I have done much research but would appreciated any suggestions in doing JFK to NBI (Nairobi, Kenya) sometime in Sept or Oct 2014.\

I have
Chase Ultimate rewards 600K points
BA 100k miles
UA 125k miles
SPG 80K points
AA 600K miles

Spouse has
BA 125K miles
UA 160k miles

I also have access to an 100K additional AA miles in a relatives name.

I would need 2 tickets, BUSINESS or FIRST CLASS.

I would consider going via the Pacific if necessary, although I do not believe I can use AA miles to do that. Another problem with AA miles is the BA surcharge when going through London

I would also like to avoid Egypt Air since I have heard that neither their Business or First class has lie flat seating.

Specifically are there any connections through the middle east (other than Egypt air) that can be done on a mileage award.

NBO not NBI, just FYI. If you would rather use your AA miles, I would try calling AA to check availability on Etihad JFK-AUH-NBO. Also, Qatar via DOH should be an option, but I don't think you can book until Oct 30.

For Star Alliance / UR, there are options on Korean Air (via ICN), Turkish Airways (via IST), Swiss (via ZRH) and Brussels. A simple award search on United.com should make the Star Alliance options pretty clear.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

For 130,000 AA miles per person, you can get a Business Class Explorer award that allows up to 20,000 flown miles. jfk-doh-nbo-doh-txl/mad-jfk using QR and AB or IB would work.

For 150,000 AA miles per person, you could travel via HKG or TYO (or both) in one direction.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I would try calling AA to check availability on Etihad JFK-AUH-NBO."

Although this is an option, it would require two awards in each direction: AA does not permit a Middle East transit on its zone-based awards between North America and Africa.

Wow, so many options with your wealth of miles! Can I borrow some? I'm an American living in Kenya so I have already done a lot of the research you are seeking, and I'd be happy to help.

I would recommend that you do your trip round-trip United business class for 120K miles each ticket, which you have easily (with plenty of backup by way of ultimate rewards). This gives you:
1) Great routing rules flexibility with 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw. You can do a stopover anywhere in Europe, Middle East or Africa.
2) Lots of carriers and routes to choose from. Your best bets for 1-stop routes (excluding Egypt Air) are on Turkish through IST, Swiss through ZRH, and South African through JNB. If you are into trying out cool business class products and don't mind a 2-stop itinerary, you could piece together something with Austrian's new 767 business class (onboard cook and milkshakes!), LOT, and/or TAP.

To explore potential routes and stopovers on your own, go to the Star Alliance Route Map (http://routemap.staralliance.com/). Click on Nairobi to see what your options are in/out of NBO, and then piece together your ideal itinerary from there.

I don't think trans-pacific routing is possible to/from Africa on a United award--I have tried searching it but it has always returned an error message.

Today I just booked a one-way, 8-leg business class ticket from SFO-NBO with 20- to 23-hour stopovers in Sarajevo, Munich, Zurich, and Tel Aviv. Looking forward to visiting friends and seeing new places!

Lastly, I have never pushed my blog on FT, but this post actually may be very useful for your situation: http://www.pointsforgood.org/?p=568

Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions. Good luck!

I am looking into all of the suggestions so graciously offered. Thank you for the quick responses. Also thank you for correcting NBI to NBO, a little attention deficit on my part.

I hadn't thought of building up Alaska Airlines miles but will see if the timing makes that feasible

Hi. I went to NBO as well as Addis last month using United. I only used 80,000 miles and my routing was jfk (united)>frankfurt (ethiopian)>nairobi (ethiopian)>Addis Ababa (ethiopian)>London (united)>JFK. I wanted to do stopovers. IMO, United had the best options. also, i got to fly the 787 with ethiopian.

Use United miles - 1,20,000 Miles for round trip for each person.

I used 80,000 miles on United to Nairobi.

JFK-FRA & LHR-JFK on United? Did you travel back in time to do this?

Business Class?

I'd be careful about flying into Nairobi with the recent events going on near the area.

Nairobi is a big city with different parts. I arrived on the day of the mall incident and didn't realize it was going on until early evening when i started getting texts from the us. i sort of imagine that it was a bigger news event in the us than there - many people are simply too busy trying to make a living to be traumatized imo