Fly to Joburg; it’s painless
THE choice if you want to travel long distance in South Africa is car, bus, taxi, train or plane. We wanted to go to Johannesburg last week to visit family – daughter, her husband, and two grandchildren. For us it boiled down to car or plane and after doing our sums decided flying would be best from both cost and time perspective.
Domestic airfares are reasonable now that SA Airways has competition on routes in and out of East London, while the cost of fuel alone to drive there and back was pretty close to that of two return airfares, to say nothing of the stress and strain of getting up at dawn, spending 10 hours in the car, then fighting through Johannesburg traffic during the late afternoon rush. It was a no-brainer; we’d fly.
Mrs Chiel is pretty handy when it comes to booking and reservations, so as soon as we’d confirmed with the family when we could go, she was onto our computer and soon had it all buttoned. We’d go up FlySafair, which had just announced R499 one-way fares, and return Kulula because their respective times were convenient. Taking into consideration we had to pay R150 extra for one item of luggage in the hold up to 20kg, using FlySafair, and that booking it early on the internet was cheaper than the R250 we’d pay at the airport, it was the best value for our needs.
Kulula’s fare was a little more, R684 each, but that included a 20kg suitcase in the hold. Both airlines allow a 7kg carry-on bag. FlySafair does, however, have other add-ons if you want them; things like paying more for seats with extra leg space (R100) and prebooking seats (R60 in front, R40 at the back). As for punctuality, both departed and arrived on time. No free refreshments are served, but drinks and snacks are available on both at reasonable prices.
We caught the Gautrain from the airport to Sandton – R142 a person one way – where we were met by our daughter. That R142 is a rip-off; it’s more than double any other Gautrain fare for much, much longer routes.
We had a most enjoyable four days and nights with them over the weekend when it poured with rain. So outdoor activity was stunted, but that didn’t matter, it was family time well spent.
I was allocated to oversee six-year-old grandson Aaron’s homework on the first evening. It was fun for us both and he sailed through his arithmetic, spelling, language and reading. Fortunately Grandpa was still able to understand and help and he sprinted through it all. Give him a few more years and there’s no doubt I’ll be obsolete.
For the journey back, and as our daughter was working, we decided to start with an Uber taxi to Sandton to catch the Gautrain to OR Tambo Airport. What a revelation.
Mrs Chiel again came to the party and registered with the taxi company the night before, giving details including the Mastercard number. Everything seemed in order and our daughter gave us a schedule to get to the airport well in time … one hour for taxi and train; and an hour at the airport to book in and wait.
Five minutes before deadline Mrs C sent off a request for a taxi and received an electronic reply to say one was on its way. It would be a Volkswagen Jetta and be waiting at the gate in two minutes.
We had no idea everything would happen so fast and tore around doing last minute things like checking and closing luggage, spending pennies (!) and saying goodbye to Gogo Christine and the children.
Sure enough, two minutes on the dot later the taxi was there. What a great experience; something efficient, new and wonderful for us. Daniel, our delightful young Sowetan driver chatted about his job, his training, work hours and so on, and following directions from his GPS, drove safely and steadily across town to Sandton. It all went like clockwork.
Back in East London it was as if we’d never been away. We’d been taken to the airport by one friend and fetched by another. Who needs friends? We all do.