TravelBuzz! - Florida-Africa Questions

Ariel
Okay, this July I am heading to Accra, Ghana (ACC) from SEA and I am meeting a group in JFK as a gateway for the trip, I already have a free ticket for FLL so I am taking DL on a SEA-FLL first since it is cheaper to fly FLL-JFK than SEA-JFK.
My first question is, should I try and stop at SLC as i've never connected there or should I just stick to ATL? Now, after a few days in Fort Lauderdale, should I take the Jetblue, Delta,any others? Advantages?Disadvatages?Cost roughly?
Second, from JFK to ACC, im either taking Lufthansa JFK-FRA-Lagos-ACC, British Airways JFK-LHR-ACC, United/South African JFK-IAD-ACC, or North American JFK-ACC (non-stop).
Im really intrested on the North American and the Lufthansa flights...anyone have service comments or anything else?

anything else would be great!! thanks!

Ariel
Second, from JFK to ACC, im either taking Lufthansa JFK-FRA-Lagos-ACC, British Airways JFK-LHR-ACC, United/South African JFK-IAD-ACC, or North American JFK-ACC (non-stop).
Im really intrested on the North American and the Lufthansa flights...anyone have service comments or anything else?

anything else would be great!! thanks!

I have a couple of trips to ACC over the next few months and will be flying BA on the first trip and KLM on the other. I prefer KLM over BA given its earlier arrival time of 6.15pm (summer only) versus 10.20pm for BA. I haven't flown the other airlines to ACC but have been told that Lufthansa is not bad either except for the quick stop in Lagos. I would like to see North American get a bit more established before flying them but must admit that the direct flight sounds very appealing. I heard about SAA flying direct to ACC from IAD but was instructed to go through a travel agent when I contacted the airline for a quote, something to do with regulations. Enjoy your stay in Ghana!

the direct flight sounds very appealing

North American have a nasty habit of substituting a 757 with a technical stop via Shannon, Ireland sometimes - so its not always as appealing as it sounds.

I heard about SAA flying direct to ACC from IAD but was instructed to go through a travel agent when I contacted the airline for a quote, something to do with regulations.

SAA never had rights to sell their ACC-IAD vv segments and they will be discontinuing that route from May anyway, with the IAD flights routing via Dakar, Senegal instead.

Jetblue has a nasty habit of their flights running very late on the FLL-JFK route so make sure to leave plenty of time if you choose to fly them to account for delays. On any airline leaving FLL during the afternoon in the summer also allow time for thunderstorms. That being said I think that you are better off on DL because they can internline you and your bags to other airlines and if something happens to your FLL-JFK flight they can route via ATL or CVG or endorse you over to another airline if they are feeling particularly generous.