Questions and Answers

In the early stages of booking a trip to Tanzania to hike Kilimanjaro over the last two weeks of September. Having a tough time finding business class award availability at reasonable redemption rates. Best so far is a few long 2 stop options on United and Ethiopian. Been looking at SFO/SEA/LAX to JRO/NBO/DAR.

Nothing available on KLM via AMS or Emirates via Dubai.

Any recommendations? Anything I might be missing?

What about QR or EY?

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 50457, member: 29″]What about QR or EY?[/QUOTE]
EY does fly to DAR. Need to check that.
Haven’t been able to check QR yet. Best way to find accurate availability is via JAL, yeah?

BA would also show award space for QR

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 50535, member: 29″]BA would also show award space for QR[/QUOTE]
Yeah nothing via BA or Qantas. AA is showing some poor routings… nothing worthwhile and mostly mixed cabins.

Cost for economy flights are good. $1-1.5K. Might just have to suck it up and fly coach. #firstworldproblems

Are you searching individual segments?

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 50550, member: 29″]Are you searching individual segments?[/QUOTE]
Yeah finally started breaking those down today. Found Emirates availability using Alaska miles from SFO and Etihad back to LAX (will use AA). These look like my best options. Now I just have to decide between business and first. Maybe splurge just one direction.

You might have to look at an overnight along the way. One of the challenges we have with flights to Africa from California is that the connections just aren’t timed well, and can break the award. In those cases, it might even make sense to book a separate cash ticket, so you can have a 24+ hour stop if needed. Good luck!

If you end up doing a part cash ticket, try looking at fares out of London.

To that part of the world you can often pick up J tickets starting at around 2K USD with Turkish, Y fares on most airlines are also very reasonable.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 50603, member: 7″]You might have to look at an overnight along the way. One of the challenges we have with flights to Africa from California is that the connections just aren’t timed well, and can break the award. In those cases, it might even make sense to book a separate cash ticket, so you can have a 24+ hour stop if needed. Good luck![/QUOTE]
Hi [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] thanks for that tip. I did notice connection times for most options can be challenging and there are some weird departure/arrival times. Flying KLM one-stop from SFO to JRO sounds enticing, but that connection is only 80 minutes. A longer break would be ideal for 18 hours of flying.

My girlfriend and I have never been to the UAE, so I’m pretty sure we will build in a 24+ stop there both ways. Plenty of options for a reasonable cash ticket to JRO (or NBO or DAR). And rates at the St. Regis in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are good for the dates we’re looking at.