pinkhighlighter

I'm figuring out which plan for our trip to South Africa in 2018. I'm torn about which route to take. I thought I'd hear what the smart folks on flyer talk would prefer and why! These are all saver awards.

Option A:
econ from SFO-IAD
Polaris biz from IAD-Sao Paolo
biz Sao-Paolo to JNB to CPT

Option B:
econ from SFO-FRA
biz from FRA-JNB-CPT

What would you do?? Short econ leg but loong biz leg (but part is Polaris) or half econ and half biz, but one stop and overall shorter trip by ~10 hours. As I type that out, it seems option B is the no brainer...

Oh, and we're flying with a 3 and 5 year old (who are good travelers, but you never know... and they're still children... aka needy LOL). But we will have 4 adults to help out with the 2 kids...

OK, what would you do and why?

findark

I don't have the flight schedule to hand, but I would be for option A as it presumably avoids doing an overnight in Y

It is longer though, and I don't know the timing of the rest of the flights. I would definitely try to find something better either way, but that might be hard.

jp12687

Assuming a mileage purchase and not enough miles for business while Way?

id also look into SFO-EWR
then EWR-ZRH-JNB on swiss

i did that route before on Swiss (originating in EWR) Swiss business is nice. Unless I’m mistaking the Sal Paolo flight is on fake Polaris which is old seats.

zurich is an easy city to enjoy during the layover

enjoy CPT one of my favorite places ever. I want to buy a house there

mduell

Option A, much rather do 5 daytime hours in coach than 10 nighttime hours.

txaggiemiles

Weird, as I read your post I thought A sounded like the no brainer.

Gig103

To me it's #1 for sure, I did LAX-FRA in business class and 12.5 hours nonstop was weary. But I don't have to think about occupying kiddos during an extra 10 hours of travel.

halls120

Same here. 12 hours nonstop in coach is a non starter for me.

aacharya

Considerations:

1. Assume due to the *A business aspect, OP is already paying the extra miles.
2. Assume with this many miles, OP is at least *Gold, or hopefully Plat/1K.
3. Assume SFO-FRA is on LH.

If it were me (a 1K) the SFO-EU or SFO-East Coast-EU route is a no-brainer. I'd do that now, and keep refining that outbound until something pops up to get myself to FRA with the overwater being in C.

If I do the other route, that's a full re-ticketing due to the Brazil-EU leg, but OP can use a myriad of carriers/routes to do SFO-FRA.

So I choose B, with some caveats about getting it done better over time.

silver_halide

Are you sure there is inventory for either of these options? 6 partner award business seats sounds unlikely.

I'm split on the extra stops. On the one hand, the change of scenery and chance to walk around will be nice for the kids. On the other hand, you're talking over a day of travel - At that point, your only hope with them might be an uninterrupted chance to sleep.

RockyMntFlyer

The only thing you may want to consider with the connection in GRU is the layover time. I got a room at the Tryp hotel in airport and napped on the outbound. On the return, it was not quite long enough to bother with the hotel and I hung out in the lounge. Since I has started my day very early out of Durban, I was quite tired by the time I got to GRU.

Regardless of how you go, you are still going to South Africa and its so worth a little inconvenience (enjoy)!

pinkhighlighter

Thanks, everyone.

A bit more info in response to some of the replies...

- My husband is *gold, I have silver status.
- I found these awards while logged into his account (yes, 6 award flights).
- We do have enough miles to cover the six flights if we combine our miles.

For details on the routes:
Option A:
flight 1: UA econ from SFO-IAD **5 flight options/day but saver econ option is 4p-1a...**
flight 2: UA Polaris biz from IAD-GRU (not sure how to tell if it's a faux Polaris, but the plane is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner)
layover in GRU for 9h5m
flight 3: SA biz GRU to JNB to CPT

Option B:
UA econ from SFO-FRA *** this is not LH! *** this would be an overnight ***
SA biz from FRA-JNB-CPT

I looked into flying through EWR... This pulls up another options parallel to Option A, except flying econ into EWR and then flying biz Polaris (Boeing 777-200) to GRU and SA biz to JNB. If I want to go EWR-ZRH, I have to stop in FRA on the way to JNB, so I might as well fly straight to FRA.

OK, any changes in thoughts??

Aussienarelle

As for most others here, an international red eye is not much fun in Y and I choose J whenever possible. Domestic day time flights are fone in Y. Your arrival at 1am would not phase me on the SFO-IAD leg.

However, I do everything possible to avoid EWR as my flights are always delayed through there and with two little ones that would be a nightmare scenario.

J seats are great with kids (as long as they are your kids).

If it were me I would still go Option A as someone who has done much international travel with kids. Also, make sure to order a kids meal for each of them.

Enjoy your trip!

jp12687

the 787 is not the proper Polaris its old style Polaris.

jp12687

also what are your dates?

Aussienarelle

They are still lie flat seats and seating is 2-2-2 so perfect for the six of them