I am trying to plan out a safari trip to Africa around June of next year for my wife and I. We would be leaving from the NYC area and making our way to Arusha in Tanzania. I'd really like to fly over in lay-flat business class and only have one connection through a desirable city so we could stop for a day or two. I know you can't really fly into Arusha directly, so we're fine with a small plane or maybe a bus from Nairobi or Kilimanjaro to there. I've looked at route maps, but I am a little overwhelmed with the options available on airlines I am not very familiar with. Of course, I want to get the most out of my points and want to avoid taxes/fees on the point redemptions. Award availability is the other issue.

Some interesting stopover cities we were looking at were Amsterdam (ideally), Paris (Been there, but why not stop again), London (been there, same as Paris), Istanbul (but is it safe there?), Cairo (again, is it safe there to stay a night or two and visit pyramids? - my wife has been, I have not). I don't really have a major interest in stopping in Dubai or Doha, which are the other options I have seen. I'd also entertain stopping in South Africa either on the way in or way out too. Would like to check out their wine region and maybe do a safari there as well.

Here are my current point balances:
300k Chase
105k American Express
100k United
380k AA (various accounts)
75k BA
37k SPG

We also have the ability to open other cards if we need to get the point balances up in any one account.

Any thoughts?

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You can stop over in Europe or the Middle East, but you should still travel via DOH on a distance-based Explorer award with AA miles to get the best value.

We are taking a stop over in Istanbul on route to JRO. Love Istanbul. Looking forward to trying TATL Biz on Turkish.

Hiya. we flew to London and spent a day there. Then took Kenya Airways flight to NBO and had a quick connection flight to Arusha. Actually we flew into Kilimanjaro airport and then took car/bus between Kilimanjaro and Arusha...we were at Serengeti Plains that same nite...

make sure you stay in the lodge at Ngorongoro crater. view is AWESOME

I've done that on CO (RIP) to LHR and then Kenya Airways to NBO in Y. The Kenya Airways flight can be completely during the day, so lay-flat doesn't mean much. We did KE LHR-NBO in the day, landing at NBO at night and spent one night in downtown Nairobi. Nairobi-Aursha-Moshi bus service rounded us up in the morning.

Losing your check-in baggage along the way to Africa is a real concern in my mind. We intentionally chose to go through LHR in order to recover our bags there before checking-in for our KE connecting flight.

Yes you can. Airport is ARK. See response post #4 above.

There's buses from NBO. If you land at JRO, your tour operator would typically arrange a pick-up for you.

AMS means KL. I've done LHR-AMS-JRO on KL with CO award redemption (RIP again). The KL flight is a daytime flight landing at JRO well after dark. KL then continues JRO-DAR-AMS arriving at AMS early in the morning. Jet-lag aside, Heineken on tap at AMS is quite a treat! If you go downtown to Amsterdam, load up on cash. A number of Amsterdam establishments are cash-only, and of course a number of ATM's there are non-functional. We had to dine at the golden arches one night because that's all that we could afford with the limited euros that we had.

For LHR-AMS-JRO, KL managed to lose our checked-in luggage. Three days after arriving, KL's people intercepted us on a highway to Ngorongoro crater with the bags.

*A could potentially get you to JRO on ET. IMO, read up on ADD. I think ADD makes a good substitute for CAI with historical items especially if you get some significant but not terrible distance out of ADD. I would not go to Egypt these days. If you're lucky, you could try ET's 787 IAD-ADD service. One would think that LX would be an option for ZRH-DAR, but ZRH-DAR is done by LX's codeshare Edelweiss Air which provides zero earning/redemption for any *A other than LX itself.

DAR is my least favorite airport. I wouldn't go through there if I were you.

NBO was quite okay, but then it recently burned down, so I don't know how it is now. Pole. It was cool to see giraffes loitering near the tarmac. I hope the fire didn't hurt the twigas.

Safari njema!

My wife and I did a ten day safari in Tanzania earlier this year. We traveled IAD-FRA-ADD-JRO and return, business class, *A award, so two stops rather than the one you prefer. To my recollection, one stop options from NYC are via AMS (KL), DOH (QR), IST (TK), and there may be others with which I'm unfamiliar. I wouldn't worry about safety of overnights in IST compared to places like CAI or NBO. Personally, would stay away from CAI right now. We decided to avoid NBO though we had sufficient miles and availability for two F tickets IAD-LHR-NBO return. Subsequent events have confirmed this to be a sound decision. Arusha is less than an hour by taxi from JRO airport so your safari provider can arrange pickup if you fly in there.

With the miles you'd need for two premium awards, you're likely looking at your Chase or AA accounts for the air aspect. I'm not familiar with Chase Rewards airline transfers so won't comment on routing choices using those points. AA could work through DOH but I have some recollection that two awards may be needed if connecting in the Middle East on AA awards.

Was the trip of a lifetime for us, and we are seasoned travelers. Enjoy!

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"AA could work through DOH but I have some recollection that two awards may be needed if connecting in the Middle East on AA awards."

That's true, unless one books a distance-based Explorer award, which requires the use of at least two of AA's oneworld partners. As an example, jfk-doh-jro-doh-amm-jfk could be had for only 130K AA miles in Business on an Explorer award, utilizing QR and RJ. In fact, other stops -- in Europe or the Middle East (including TLV) -- could be added to the itinerary, and the cost would still be only 130,000 miles.

I did AMS as the stopover on the way to Kilimanjaro airport. Keep in mind that Nairobi to Arusha by bus is a whole different experience than JRO into Arusha.

For connecting, I would recommend one of European cities. I'd prefer being stuck in Amsterdam than Addis if the flight is canceled or my luggage is lost during the connection.

You're also likely to avoid a visa/entry fee in the European stops when you leave the airport.

Just did this a little over a week ago from IAD. Used United MP and got UA metal to LHR then Egyptair to DAR via CAI. On the way back we did TK via Istanbul. All flights were great and the Safari was awesome. I can suggest a tour operator who handled everything for our group of 15. We even chartered a plane to get to serengeti since some people didn't want to drive from ARK. Make sure to check our Zanzibar.

Also precision air is a great regional airline

Fly540 is okay too. Their itineraries can be unreliable though with an extra stop and couple hours put into your flight without warning.