JFK-NBO/JRO for 4 in J, possible?
 

Planning a trip next August to East Africa, would prefer to use SkyTeam if possible, for at least one of the legs.

4 people, in J, most likely dates 8/24-9/4 2017, not very flexible on dates.

Checking historical availability, it doesn't look promising.

Has there been reasonable availability in the past?

We recently flew J awards DL EWR AMS JRO. There were absolutely people on each segment other than the two of us on award tickets. Perhaps they booked on the KLM side? The whole award was very inexpensive, 65,000 miles for the one way pp.

Have you considered flying into DAR? Some options might open up there (via VS through DL). If you're on a safari you can transfer with a small plane with no issues.
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Thanks for your info!
That's exactly the routing we're looking for. I would prefer to book it thru FlyingBlue, as I never seem to be able to find good use for these miles, and I have a good stash.

Does VS fly to DAR? I don't see any Sky members with service to DAR.

How do you check historical availability?
I see no problems with Availability in AF/KL website, but it is not cheap... 180K miles + ~400€ for one way, also some for 180K miles + ~200€ or 100K miles + ~400€ when looking for one ticket instead of 4, so it might be smarter to book separately.

This is for next June BTW, since you can't book anything more than 10 months in advance with FB miles.

This is very odd. I just looked and I no longer see DAR for VS. I was fairly certain they either planned service or had service via their website when we booked a year ago. We ended up buying relatively inexpensive J tickets on QR for the way home.

Anyway, you should also explore DAR. We started out in Serengeti but we left from the crater and another couple was flying from Arusha to DAR to get home. We actually met up with them in Doha to connect on to JFK. It's a little bit longer of a flight from Arusha but if you can use your miles it is an option.

Just FYI the KLM product in J from AMS to JRO (which was a daytime flight) is nothing special. No lay flat seats. So Y might not be terrible on that route.

My family don't do recliners. I guess I'll just have to come up with more AAs for QR.

I've sitting on 200K FB miles forever. I just never seemed to find a need for them...came in handy for NYC-AUA for 12.5K in Y, but that's about it.

Both KLM and Kenya Airways, Flyingblue members and Skyteam members, fly to DAR. I would imagine that KLM would likely be the best option. KLM also fly to both JRO and NBO, and Delta also fly direct from JFK to NBO.

I would suggest calling FlyingBlue to spend the miles, the online miles booking tool is spotty at best and rarely shows the actual award availability on flights.

Not to be a downer, but on the return we flew QR J from JRO to DOH with a technical stop in ZNZ (some flights don't have the stop now, we had to stay on the plane) and it's the BarcaLounger style seats. No seat back or pop out IFE in J, they give you iPads that were maybe half charged, and the in seat power didn't work to recharge (the plug doesn't actually stay in the socket). From DOH to JFK we had great lay flats but it's a 14 hour flight. It's much shorter to fly via AMS if possible.

I'll take 14 hrs in QR vs 8 in DL or KLM.
I actually prefer longer flights - I get better sleep in them.
And I will definitely take the DOH lounge over AMS :)

But my previous experience with QR was onward to JNB -on their brand new Dreamliners...those are very nice.

I can see that their service to JRO/NBO/DAR is on A320's recliners...

Kenya Airways or KLM?
 

Would you take a Kenya flight on B787 over KLM? in business