To all you South Africans on the forum:

I believe only Swiss fly directly from Zurich to Cape Town.

My question is - how do you get the best deals on flights and are there any alternatives to the Swiss flight which are better value?

Thanks!

They fly to JHB, u need to get a connecting flight to Cape Town

i flew last year and went to Heathrow first on BA. Seemed pretty reasonable if i recall.

Air France / KLM also a possibility, routing via De Gaulle and Amsterdam respectively.


travelocity.co.uk and expedia.co.uk are useful for working through various combinations

swiss does not fly to CPT, only to JHB.

lufthansa via FRA goes to CPT, but you may well see a Lx number as a code share.

go to skyscanner for all available routing options

Or go to Amsterdam cheap with Easyjet from Basel and then SA..

Edelwiess air are flying to Capetown from November
http://www.edelweissair.ch/e/

you can fly namibair from frankfurt via windhoek for stg700 return (but be careful someone might think you look a dick flying with them!)

Fly to JHB and then take a domestic flight with 1time airlines or Kulula.com.

kulula are very good

The Edelweiss flights are partnered with Swiss. I should have been clearer in my original post.
The flight's needed for February next year.

It looks like this is the only direct flight. My other question was whether you can get a cheaper deal booking the flight with anyone other than going through the Swiss International Airlines website?

try lufthansa

Try KLM airlines but they do not go direct from Zurich to Cape Town you will have to stop in Amsterdam first.

have you tried virgin? they do some pretty good deals

I was a bit lazy today and should have searched myself before asking here.

The cheapest is with Turkish via Istanbul but to be honest, there seems to be only a couple of hundred francs difference between a direct flight with Edelweiss and the cheapest with two stops.

Thanks for all replies!

You can search also on travelstart.co.za they cover a few airlines and I have used them a few times before...really can recommend.
Have you looked at Emirates too?

On Expedia etc. one can also find creative routes, possibly for less:

Trip belows was for 1616 zł
Polish Zloty or CHF453
PRG-JNB
JNB-TXL or JNB-LHR



or £958 INCLUDING pre-payable taxes and fuel surcharges RTW via JHB ( Route no: 303 )

http://www.travel-nation.co.uk/round...?budgetRange=0

However, as you suggest:

Train to Berlin.
Berlin to Madrid flight.
Madria to Jo'berg flight.
Jo'Berg to Cape Town flight.

Is more expensive than direct Zuerich to Cape Town with Edelweiss without including the cost of the train to Berlin nor the flight from Jo;berg to Cape Town.

And, it's probably a couple of days travelling rather than a few hours.

Creative maybe but not useful

Thanks for the Edelweiss link. Much prefer to fly direct and hopefully if we book early for our next visit to CT (where my OH was born) it won't be too expensive.

Or fly from Frankfurt to Cape Town with Qatar Airways /around 670 Euros Return Trip