Questions and Answers

Hello,

My fiance and I are trying to plan our honeymoon in South Africa next December.

We have a good bit of points but they are pretty spread out! Looking for some help and guidance here – we’re coming from Atlanta (but would happily reposition in the US) and looking to fly into either JNB or CPT.

We have the following:

220k BA Avios
340k American Express Miles
200k Chase Points

Any help/pointers/things we should look at?

THANKS

[USER=1362]@Senzer[/USER] I know it can be an exercise in frustration with DL sometimes but have you monitored the direct ATL-JNB flight at all for availability?

I have – it’s unfortunately up to around 650-700k miles per person in business class. Which just seems ridiculous. It was expensive BEFORE today’s adjustment, but now it’s just crazy.

Yeah, that’s what I thought. There have been some reports that Kenya Airways might enter the US soon but not sure when how that might happen so I wouldn’t count on being able to use SkyMiles.

Here is a handy article to get started: [URL]http://travelisfree.com/2015/05/26/cheapest-miles-to-africa/[/URL]. It’s relatively recent but you’ll want to make sure to check the current prices on partners like Aeroplan that have recently undergone a devaluation. It also shows transfer partners so you’ll see easily what your MR points will transfer to.

[USER=1362]@Senzer[/USER] — Welcome! You may also want to look at FlyingBlue. You’ll likely have to connect in Europe regardless, and while the fuel surcharges aren’t ideal they do offer more availability to their own members, so you might be able to cut down on the number of connections required.

(I started composing this about 3 hours ago and completely forgot about it. Was going to suggest FB and BA but [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] already took care of FB :)).

If you are okay spending some money BA might make sense. J will cost you 125,000 pp and F will run 190,000pp. Both will cost ~$1k in taxes. If you get the BA card through Chase and spend $30k you will be able to get the companion pass which allows you to take a second person by just paying their taxes plus you can get 50-100k avios. Not personally crazy about the surcharges but for a special occasion they might be worth it.

Where are you seeing 125,000 pp for BA in J to either JNB/CPT? Everytime I try and search that on the BA website I’m getting an error. Is it because I’m using ATL as my start and it’s too many connections?

Please let me know.

Best,
Steven

You have to search segment by segment so ATL-LHR and then LHR JNB.

Thanks Gaurav – unfortunately I’m seeing they have no availability. I’m really concerned we’re not going to be able to make anything happen here – which is really unfortunate! Ugh..

Are you going Dec 2016 or 2017? I assumed 2017 for some reason when you said next December.

December 2016 – looking to arrive to South Africa the 16-18th and spend between 13-14 nights there. Don’t care where I fly into in SA (CPT or JNB).

[QUOTE=”Senzer, post: 11457, member: 1362″]December 2016 – looking to arrive to South Africa the 16-18th and spend between 13-14 nights there. Don’t care where I fly into in SA (CPT or JNB).[/QUOTE]

Just so you know, awards seats are released 331 days from today’s date.
December availability are just opening up so give your self another 2-3 weeks and all of December will show up

[USER=180]@FPMiles[/USER] I believe BA releases at 355, AF at 305 but the point is valid.

[USER=1362]@Senzer[/USER]–I would keep monitoring until you make other arrangements. Space does open up after the booking window. You might consider an investment in an online alert system like expertflyer to do this for you.

Going to keep looking, just have a lot of the balls in the air with lodging and other arrangements. Can’t commit to anything until we have our flights all settled.