While I am not a complete noobie to collecting miles or even using them, its always been on rather straight forward itineraries. However, for this trip the itinerary will be somewhat complex and I will have to take advantage of all kinds of partnerships. We are allocating ~2 months and we'd like to visit Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and S Africa. My initial thoughts are to fly from RDU to E.Africa; Addis Ababa, Nairobi or Dar es Salaam. If we land in Addis we would visit Ethiopia for 3 weeks or so and then head onto Kenya for a week or so to visit the Masai Mara. Then we would possibly go to Tanzania just for the Serengeti before flying to S Africa. We could travel S Africa in either direction flying into either Jo'burg or Cape Town and then fly out of the other back home.

The whole trip would be 2 months or so and we have all kinds of flexibility and would like to take advantage of stopovers and mileage partners. I currently have the following points:

American Airlines- Mine- 179,973
Wife- 114,504

Membership Rewards- 97,976 (Delta, Aeroplan Air canada, Flying Blue, Air France, KLM, ANA Star Alliance, Asia Miles, Emirates, Iberia, Singapore Kris Flyer, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America)

Ultimate Rewards- 145,660 (Mileage Plus United, british Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Kris Flyer, Virgin Atlantic, Southwest Airlines)

Starpoints- 46,759 (Virgin Atlantic, Aeroplan Air canada, American Airlines, Delta, Emirates, ethiad, Flying Blue)

While it would be nice to fly some legs first class it is not necessary. My first attempt was to plug in an RDU one way flight to Dar on AA search engine and it showed up with ~$575 in charges in addition to the 37,500 points which makes no sense.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks in advance.

The Maasai Mara is merely the northernmost extension of the Serengeti ecosystem. Some of what I'd do is determined by when I'd be there - e.g. July / August is often when the migration crosses into the Mara.

Use this interesting variable map to plan, if your primary interest is in the migration.

Best Fourth of July (1986) ever we awoke very early and went to Little Givernors Camp, where our hot air balloon was being inflated. As dawn broke we ascended over rivers and trails, seeing elephants and some hippos yet out of the water as we drifted south toward Tanzania.

Soon we were over the short grass plains, looking down at skeins of interweaving, separating, joining living webs of animals, partucularly wildebeest and zebra. Idling the burner allowed us to silently ride the wind, as we heard the grunts, whinnies, belches and farts of tens of thousands of animals below.

Eventually, we settled down on the ground and enjoyed our fresh cooked breakfast, prepared with those same burners, and enjoyed iced Champagne.After a while, we mounted our Toyota Land Cruisers and began a game drive back to Little Governors that lasted most of the remaining day.

We came upon a pride of lion, obviously on the move following the migrants, but at a sedate pace. It looked as if they'd eaten well last night, and they weren't in much of a hurry. They ambled, stopped periodically, and we were close enough to smell, hear and have our senses be full of them.

We also saw other typical fauna, kongoni / Coke's hartebeest, Thompson's gazelles, Impala, topi, lurking spotted hyenas, etc. etc. and a wealth of birds.

One vignette I'll share:

As we came to an overlook on the Mara River, we looked down and observed several huge (certainly up to 18 feet) Nilotic crocodiles, warming themselves on the large rocks below. Not far away, a mob of skittish, circling Burchell's zebra and western white-bearded gnu / wildebeest. Especially the zebras would approach the bank nervously, head shaking and giving whinnies, making dust in a dance of approach - avoidance, seemingly fighting to resist the inexorable, genetically powered impulse to cross and proceed further north, to nourishing grasses.

Finally, some entered the water, trying to gallop, eyes wide, nostrils flared, now pushed by others joined by some wildebeest, turned into a hysterical mob unable to turn back. At this, the crocodiles came to life, moving with a hitherto unsuspected alacrity, rapidly now closing on the squirming, leaping heaps of increasingly panicked animals.

One canny croc was now within striking distance, head on surface moving back and forth sizing up his prey. A yearling came to near, and was suddenly prized by a vice-like grip of crocodile jaws, and overcome by the weight of the croc succumbed to the muddy waters.

They surfaced just downstream, the zebra in his death throes and eyes mostly white, the crocodile now taking him down in a death spiral, writhing and twisting the final breath from the zebra. Other crocs waited and took prey, but a few were diverted by an easier meal and joined the instigator, ripping great gouts of blood and meat from the young zebra, the first of many sacrifices given by the herd.

Soon, schools of catfish attracted by the blood and bits of flesh boiled sound the rapidly disappearing carcass and a massive hippo, attracted by the commotion, bulled into the middle of the gorging crocodiles.

Our cameras clicking on this natural recurrence of this circle of life and death were shattered by one of our party, binoculars glued to the scene as she called out " omygod! omygod! I can't believe this is happening! This is HORRUBLE! omygod, I can't stand it!" even as she never wavered from the scene.

On the opposite bank, some sated lions waited, not wanting to kill and eat, but as cats are wont to, taking swipes and swats at animals emerging panicked from the river where more of their kind were being taken by an ever larger gathering crowd of crocodiles. Some were injured already, escaping one form of death for another, one that likely came at dark, brought by hyenas and lions.

And now, flocks of vultures, drawn by keen senses of sight and smell, began gathering on the trees, to begin their vigil. Soon, they too would feast, squabbling, avoiding the predators, posturing to put off other vultures and the ever-watching jackals.

That entire day replays in my mind, a veritable kaleidoscope of animals, a pinwheel of zebras and gnus, a celebration of life for many, but a bloody toll paid by some. That evening, as we enjoyed our sundowners, it was pretty quiet, rather than excitedly share what we saw and experienced, we seemingly ruminated and played the wonders encountered over again in our heads.

Dinner, the campfire, the sounds of roaring lions and whooping hyenas - an end to an exciting, long day, with a wished "lala salama, mzee" I went to my tent and slept a deep, cleansing sleep.

Plan, plan some more and prepare to be surprised.

And be aware oneworld is not dominant here. Not to mention, many AA partners do not show on aa.com.

See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2014-a.html

That's because AA.com defaults to BA for service into Africa; the fees are BA's extortionate "carrier imposed fees" on award tickets. (Used to be a "fuel surcharge" but BA's dropped that name after being sued in US federal court.)

You can't book it on AA.com, but can by phone - AA now allows connecting to Africa through Doha using Qatar Airways; QR serves ADD, NBO, DAR, JNB and CPT.

In your case I'd look at using AA miles (NOT on BA) to get to and from Africa via DOH, then Star Alliance miles - Ethopian and South African - for travel within Africa. If you need to use Kenya Airlines, you can transfer MR or other points to some Skyteam member for those segments.

It's a long trip - I would absolutely try to ride the transatlantic/long haul segments in business class.

JDiver- Thank you so much for your great story, it only adds to my excitement. I have some flexibility wrt when we go but right now we are looking at Feb and March. I am starting to lean toward 6 weeks in Eth-Ken-Tanz and 2 weeks in Cape Town and southern S Africa.

Gardyloo- these are exactly the tips I need. I figured that BA was the cause for the high price and didn't know about Qatar Airlines so I will look into that right away.

while I don't really understand the ins and outs of stopovers I was kind of hoping that there was a way for us to use them to our advantage on our internal flights. Do you, or anyone else, have a sense of how that would work? Can I get a flight from Addis to Jo'burg but with stopovers in Nairobi and Dar?

Research what different seasons mean in different parts of Africa before you decide on a destination.

In southern Africa above South Africa (DRC/Zambia/Zimbabwe/Botswana), for example (and maybe further, but I only know about those countries), Feb/March is wet (rainy) season, and animals tend to go completely different places then, and many of the places that are great for viewing animals in dry season are lousy in the wet season, while a very few places (like the usually very dry Central Kalahari) have better animal viewing possibilities in this "wetter season" than the rest of the year). And, in fact, many camps / lodges may either shut down during wet season, or have problems like often-washed-out runway strips during wet season (which you may only realize after thoroughly reading reviews of a particular camp or lodge).

So if it's wet season where you're going in Feb/March, that may greatly limit which places within a country (or even which countries) will be good for animal viewing.

Thanks for your input. From what I've read Feb is a great month in Ethiopia and Feb-March is great in Kenya and Tanzania. As far as I can tell it is not rainy season in any of the countries I will be visiting when I'm looking at going.

http://goafrica.about.com/od/tanzani...t-Tanzania.htm

http://goafrica.about.com/od/kenya/f...isit-Kenya.htm

http://goafrica.about.com/od/ethiopi...t-Ethiopia.htm

^

Maasai Mara isn't the best part of the Serengeti Feb-Mar; that would be south of Seronera around Ndutu, then using the Naabi gate and heading for Ngoromgoro Conservation Area.

So does it make sense to visit the Masai Mara, visit with the Masai people, and then head on to the southern Serengeti? Then head over to visit Stone Town in Zanzibar before heading down to S. Africa for our final leg?

My thoughts are mainly a cultural experience in Ethiopia (3-4 weeks), mostly game viewing in Kenya and the Naabi gate area in Tanzania and then onto the sights of Zanzibar (2-3 weeks) and activities in southern S Africa.

Does this make sense for balance?

If so, how would I travel from the Masai Mara area to the Naabi gate area?

Thanks for your information and time.

I'd think arranging land transfers and lodging package might work - you're basically doing a land safari, because those drives would also be game and sightseeing drives, looking over the kopjes, streams, plains.

But whether or not I'd stay long in the Mara would be weather dependent. You could arrive in NBO, transport to Arusha and pick up a Manyara-Ngorongoro (and a few hours at Olduvai Gorge, if you're interested) and Serengeti loop. At that time of year, maybe Seronera and Ndutu - masses of mammals now with young, and of course their attendant predators. (If at Ndutu Lodge, there's usually the odd civet visiting at dinner, and some friendly bats over the bar .)

A nice place to stay near Ngorongoro and Manyara is Gibb's Farm, among other things a highlands coffee farm with lots of community connections.

Places like Thomson Safaris and others can arrange things like this. I'm afraid I don't know who else is reliable just now, though in Nairobi Let's Go Travel, an old standard forever, it seems, has been good at arrangements.

There are airline flights between Arusha and Zanzibar.

BA does not serve DAR except as a codeshare on a QR-operated flight from DOH.

A slightly early long rains onset in March would ruin a Serengeti/Ngorongoro trip.

Visiting the Maasai is not worth the time unless you don't mind being hoodwinked. What you will be shown is purely for tourists.

Thank you all for your feedback.

I spent 2hours on the phone with AA today and finally was able to come up with a lousy, but better than nothing, itinerary. And then something came up in my business that is going to force us to pivot.

We are now looking at going in late August thru late October 2016 or Feb/March 2017, same basic plan. Ethiopia-Kenya-Tanzania-S Africa. I'm pushing hard for Aug/Oct 2016.

Maybe AA/QA will have more availability if I plan 331 days in advance?

Thoughts?

I really like the idea of having a balanced 2 months; not just safari but really trying to get a cross section of experiences.

Just be sure you can afford it all on the ground for two months. I don't know what safari prices are where you're going; the cheap ones in low season are $500ish a person per night in many parts of Botswana, for example. And hotels you can get on points in Africa are far and few between, except in South African and some surrounding countries where local hotel chain Protea is joining Marriott Rewards this year.

You don't want to book a flight for two months and only then find out that you can't afford to stay there for two months.

Btw, I'm planning on going myself in Feb/Mar 2017, but in my case only two to three weeks and a different region: about a week in Livingstone (ie, the Victoria Falls area), and then the rest probably hopscotching a few safari camps/lodges in Botswana.

Game safaris can be gotten for far less than $500 per night. I would never pay such an outrageous amount.

August and September will be drenchingly wet in Ethiopia.

Can I do a self drive safari in Kenya and Tanzania on the cheap as you can do in Kruger? I certainly do not intend on spending $1,000 a night!!!!

Ethiopia looks relatively affordable, as does Zanzibar and S Africa. When all is said and done I'd like to keep it to around $10,000 on the ground.

I'm happy to use all of my points for lodging when in larger cities and to fly between cities if possible.

This is what it says on the inter webs: "
Best Time to Visit the Omo Valley
With more than 50 unique tribes living in the Omo River Region of south western Ethiopia, it's a fascinating destination for those interested in African culture. The remote location, which is barely accessible by 4 wheel-drive, has meant that traditional customs and beliefs are very much intact for most of these tribes. The best time to visit is during the dry season from August to October. This is also when some of the major harvest festivals take place, adding even more color to your trip."

I'm thinking we will start in S Africa and work our way north if we go during that part of the year. Late August in SA, much of sept in Tan and Kenya and finish up in Ethiopia?

Does that make sense?