USA to J'Burg via London Connection - What's the latest?

[leslie hetrick]

on my second hunting trip to Africa I flew BA, on my next three trips to Africa I didn,t. they suck.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

You spend a great deal of money why for the life of me would anyone waste their time flying to London been over there 6 times delt out of Atlanta to joburg no problem.

Without much question the Delta route out of ATL is the easiest. It's also much of the time quite expensive in comparison to other routes and it requires an overnight in Joburg before making a connecting flight.

Other airlines get you there earlier in the morning so that making a connecting flight is possible on the same day. And they provide this for less. Personally I prefer to arrive in the morning and do what I can to stay awake as much of that day as possible. I then sleep well that first night and mostly on African time the next day.

 

[Philip Glass]

You were NOT flying BA from Windhoek to JNB. You were flying Comair, and they don't transport guns. Their planes have BA on the side, but its not BA.

I think SAA is the only one to transport guns in RSA and Namibia. Anyway so many people find out this stuff the hard way instead of paying $200 to a gun educated travel agent. I can not get over all the gun travel horror stories on here! Hope all is well.
Philip

 

[Philip Glass]

I'm flying from Helsinki to Johannesburg via London with BA on March 2019. Guns are (at least currently) OK as all flights are with BA. They require 3 hour layover time in London and guns need to be declared in advance. Cost is 150€/direction so it's not cheap. I also checked whether I could take Finnair flight from Helsinki to London and then change to BA for London Johannesburg, but that was not possible. So it seems that you really need to have BA all the way if you wish to travel with guns.

Not just BA but n most cases it’s better to be on the same airline

 

[Philip Glass]

I refuse to do connections with guns. You’re just asking for trouble. We fly ATL-JoBurg direct and overnight in JoBurg before catching another flight to our final destination. Ditto on the return. Our friends from Phoenix travel with us and overnight at our place to avoid the stateside connection. It adds time and cost but sure cuts down on the hassle. Our JoBurg overnights are spent at Africa Sky guest house, an outstanding spot if you haven’t tried it.

Ditto Africa sky stayed there for the first time this year.

 

[WAB]

Ditto Africa sky stayed there for the first time this year.

We’ve been there so often the staff all know us. It feels like our home in JoBurg.

 

[neckdeep]

on my second hunting trip to Africa I flew BA, on my next three trips to Africa I didn,t. they suck.

I flew BA on the first trip, SAA on the second. I felt like the BA trip was an eternity with long layover's, I found the BA agent's to cause us much grief(spent several hours in the basement of JNB with the south African police) and had to pay lots extra for the privilege to carry our firearms. In September 2018 we flew straight through to Tete on SAA from Denver. While BA has nicer equipment, I like the itinerary much better on SAA and will most likely be flying with them to Zim again next July.

 

[mdwest]

it looks like some of the AA-BA problems with transiting firearms through London MAY have been resolved...

I just spoke with a customer service supervisor that read the current American Airlines policy to me... in a nutshell she advised that the general policy for AA allowing firearms for international travel is that when a firearm is checked onto the aircraft the traveler must provide a copy of the entry permit for the country of destination...

and.. specific to transiting London Heathrow she advised the policy states "due to local handling procedures at LHR, a service charge of $80 will be collected at check in"..

planning on doing a little more research.. and would like to get my hands on a copy of the policy as well as a senior manager at American to confirm/deny what I have been told...

 

[markm]

I refuse to do connections with guns. You’re just asking for trouble. We fly ATL-JoBurg direct and overnight in JoBurg before catching another flight to our final destination. Ditto on the return. Our friends from Phoenix travel with us and overnight at our place to avoid the stateside connection. It adds time and cost but sure cuts down on the hassle. Our JoBurg overnights are spent at Africa Sky guest house, an outstanding spot if you haven’t tried it.

that is the best way to go.

 

[swoobie]

it looks like some of the AA-BA problems with transiting firearms through London MAY have been resolved...

I just spoke with a customer service supervisor that read the current American Airlines policy to me... in a nutshell she advised that the general policy for AA allowing firearms for international travel is that when a firearm is checked onto the aircraft the traveler must provide a copy of the entry permit for the country of destination...

and.. specific to transiting London Heathrow she advised the policy states "due to local handling procedures at LHR, a service charge of $80 will be collected at check in"..

planning on doing a little more research.. and would like to get my hands on a copy of the policy as well as a senior manager at American to confirm/deny what I have been told...

This would be good news indeed - any updates?