rankourabu

This past summer I cashed in 120k Onepass miles for a trip to Africa with a stopover in the Middle East.
The routing was YYZ-AMS-BHX(KL)-DXB(EK)-NBO(KQ) and return CPT-DXB-JFK(EK)-DTW-YYZ(NW)
Also made a side trip DXB-DOH-BKK(QR)-KBV(FD),HKT(PG)-BKK-DOH-DXB(QR) and SHJ-BAH(G9)-DXB(J9)

Flight 1
YYZ-AMS KL A330

The A330 arriving from AMS at YYZ

I've flown KLM to AMS from YYZ a few times in coach, but never on the late flight on the A330. Business class on this flight only had 4 passengers, but 2 people who seemed to be friends of the FA were moved up after doors closed. This seems common practice reading the KL forum here.

With only 6 people to worry about, service was quite efficient and typical for KLM very professional. Because it was my birthday I was given 2 delft houses

Supper choices were Balsamic Chicken Supreme of Sauteed Halibut
I had the chicken which was decent and then tried to catch some sleep as this was only a 7 hour transatlantic journey


Chicken dinner

The KLM WBC, while comfortable reclining or sitting up, were some of the most uncomfortable seats in business class to sleep in I ever encountered. It took a while to find a sweet spot and finally pass out.

WBC seats

Seat controls

Arriving in AMS on time, I had a few hours to kill before continuing my journey. Since I ve been to the city a few times before, I decided to catch a shower and spend the five hours in the KLM Crown Lounge.

Flight 2
AMS-BHX KL Fokker70


Boarding at BHX

Wasnt expecting much from Europe Select on this short flight, only 2 rows of "business", and all we got is a box with a sandwich


CityHopper Europe Select meal

Flight 3
BHX-DXB EK 777


Awaiting departure from BHX

I chose to connect via BHX vs anywhere else, because on this route, EK sells a 3 class aircraft as 2 classes, so one can select a First Class seat at online check-in or at airport.
I was surprised that BHX had no transit facilities, and I was forced to go thru immigration and re check-in with EK. The lounge that EK uses was pitiful, Servisair, crowded with cheap screw top wines. No wonder they want to open their own there.
Once on the plane, I settled into 2E to find the seat next to me empty (I guess not many people now you can sit in first on business tickets).


Seat 2E

First class sold as business

ICE

Dinner was a selection of Grilled fillet of lamb, stir-fried prawns, saffron chicken or Grilled tuna steak. I had the prawns, watched a movie and went to sleep.

Since this was another overnight flight, I spent most of it sleeping, arriving to the beautiful T3 in Dubai, my first visit to the place in nearly 7 years.

I was supposed to go to Iran, but it fell thru last minute since June wasnt the best time to visit, and had to find a cheap alternative to spending 2 weeks in Dubai. The destination was to be Thailand, and the carrier Qatar Airways, not bad for a last minute price of about $420.

Flights 4/5
DXB-DOH-BKK QR A330/777
Between flights I spent a day in Doha (really who needs more than that there), and flew to BKK overnight.
While QR may be a five star airline in premium cabins, in Y, they were just ok, still leaps over any American carrier. Food was tasty, service friendly, and flights on time. I was able to secure an exit row with a nice fold-out footrest, so the flights were quite comfortable.
Dinner was a choice of Beef Rendang and Cajun Chicken.

Flights 6/7
BKK-KBV FD A320, HKT-BKK PG A320
Did not stop in Bangkok, and transferred straight onto Air Asia to Krabi ($24)
As usual for Air Asia, flight was efficient, and with assigned seating, there is no more mad elbowing to get on the plane.
After spending a wonderful 10 days in Thailand in Krabi, Koh Lanta and Phuket, it was time to head back to the Middle East.
Bangkok Airways is Asia's little gem airline, and for 1000 baht all in, they won over Air Asia as my carrier back to BKK. I was a bit disappointed when the 717 was substituted for an A320. It was also very nice of them to interline luggage with QR, so I did not have to re check-in in BKK.


Boarding PG at HKT


Flights 8/9
BKK-DOH-DXB QR A330/A340
Again, another efficient on-time flights from QR. Although the DOH airport is a hole, and a disgrace to QR, and leaves a bad impression of the airline.
Choice of dinner from BKK was Chicken Massaman and Grilled Tilapia.
I had a 4 hour layover at DOH from 11pm to 3am, and spent it sleeping in the quiet rooms upstairs.

Flight 10
SHJ-BAH G9 (Air Arabia) A320
Sharjah Airport was easy to get to from Dubai at 6am, but the traffic was already building in the other direction. The airport itself is a bit dingy and crowded. I used my Diners to access the "business class lounge" that Air Arabia also sells, mainly to have a shower. I didnt see anyone else in there, it is a waste of money, as there is no food, and drinks are served from behind the counter. The flight itself was 2 hours late without explanations, but uneventful once in the air. The price of the ticket was around $60, so I guess you get what you paid for.
One good aspect of Air Arabia was their call center, excellent English reps, and they were excellent when I had to make a change to my date (which only cost AED50, and since my flight was cheaper I only paid about $5 to change)

Arriving in BAH

rankourabu

Flight 11
BAH-DXB J9 (Jazeera Airways) A320
In the battle of the Middle East low-costs, Jazeera wins in many aspects.
Flying into DXB vs SHJ is a definite advantage, the service is friendlier, the aircraft comfortable with leather seating and reasonable food/drink prices.
Flight was uneventful, and arrived in DXB about 20 minutes behind schedule.
If I had a choice, I would fly Jazeera again over Air Arabia anyday. Try to catch one of their sales (which seems to be always on) and tickets cost next to nothing. Although I do see that lately they started to charge for luggage and change fees have gotten ridiculous.
From what I could tell, Jazeera Plus, the pseudo business class, was not worth the money, as it was coach seating with a small meal.
As this was an evening flight, I have no photos from this bit.

Flight 12
DXB-NBO KQ 767
Flight was supposed to depart at 2:35, but left just after 4am.
The SkyTeam lounge in Dubai was pretty bad, and I left it to use the Diners Club lounge, which at least had food, showers and a couch to snooze on.
Once on board, the seating arrangement on the 767 was 2-1-2, and I had 2C, the individual middle seat. After take off I hit the lie-flat button and went to sleep. The seat was excellent, truly flat, and very comfortable.
One thing KQ lacked on this particular flight was IFE, still a big screen in front of the cabin, waaay behind the times!
I asked to be woken up for breakfast, which was delicious scrambled eggs with sausages, just before arrival in Nairobi. I also found a nice amenity kit by my seat when I woke up, not as nice as EK's Bvulgari kit, but heaps better than the cheap looking one KL hands out.


Lie flats on KQ 767

Arrival at NBO

Next 7 weeks I would spend on an overland truck on an unforgettable journey across Africa with Intrepid Overland.

Map of journey

Flights 13/14
CPT-DXB-JFK EK 777/777
This was to be a 26 hour journey with Emirates in business.
As dreadful as a long journey is, Emirates made it go by relatively fast.


Ready to depart CPT

After 7 weeks of sunsets in Africa, this was my last one after departing CPT

We left Cape Town on time for the 9 hour journey to DXB.


Seat 7A

Dinner choices on this leg were Masala Ostrich Fillet, Stuffed Chicken Breast, Spinach tortellini, and Seafood peri-peri which I had.

Dinner while watching the Aussie classic "The Castle"

This was not a widescreen ICE-equipped aircraft, but it did have the lie-flat seats, which were quite comfortable, although a bit narrow.


ICE

7A fully flat

I had no neighbour in 7B, so it made getting out easy, unlike on the next flight when I had to step over a person to get out.

After 3 hours at the wonderful new EK business class lounge in Dubai, it was time for my 13 hour journey to JFK. I tried last minute to get onto the EK direct flight to Toronto on the A380, but there were no seats left in business (which means they fill over 70 J seats! on those flights)

As this was an 8:30am flight first was breakfast, for which I had delicious chocolate chip pancakes. There were various snacks mid flight including a delicious Beef Pie and Seafood Biryani. Lunch choices were Fillet Mignon, Kadhai Chicken, Poached Sea Bass, and a Seafood platter.


Appetizer

Main seafood platter

The whole 13 hour flight was pleasant, and the crew made sure we were comfortable, and were always around to help out. ICE wide-screen had more than enough entertainment.

Seat controls

The cabin was kept mostly dark so people could sleep. A lot of the passengers were connecting from somewhere else I would imagine.



I've flown DXB-EWR in coach before on MH many years ago, and must say, EK business was a much more pleasant journey

One more noteworthy thing was that there was not a single person in First Class on either segment!!!

Flights 15/16
JFK-DTW-YYZ NW F/Y DC9/CRJ

This was the part of the journey I was dreading. It was much easier to find award space to Africa than it was for a simple JFK-YYZ leg.
The only choice was via ATL or via DTW.
After exiting customs, I learned I had to carry the bag upstairs to NW to check in, because it was in the same terminal. Check in was chaotic, I looked for a first class line, but there wasnt any, but I did find one helpful agent who checked me in. Next was security, and the insanity of the shoe carnival. Not once in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia did I have a negative security experience. Not until JFK. I always dread connecting thru the USA.
The line was about a mile long, but luckily I snuck into the First Class security line, and only took about half an hour to get through. All for nothing because JFK-DTW was delayed a couple hours, which would mean I arrived into DTW with a half hour to spare for my YYZ connection. But never fear, that flight was an hour late as well. On top of that, my bag got left behind in DTW. All the other connections around the world, never a luggage issue, until the last leg!!


In conclusion, 120k for a business class ticket to Africa on EK/KL/KQ was miles well spent. It was relatively easy to find award space on EK using their own website, and all seats came back confirmed within a few minutes, sometimes even when I was still on the phone, and even though I had to wait 24 hours for official confirmation, it was a breeze.
Kudos to CO agents who were helpful in putting this together (although I did spoonfeed the flights) thru many schedule changes, and my changes as well.
None of the flights remained the same from the original booking 8 months out, and the record apparently was pages long, but it all worked out in the end.

Emirates lived up to my expectations, KLM, Qatar and Kenya surpassed them. The only negative experience was the NW debacle at the end of the journey.

Gatwick Alan

Very interesting report, i'd love to know a bit about the 7 weeks overland section if you have the time.

marks88

Excellent report. +1 on the overland trip info, if you have time.

larrywilmot747

Tres Interesting. Merci.

tanzaniancane

What a fantastic trip report! Seems like you had an awesome time. I join the group of people that would love to read about the 7 week overland trip!

camsean

Thanks for taking the time to write an interesting report.

Bretteee

How much was the overland trip? Was it expensive?

Any pictures? Thanks for the great report.

rankourabu

Thanks everyone =)

Some more about the overland journey

There are a few photos here on flickr

The trip was ran by Dragoman Overland, who recently got bought out by Intrepid. I have traveled with Intrepid before, and their tours so far have been great.
Having said that, this one was a lot of camping, only about 6 out of the 45 days were in hotels. But there was almost always upgrades available ranging from $5 beach huts to expensive lodge accomodations in the national parks.
However, the campsites themselves almost always had hot water and nice showers, except for some in Tanzania.
We did some bush camping, which was very cool, especially in the Serengeti when you hear animals at night, and in the Okavango Delta in Botswana with many hippos making noises in the distance at night.

We had a crew of 3, a leader, a driver, and a wonderful cook who was truly amazing. Almost all the time, 3 meals a day were included, I actually gained weight on the trip.

The truck was self sufficient with purified water, tables, tents, mattresses, and relatively comfortable seats, even on some of Africa's finest roads

The cost of the trip was about US$4000, paid in 2 installments (2400 before and 1600 on the ground).
There are cheaper companies out there, but Intrepid's cost includes everything, Zanzibar ferry, and all the national park entrances/fees.
There are no surprises on the ground. I spent maybe $500 extra for the trip (mainly on booze )

The ages of the pax ranged from 21 to 63. It was a very diverse group with a few Brits, Irish, Swedish, Aussie, Dutch, American and Canadian
The trip is actually made up of 3 segments (each bookable seperately) so the group changed a couple times.
Since it was high season, my truck had the full 21 people on it for 2 sections out of 3, and 9 people on the middle section

Link to trip details