I won’t be posting anything, probably, for the next two weeks or so since we have our next trip coming up!

Close to a year ago I first introduced our South Africa trip. This is something we’d been planning for a long while so we were very excited when the plans finally came through and we snapped up business class seats to Johannesburg via Doha with Qatar Airways. I then followed that post with a guide on how to book Qatar Airways famous Qsuite business class seat. Well, the day of that trip is almost there and we are very excited!

We’re going to South Africa!

Very soon we’re embarking on our first ‘big’ trip of the year, to South Africa. Let me go over the itinerary quickly, and then I’ll dive a little more deeply into each part of it, with a little bit of detail on how we booked it.

• On our outbound flight, we will fly Qatar Airways business class via Doha to Johannesburg (that is; if the war in the Gulf doesn’t somehow restart…).
• Once in Johannesburg, we will stay 1 night there, at the Protea Hotel OR Tambo Intl Airport. The next day we fly to the Kruger National Park with Airlink, a primarily domestic South African airlines.
• Once in Kruger National Park, we will rent a car for several days of self-drive safari. We will stay at several of the rest camps throughout the park, including Skukuza, Satara and Lower Sabie, having booked bungalows in each.
• We will end our stay in Kruger by leaving the park and stay the final night in the nearby town, Mbombela, from where we fly out the next day, again with Airlink. We will make our way voa Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth, for our second week in South Africa.
• Once in Port Elizabeth, we will once again rent a card and make our way along the garden route, with stays in local B&Bs and small hotels in Plettenberg Bay, Mossels Bay and Oudtshoorn.
• After that, we will make our way to Cape Town, stopping along the way at least in Betty’s Bay, to see the local penguin colony.
• Once in Cape Town, we will stay a few days and will certainly go to the top of table mountain, explore the arts and food scenes, and perhaps have a day trip to the Cape point Natural Reserve, famous as the Cape of Good Hope.
• Finally, we fly out from Cape Town Intl Airport, flying Ethiopian Airlines business class. We will fly via Addis Ababa, where we have a long overnight layover that we hope to spend in Ethiopian’s layover hotel. The next day we fly back to JFK, similarly in Ethiopian Airlines business class, with a fueling stop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Our itinerary with Qatar Airways, Airlink and Ethiopian Airlines

Let me now get into a little bit more detail about the various parts of our itinerary, including the lounges I’m hoping to visit.

The Outbound Flight: Qatar Airways via Doha with ‘First in Business’ Qsuite

As mentioned, we’re flying Qatar Airways business class to Johannesburg via Doha. We will start our journey at New York-JFK’s terminal 8, which is still the oneworld hub at JFK, though it won’t be that for all that much longer as some oneworld airlines, including Qatar Airways, will move to the new Terminal 1 or 6, once those are completed. But for now, Qatar Airways still operates out of Terminal 8.

Although Qatar Airways has in the past introduced a ‘basic’ business class product, the saver business class awards do tend to book into a ‘normal’ business class fare. Since 2026, however, this does not include seat assignment, but it does include lounge access. At terminal 8, the lounge for oneworld business class passengers is the Greenwich lounge, a joint venture between American Airlines and British Airways. I have reviewed this lounge before, as I visited it before my business class flight to Tokyo onboard Japan Airlines.

It’s a perfectly fine lounge, but not the prettiest or most nicely designed. You enter through a long hallway which opens into a large seating area that also has the main buffet and a large selection of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I thought the food was pretty great, with various tasty hot and cold options. Besides that there’s a few more spaces, including two bars, one of which is a very nice space with an outdoors-like vibe. Overall I’d be happy to spend some time here prior to the flight.

The main event, of course, is the flight to Doha, given that we will be flying Qatar Airway’s A350-1000 with QSuite (unless there are any last-minute plane swaps – a real risk with Qatar Airways!). This is the airline’s award-winning business class suite, sometimes termed ‘First in Business’. It has received accolades from all, for the innovative and private design of the suite itself, its flexibility that allows various seating arrangements, and the wonderful service, food and amenities, which include pajamas and caviar.

The seat has received praise for its configurability. Seats are arranged with alternating rows of reversed seats, and sliding the monitors to the sides allows passengers to communicate directly. This is true for both the seats by the windows as well as in the center, with the center seats having the best implementation: you can actually slide away both monitors of the reverse-facing seats to form a quad, see below.

The other feature here is that the reverse-facing seats are right next to each other, which is perfect for couples (though you can also raise a partition if you’d like). I’m excited to try out this seating configuration and experience Qatar Airway’s service and see for myself how good it is.

The journey doesn’t end in Doha, of course, as we will have a 6-hour transit here. Fortunately we can head for the award-winning Al-Mourjan business class lounge. There’s actually two: the original ‘South’ lounge, and the new ‘Garden’ lounge. Given our long layover, I’m hoping we can visit both. Normally the lounges offer a la carte dining, but with the current situation and the decrease in transiting passengers, I’ve heard that instead there’s only a buffet these days. Still, this should be a fantastic place to spend some time.

For the flight to Johannesburg, we’re flying in Qatar Airway’s Boeing 787-9. While this is not QSuite, it’s still a very nice reverse herringbone seat. This is also the same seat that Hawaiian (now Alaska), United and American are all installing on their new Boeing 787-9 aircraft. And the service should still be the same great experience as in QSuite.

With that we should arrive in Johannesburg O.R. Tambo airport (JNB) after what will be a very long, but hopefully wonderful flight experience.

Week 1: Safari in the Kruger National Park

We spend one night in Johannesburg and then fly onward with Airlink to the Kruger National park (Skukuza airport inside the park) for self-drive safari. At JNB there are two lounges accessible with Priority Pass (which we get both through the Citibank Strata Elite card or the Bilt Palladium card), being the ORT Sky lounge and the Bidvest Premier Lounge. Bidvest is a South African lounge operator with lounges at many South African airports. We may not have time to check out both, so we head for the latter as it gets a higher overall rating.

Airlink is a mostly domestic South African airline, and while it has no premium cabin (it’s all economy), I might still review this experience. For one because most of you are not familiar with this airline, but also because it may be a relatively interesting experience nonetheless. I’ll tell you what though, for a domestic airline such as this, I was rather surprised that even on its ‘lite’ fare it provides free seat selection and a free checked bag is generous. So, I have high hopes of this short hop.

Once in the Kruger Park we will rent a car and drive around the park on a combination of self-drive safaris and game drives organized out of the camps where we will be staying. I say ‘camps’, but we’re not camping. The various rest camps have various kinds of accommodation, from places to pitch a tent to small ‘villas’. We will be staining at bungalows in the rest camps Skukuza, Satara and finally Lower Sabie.

I’ve been to Kruger before, in 2004, which was a fantastic experience. I’m very excited to get another glimpse of all the animals, and hope to see of course the big five (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo) but also all the other animals you’d expect to see, including zebras, giraffes, and so on. at the time I hadn’t been able to spot a leopard, so perhaps this will be the time!

The last night we will exit the park and stay closer to the airport. Mostly because, though the supply of petrol seems stable across the areas we will be visiting despite the situaiton in the Gulf, we want to make sure we can get to the airport in time for our flight out.

Week 2: The Garden Route and Cape Town

Speaking of our flight out, we will return our car at Mpumalanga Kruger National Park Airport by the town of Mbombela, and fly Airlink to Port Elizabeth, with a transfer at Johannesburg. In terms of lounges, the Mpumalanga Kruger Airport is small, but it does have a Bidvest Premier Lounge that is accessible with Priority Pass. Seemingly located before security, it does offer some food and drinks, including a barista, so I hope to check this out before our flight to Johannesburg. At JNB our layover is only 1.5 hours, so we may not be able to visit a lounge. If we do, I’d like to visit whichever lounge we did not visit before our flight to Skukuza.

Once there we will rent a car and make our way along the famous Garden Route. While this is a stretch of South Africa that people may stay as much as a week in, hiking, cycling, visiting wineries and taking it slow, we will stay only three nights in total. The total distance is only about 300 miles, so it’s not a long stretch to drive, certainly not over the span of about 2.5 days (including the day we arrive in Port Elizabeth).

The towns we will be staying at are as follows:

• Plettenberg Bay: Our first stop, probably after a straight drive from the airport in Port Elizabeth. We arrive in the mid-afternoon, and may not be able to do much sightseeing before getting to our accommodation. But we’re hoping to have a nice stroll through town, have a nice meal and a glass of wine, and simply relax.
• Mossels Bay: The next day we hope to stop for a meal in Knysna, well-known to be a picturesque little town. after seeing the sights, we intend to visit the Wilderness section of the Garden Route for some hiking, and perhaps round out the dat at a winery before heading to our beachfront accommodation in Mossels Bay.
• Oudtshoorn: After mossels Bay we head more inland. Here is an ostrich farm where one can do a ‘safari’, as well as enjoy the beautiful landscope of the Karoo region. We hope to make a stop at the Swartberg Pass, a narrow winding valley that cuts through steep hills. Ultimately we have booked accommodation at the Zeekoe ‘guest farm’, which should be a comfortable last night along the Garden Route.

As we leave Oudtshoorn, we have one final activity: we booked a Meerkat ‘safari’! We’ll have to wake up so early in the morning that it’s basically night time, in hopes of seeing these cute little animals. Hopefully we will actually get to see them!

Following that, we will be on our way to Cape Town. This is our one day of just driving, as it’s a 6 or 7-hour drive from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town. Of course we don’t plan to drive straight there – we do intend to make stops, including in Swellendam, probably for brunch or lunch, and we’ll stop by Betty’s Bay: this town is a little south of Cape Town and is well-known for the local penguin colonies – without the crowds of other locations.

Ultimately we will arrive in Cape Town, where we will be staying at the Hyatt Residency. We booked this a while ago for the ridiculously low price of 3500 World of Hyatt points per night – for a room that otherwise seems to retail for over $600 per night! The hotel is fairly centrally located between the major scenic, nature and urban attractions of the city, and right next to the picturesque Bokaap neighborhood. We wil lcertainly stroll around these areas, as well as of course visit the top of Table Mountain, and we’re hoping to take a drive around the Cape Point Natural Reserve. But, we are in Cape town for only three night, so we don’t have quite as much time here as we’d necessarily like…

The Return Flight: Ethiopian Airlines business class via Addis Ababa

For the return journey we’ll be flying Ethiopian Airlines business class from Cape Town to New York-JFK with an overnight layover in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines is the biggest and most global airline in Africa. I have flown with them a long time in economy, and thought it was a fine flight, so I’m curious to experience first hand the business class seat and service.

Before our flight though, I expect that we will be directed to the Bidvest Premier Lounge. As I mentioned, they operate lounges at all major South African airports, and since Ethiopian Airlines doesn’t run its own lounge at the airport, this seems to generally be where Ethiopian business class passengers end up at. Specifically, there are two at international departures and one at domestic departures. However, the lounges don’t seem so big, with one of the international locations having only 60 seats, and the other 97 seats, so I do expect quite a bit of crowding.

Then, as of right now we are scheduled to fly on board Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-9 to Addis Ababa. Ethiopian probably has 5 different business class seats installed across its fleet. The Boeing 787-9 fleet has two different kinds of seats, and it seems we will be getting the Collins Aeropace Diamond Parallel seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration. This is not the most spacious, private or modern seat available by any means, but it should still be a pretty comfortable ride. I look forward to the Ethiopian food and drink that will be on offer, as that is a cuisine that I quite like. Fun fact: you cna look up the inflight menu before your flight, here.

Once we get to Addis Ababa, we have an overnight layover of about 10.5 hours. This will make us eligible for a stay at Ethiopian’s Skylight layover hotel, which should be integrated directly into the terminal and shouldn’t require getting through security either. As a business class passenger, I expect to get complimentary access to this hotel, though we’ll need to ask about it at check-in in Cape Town (get a voucher for it). And, before we fly out to JFK, of course I hope to check out the Ethiopian Airlines business class lounge at Addis Ababa as well.

For our flight to New York-JFK, we will be flying on Ethiopian’s Boeing 787-8, which also has two different seating products installed for business class. There are the Safran Aura Lite seats and the Collins Aeropace Diamond Parallel seats, both in a 2-2-2 configuration, so it’s hard to tell by the seat map in he Ethiopian app which of the two products we will be getting. It’s possible to look up your flight using AeroLOPA, which can predict which product you’ll get – it thinks we will be on the Safran Aura Lite, which is a bit of a bummer as it’s not actually lie-flat: they only go to about 170 degrees, rather than the full 180. Otherwise, this flight also doesn’t fly nonstop to JFK, as it makes a stop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Addis Ababa has a high elevation, so that the plane can’t fuel up completely and needs to make a stop for more fuel.

Is it safe to fly through the Middle East right now?

Given the conflict going on in the Gulf region, many of you may rightfully wonder whether it’s safe to transit there currently, be it with Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad, or any of the other Middle Eastern airlines. I think the answer to this is yes, it is safe to transit through the Gulf region.

But let’s be a little bit more nuanced, and I can give my take on why I think it’s safe. Important to note that the situation can strongly depend on the specific airport you’re traveling through, which in my case is Qatar’s Doha Hamad Intl Airport.

Broadly speaking, you may be concerned about your personal safety and/or operational reliability of the airlines in the region.

• In terms of personal safety, we’re talking about getting bodily injuries or harm during your transit through the Gulf. I’m not particularly concerned. Though I think this depends on where you transit. Qatar has not reported attacks directed at Doha Hamad Airport (knock on wood), while there are more frequent reports of drone and missile interceptions around Dubai Airport (DXB), including occasional reports of minor injuries to staff.
• However, the ‘real’ risk here is with operational reliability: delays and cancelations, to the point of getting stuck during your journey. As a result of drone or missile strikes, as well as the operations associated with intercepting these attack, operational irregularities and disruptions are a real possibility. Given how volatile the situation remains, this is what I’d be more concerned about.

Flightradar24 is a great resource to check on any disruptions ongoing. They calculate a ‘disruption index’ for every airport, which shows on a scale from 0 to 5 how bad the operational situation is at that airport.

As of the time of writing, the disruption indexes are low at all major Gulf region airports, but it’s Doha Hamad that’s at the lower end. Keep in mind there’s also a lot more traffic at Dubai DXB, though, so we’re not quite comparing apple to apples in terms of the number of flights operating in and out of these airports. Flightradar24 also has a disruptions index and recovery ongoing for the Gulf airlines:

Emirates had a blazing fast recovery into the 70% range and kept going up from there. Qatar Airways recovery has been a lot slower – measured and steady upward trajectory. But despite all the good-looking data, the truth is that if the conflict flares up, the disruptions might as well, so there’s always a risk of operational issues – but I wouldn’t be too concerned with personal safety.

Summary

Soon we are heading for South Africa, and we couldn’t be more excited! We will be flying Qatar Airways award-winning QSuite business class to Doha, where we will get the chance to spend time in the Al Mourjan business class lounges, before flying onward to Johannesburg. Flying Airlink domestically, we will hit up the Kruger National Park for self-drive safaris and game drives, before flying out to Port Elizabeth for a roadtrip through the Garden Route National Park, all the way to Cape Town. After a few days there discovering Table Mountain and the city, we fly back to New York in Ethiopian Airlines business class.