Egg Donation in South Africa #10

[Devaki]

Emski, we hired the car and the car seat and it all worked well. We used Avis in Stellenboch as that was where we stayed for the first 5 nights. And drop off was CT cbd. We actually felt pretty guilty as our bubba kept vomiting in the car so their brand new car seat cover got quite a few washes in

[emski72]

Whirlwind!

[Blinky76]

I use Dr Wiswedel and Cyndi. She has sent me a proposed plan where I am to have a scan on the 28th December which is a public holiday which makes it not possible, it would have to be the 29th so I am looking at flights again. Singapore airlines will fly on the 31st and is heaps cheaper than Virgin or Qantas for the same dates so my question is for those who have used them and had a stopover in Singapore, how much time do you need to allow? Do you sit on the plane until it leaves or swap planes in which case how much time is needed to grab bags and find the next departure lounge?

We went via Singapore the first time. You have to get off the aircraft but your luggage is automatically put through to the next flight. (Ie you don't need to collect and recheck in).
From memory it was about 2 hours stopover. Luckily Singapore has heaps of shopping and food options to fill in the time. The biggest reason we went with Qantas the following time was to do with travel time - the entire travel time via Singapore is significant (28 hours?).
Whereas the Qantas flight was just 13 hours from Sydney to Jo'burg.

[KMP]

Dr Matabese is awesome
I really liked her and would thoroughly recommend her to anyone.

I flew Emirates with great connections through Dubai to Cape Town.

[KMP]

When you offload in Singapore with Emirates (unless you fly direct to DXB) you are there about an hour- off stretch on- continue. You don't have to worry about luggage.

Why is there a crazy face for dxb?

[KMP]

You don't need 4 hours between flights with different airlines. You will always have to clear customs at the first port in any country so your bags can only go to that place. All other connections need 2-2.5 hours. When you check your bags in at the airport initially you give them your whole itinerary and the put all your flights and airlines onto your luggage tag and check them right through. You never have to worry about rechecking.

I have had one issue flying jetstar to connect to qantas international in sydney they would not check the bag through (it was a new thing) but that is domestic to International. Had I flown Qantas-Qantas it would not have been an issue.

I've booked my own international flights and connections myself on various airlines over the years and not missed a connection once. I check the bag tags at checkin all the time.

If you have a problem or miss a leg of a multi ticket you often need to repurchase the whole trip at a new cost. Missing an individual leg only requires purchasing of that segment (if your other flights can still be caught).

[emski72]

You don't need 4 hours between flights with different airlines. You will always have to clear customs at the first port in any country so your bags can only go to that place. All other connections need 2-2.5 hours. When you check your bags in at the airport initially you give them your whole itinerary and the put all your flights and airlines onto your luggage tag and check them right through. You never have to worry about rechecking.

I have had one issue flying jetstar to connect to qantas international in sydney they would not check the bag through (it was a new thing) but that is domestic to International. Had I flown Qantas-Qantas it would not have been an issue.

I've booked my own international flights and connections myself on various airlines over the years and not missed a connection once. I check the bag tags at checkin all the time.

If you have a problem or miss a leg of a multi ticket you often need to repurchase the whole trip at a new cost. Missing an individual leg only requires purchasing of that segment (if your other flights can still be caught).

Sorry but that was the rule when I worked at Virgin you can risk leaving less time but that was the recommended time especially for forward international check ins and transit... Anyway, carry on.

[wazbub]

Hi Ladies
Quick update from me. Donor called the clinic this week to say she could do earlier if we wanted. Yay! So after a mad rush to get her testing done and me organising the drugs i need today we confirmed new dates! Will be flying out 14th Aug (2wks!) First appointment 19th, estimated transfer 26th August.
So add me to the list of many August girls.
I'm now going to spend the rest of the night booking flights and accommodation.
If there is a meet up in cape town we'd be interested in tagging along.

[Blinky76]

.

I have had one issue flying jetstar to connect to qantas international in sydney they would not check the bag through (it was a new thing) but that is domestic to International. Had I flown Qantas-Qantas it would not have been an issue.

).

Actually this wasn't our experience. We flew Qantas on our trip in January and flew Brisbane-Sydney-Jo'berg-CT and the opposite for the return. On the changeover flights from International to Domestic we had to get our bags and recheck them in. (Ie in Sydney and again in Jo-berg.)
Our flight sectors were all QF flights. The only one that was a PIA was the return Sydney-Brisbane coming home. Baggage was delayed (we had to wait over an hour at the carousel) and therefore customs was delayed (another hour) before we could recheck our bags. Going Qantas did mean they had a free connecting bus between terminals so didn't have to make our own way but we did have 'run' to catch our connecting flight.
It caused me a little stress (more so because I was due for needles) but if we had 'missed' our connection Qantas would have just bumped us to the next available Syd-Bris flight at no cost.

[JulieMalooley]

Actually this wasn't our experience. We flew Qantas on our trip in January and flew Brisbane-Sydney-Jo'berg-CT and the opposite for the return. On the changeover flights from International to Domestic we had to get our bags and recheck them in. (Ie in Sydney and again in Jo-berg.)
Our flight sectors were all QF flights. The only one that was a PIA was the return Sydney-Brisbane coming home. Baggage was delayed (we had to wait over an hour at the carousel) and therefore customs was delayed (another hour) before we could recheck our bags. Going Qantas did mean they had a free connecting bus between terminals so didn't have to make our own way but we did have 'run' to catch our connecting flight.
It caused me a little stress (more so because I was due for needles) but if we had 'missed' our connection Qantas would have just bumped us to the next available Syd-Bris flight at no cost.

Argh! I did notice yesterday on my qantas flights there was only a 90 minute wait between the domestic and international flights and thought at the time it wasn't very long... That sort of stuff stresses me a lot too !