Air

Much attention has been given to the price gouging going on by airlines and hotels in South Africa.

iAfrica had this great piece on airfare hikes. It is great to see that smaller lines like Kulula (also a wireless carrier for those interested in getting a phone plan) and Mango potentially offering a lower cost alternative.

I saw this article from FIFA.com and thought it was an interesting possibility. With airfares between Cape Town and Johannesburg running between $500 and $700, how much worse could it be to stay in another country for part of the trip?

As I suggested in an earlier post, I think it is a good idea to wait until after the draw on December 4 to buy plane tickets for the trip. As it currently stands, flights on Delta from Minneapolis to Johannesburg vary as much as $800 depending on departure and return dates. I don't even know if Johannesburg is where I want to be yet, so I'll wait until the groups are determined on the 4th.

I've got a lot of updates in the works and they'll be posting in the next few days. For today, however, I wanted to direct you to a great travel guide put together by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl. There are tons of good bits in there.

I wish there were more of this sort of thing. Wired is reporting on a new airline in South Africa called iFly Airtime that it says is trying to begin flying soon. The airline uses a model similar to pay-as-you-go cell phone service. You buy minutes and use them toward travel. The cost of minutes can change with the market, so you can try to buy when rates are low.