UA/ET LAX-Lusaka Zambia $1004 4.1CPM
 

LAX to Lusaka Zambia for $1004 on UA/Ethiopian

An unusual destination, but this is a pretty solid deal from the west coast to Africa.

The back breaking routing is LAX-IAD-ADD-HRE-LUN/ LUN-ADD-FCO-IAD-LAX
Nov 10-14 comes to around 4.1 CPM (23,021 miles) which is rare for Africa. Some dates in Nov and wide open early next year.

Unusual tech/transit stops in Harare and also Rome.

Books into O class which earns 100% on UA and also Aegean. So one of these would get you *Gold if crediting to Aegean.

Would make an interesting trip report :D This would also make a good base for a side trip to Victoria Falls which are quite impressive. I visited the falls myself earlier this year.

UA/ET LAX-Lusaka Zambia $1004 4.1CPM
 

Better yet just go to ADD and burn 35,000 miles to hop over to the Seychelles.

Lusaka is Good for Victoria Fall
 

Lusaka + all-day drive in a rental car (or bus) gets you to Victoria Falls.
Avoid the rainy season, and you have an excellent adventure vacation.

+1 on that. We were at the end of the rainy season when the rains were finally coming through from Angola and it was literally like a shower. I wore my swim suit.

Make sure to get a double entry visa on arrival in Lusaka, if planning on crossing over the bridge to the Zim side of the falls - which you should do.

Should note that similar fares are valid to many other African cities as well:

East Africa: NBO, JNB, DAR, Maputo, Kigali Rwanda, Entebbe Uganda, Harare.
West Africa: Lome Togo, Accra Ghana, Luanda Angola, Kinshasa

All under 5CPM. Not your typical destinations, but it's always difficult to find reasonable fares to Africa aside from maybe JNB and NBO. So these are great for anyone looking to head to the continent.

Do you have experience driving with a rental car in Zambia? Would be interested to hear those stories.

Just make sure you are not doing this during their low season. We used UA miles to get to SEZ from the USA and after lodging is paid, ET cancelled their ADD-SEZ flight. No other *A flys to SEZ, so UA only dropped us off at DXB even with 1K status. It was stressful having to find our own way to SEZ 3 weeks before our departure! EK direct flight was US$500 one way, so we end up using Kenya Air via NBO to get there.

Agreed SEZ is beautiful!

Just AVOID it !!!!
Driving a rental car is safe only in a handful of African countries...

This works from SEA too.

We flew into JRO (Kilimanjaro), then self drove a Safari vehicle into the Serengeti. A absolute wonderful adventure for seeing animals and just "being there".
Think of the worst gravel road you have ever driven on - it just went on and on, for 150Kms. It shook the daylights out of us and the 4WD Landrover, though it and us, never missed a beat.

This is pricing from IAH for ~$100 more. If I didn't already have a crazy flight booked for January I'd be considering this.

UA/ET LAX-Lusaka Zambia $1004 4.1CPM
 

Looks like the O fare will give you 100% EQM on UA, do ET operated flights earn double RDM for 1K?

I rented from City Drive Rent a Car in Lusaka and it was a good experience overall. They were the only company that would allow us to take the vehicle into Malawi, though we had to pay a little extra for them to prepare the paperwork. Unfortunately, we were fined at a checkpoint in Malawi for not having insurance coverage and also had to purchase a new insurance policy in Lilongwe, which was a total mess. City Drive admitted it was their fault though and paid me back for the fine and the new insurance policy. It was a big hassle, but in Africa you have to expect things like that to happen. There were no mechanical problems with the vehicle and we drove it over 1200 miles, including off road safari drives. I would certainly rent from them again.

www.citydriverentacar.com/