Pros and Cons of South African Airways Airbus A330 Business Class [CPT to GRU Review]

Truthfully, flying South African Airways had never been high on my bucket list. The airline has suffered through turbulent times and has seemingly always had problems.

However, when I had the opportunity to fly the airline in its flagship business class on the Airbus A330-300, I went in with an open mind — and I am glad I did, as the experience was much better than I expected it to be.

Here’s a look at some of the things I liked and disliked about my August 2025 South African Airways business class flight between Cape Town (CPT), South Africa, and São Paulo (GRU), Brazil.

What I Liked About South African Airways A330 Business Class

1. Stunning Business Class Cabin

The South African Airways A330-300 business class cabin features 46 Thompson Aero VantageXL seats in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration, ensuring all passengers have direct aisle access.

The cabin is divided into 2 sections: a forward cabin with 8 rows to the left of the second door and a smaller cabin with 4 rows to the right.

The business class cabin features a striking design and color scheme with warm, earthy tones. The seat frames are dark gray, contrasted with bold and vibrant reds and tan brown accents, making everything look more premium than it actually is.

Combined with the warm ambient lighting, this is one of the most beautiful business class cabins I’ve ever experienced — and that is saying a lot, considering I have flown business class on more than 20 different airlines.

The business class cabin also looks sophisticated from the back, though the boxy design and outdated IFE screens make it appear less premium. Still, the vibrant red accents throughout the cabin are a welcome addition.

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2. Practical Business Class Seats

For my South African Airways flight to São Paulo, I sat in the smaller business class cabin. The staggered 1-2-1 configuration meant the window seats alternated between being closer to the window and closer to the aisle. Since I value privacy, I selected seat 11K, one of the “true” window seats in the smaller business class cabin.

The console was to the seat’s right, providing much-needed space from the aisle. The seat’s 15-inch high-definition touch screen was directly across from the seat. The seats were relatively spacious, measuring 24 inches wide and 45 inches in pitch.

The business class seats on the South African Airways A330s are relatively basic. The console has a massive flat surface space and a rather large storage cubby. The storage cubby is spacious enough to store 2 camera lenses and a water bottle comfortably.

Inside the storage cubby is a hook to hang the provided noise-canceling headphones. There is also the audio jack for the headphones, an AC power outlet, and a standard USB-A charging port, which is a bit outdated (I have not carried a USB-A cable for my phone in over 4 years). A panel to adjust the seat settings is to the left of the storage cubby and below the reading light.

I found the system was slow to respond and visibly outdated.

There was a secondary, smaller panel against the armrest on the seat console to adjust the seat settings. Here, you could adjust the seat’s lighting and the volume of the inflight entertainment.

3. Surprisingly Comfortable Bed

Of course, the business class seats on the South African Airways A330s can also convert into fully lie-flat beds, which is a necessity on long-haul flights. The bed combines with the footrest beneath the IFE screen to create a long, flat surface.

According to South African Airways, the fully lie-flat beds are approximately 6 1/2 feet (nearly 2 meters) long, among the longest in the industry. Combine this with the seat’s 24-inch width, and there is plenty of space to get comfortable.

South African Airways also provides a pillow, duvet, and mattress pad.

Though the seat was relatively wide, my only real complaint about the bed was the incredibly tight and narrow footwell. I’ll explain more below.

4. Surprisingly Delicious and Diverse Food

Truth be told, when I think of South Africa, I do not think of delicious foods. As someone who consumes Asian cuisine daily, my palate is more accustomed to the Asian continent. So it was a massive surprise that South African Airways offered some delicious cuisine on board.

For our daytime flight to São Paulo, we were offered a lunch course and a smaller light meal 2 hours before landing. The lunch course started with appetizers, which consisted of beef biltong and herb-poached prawns, served with pineapple salsa and a slow-roasted citrus cocktail.

For the main course, I had the seafood curry. It consisted of sea bass and prawn, served with biryani rice and mixed seasonal vegetables. As someone who loves biryani, I was excited to see this on the menu.

Although the food looked delicious, it lacked a distinctive flavor. The curry was bitter, and the biryani rice was incredibly dry. This was a shame, as I was looking forward to the meal.

I told the cabin crew member serving me that I didn’t particularly like the seafood curry and asked if there was anything else I could try. Fortunately, since the business class cabin was only half full, I could select one of the other main courses: beef filet, duck confit, or butternut and ricotta tortellini.

I picked the duck confit, which was accompanied by crispy herbed potatoes, broccoli florets, sautéed baby carrots, and a cranberry-and-sherry demi-glace. Fortunately, this meal tasted much better and was actually enjoyable.

Overall, I appreciated the diversity in the main courses. Although I did not enjoy one of them, the other was distinctly different.

For the dessert, I had the peppermint tart, which was served with a vanilla sauce and a peppermint crumble. It was nicely presented and absolutely delicious.

The cabin crew also served a light meal 2 hours before landing. For this meal’s appetizer, I chose the charred chicken breast slices with pickled cucumber, carrot, and red peppers. They were coated in a honey-mayonnaise dressing and garnished with microgreens and herb-infused oil.

For the main course, I ordered the tandoori chicken kebab, which was served with garlic and herb paratha, salsa, and tandoori sauce.

As someone from South Asia, I thought this was fantastic. Clearly, the dish was influenced by Cape Malay cuisine and traditions. The kebab had a great mix of flavors and was cooked perfectly. This was among the best dishes I have ever eaten on a plane — I did not expect to have that experience on South African Airways.

Bottom Line:

The menu offered a diverse and well-curated selection of dishes, showcasing a variety of cuisines and flavors. Overall, the food was impressively delicious. In fact, the tandoori chicken kebab stood out as one of the best entrées I’ve ever had on a flight.

5. Fantastic Onboard Service

The most surprising aspect of my South African Airways flight was the incredible cabin crew on board. I found the cabin crew on this flight to be friendly yet professional. They were eager to help in any way possible and seemed to enjoy their jobs.

I enjoyed several excellent conversations with various flight attendants, including the purser. In fact, the purser and I spent quite a while talking about our jobs and world travels to the point we decided to stay connected through social media.

What I Didn’t Like About South African Airways A330 Business Class

1. No Fast Track for International Business Class Passengers at Cape Town

Part of the perks of flying business class is alleviating the stress of everyday travel. Benefits like priority check-in and faster security and immigration formalities are a staple of what makes a business class product feel more premium.

Unfortunately, Fast Track security was unavailable for business class passengers departing on international flights from Cape Town International Airport.

While it may not seem like a big deal, this was a major letdown. Although South African Airways currently only operates a single international flight out of Cape Town, the lack of priority fast-track services was also not available for business class passengers flying on other airlines.

It was a busy morning at the airport. After checking in and getting my boarding pass for my flight, I proceeded straight to the security queue. Without a fast-track line, security and immigration took nearly 45 minutes — an absurd amount of time.

2. No Business Class Lounge

Another major drawback of the South African Airways business class experience was the lack of a dedicated business class lounge in Cape Town. Instead, business class passengers could access one of the 2 Bidvest Premier Lounges, both available to Priority Pass holders.

Unfortunately, the lounge felt more like an afterthought than a premium experience. The food and beverage selection was mostly limited to a small bakery selection, prepackaged snacks, lukewarm coffee, and a small variety of drinks.

While the lounge had a decent amount of seating available, including some workstations, it was ruined by people speaking loudly on the phone and children screaming about what they didn’t want for breakfast.

The lounge staff were also not particularly pleasant to deal with. When I politely asked the receptionist if she could ask nearby guests to lower their voices, she simply responded that she could do nothing. When I asked a different staff member if they could warm up some croissants for me, she reacted with visible irritation, as if I had made an entirely unreasonable request.

3. Unbelievably Narrow Footwell

While the business class seat on the A330 was better than I expected, it did have drawbacks. One major issue with the seat was the incredibly narrow footwell, which made it difficult for me to find a comfortable position for my feet.

While the narrow footwell wasn’t much of an issue when I was seated upright, it became incredibly frustrating when I reclined into the fully lie-flat position. The footwell severely restricted my foot and leg space, making it difficult to stretch out comfortably.

4. Forgotten Amenity Kits

Amenity kits are usually a welcome comfort during flights, but I also collect them as souvenirs. On this long-haul flight, though, South African Airways forgot to load them on the plane — the first time this has happened in over 30 business class long-haul flights I’ve taken.

While it might seem like a slight loss to some, it disappointed me, since I’ve built an entire collection of amenity kits. Now, a long-haul business class amenity kit is missing from my collection.

Final Thoughts

Although I went into my South African Airways flight from Cape Town to São Paulo with an open mind, I had relatively low expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the flight was.

South African Airways does not have the best reputation, but I rate them highly, though they are not on the level of the many Middle Eastern and East Asian carriers I tend to fly. Still, I would gladly fly the airline in business class again.

Simply put, South African Airways has a ton of potential. If the airline can modernize its cabins (and, by extension, its fleet), it has a great shot at competing with some of the best airlines in the world.