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Florida to Africa with miles
I have a couple hundred thousand AMEX platinum points, and a hundred thousand chase UR points.
Im looking to get from either MCO or South florida to Africa. Arusha specifically, but it seems like with miles I'm going to have to go to addis or somewhere else and then buy a ticket from there to arusha. So far the only thing I've really found that works is with United Miles, 40k and its quite a long duration. MCO is my preference, but if the flight options are really great MIA or FLL would be fine. The flight is around the end of august Thanks! |
Are you doing safari and taking a coastal aviation flight from Arusha? I don’t even think that bigger commercial airlines fly into or out of Arusha.
When we went on safari to Tanzania (leaving from arusha) we flew from Newark to AMS on delta and them from AMS to Kilimanjaro (jro) on klm, all ticketed through delta in business class using sky miles transferred from Amex. So you could see if there is a Miami flight to aMS. We arrived at JRO in the evening and our safari provider arranged a car service for us to a hotel near Arusha. In the morning the same car service drove us the short distance to the Arusha airport for our onward flights on coastal aviation. However, on the way back to the US I think we flew to JRO with a stop at the Arusha airport so I imagine you can pick up a short 30 minute flight on coastal from JRO to Arusha. It will depend on your flight arrival times etc. on the way way back to NYC we flew Qatar via Doha to JFK. We paid cash for business tickets. You could always book an inexpensive ticket from NY back to Florida. I think that Turkish airlines may have some routings. You can also look at flights into Dar and connect onward to Arusha. I think DAR to Arusha is farther than JRO to Arusha. Coastal aviation is widely used for safari. The flights don’t operate in the evenings so you may need to stay over before departing. |
This coming August? From the 40k UA mile post I'm assuming you plan on flying in Economy?
With your close in travel time, during peak time you should hire an award booking service to sift through all the options. |
Originally Posted by floridagal23
(Post 29803638)
Are you doing safari and taking a coastal aviation flight from Arusha? I don’t even think that bigger commercial airlines fly into or out of Arusha.
When we went on safari to Tanzania (leaving from arusha) we flew from Newark to AMS on delta and them from AMS to Kilimanjaro (jro) on klm, all ticketed through delta in business class using sky miles transferred from Amex. So you could see if there is a Miami flight to aMS. We arrived at JRO in the evening and our safari provider arranged a car service for us to a hotel near Arusha. In the morning the same car service drove us the short distance to the Arusha airport for our onward flights on coastal aviation. However, on the way back to the US I think we flew to JRO with a stop at the Arusha airport so I imagine you can pick up a short 30 minute flight on coastal from JRO to Arusha. It will depend on your flight arrival times etc. on the way way back to NYC we flew Qatar via Doha to JFK. We paid cash for business tickets. You could always book an inexpensive ticket from NY back to Florida. I think that Turkish airlines may have some routings. You can also look at flights into Dar and connect onward to Arusha. I think DAR to Arusha is farther than JRO to Arusha. Coastal aviation is widely used for safari. The flights don’t operate in the evenings so you may need to stay over before departing. |
It’s also possible to fly into NBO and use land transport to Arusha via the Namanga order crossing. Undoubtedly longer than from JRO, but if there’s award space available to NBO it’s worth considering.
KQ connecting with Precision Air fly NBO-ARK, but via DAR, so it takes longer than you’d expect (3-5 hours, $200-300 iirc). |
Edit: didn't see your response, that it was actually JRO you needed.
Arusha Airport is a small airport mainly used for small domestic airliners, Cessnas and the like. Why would you want to fly there specifically? Assuming you want to go for safari, it is much more common to fly to Kilimanjaro Airport, that is the main international airport in the region. Tour operators can easily arrange pick up from Kilimanjaro Airport. I am pretty sure both ET and TK have daily flights to Kilimanjaro. There is also the NBO option, but i'd personally avoid land transport in this part of the world as much as possible. There are also various shuttle busses from the airport to Moshi, probably also Arusha. If you help us understand why exactly you want to go to Arusha, then it is easier to help. |
Note that KQ has recently started service to JFK. Can book with DL or AF miles.
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One thing I would recommend is looking for availability on Ethiopian or South African through United first. You would probably have to get some connecting flights separately, but those two will get you the long flights from Africa to either Europe or the US. Once you see availability at the saver level through United, then check through Aeroplan for the same availability. You can then transfer MR points to Aeroplan for the redemption (transfer is instant - if you don't have an Aeroplan account you can open one pretty quickly, link it to your MR account and transfer). Transfers to Aeroplan from MR (at least for me as late as yesterday) are instant. I saw good availability on Ethiopian and South African for early August. I just booked a return flight from CPT to LA through JNB and LHR using the method I just described (South African to Air New Zealand) - this was a change from a previous booking on Ethiopian. While Aeroplan can have pretty high fuel surcharges for redemptions on Air Canada and other airlines, there are no surcharges on Ethiopian and South African amongst others. The amount of points required can also be lower than United on certain routes. Since you have more MR points this might be the way to go. My one way in J from CPT all the way to LA was 75K Aeroplan points (75K MR points). Good luck!
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Originally Posted by igneous
(Post 29803596)
I have a couple hundred thousand AMEX platinum points, and a hundred thousand chase UR points.
Im looking to get from either MCO or South florida to Africa. Arusha specifically, but it seems like with miles I'm going to have to go to addis or somewhere else and then buy a ticket from there to arusha. So far the only thing I've really found that works is with United Miles, 40k and its quite a long duration. MCO is my preference, but if the flight options are really great MIA or FLL would be fine. The flight is around the end of august Thanks! |
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