My wife and I have friends that have been serving in Liberia as missionaries for 3 years and we want to go see them. I would like to do it with mileage but the severe lack of ANY flights is making it a daunting task. However we have complete flexibility of dates and want to spend 3 or 4 weeks ANYTIME in Jan or Feb of 2013. Arrival or departure dates/times do not matter at all.
I have the following miles in my accounts:
American - 84K
United - 52K
Sapphire points to transfer - 62K
US airways -43K
Even if awards would only get us one way it would still be a significant savings. Anyone know Africa options well enough to help me out?
We have a place to stay and transportation completely taken care of. All we need to do is arrive and depart. Appreciate ANY help or direction.
You can get to Accra, Abuja, Malabo, or Lagos using AA miles for 37.5K miles per person each direction in economy. If you chose Lagos or Malabo, you could travel through Madrid, fly IB to Africa, and avoid the BA surcharge. But only Accra and Abuja offer non-stop service to Monrovia.
You can get to Accra, Abuja, Malabo, or Lagos using AA miles for 37.5K miles per person each direction in economy. If you chose Lagos or Malabo, you could travel through Madrid, fly IB to Africa, and avoid the BA surcharge. But only Accra and Abuja offer non-stop service to Monrovia.
Accra and Lagos looks like good options, however I cant get them to come up on AA website. Would i have to book through iberia and use my AA miles? Any idea what the BA surcharge is from north america to Africa?
You can't book IB award seats using AA miles on aa.com. You have to call AA.
The BA surcharge for LHR -> ACC is $167 per person each direction. The BA surcharge for JFK -> ACC is $250 per person each direction. The BA surcharge for JFK -> LHR is $229 per person each direction. All these figures are for economy.
I found a nice itinerary into Liberia with Brussels Air in which I will attempt to use my United miles. However I need to plan another way out as I do not have enough miles for a roundtrip ticket. It looks like American miles are my only option out.
Any insight on which airport is best to use as a stopover gettting out since no one but Brussels (United Partner) leaves the continent directly from Liberia? Would you stop in Ghana, Nigeria or Guinea if given a choice? Any other options?
Last edited by writebrian; Aug 21, 12 at 10:35 am..
Update: Found my way in using Brussels/United/Staralliance miles. PHX->IAD->BRU->ROB January 19, 2013. In-bound cost me 80K miles and $104 total taxes and fees. However this alliance has no way out for me until March!!
I need to get from Monrovia Liberia back to Phoenix AZ using AA/OneWorld miles (have 84K) anytime between January 28th and February 23rd. Can you Africa experts help me with some sample partnerships/itineraries that may do it?
Would love to leave the African continent in a single bound on the way out if possible. However a stopover inside a reasonably safe African airport is doable. The wife suffers from anxiety, actual travel days are hard on her. It would be nice to drug her in Monrovia and wake her up back in Europe somewhere.
Programs: UA Premier, Priority Club Gold, Choice Privileges Gold
Posts: 271
You are going to have to buy a ticket to Accra ($250 on DL) or FNA ($190 on ASKY) and pickup an award ticket from there. You have tons of options from Accra and options on BA/bmi or Brussels from FNA.
Programs: UA Premier, Priority Club Gold, Choice Privileges Gold
Posts: 271
FNA is Freetown, Sierra Leone. BA (BMI) flies FNA-LHR 3x week Su, We, Fr.
DL is Delta. Delta flies ROB-ACC on Su, Th, Fr in the evening which connects nicely with the late night ACC- EU/US flights.
The ACC option is much more pleasant than FNA option in just about all respects but I just thought I would throw it out there. FNA officials are somewhat infamously corrupt and will hit you up for a bribe if you choose to transfer there.
Last edited by dls25; Aug 24, 12 at 9:49 pm..
Reason: Adding FNA info
