The least expensive tickets are always the most attractive, however when you consider that the flights on Delta and SAA are over sold for every flight and the chance of an empty seat is somewhere around zero, if something should go wrong, you will not be going on the trip. As I said every flight is full and there is only one flight per day on SAA and Delta. If you don't make the one you were scheduled for, you sure won't be making one the next day or the next week because they are already all overbooked. This is just a fact of life in the airline industry today. Having been a million mile flyer in my life I fully understand the way this business works and it aint pretty when you have the trip of your dreams swirling the bowl without any more options!
Who you gonna call when there is a problem? How do these discount shops service problems? How do you contact them from South Africa? What time zone are they working in? What relationship do they have directly with the airlines for some pull to get you a seat?
I don't have all the answers but I will say that when SAA went on strike a few years ago every flight was over booked, and every hotel full with the hundreds of people stuck there for up to 2 weeks or more waiting to get on a flight out through Europe which they had to pay for.
I've had a pair of hunters miss a flight in Denver due to weather. They then missed the flight out from Atlanta that morning. Never made the trip that year due to the missed flight. They could have been put on a wait list and stayed in Atlanta for a week trying once per day to get on a flight, in the bizzare hope that somebody would not show up and they would both get a seat. But then they still have to come home on the same flight originally scheduled. Because the other days are also full. So arriving three days late on a 7 day hunt means you barely have a couple days for the time change and the hunting and you're headed back home again.
They cancelled the trip because they could not make the flights work after they missed the Denver flight. Another guy with one of these really cheap discount tickets missed a connection in Richards Bay(RSA). He was stuck there for several days trying to get out. Nobody to call in the USA with the time change and the hold time to speak with somebody. How do you even leave then a message when they cannot call you? You won't likely have an RSA Cell phone right? His land line Long distance costs could have bought a good portion of another ticket. The "1-800" number they offer is only good within the USA. So now that discount ticket cost about 50% more then buying a ticket with a real agency involved.
The Delta and SAA flights have more people waiting to get on then there are seats available between about May first and end of June, maybe even mid July. I would strongly suggest you work with a very experienced and reputable agent to make this work properly. One screw-up will cost you the loss of the trip, or a whole lot more money in Hotels and delays to get on another flight.
I use an agent that has an office in Miami and another in Capetown. They book more SAA tickets then any other office in the USA. They may not be the least expensive but will compete pretty well, however they have some pull with SAA when one of their passangers have a problem. They also are in the same time zone in RSA if you have trouble on that side. In 2007 my Luggage did not arrive for the first time in over 15 years. The process to fill out lost luggage seach documents and have these jokers find them is not at all impressive.
One call to the agent in the RSA office alerting her to the significance of my problem was all it took. She called SAA and they stayed after it until it was found and delivered to me 5 hours drive from the airport. Not sure who you call when this happens using an "online" discount service. I'll state straight up that 200-300 extra bucks for a ticket that included somebody taking ownership of the problem with my luggage and over 5000 bucks worth of rifles was cheap at that moment!
I get zero income or benifits for this part of the business, I really could not care any less who people fly with, it's not my business. I just wanna know when I have to fetch them and bring them back. I have however heard and seen plenty of stories about problems.
