GuySmylie

Im in the early process of trying to plan an east Africa trip next summer. I currently have about 60K in USAir miles, United, and American. I can't get any more airline specific credit cards, but haven't done any of that cards with tranferable miles.

What's my best bet to do this? Im thinking one way on two different airlines (or hope US and AA combine miles before then). Would this be best done booked the full year out?

Thanks for any help. i'm new to this

dukerau

You have 60K in each of those programs, or 60K total across all of them? I'm assuming each. As you said, you have enough for a one-way with United and a one-way with AA. There are only two advantages of getting enough miles for round trip from one program: stopover (limited with AA, very liberal with UA and US) and half the cancellation/change fee if needed.

I think it's always best to book as far out as you can. You never know what will become available, so if something's there that works for you, grab it.

If you want to get enough in one program to book round trip with one program, consider:
Sapphire Preferred or Ink (transfer to United)
SPG (transfer to US or AA)

The sign up bonus on any of these cards should get you to the mileage needed for round trip in Y, and then you could add a stopover if you want.

Long Zhiren

I'm not sure how US, UA or AA miles can get you to NBO or DAR.

For UA, the last time I looked, ET award availability is slim to none. Swiss service into NBO or DAR, if I remember, is actually on Edelweiss Air, a codeshare of Swiss, and maybe not available with UA miles. Oh yah, there's also EgyptAir. I don't know what to think about the Travel Advisories for Cairo though.
For AA/US, award travel on BA looks like a joke to me in the way they dock you on LHR take-off/landing fees. AA/US award travel between Europe and the Middle East is quite a bargain with Royal Jordanian, Etihad, Qatar, etc. The trip might be longer, but availability is suprising if you phone up the AA line. The stuff that shows up online is really limited.
Of the major alliances, Delta rules Africa.

The last time that I flew to East Africa, I was fed up with losing checked-in luggage, so I booked separate non-stop tickets to maximize my chances of keeping my bags by seeing them at every stop. I did a UA non-stop SFO-LHR, and then a non-stop LHR-NBO on Kenya Airways.

I would say that your best bet is to use the UA miles to/from Europe somehow, and AA miles to/from Europe, perhaps with Air Berlin through ORD. I recently used AA miles from CLE to Berlin--AA to ORD, and then AB to TXL.

To/from Europe, I like Kenya Airways non-stop service to NBO.

I don't have pleasant memories of the DAR airport. KLM goes there.

Once you're in East Africa, I have acceptable experience with Fly540 and PrecisionAir.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"For AA/US, award travel on BA looks like a joke to me in the way they dock you on LHR take-off/landing fees."

There are no passenger fees for landing at LHR. All LHR departures are subject to the LHR PSC (~ $50 USD). Mere connections through LHR avoid the mich higher UK APD.

The problem is not those fees, but rather the high "surcharges" assessed for AA redemptions on BA metal. However, reports here on FT indicate that those surcharges are not assessed when redeeming Dividend Miles on BA metal. Not sure for how long that will be the case.

As noted, SPG points can be converted to Dividend Miles. The OP can check the Dividend Miles webpage to find other ways of earning miles (dining, online shopping, etc.)

KennyBSAT

Why not? Because you already got one, or because you can't/don't want to have the credit inquiry or do the spending?

Besides the cards already mentioned with transferable points, you can currently get AA miles 100K at a time every ~35 days with AA Executive cards.

Unfortunately, the only way to use those miles to your destinations while avoiding BA surcharges is by booking two awards: one to the Middle East and then a second one on to Africa. These can be on the same multi-city ticket but AA stupidly does not allow these routings as a single award.

maverick17

Booking as early as possible is usually sound advice. But I flew in Africa recently and there was lots of last-minute availability with UA partners. Looking now, there are lots of days with availability CLE-NBO in August and in the fall, with some in September. And from Europe to NBO there is availability on every day in August. So your hardest part might be the Transatlantic flight in the summer.

And I don't necessarily agree about Delta ruling Africa. Star has a large presence, with ET having lots of seats, plus Turkish, Lufthansa, Brussels, Egypt all having flights (I think CAI is fine for transit). Swiss doesn't is true though. If you get your UA balance up to do a roundtrip, you could add stopovers in other parts of Africa or Europe.