wild]

That's a hell of a deal ! Do you not track Emirates, although I doubt anyone can get below that price? I flew out of San Antonio in 2015. I didn't see a noticeable difference between SA and Hou back then.

 

[Hyde Hunter]

5 of use just booked the other day 3 out of Kalispell, MT 1 out of St Louis, Mo and myself out of Sioux Falls, SD we all meet up in Denver or Newark then to Joburg cost is 1028.00 each

 

[Dee S]

That's a hell of a deal ! Do you not track Emirates, although I doubt anyone can get below that price? I flew out of San Antonio in 2015. I didn't see a noticeable difference between SA and Hou back then.

I have tracked Emirates, but they have never been cheaper than the others for me. It's been either Qatar, Delta, or Ethiopian from Houston with the lowest fares.
My daughter lives in the Dallas area and she heads over to RSA a couple of times a year. It has been cheaper for her to drive to Houston and fly out of IAH than flying out of DFW.

 

[JimP]

I wonder what will happen to these flights when the next variant of the Covid pops up?

On a side note, has anyone had any better experience going through Newark on their returns than what have been reported in the last while?

 

[Kelly G]

Bought following flights last September.

Roundtrip "Delta Premium Select" for May 2022.
Spokane to Johannesburg = $2458

Fast Jet - Roundtrip
JNB to Victoria Falls = $200

 

[Hyde Hunter]

Kelly G that is a very good price on round trip I have been watching Delta for the same seats and the best I could find was 3300.00

 

[Hunt anything]

That’s good news on prices maybe freight will come down as well.

 

[Hyde Hunter]

ops, just for grins I just rechecked the flight I was looking at and now it is up to 4306.00 talk about rip offs

 

[Daveboone]

At the end of december we booked through Travel Express with United out of Newark to Jburg / Port Elizabeth, with the upgraded economy. 3700 for 2..

 

[Daveboone]

Air freaks me out with the price differences. We booked cattle class on United from here in Idaho to port Elizabeth. 1245.00 per person.
So after reading this I put our details In to Delta app , it came up 4245.00. I've mainly flew Delta every trip to Africa. Never paid more than 1800.00 . So they must be dropping your price and raising ours . When we checked at the time we booked United, Delta was 2800.00 . So it came up another 2400.00 in 2 months. Strange

When /where are you heading from PE?

 

[outwestidaho]

When /where are you heading from PE?

We are going to huntershill in mid July. They wanted us to fly into East London but there wasn't enough seats on air link for 10 of us. So we are headed to port Elizabeth instead.

 

[Philip Glass]

I wonder what will happen to these flights when the next variant of the Covid pops up?

On a side note, has anyone had any better experience going through Newark on their returns than what have been reported in the last while?

Delta is still selling tickets for 7 days a week and only flying 3 days a week. This is why we are not using them now
I can’t fly United as I hunt with a suppressor. Flight cancellation or something unforeseen and take possession and then go to prison in NJ.

 

[autofire]

What app or website will show Delta flying on 3 days? Looking to book to Jbrg this week for late May and don't want to get trip cancelled(again) because Delta cancelled it's Atl to Jberg flight. Thanks

 

[Philip Glass]

What app or website will show Delta flying on 3 days? Looking to book to Jbrg this week for late May and don't want to get trip cancelled(again) because Delta cancelled it's Atl to Jberg flight. Thanks

My travel agent. No one knows but them and the poor folks who get cancelled when it happens.
I’ll fly Delta again but certainly not this year.