This Johannesburg flight is one of the longest in the world

[Brieuse]

Flew Delta JHB to Atlanta in early 2017 economy. Will never fly that distance in economy again. Worst experience ever.

I did that in 2010, never again, not only did they confiscate my water which I bought, while about to board the plane, but then they seemed to ignore me for most of the flight such that I didn't actually get a cup of water in that flight.

 

[cguy]

I did that in 2010, never again, not only did they confiscate my water which I bought, while about to board the plane, but then they seemed to ignore me for most of the flight such that I didn't actually get a cup of water in that flight.

What was the reason for the confiscation?

 

[Brieuse]

What was the reason for the confiscation?

not actually sure

 

[Hamish McPanji]

not actually sure

Do you have a Mexican like colour tone?

 

[Scooby_Doo]

I made a mistake this year and did Cape Town -- 10 hours --> Dubai -- 1 hour layover -- Dubai -- 16 hours --> Miami.

Fking wanted to die.

 

[Sean008]

I made a mistake this year and did Cape Town -- 10 hours --> Dubai -- 1 hour layover -- Dubai -- 16 hours --> Miami.

Fking wanted to die.

Did something as stupid a few years ago. Jhb-Dubai, short layover Dubai-Cancun. Think it was Delta then too. F_cking nightmare of a flight

 

[cguy]

I'm planning to go from the US to Cape Town some time in 2019. The plan will be a night flight to Heathrow, stay in a hotel for the day (depending on how awake we are), then night flight to Cape Town. On the return, I will stay in London for a few weeks to break it.

A piece of advice here: to book something like this (with breaks), one typically has to use the "multi-city" option on a travel or airline website. If you do it on an airline's website, you usually get crazy prices - they appear to treat it like several one-way tickets. The same for some intermediary websites (booking.com/expedia.com), etc. If I search via a multi-intermediary site like Kayak, I get way better prices (less than half sometimes).

 

[Lord Nikon6]

not actually sure

It's pretty common for most international flights, regulations say you can only take liquids not exceeding 100ml per item, maximum of 3 in hand luggage.

 

[cguy]

It's pretty common for most international flights, regulations say you can only take liquids not exceeding 100ml per item, maximum of 3 in hand luggage.

That’s before you go through security though. After security you can buy big bottles of water, wine, whiskey, etc.

 

[Lord Nikon6]

That’s before you go through security though. After security you can buy big bottles of water, wine, whiskey, etc.

Yes, but with the big bottles bought there it is sealed in a "duty" free labelled bag?

 

[Willie Trombone]

Hehe Jhb JFK is my regular quarterly trip these days. It’s the rest that gets tacked on that’s the real killer. You arrive moeg and still have another couple of connecting flights... ugh...

 

[Willie Trombone]

Yes, but with the big bottles bought there it is sealed in a "duty" free labelled bag?

Nope, only alcohol etc. water is fine to take on the plane unsealed.

 

[cguy]

Yes, but with the big bottles bought there it is sealed in a "duty" free labelled bag?

For the wine/whisky yes, but not for water or juice. Perhaps he meant before security?

 

[Willie Trombone]

I did Joburg to new york with a refueling stop on Ilha do sol. That was a fkn nightmare.

Isn’t that the DC flight? You sure it was NY?

 

[Willie Trombone]

Flew non-stop from JFK to JHB in '96 on SAA. Was a frikkin nightmare.

Yeah and if you fly today, chances are you’re on that same plane
Even the seats still have the recaro logo. AFAIK they have been Lear Corp since the 90s lol.

 

[Sinbad]

Isn’t that the DC flight? You sure it was NY?

Yes I'm sure it was new york.
This was in 1995

 

[Willie Trombone]

Has to be horrible if you take a family with kids on such route. Would rather prefer a UK connection flight to the US.

I was stuck on a flight from Haiti to NY with parents and their <1 yr old sick kid who had a twin... I convinced myself the three hours of crying won’t be the worst... then we bumped into each other at the gate coming back to JHB
16 hours of mostly crying.
I felt really bad for them.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Yes I'm sure it was new york.
This was in 1995

Not sure if one of the DC flights still stops at sol island but it used to.

 

[Willie Trombone]

I've done the Dubai to LA trip. 8 hours from JHB to Dubai, then another 16hrs from Dubai to LA.
As Cguy said... you sleep for as many hours as possible then you wake up and realise you have so many more ahead of you. You feel like you are going crazy.

I had a 64 hour commute once. Haven’t done anything close to that since fortunately. Amazing how you can sleep on a tiled floor lol.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Not sure if one of the DC flights still stops at sol island but it used to.

First time I travelled in the 90's it stopped off in Sao Tome, I think. We were allowed to walk to terminal building for coffee and snacks
.
Next time I travelled, 15 years later it stopped in Dakar. Basically less than an hour mainly for refueling, noone allowed off. Some of the best crew I had on a flight, very friendly and picked up on issue I had with the food and sorted me out with an alternate before I even said anything.

Fsck long flight though