Questions and Answers

Hi all, was hoping to get to JNB from JFK for a camera safari in Sept. 2017. Original plan was to go at least one way on EK F using AS miles. Also have enough AA to do the other way on EY or QR F or J. Any advice on strategy in advance to make this happen by the time the schedule opens up? Of course no one can predict future devaluations, but notwithstanding that, any ideas? I appreciate it.

[QUOTE=”Babydoc, post: 15433, member: 1579″]Hi all, was hoping to get to JNB from JFK for a camera safari in Sept. 2017. Original plan was to go at least one way on EK F using AS miles. Also have enough AA to do the other way on EY or QR F or J. Any advice on strategy in advance to make this happen by the time the schedule opens up? Of course no one can predict future devaluations, but notwithstanding that, any ideas? I appreciate it.[/QUOTE]
I recommend using Expertflyer alerts for something like this, ExpertFlyer costs 99/yr

[USER=1579]@Babydoc[/USER]

Unless AA has changed their routing rules for Africa without Lucky writing a post about it you would have to connect in Europe or DOH so no EY in AUH
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/06/08/american-aadvantage-award-routing-rules/[/URL]
But I have seen claims that might be possible if your fly true DOH, and then take a different AA partner for rest of the route, but I have not found anything in truly black and white about that being possible.

Using AA miles I believe the choices are basically QR (which doesn’t offer F to the US), IB and BA. Of course with IB & BA you have the fuel surcharges. And in this case the surcharges seem to be the same on both IB & BA ($1430 RT).

Expert Flyer won’t help with award space on Qatar as that’s not one of the airlines they cover. 🙁

Given those options, I’d go with QR. They’re flying the A350 to the US and they fly the 787 to select destinations in Africa.

If you’re really points rich on AA, pay for two awards and fly EY F on their A380 on the return. That’s gotta be a fantastic way to end a trip

Thanks for all your responses. The QR option on the 350 seems like a good plan but I still may hope for EY F and spring for 2 awards. Would have to work on the extra AA in the meantime. BTW, I started using the KVS tool as a diamond subscriber. It covers QR and CX which I believe are not available with EF as [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] noted. Anyone use/like this tool?