Johannesburg (JNB) on Delta

I will be visiting a cousin in a year or so; she lives in Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB). It's too soon, but I was checking fares just to see what I'm working with. I plan to go in January (when it's warm in JNB):

SAA: $1359
DAL: $1068

SAA leaves direct out of JFK, while if I took DAL, I'd be connecting in ATL. With nearly 8000mi between ATL and JNB each way, I'd rather earn the SkyMiles and fly the 777LR!

I was on Great Circle Mapper, and nearly the entire route is over the Atlantic Ocean: 15 hours outbound and nearly 17 inbound. Is this safe? What are the chances of a failure of some sort in a twin-jet over this wide stretch of ocean?

Mike

We have been looking at this for our trip to SA next year. According to contacts in JNB (I still have a lot of family there with contacts in the industry), the LR is performing well on the route. It's really a good flight - it beats the 19 1/2 hours on the 764 that we did last year through Dakar. What we are looking at now is actually doing Swiss through Zurich - it's a lot cheaper and we can get miles on Continental next year because they will be in Star Alliance at that point.

But - to go back to your question about the great circle, you will always be within 3 hours of an airport as far as I remember on the routeso I'm sure it will be safe and a good flight.

Mark

Sounds good, thanks for the reply. I was just looking at Swiss; it's definitely cheaper than a lot of other carriers (BA, KL, LH, SA).

Does anyone know how much pitch rows 44-57 have on the Delta 77L? Thanks!
(Too bad row 44 doesn't have a window ..it's an exit row)