ozymandias24

Hello All!

I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for a while. Hope this question is in the right place as it applies to a lot of different airlines...

I am looking to fly 2 x family members from London to Cape Town for Christmas (around 16 Dec to 26 Dec). As you can imagine, this is a very expensive time to be doing this! Cheapest sensible fares I can find are about GBP930 per person in economy.

I'm trying to come up with a cunning way of reducing the bill by identifying a suitable reward program, wracking up some miles and getting a redemption. Over past 12 months I have accumulated about 350,000 Avios mainly through Amex credit card churn and Tesco Clubcard offers. However, British Airways do not have much availability, so am looking to other airlines. In particular:

Air France
Edelweiss Air
Ethiopian Airlines
Eurowings / SunExpress Deutschland
Kenya Airways
KLM
Lufthansa
Qatar
South African Airlines
Thomas Cook
Turkish Airlines

Anyone have any ideas on credit cards I could direct spend through or mileage purchase offers I should look to? I already have an Amex Platinum, BA Amex and Hilton Honors VISA.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Oz

Yoshi212

Your intensions are good but you're a few months behind to make this a more practical venture. Is it impossible? No. Is it going to be likely or easy? Also no. Awards generally open up ~330 days before travel and the peak vacation times are snapped up quickly. Even airlines like LH that are known for releasing award seats, especially premium seats, a few weeks before travel are not prone to do so at these peak times as the revenue opportunity is too high/seats have already sold.

I am assuming you're UK based for banking/credit cards?
Which airlines do your Amex MR points transfer to? This varies per issuing country.

Mwenenzi

ozymandias24 Welcome to FT
From Saturday 16 Dec until Christmas airlines will be expecting to fill every seat. A peak time for travel.

Just looking LHR CPT will restrict your options. More long haul airlines fly into JNB than CPT
Also look from MAN, LGW, other UK airport or even an Eu airport for cash and/or award flights.
QR (a BA partner) fly UK-DOH-South Africa

Looking for 2 awards on the same flight will be 3 times as hard. Look for 1 award and 1 cash as a starting point.
Will be hard to get 2 award so close in, at a peak time. Good luck!

ozymandias24

I am UK based for banking / credit cards. My Amex was issued in UK, so my Membership Rewards Points transfer to:

Alitalia
Asia Miles
British Airways
Delta Skymiles
Emirates
Etihad
Finnair
FlyingBlue
Iberia
SAS
Singapore Airlines
Virgin Atlantic

Thanks for the advice Mwenenzi. Will see if I can find at least one points seat and one cash, and hunt around for a different departure airport!

AWARDBird Team

FlyingBlue has nice availability and even cheap price for 24 Dec. Good luck!

Mwenenzi

Some of those are in the same alliance. A very few will fly UK/South Africa. So for those that do no not fly to South Africa, you are looking for a partner airline that does, and hope they have award space.

Very very nominally the same award can be available to all airlines in a alliance. But is does not always work that. At times an award can be available on the airline ffp yet not available to a partner ffp.

FF award redemption rate & surcharges (if applicable) varies a lot

Oneworld alliance
Asiamiles (CX)
Finnair (AY)
British Airways (BA) [owned by IAG]
Iberia (IB) [owned by IAG]

Star Alliance
SAS
Singapore Airlines

Skyteam
Delta
Alitalia
FlyingBlue

Non aligned
Emirates
Etihad
Virgin Atlantic

(the above may not be 100% accurate)

ozymandias24

Problem solved, thank you Iberia for your low fuel surcharges and better redemption rates than BA!

Outbound on 15 December, leaving Frankfurt via Madrid to Joburg (crazy routing I know!) But cannot complain for GBP391 per person return in economy...

On the return leg (26 December) I thought I'd upgrade them to make up for the weird routing. Got Joburg to Madrid Business Class tickets for EUR100 + 45,000 Avios each.

So total spend to get both my family members from Europe to South Africa and back for Christmas:

GBP782 + EUR200 + 90,000 Avios.

Much better than GBP1800 return in economy (for two) I was getting quoted on Skyscanner, and that was with Thomas Cook Airlines....

Mwenenzi

That's good

So now I assume you to get them JBN-CPT & CPT-JNB. Allow plenty of time between flights. Unlikely baggage will be transferred domestic to international flights.

CantTurnRight

Well done. Iberia Avios redemption JNB - MAD in Business is a real sweet spot. Its about 20,000 Avios less than BA out of JNB to Europe off-peak, and Iberia seats are much more spacious than BA Club World. ^

ozymandias24

Yes, and luckily for me, their preferred return date (26 December) is the beginning of off-peak according to Iberia. Anything from 23 to 25 December was a lot more Avios!