Good day all.

My first post on this site. Apologies in advance if this is posted on the wrong forum as I was quite surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number, depth, and breadth of the forums. As an aside, wish this site had existed in the days when I was making 150 flights each calendar year!

My better half and I are planning a trip to Namibia from home sweet home in Atlanta. The timing of the trip is not yet nailed down, but will likely be in the first quarter of calendar 2007. Have checked the obvious sources, most notably South African Air on which I can book two return tickets for $3,030. ATL to Joburg, Joburg to Windhoek. This is for a hypothetical trip in March of 2006. Price seems pretty fair, but I want to see if anyone knows of trusted travel agents, airline consolidators, or hidden web sites I haven't thought of. Travelocity, Orbitz, and the like are of no help as they are considerably more expensive that South African Air's web site.

Other considerations - would definitely not mind at all going out of Dulles instead of Atlanta as I believe that South African Air still flys 747s out of Dulles, where I might be able to land two seats upstairs where there is more space than the cattle section of an A340 (ATL equipment.)

We're open to any potential connections as we could spend a couple days in a European gateway or go through Rio or Sao Paolo. Any ideas, people to call, places to check?

Will appreciate any feedback, tips, and/or thoughts.

Kind regards.

Don't rely on the type of aircraft with the type of seats you want being available (and to be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that the upstairs economy seats with extra legroom exist on SAA).

Do you have any airline/alliance preferences? Is cost the deciding factor? If you're not too bothered about collecting miles and don't mind paying extra then a good travel agent might be able to get you a reasonable deal using Air Namibia who fly direct to Windhoek from either LGW (came as a surprise but a colleague has just done this) or FRA. You would probably end up using LH to get from ATL to FRA in the latter option.

BTW, I hope you enjoy long haul travel; with all the waiting around in airports, Windhoek is quite a trek, even from the UK. It's worth it though!

Type of aircraft not critical. This is rather a once-in-a-lifetime trip and in all honesty, COST will be the deciding factor when it comes to the flight.

Anything that I save on airfare will be invested in making the experience whilst there more memorable. I'd rather remember the safari than a luxurious ride on an airplane.

Oddly enough, the most direct (Atlanta to Joburg, Joburg to Windhoek) seems to be by far the least expensive.

You should check also via Europe. I saw cheap flights at ltur.com with:

http://www.airnamibia.com.na/ from London or FRA

or with LTU.de from MUC or DUS

I believe some go non-stop to Namibia

If the above options recommended by USAFAN don't work out any cheaper then go South African. The in flight product is very good with plenty of things to keep you entertained. Warning Keep nothing of value in your checked in luggage (i.e. Cameras, DVDs) if going though JNB as they still have a problem with theft there.

If you need to know anything about Namibia, a few Flyertalkers have been there so just ask.