willsfo

Hi FT,

In the process of looking at flights from SFO to South Africa (Cape Town or Johannesburg) early next year on one of Middle East carriers.

Emirates offers the A380 with showers, Etihad is getting new 777-200LR's for at the end of this year (supposedly), Qatar requires multiple connections but still an amazing experience..

Wondering if anyone has any insights on the potential route/trip; specifically the experience verse cost of mile redemptions, etc.

Thank you!

UAPremExecflyer

There are myriad comparative threads in the EK, EY and QR fora.
If you look in the Trip Reports forum you will also individual reports
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...light=Emirates
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...light=Emirates
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ighlight=Qatar

Yoshi212

QR will be business class DOH-CPT/JNB and you'll have to connect to get to their F class routes? I thought all US QR routes were Business class at most. The J class on the A380s & A350s are generally better than the 777s.

EY had a morning departure from SFO which is a nonstarter for me. To get to CPT you'll need a second connection.

The late afternoon departure of EK gives you time to enjoy the F service & get rest. The downside is an evening arrival in DXB if you want to do a stopover. If you want to connect there are several options with variable layovers to both CPT & JNB.

sdsearch

Qatar (QR) only does business class LAX to JNB (one connection in DOH either 8ish hours or 18ish hours), so I'm pretty sure they don't do first class from SFO. And why add extra flight legs and shorten your time to sleep just to get a bit of first class? Btw, Qatar in my experience has only Mon-Thu departures on this route available as awards, not Fri-Sun departures (at either end). I originally planned a trip to Southern Africa to depart and return on weekends, but after seeing this pattern I changed it to depart and return midweek.

(I haven't flown this yet so can't give my feedback, and it will be my first trip to Africa ever and first trip on a Middle Eastern carrier ever.)

Yes, Emirates has showers in first class. I dunno if that's on this route or not. What I do know is that "too many" people were trying to redeem miles for that, so a few months ago Alaska Airlines (which has Emirates as a partner) greatly increased the number of miles needed to redeem for Emirates flights (especially in first class) compared to all its other partner carriers:
So popularity of a novel feature can backfire...

Also, regarding booking awards: The best time to book something like this is 11 months out, when availability first appears. But if you're really talking about "early" next year, you're already missed that window. So at this point you may have to settle for a choice among what's got availability, not a theoretical choice among everyone who flies that route.