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Answers (10)

Best way to get to Cape Town

Best way to get to Cape Town

  1. DavidJ New Member

    Hello everyone,

    I am planning a trip to Cape Town and have been looking at several options. I can fly out of either Atlanta or Orlando.
    Originally I was looking to take British Airways 1st class ATL-LHR-CPT redeeming Alaska miles (maybe do a stopover in London). They had mixed awards space and then I got hit with a $1,000 fee per ticket both ways.
    I then thought I could convert my Starpoints to JAL and fly Emirates first class MCO-DXB-CPT. That would be 400,000 points for 2 tickets.
    I’m curious if anyone has alternative suggestions.
    Thanks all

  2. Gaurav Community Ambassador

    [USER=2249]@DavidJ[/USER] how much of what currencies do you have available?

  3. MarkS Member

    I have booked for next year
    ORD-HKG-JNB on CX w/Ak miles, first leg in first for 70k
    ORD-LHR-ADD-CPT on United and ET 350/787 for 80k
    SFO-SIN-CPT On SQ 350/777 for 80k
    Will cancel one of above probably go CX
    CPT-DOH-LHR-ORD on Qatar 787/380 and AA 777 using 70k AA miles

    You could go ATL-DOH-CPT on Qatar for 70k AA points and if you transfer SPG you get a 20% bonus so effectively its 50k SPG points each way. That’s your best deal. Need to do this before special ends sometime mid month. So this is 1/2 of what you were going to spend and one of best business class products out there in QR.

    Also looked at virgin to Jnb for 95k delta miles. You can get Jnb-Cpt on South African for $250 in business class

    Also AK miles on KLM through Amsterdam or Air France through Paris for 70k is an option as well. Flying Blue would have these for 100k I believe unless they have a special going.

    Had looked at BA as well but the surcharge is a deal breaker for me.

    Good luck

  4. DavidJ New Member

    [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] The largest balance is with Alaska. I primarily collect for the free stopover.
    Alaska ~300,000
    Skymiles ~ 100,000
    Starpoints ~ 295,000

    I have smaller amounts in AA. I’m willing to purchase miles if it were to make fiscal sense. Thanks!

  5. MarkS Member

    transfer 200K SPG to AA and you will get a total of 300,000,
    200K base points plus 50K bonus from SPG (5 for each 20)
    Plus 20% AA bonus going on now until 9/16 (I think that is the date)
    AA to Cape Town is 75K business class one way, one person. You can’t get a better deal than that.

  6. DavidJ New Member

    [QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 20564, member: 2121″]I have booked for next year
    ORD-HKG-JNB on CX w/Ak miles, first leg in first for 70k
    ORD-LHR-ADD-CPT on United and ET 350/787 for 80k
    SFO-SIN-CPT On SQ 350/777 for 80k
    Will cancel one of above probably go CX
    CPT-DOH-LHR-ORD on Qatar 787/380 and AA 777 using 70k AA miles

    You could go ATL-DOH-CPT on Qatar for 70k AA points and if you transfer SPG you get a 20% bonus so effectively its 49k SPG points each way. That’s your best deal. Need to do this before special ends sometime mid month. So this is 1/2 of what you were going to spend and one of best business class products out there in QR.

    Also looked at virgin to Jnb for 95k delta miles. You can get Jnb-Cpt on South African for $250 in business class

    Also AK miles on KLM through Amsterdam or Air France through Paris for 70k is an option as well. Flying Blue would have these for 100k I believe unless they have a special going.

    Had looked at BA as well but the surcharge is a deal breaker for me.

    Good luck[/QUOTE]

    [USER=2121]@MarkS[/USER] Definitely looking into your suggestions. Transferring the Starpoints to ride on Qatar is a good idea. Plus I’ve never gone on Qatar 🙂
    Any idea the miles for a first class ticket? Ill check out the bonus also, hopefully I haven’t missed it.

  7. MarkS Member

    First class, depends on when you are going. (AA FC is 120K to South Africa) The DOH-CPT was on a 787 but recently they changed to the 777 for the southern hemisphere summer months. So if its on the 787 there is not FC anyway, You could go ATL-MIA-LHR on American, then take QR to CPT on their A380/787 which is what I did. Or just go from ATL to DOH as there is a direct flight I believe. I spent many hours looking at all the possibilities and AA from North America to CPT in business class was the best deal using the SPG transfer bonus. You could also go to JNB on the QR 787 and get the BA flight from JNB to CPT. Lots of options. I can help [email][email protected][/email] as well as this website can help you with their service

    However if you want to go First Class, the best deal is CX with AK miles. Your issue is you have to go to JFK/ORD/LAX or somewhere like that to get it. CX is opening up at least one FC seat to HKG these days so you might not get 2 seats and the HKG – JNB doesn’t have first, but for 70K points with most of the trip in CX first that is the best all around deal. Business is 60K so you could get 1 first and 1 business and hope the 2nd opens. Long ride for you tho from the east coast.

    Or you could be like me and take CX one way and AA the other way. Use 140K AK miles and 150K AA miles.

  8. rickyw Community Ambassador

    David, not sure what your total budget is, but there have been some North America to South Africa deals pop up on FlyerTalk recently. Fares from Canada were around $2400 and fares from the DC area were right around $3000.

    Flights were biz class on a combination of SkyTeam carriers.

    Just a thought to look at paid options too! If the price is right, you could use a fraction of those miles you were going to use to just position somewhere.

    Good luck!

  9. MidSouthSkier Community Ambassador

    [USER=2249]@DavidJ[/USER] – keep in mind there’s a limit (79,999?) to the number of Starpoints you can transfer per day. To maximize your transfers you’d do 60K per day so you’d get 15K bonus miles. Didn’t want you to be surprised when you couldn’t transfer all your points at one time.

  10. Rob in Miami Member

    Not a seasoned traveler here…. but we are scheduled to fly on American Airlines from MIA to CPT using 75K miles each way in Biz on Qatar in February. The agent at AA could not have been nicer. We have a 2 hour layover in Doha and did not have to pay that HUGE British fuel surcharge nor spend X+ hours in London. So far very happy with our schedule.

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