andymo99

Cholula, utlimate flexibility will help. The other thing that could help is NW or KL miles, which open up additional possibilities thanks to a partnership with Kenya Airways. Otherwise, you need to be on KL metal. It is tricky. They are really the only ones to get you into the area (JRO, DAR, NBO, etc).

Use the NW availability tool to get an idea of what you are up against in securing tix. I am just looking for ONE biz ticket, and it won't be easy, though I am optimistic. I am also planning on a stopover in Europe, and I plan to sample from multiple skyteam airlines.

Will update as plans progress. Might not be for a few weeks.

Oh, again, not much extra value to F, as the only real F options involved would be AF. Given your location in LAX, this might be worth it as you can do LAX-CDG in F both ways. I have a much shorter TATL trip, and would be happy in AF J (only the improved variety such as that out of PHL) or NW or KL J (2 class planes).

Dovster

Another possibility would be to fly to TLV with your SkyMiles. You could spend a few days here in both directions (possibly in Tel Aviv on the incoming trip and Jerusalem on the outgoing).

There are plenty of cheap flights from Tel Aviv to Nairobi and you could sandwich Kenya in between your two TLV stops.

(You can, incidentally, stay at Hiltons in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.)

PhilC

I misunderstood your question, pls see Dovster's post below.

PhilC

You're allowed one stopover, but if you're forced to overnight like in my case and your connection is within 24 hours, it's not considered an additional stopover. I'm not sure about London, but I don't see why not. Let us know what you find out.

Dovster

That chart shows how many SkyMiles Delta requires for a particular trip. Other SkyTeam partners have different mile prices. It is the program you belong to which determines the cost.

For example, AZ members pay 80,000 miles for a TLV-MIA-TLV r/t in B/E, no matter which airline they are flying on. Delta members pay 120,000.

jimrpa

I believe AF offers first class to south africa. you might be able to do AF to south africa, then either pick up an inexpensive ticket to whereever, or use a separate South African Airways award in Africa.

KLC

My first trip to Africa was in 2000, on a First Class Award ticket on Swissair, from JFK via Zurich to Nairobi. Too bad that's not an option any longer! It rates as one of my best flight experiences of all time!!

chicagorich

Yes--that's exactly right.

I think what happens on the *A chart, for instance, is that it would show some agreed upon mileage requirement for a destination pair, but your particular airline may offer the same award at a somewhat lower rate.

Although this has changed some what--6 months ago, in *A you could come up with 3 different awards for a b/c trip from North America to Australia.

The standard *A award level was 120,000. At the time, if you were using US dividend miles, you could also use a separate award on Qantas since US had a partner agreement with them. Also, UA had the same award for 90,000 miles.

So, both US and UA would indicate on the *A award chart that for the NA to AU b/c award, that the award was also available at a lower mileage level on US/UA metal or a non alliance partner.

Just thought it was a good idea in order to standardize things...


..

PhilC

I moved some dates around and was able to get 2 business class seats on all segments and avoid the overnight in AMS. Here's my finalized itinerary:

Jan 24 AF65 LAX-CDG
Jan 29 AF1240 CDG-AMS
Jan 29 KL565 AMS-NBO
Feb 7 KL566 NBO-AMS
Feb 8 DL45 AMS-CVG
Feb 8 DL49 CVG-LAX

This also allows me a longer stay in Kenya which I had wanted. These dates were not available when I checked initially. It took some work and a lot of flexibility, but I'm very happy with the results ^

andymo99

Congrats Phil. I am still working on mine and will hopefully have my (more ambitious) itinerary set in the next few weeks. Will report back.

Ruby664

Just got back on Sunday from Kenya and Tanzania. Go FC or BC if possible. Flew

ATL-AMS
AMS-NBO
ZNZ-NBO
NBO-AMS
AMS-ATL

All KLM or Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways is joining Skyteam soon so they might be another option soon. They fly 777 or 767 aircraft, as does KLM (767 to AMS and 777 to NBO).

I ended my safari in Zanzibar and highly recommend tacking a beach trip onto end of safari.

Enjoy your trip.

Steve

upgrader

Just a reminder to keep after those Skysaver awards in J with great intensity because if you're flying after January 1, 2006, in J and you have to get a SkyChoice ticket to Europe on DL BE you'll need 250K for each award ticket. (Unless you've already got the award reservation confirmed and they've deducted your miles.) Check here for details and read elsewhere for reactions of FTers.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_...ates/index.jsp

PhilC

Was this an award itinerary? Was ZNZ-NBO included? If so, how?

bernyx

Can you search for awards on other airlines on the delta site. Or is there another award site on any of the partners that will let you?

thanks

GUWonder

I find NW and CO's sites useful in this regard. I find DL's site useless for searching for award travel on partners. NW's Japan site -- and there is an English version of it -- is especially useful.

I've also found that when using NW, CO and DL's sites searching for award seats segment by segment was useful, but that requires having an idea of possible routings that might work.

It's not perfect and has some serious gaps, but it works about as well as anything else I've tried to do other than call (and sometimes bother??? ) the award-issuing airline's agents.