hamburglar

Hi Everyone,

I'm planning on using my UA miles to go from SFO to South Africa in 2014. It's quite early I know, but I'm figuring out what my options are. When is generally most available for 2 business class award tickets? When is high season? Also, I know I will be routed through FRA or LHR typically, but can also go from JFK on SA. Can I route through South America and use a free stopover? Anyone have experience maximizing my miles? Thanks!

cruisr

We went in Feb 2011. We used my US miles and booked about 5 months before. We were in J the whole way. I think it was less miles using US miles but t may have been I just wanted to burn US.

We routed JFK-FRA on LH in J. We got a day room at FRA Sheraton and then continued on SAA from FRA to Pt. Elizabeth, connecting in Joburg.

Return was CPT-Joberg-FRA-EWR without a stopover. Connections were all about 2-3 hours though.

The wine route was my favorite part of the trip. Good luck

milesmuncher

Just arrived tonight in CPT, booked with UA miles and flew in J the whole way (EWR-IAD-JNB-CPT - though the EWR-IAD leg got cancelled, and we needed to scramble down to IAD).

I booked the trip here in January, booked the return in June after setting an alert for JNB-JFK (originally was routing CPT-JNB-DOH-FRA-JFK).

My suggestions:

• Start your search early - availability on the JFK/IAD-JNB routes seemed to be really tough around my dates (though it is peak season right now, so that may have contributed)
• If you plan to fly from JFK/IAD to JNB, I would recommend the JFK option - we flew from IAD, which has a refuel stop in DKR mid-way through the trip (annoying for sleep), IAD also gets in much later (which makes for a late connection to wherever you're going if beyond JNB), and IAD is serviced by a 343 vs. a 346 out of JFK - so there's a chance you'll get put on one of the ex-Iberia birds (as we did) - which are slightly less pleasant in J (several threads in the Middle East / Africa forum speak to this)
• Availability out of Europe down to JNB was also really hard to find during this time of year, but I recall fights from South America having better availability. SAA does fly direct from either GRU or EZE to JNB (maybe both)

PHLyer82

Both

I would suggest looking at TK via IST and also LX via ZRH although both are difficult to find availability. NZ to LHR from LAX would also work and then continue on SA, but that is near impossible to get (the NZ leg).

jbm326

Just booked 2 award J flights for November 2013. For the month I was looking, there were a couple of J seats on most Tuesday and Wednesday SAA flights from JFK/IAD to JNB. On the way down I booked IAD because of the difficulty connecting to a 10:30am JFK flight from ORD (would have required an overnight in NYC). I assume that there's a SFO-JFK p.s. red eye, so that may be a better option for you. IAD departs around 5:30pm.

For the flight back, I booked a Saturday return JNB-IST, IST-ORD on TK. There were 2 seats available right when they first became available; I did not see any JNB-JFK/IAD at that time, and haven't really looked since.

None of the routes through Europe had 2 open J seats, although I hope to grab ORD-FRA-JNB in LH F when it gets closer to departure. FWIW, united.com didn't seem to like my attempts at routing through EZE/GRU, although i suspect you could get that by calling.

hamburglar

Thanks for everyone's input. Looks like I'll have to plan as early as possible.

dcsnowwake

I did IAD-NRT-SIN-JNB in first class and j ex SIN for the World Cup in 2010. Lots more availability ex Asia then ex Europe

SanDiego1K

Be mindful that if you go via Argentina, Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela, South Africa will require proof of a yellow fever vaccination proof.

"If you have travelled in a Yellow Fever region in the six days before you wish to visit South Africa, you will have to show your Yellow Fever Certificate when you enter the country."

snic

I'm thinking of trying to book an award to Mauritius via South Africa in C:

NYC-XXX-JNB-MRU

SA's non-stops from the US have very low award availability, and it's also very hard to find Europe to JNB availability. What seems to work better for XXX is:

EZE (Buenos Aires)
GRU (Rio)
Some Asian hubs (I forget which)

So my questions are:

1. Has anyone actually managed to book US-South America-JNB post-merger? Or US-Asia-JNB? Are routings to South Africa via South America or Asia allowed?

2. I found availability on LGA-IAH-EZE-JNB-MRU. That's 4 segments. Is that allowed? There was some discussion on another thread about limits to the number of segments (supposedly 4 for RT, 3 for one way). Does that seem to be the case?