stevento

Looking to go to Eastern or Southern Africa during Pres Week or Easter Week school breaks.
Need 4 bus class seats.
Flexible on destinations - S. Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, but not on dates.
Must be 02/11 - 02/20 or 21, or 03/17 - 03/26 or 27 (Feb preferred.)

360k in AA.
200K in BA.
250K in UA.

50K in AF.

250K in Chase UR.
220K in City TY.
106K in Amex MR.

Started searching with S. Africa on NYC-JNB route.
Having a lot of difficulty finding availability in Star or OneWorld.
UA is showing MS through Cairo - but that's phantom, and not actually there.

Also open to DAR and NBO.

Thanks!!!

farbster

Have you looked for anything on your own? Have you considered using an Award Booking service?

stevento

i have done both.

I've looked at a number of options, but haven't been able to come up with an itinerary that works. UA seemed awesome with MS availability, but that proved to be illusory.
There doesn't seem to be anything else available. I held 3 tickets on NYC-jnb on UA for 3/17, but when I canceled them to rebook them and get me two more days, they never came back. Other than that, Star doesn't offer anything else.

OW can be routed through DOH on QR, but getting availability and reasonable
(non-overnight) connections are difficult.

And i don't have much in Sky team, unless I transfer more Citi to AF.

I guess at this point, I am wondering if I abandon JNB and switch to Tanzania instead, what would be the ideas for DAR or JRO?

As far as using an award booking service - yes, I've posted a request too. But award bookers won't necessarily try to look for multiple destinations and multiple dates.

thanks.

Gardyloo

I think you're fighting a seriously uphill battle trying for 4 business seats at one time, and trying for rifle-shot dates only makes matters worse. Could your group be split up into 2+2 so you could use different carriers?

I'd suspect DAR or NBO to be even harder than JNB, as there are fewer flights to both from western Europe daily.

dukerau

2/11 4 seats in J JFK-BRU-NBO on SN
2/20 4 seats in J NBO-CAI-(23 hr layover)-JFK, 2/21 arrival (I don't think this is phantom)
or
2/21 4 seats in J NBO-IST-BRU-(overnight)-JFK, 2/22 arrival

Thunderroad

I agree. Best bet might well be to split into different flights/carriers, though I realize that's a drag. If being on the same flights is an absolute priority, you also could see if the same flights have Y or F award seats available in addition to J, then keep checking to see if more J open up and ditch the Y for that.

Also, maybe check into availability into CPT, if for a given flight is not the same plane as JNB.

By the way, be aware that BA can add high $$ fees onto award tickets.

Sabasi

Going all the way to Africa for only 6-7 nights on the ground?