British Airways improves South African connections via a CemAir deal

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• BJ says:

  29 Feb29 February 06:01

  I currently have 5 IHG reservations I’m keeping under regular review. When I checked sale rates yesterday all of them were more expensive than BAR on Monday. Not by much but still higher.

  • Andrew J says:

    29 Feb29 February 06:04

    +1 – the Book Early And Save rate was lower than the Spring Sale rate and both have the same booking conditions. Very odd, but certainly nothing to see here.

  • Ken says:

    29 Feb29 February 08:03

    +1
    I’ve a couple of points bookings I regularly review, and cash rates no cheaper than when I checked last week.
    IHG serial offenders on this. Borders on misleading advertising to me.

  • Paul says:

    29 Feb29 February 08:31

    +1 I have never seen IHG prices lower in a sale than I have on existing bookings. It’s a scam!

  • ChrisM says:

    29 Feb29 February 09:02

    Agree with others. Sharp Practice. HI @ GLA was £81 members rate for 2nd April when I checked on Monday, now £89 in sale and reduced to £85 for members.

    Wish I had taken a screenshot on Monday as I would report for misleading advertising.

  • Andrew J says:

    29 Feb29 February 12:39

    Article probably needs updating to say that on reflection, the sale doesn’t offer lower prices and therefore not worth considering.

    • Julia says:

      29 Feb29 February 21:21

      I would have considered it as we’d have earned more points. But because we were forgotten with promotions I haven’t booked anything. It’s confusing, IHG did a lot to get customers back on their side and many sung their praises. Now it’s seems to be traveling backwards.

• Miles says:

  29 Feb29 February 07:13

  Got 3 bookings with IIHG in July ,checked the prices and all are £500 more if i booked now in the Sale price

• Norfolk&Chance says:

  29 Feb29 February 07:48

  CEMAIR have a terrible reputation for cancelling flights at last minute with no alternatives. Also they recently had their air worthiness certificate taken away (then re instated). Not an ideal partner…

  • ADS says:

    29 Feb29 February 10:57

    the Cemair groundings happened in 2018 and 2019

    https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/131957-south-africas-cemair-caa-continue-to-face-off-in-court

  • Nick says:

    29 Feb29 February 15:42

    They will have been reviewed by BA’s safety and security team, who are just about the most risk-averse people on the planet. If they say it’s ok, I’d book them.

• Tim says:

  29 Feb29 February 07:55

  Re BA Flight connections:
  Worth noting, unless things have recently changed, that bags aren’t usually checked through in SA. You usually need to collect them at first point of arrival and then recheck them on to the domestic leg.

  • Daniel says:

    29 Feb29 February 08:14

    The article says in BOLD:

    “You will have both flights on a single ticket with your baggage transferred automatically.”

    • Qrfan says:

      29 Feb29 February 08:20

      That is usually true of an international connection via interline, but as Tim says, plenty of countries (US, Canada) require customs to be cleared prior to taking a domestic connection. I think your bag will be tagged to the final destination but you’ll have to collect it, clear customs and re check it at your first port of arrival in SA.

    • Rob says:

      29 Feb29 February 08:26

      …… subject to customs. On the way back it will go straight through. As this is a legal requirement virtually everywhere I assumed it was obvious.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:

        29 Feb29 February 09:45

        Isn’t in The UK. Bags to Edinburgh via LHR are “cleared” in Edinburgh.

        I use quote marks since they come out on the same conveyor as everyone else’s.

        • BJ says:

          29 Feb29 February 10:55

          I haven’t checked bags for years so it might just bremy imagination but in the back of my mind I’m seeing a desk, customs officials and a sreening area at EDI or GLA where baggage reclaim where they can make checks if they want?

        • Colin MacKinnon says:

          29 Feb29 February 12:30

          @BJ, you are correct. But – unlike Glasgow where crowds of doddery pensioners come through the “green” channel swinging large suitcases as though they are Olympic weightlifters (because they are filled with duty-free cigarettes! – there is usually no-one there in Edinburgh.

      • Nancy says:

        1 Mar1 March 00:31

        Virtually everywhere? That’s a bit of a stretch isn’t it? You don’t have to re-check bags virtually anywhere in Europe or Asia for example. Your international->domestic connections get your bags transferred.

    • Tim says:

      29 Feb29 February 12:26

      That’s why I commented – because I don’t think that is actually correct and I just wanted to flag it.
      You and your bags will be ‘ticketed’ to final destination. But I’d hate someone to get their destination, find that their bag is still waiting in JNB/CPT to be collected and re-checked, and then say “but hfp said…..”.
      I travel to Port Elizabeth fairly often and always have to allow extra time on the flight connection to do this extra step in JNB.

• Chris says:

  29 Feb29 February 08:07

  Presume there is some reason they cannot interline with SafAir (who basically took over all the majority of Mango/Comair aircraft)… but CemAir is awful. Aircraft are so old and tiny, and connections not frequent.

  I go out of my way to avoid CemAir. Stick to SafAir.

  • HampshireHog says:

    29 Feb29 February 09:24

    Because FlySafair is a lo co in the Ryanair/EasyJet model and reliable on time airline to be recommended together with Airlink, full service. Wouldn’t touch Cemair with the proverbial barge pole

• Peter says:

  29 Feb29 February 09:34

  Not all HIX participate? I cant see sale rate for HIX leith waterfront but I can see sale rate on other hotels…

• signol says:

  29 Feb29 February 10:03

  Just waiting for BA to reinstate the direct Heathrow to Durban flight from pre pandemic..

• LD27 says:

  29 Feb29 February 15:07

  Have been checking weekly. Just cancelled HIX Inverness and rebooked. Saved £10 on Members cancellable rate. However no such luck with IC Lisbon, Indigo Belgrade and CP T4 – all within the next couple.

  Flew CemAir a number of times last year and had no issues.

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