Ooof, The Flight To Johannesburg Is Long...
Intro
Recently, I have begun writing about my first big excursion around the African continent. If you have been following along, it's been an amazing trip so far, with lots more to come. However, seeing as my trips are severely backlogged, I am actually back in Africa to hunt giant black marlin in Mozambique.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of flying with United Airlines onboard their 787-9 in Polaris from Newark to Johannesburg. I tend to avoid longer flights these days, as I would rather break it up with a stop in Europe or South America. Thus, this was the longest flight I have taken since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Last Few Hours Were A Drag
Depending on what you do for work, some people need to be awake at a certain time, and others on vacation might have the ability to sleep longer since they don't have to hit the ground running. As I will be out fishing for 6 days straight, every morning at 6 am, I needed to try and beat this jetlag.
The flight started out really well; I managed to get a good fare (less than 3K down to Johannesburg) in Polaris and even managed to snag my favorite seat, 9L. Due to the nature of the footwell, this is my favorite seat, as I can toss and turn in the middle of the night.
The service on the flight was nothing short of stellar. Kyle, a junior flight attendant based out of Boston, was simply phenomenal. He went above and beyond to make sure I got pajamas and that my meal was brought out less than 25 minutes after takeoff.
An hour after takeoff, I tucked myself into bed to try and adjust to the South African timezone. Managing about 6-7 hours of sleep, I woke up when we were just to the West of the Gambia (picture taken later) with still another 6 hours to go.
So here is my issue with this Johannesburg flight. United has the outbound from Newark scheduled to depart at 8:55 pm and arrive in Johannesburg at 6:35 pm. Considering that United is willing to sacrifice a full day for the likes of Sao Paulo flights, I wish that United would schedule this outbound to JNB a bit better. For example, if the aircraft even took off at 5 pm (so a 3/4 work day or connection could still be made), it would put passengers in the early afternoon to JNB. Heck, all European carriers do this (sacrifice planes, double red-eye rotations) 🥺.
My ideal schedule would be taking off from Newark at 8:55 am and landing in Johannesburg at 6:35 am. That is the one thing I love about long TPACS, such as Manila, Hong Kong, and Singapore (landing early like 187 does).
Even though I had some schoolwork to do and some writing for this blog, the last few hours felt like a drag as we crossed over northern Namibia. I love flying, but at that point, I was just ready to be on the ground.
With the constant delays of UA188 in the past, I was a bit worried that we might land even later in Johannesburg. Thankfully, we pulled into our gate exactly on time, and I was first off the plane through immigration.
Getting to the hotel, I was tired and ready to sleep. However, jetlag still kicked my bottom😅.
Final Thoughts
In no way was flying United Polaris to South Africa bad at all. The crew was fabulous, the pajamas were comfortable, and the food was, well, good. However, my one piece of advice, if you are taking this route, is to sleep after takeoff and then somehow occupy yourself for another 6-7 hours before landing.
I just wish United Airlines would land UA188 around 2 pm; it would make the flight so much better.😡
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