Travel to South Africa and Safety Considerations
Next order of business was to locate flights. Since my brother had now decided to join me my original fight arrangements need to be changed so we could travel together. I ended up with a first class return ticket to Johannesburg on Air Canada/ Ethiopian Airlines that left Edmonton just after midnight on July 23rd, to Toronto via Air Canada, and then via Ethiopian Airlines from Toronto to Addis Abba and then on to Johannesburg arriving July 25th at 13:30. Since there is no date change total travel time is just over 30 hours. The ticket cost me 120,000 Aeroplan points and about $120 in cash for taxes, fuel surcharge etc. I had enough points to get my brother a one way ticket on the same flights and he bought a return ticket in economy on the same return fights as I had, for $1,183. We could have bought two return first class tickets for $4,800 each, at the time we started booking.
So let’s talk the good and the bad of flying on Air Canada’s Star Alliance Partner Ethiopian Air. First off the service on board was top notch, good selection of wine and alcohol but no Canadian Rye Whisky. Food was Airline average with a number of Ethiopian specialty dishes that neither I nor my brother thought were great. Edible, but not great. This is where the good stuff ends. Their phone help desk is past useless, their online application and website are spotty and their organization is not fantastic. Once you are on Ethiopian, Air Canada completely washes their hands of you, even though they are the originating carrier. I could not check in online with Ethiopian but online did work for the first leg on Air Canada. I got to the Air Canada ticket desk in Edmonton to get my Boarding passes for the rest of the trip and they could not print them out. They could check my baggage all the way through but no boarding passes. They told me I had to go to the gate attendant for Ethiopian in Toronto to get my boarding passes for TO to Addis and Addis to Joberg. It took some help from a very nice lady at the Air Canada Lounge counter but we did manage to get the passes sorted in Toronto.
Ethiopian’s Cloud Nine Service, First and Business Class along with their frequent flyers, also enjoy priority security clearance and priority boarding. You need to be pushy and assert your rights to take advantage of these priorities or lots of non-priority passengers will actively try to butt into your space and areas. Canadian politeness is NOT an advantage in this part of the world!
When you get to Addis it is quite an eye opener, the place is complete Chaos. You disembark using stairs, bus to Terminal one, take a medium long walk to Terminal two in high humidity, 80 degree heat and no air conditioning, for your next flight. You need to re-clear security to get back on your next leg as there is no security to the connecting areas. Washrooms in Addis are not something the average Canadian will find comfortable, definitely want to hoover to do your business, unless you go to the first class lounge. We didn’t have time on the way down but made time on the way back. For smokers, the airport has a smoking lounge that we happened to pass by: it is outright disgusting. Since it is outside security anyhow, you might as well pop outside if you need a smoke after 13.5 hours on the plane. Addis also has a big shortage of anyone who knows what is going on and you will often get conflicting info even from people in uniform. Once you have been through there once, second time is MUCH easier and maybe because you have been in South Africa for 2 weeks, had my brother’s carry-on bag ripped off right in the Joberg airport while we were at the ticket counter, it somehow didn’t seem near as bad.
The Joberg airport has the highest rate of theft from checked bags in the world. Get your bag wrapped, lock the zippers or at least zip-tie them both going into and going out of Joberg. Do not let your carry-on bags off your shoulder or out of your hands. The thieves are many, well practiced and very slick. Do not fall for the aggressive tactics of the Porters, even those in uniform and especially those not in a uniform. The uniformed ones want to push your cart for tips and then bitch the tip isn’t big enough. They can become quite aggressive, tell them to shove off but if aggressive verbal doesn’t work, push them physically if you have to. The non-uniformed ones are likely to make off with your bags completely. Do not take a cab that is not known to you, make sure it is a legitimate licensed cab, not one of the many gypsy cabs that try to grab you inside the terminals at arrivals, where the drivers AGRESSIVELY solicit passengers. If you are going somewhere from the airport, arrange a car service to meet you at arrivals with a specific driver. Uber is in many cases far safer than cabs but not as safe as the private car services. No matter how friendly or helpful people at the airport are -
DO NOT TRUST ANYONE YOU DON’T KNOW.
The police are friendly but of no use except to file a case report so you can claim it on your insurance. There are well known blind spots on their CC TV and no efforts are made to patrol those areas, fix the blind spots etc. This type of theft is considered very minor stuff compared to the high rates of rape, violent robberies, assault and murder the police usually deal with. South Africa’s crime rate is extremely high and Caucasians at the airport are prime targets for robbery, car Jacking etc as tourists are known to generally not be carrying weapons when getting off or on airplanes. They are also known to have cameras, phones, IPads and other valuables that are well worth holding them up for. The Private car services are of great benefit because they are packing protection.
You can bring as much cash into South Africa as you want, but have to declare any amount over $10,000 U.S. If you stay over a day or two in Addis the limit for declaration is $3,000 U.S. You can only bring out amounts over $10,000 U.S. if you declared it going in, otherwise you will need Bank verification as to how you came by the cash. Practically however, there is no one checking you when you leave so I have no idea how they enforce this.
When it comes to exchanging CDN to Rand, do that in South Africa. You get a much better rate both buying Rand and selling it back and the best rates are for direct withdrawal from your account into Rand. Canadian currency into Rand suffers a bit of a discount but not huge. The best rate is obtained at a bank: FNB generally has the best rates and you can see their rates online at their website,
https://www.fnb.co.za/rates/ForeignExchangeRates.html as you can with many other SA banks. Next best is the ATM but you are paying quite a bit in fees so it only makes sense if you take larger amounts. DO NOT exchange funds on the street. Not only is it illegal, there is a lot of counterfeit being passed. When purchasing items, especially paying for cab fares etc, try to have as close as possible to the exact change or your risk getting counterfeit as the change. Learn what he currency looks and feels like and check the bills you get back for authenticity.