Any one aware of diso....ers on business class from the USA to Africa?

Believe it or not, sometimes AA does deals because South African Airways is one of their partners. The only other way I know of is to fly to Europe, then on to South Africa.

My wife and I visited Capetown a couple of years ago, and a photo safari is well worth the trip. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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Originally posted by tvdt:
Believe it or not, sometimes AA does deals because South African Airways is one of their partners.

South African Airways is no longer an AA partner, they've switched to DL.

Check out www.1st-air.net (http://www.1st-air.net)

They specialize in business class and first class international travel. They airfare is usually about 50% less than the published fares. Check them out.

Originally posted by stugart:
Any one aware of diso....ers on business class from the USA to Africa?

Check out www.1st-air.net (http://www.1st-air.net)

They specialize in business class and first class international travel. They airfare is usually about 50% less than the published fares. Check them out.

Originally posted by stugart:
Any one aware of diso....ers on business class from the USA to Africa?

I'm sorry, this is off topic, but I see that tango95 is from ROC. Welcome, glad to have more company (wharvey) is also here from W Henrietta and several others from the area.

Why not make your email address available in your profile so we can say hello!

Larry

Hmmm? 1st-air is also based in ROC and tango95 has plugged them in two separate threads. Coincidence? I have nothing against 1st-air, but there have been some somewhat negative discussions about them here, so I'd suggest running a search (in United + General Travel Talk) before trying them out.

moondog, Fascinating - they seem to be located about 2 miles down the road from my office location of over 25 years and I've never heard of them. I just found a small listing in the yellow pages - just a line listing - no display ad. Do they deal in wholesale primarily?

I tried 1st-air.net a couple of years ago for a quote. They advertise "up to 50%" savings. The savings I was offered was more like 2%, and it took forever for them to get back to me. It was clear that they were just shaving their commission by a couple of points. I replied that I could have found better savings from any rebating travel agency (there were more of them around back then), and asked if they actually had any real consolidator contracts. They never answered.

So my experience with them was not so fresh.

In December of 2005 I began planning a July-August 2006 trip to Fiji for my family of 3. I contacted Robert Laney of 1stAir.net and was quoted a $12000 price for 3 round trip first class tickets from SFO to LAX on United and 3 round trip business class tickets from LAX to Fiji on Air Pacific. The only catch was that I had to immediately pay 1stAir $4500 of the $12000 total ($1500/passenger).
After about 2 months I started contacting Robert Laney about my tickets. I left about 10 voice mails with him which he never returned. I also tried emails which were not returned. Then, over the next 4 months I talked with a woman named Fazi, one named Karen, and one named Jackie... I could never get Robert Laney. Twice I was promised that the tickets would be issued that week and sent to me the following week. After 50+ phone calls and emails I finally got my tickets in July less than a week before my trip... 2 were paper and one was electronic... and then it took me several calls with Air Pacific and 1stAir and finally with both Air Pacific and 1stAir together on the phone to straighten out the 3 reservations.
When I got back from the trip in August 2006 and got my next American Express bill, I saw that 1stAir.net had charged me $3995 per reservation which meant I had paid $16.500 not the $12000 I expected to pay. I immediately called 1stAIr and got Robert!!! Robert told me that Max Bennett handles over charging. After about 10 unanswered phone calls and emails to Max, I contacted American Express to dispute the $4500 excess charge which is still ongoing

I'd check with the local Better Business Bureau before using 1st-air.net. It may be OK bt there are warnings here that at least justify checking.