susiesan

I am working on a safari trip in Tanzania for August/September 2018. I will use UA miles flying in J for 2 tickets to get there, on Star Alliance carriers. It appears the only 2 airlines I can use are Turkish or Ethiopian. The gateway cities are Kilimanjaro and Nairobi.

What has the success rate in getting J award tickets to either Kilimanjaro JRO or Nairobi NBO been for people? Are these seats easy to get and readily available? What is the preferred routing in each direction? My origin city is Kansas City, MCI.

I know most people use KLM when flying into JRO for a Tanzania safari but I am limited to Star A carriers as all my miles are with UA.

symphonicman

You are correct on the only two *A carriers into JRO, but NBO additionally has *A service from ZRH on LX (one-stop via DAR on the return), FRA on LH, and JNB on SA.

Of course, from Nairobi you'd have to arrange separate transport to Tanzania. Safarilink is ~$372 return from Nairobi Wilson, but depending on your safari operator you may be able to negotiate transport by air from Nairobi as part of the overall package. If flying into Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta from abroad, I would recommend an overnight in Nairobi on both ends of the trip before continuing to Tanzania.

susiesan

I do see that if I am in Zanzibar at the end of the safari, which many people end with, I could fly home from there on Ethiopian as part of the award and not have to buy a ticket back to JRO.

If I end up using NBO on one end or the other then I will plan a combo Tanzania-Kenya safari that has a drive between the 2 countries rather than flying. Start in Kenya, end in Tanzania or vice versa.

symphonicman

Cool. The Masai Mara is stunning, with a higher density of animals than its Serengeti neighbor. Don't overlook the Kenyan coast, either. Lamu is amazing but some people have security concerns with it; Watamu and Diani should be perfectly safe.

susiesan

I may look into flying to NBO, do 1 week in kenya with Masai Mara and Amboselli, then 1 week in Tanzania with Tarangarire, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Fly back to Arusha for departing from JRO. I have seen many routings like this.

I am seeing far less cost for a 2 week safari if 1 week of it is in Kenya versus all of it in Tanzania. TZ must be twice the cost of Kenya.

SanDiego1K

Tanzania believes in low impact tourism and sets a daily fee for game parks to contain the number of travelers.

susiesan

The current cost for a vehicle to go into Ngorongoro Crater is $300 per descent. But you can now stay there all day. Plus you have to add the per person per day charge for being in the conservation area which is $60.

Sabasi

The crater service fee is US$250 per vehicle plus 18 percent VAT, for a total of US$295. The conservation area entry fee is US$60 per adult plus 18 percent VAT, for a total of US$70.80.

http://www.ngorongorocrater.go.tz/in...09-05-18-04-07

CanuckFlyHigh

I am flying IST to DAR, then taking Coastal Aviation to the Selous Game Reserve.

susiesan

Canuck: are you using an award ticket? Did you have an easy time finding the seats? How far in advance did you get them? At the moment, there is lots of availability in J on both Turkish and Ethiopian but 5 months from now when the booking window opens for my trip who knows what will be there. I'm trying to get a handle on how difficult it is to get award seats for east Africa safari trips.

CanuckFlyHigh

It was pretty easy actually, and everything was in J. The IST - DAR flights were available for 2 weeks after they opened. I booked my trip immediately when they opened on Aeroplan (it was a month long honeymoon). I actually booked my first half which was YYC-YYZ-IST-DAR, and then I booked my second half DAR-SIN-YYC once that opened up. I was charged a change fee of course, but was worth it to secure the direct YYZ-IST and IST-DAR flights. There were also IST-JRO or IST-ZNZ (with a stop in JRO) flights available. The only problem I find with these flights is they land around 2:30-3AM. The first flights out to safari aren't until 7:30-8am. So this is a weird time, as it's not enough time to get a hotel, and I am guessing we will just end up lingering in the airport lounge like zombies.

susiesan

It looks like Ethiopian has pulled all of their award seats for travel to Tanzania. A week ago there was plenty of availability on ET. Now the only airline that has award flights to JRO, DAR, or Zanzibar is Turkish.

Anyone know what is going on? Is this a glitch on UA award charts not showing ET flights or are they not participating anymore in the StarAlliance?

Edit:
I answered my own question with some research:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ilability.html

Glad I'm not planning on booking an award ticket anytime soon. Who knows how long it will take to clear this up?

Jalen500

Flying Ord-Fra-Nbo on Lufthansa business.

susiesan

It looks like UA won't be bringing back the ability to search yourself for ET awards. It has been gone for almost a month now, plenty of time to fix it if they were going to.

What do you suggest for returning from JRO to MCI? All of the saver options on TK require an overnight in Chicago or Houston because UA isn't making the same day connecting flights to MCI available for saver award booking. If I were to book one of these overnight layovers and then a same day flight comes up I'd have to pay $150 x2 to change the tickets.