Last updated on January 31st, 2016 at 04:54 am
After hearing all of the gushing reports of South Africa from my friends and other travel bloggers, I knew at some point I would need to visit South Africa myself. That opportunity appears to be coming sooner than later, because my father and I jumped at a deal to stay at the Vuyani Safari Lodge when the property was featured on Jetsetter last month.
This place looked great in photos, the ratings were high from visitors and the price was right at just over $1,000 for 3 all inclusive nights at the lodge. So we picked a random set of dates in April of 2014 and booked the Safari lodge. Now it’s time to plan the rest of the trip!
Help Me Plan a Trip to South Africa
Here are the ground rules for planning the trip:
- We only have 6-7 nights to stay in South Africa. 3 of these will be at the lodge and we are looking at 1-2 nights in Johannesburg and 2 nights in Cape Town.
- Our preference is to use award tickets to get to Johannesburg and my preference is to fly in Business Class.
- We need to be on the same flight and we will need to leave from Minneapolis, MN.
- We have the following airline currencies/transfer partners to deal with:
- 500,000 Delta Skymiles across two accounts
- 150,000 Membership Rewards points
- 400,000 Ultimate Rewards points
- There may be some other currencies available, but trying to stick to using these 3.
- Hotels in J-Burg and Cape Town will be booked using points
While I would have thought that these parameters would make the trip easy to book, I have found that it is actually quite difficult to find business class award availability to Johannesburg. I guess that this is why I’m asking for help!
The Easy Part: Delta Business Class from MSP – LHR
As of today, there is solid availability for direct flights from Minneapolis to London Heathrow on Delta in business class. This would be for 100k Skymiles round trip per person.
The Not So Easy Part – LHR to JNB in Business Class
Getting to London opens up possibilities of using the rest of our miles to fly from LHR to JNB or perhaps route through a European city like Frankfurt. The problem I am running into is that I can’t find a single business class ticket on the British Airways website or when searching Star Alliance on Expert Flyer for my desired travel dates. I also don’t have enough Membership Rewards points to book this flight using KLM or Air France miles in business class. If only Delta showed business class cabins on KLM and Air France as available.
This is where I need help from readers or fellow travel bloggers: Is there a way to get to JNB from Europe in Business class reliably? Would the miles that I have available get us there? Should I just book a coach award ticket on an airline and hope that business class seats open up as the dates near?
The Paid (and Uncomfortable Route)
The paid option is to route through Atlanta in Economy Comfort. This would involve a 8,439 mile, ~16 hour flight in Economy Comfort class. While this wouldn’t be the end of the world, I would not be looking forward to that 16 hour flight, even in Economy Comfort.
Why Am I Obsessed with International Business Class?
This is simple: I have been amassing large amounts of points and miles for a long time, and I would like to use them for aspirational travel. That is the reason why I play this travel game and what keeps me motivated to keep on earning points and miles. Sure, I could pay cash to reach my destination, but trying to find a cheaper and more luxurious option is much more appealing to me.
Any Recommendations?
I realize that by asking for recommendations I may be opening myself up to criticism for not having this all planned out, but I am fine with this for a simple reason: it will be a great learning experience for us all. Even though award ticket bookings may appear easy to those who run award booking services, it is actually quite time consuming for those of us who only book a few international flights a year. If one reader learns from this experience, then it was all worthwhile.
Are you dead-set on routing through Europe? SAA flies direct from JFK and “direct” (refuel stop) from IAD. Availability can be really tricky to find, but I set alerts with Wandering Aramean’s tools and scored business class both way @ 120K UA miles per person. Availability from JNB to CPT is pretty easy, so that’s not a big deal. I wrote a bunch of posts on my trip to Cape Town last NYE (http://first2board.com/foodwineandmiles/tag/south-africa/), and would be happy to do my best to answer any questions! Are you going to try to get out to the winelands or stay in and around CPT?
Thanks for the info Jason! I am not set on Europe routing all…will read through your posts for sure
I’m in the middle of planning a trip to CPT for September 2014. I haven’t booked anything yet, but I’ve been researching like crazy. It is VERY difficult to find availability to JNB in business or first. I’m trying to do it with UA miles (which you could do through your UR points, obviously) Here are a few pointers:
1. ) Look at LX through ZUR. The availability isn’t huge, but it is better than any of the LH or SA flights through FRA or MUC that I’ve seen.
2.) Consider flying via Asia. I know it sounds absolutely absurd, but you can route via asia as well – this opens up a bunch of different options.
3.) Start by looking at the alliance websites to make sure you aren’t overlooking connection points. I used the star alliance and their route map helped me tremendously to ensure I wasn’t overlooking any potential routes.
4.) If your goal is just to avoid economy class – there is TONS of availability via CAI on EgyptAir. While I haven’t flown them, I’ve read that they don’t have a business class and their premium product is comparable to domestic first class products here. Not as bad as cattle class, but certainly not “aspirational.” I’m personally trying to avoid them due to the amount of political instability there, but it is an option to keep in mind.
Good luck!
Great info – Thanks Paul. I don’t think I’m ready to route through Cairo at this point in their political situation. Will definitely look into Swiss and Star Alliance website. Appreciate the info and will share what I end up booking in case it helps you.
You should try MS if you are willing to. I see tons of availability from JFK, and YYZ
I had a similarly short trip to South Africa this past spring (fall in South Africa). For that length, I’d recommend thinking of Johannesburg just as an airport. It’s not that there isn’t anything worthwhile there, but there’s just too much to do, see, and eat in Cape Town to spend even a night or two in Jo’burg when you have just week total. Since you’re doing 3 nights at a lodge, I’d absolutely do the other 3-4 nights in Cape Town – even that is very short. Rent a car when you are there – driving is pretty hassle-free (after adjusting to driving on the other side of the road – not that hard) and allows you to get to places not easily accessible by public transport. Security concerns are often overblown but do need to be taken into account – here again, Cape Town is less of a problem than Jo’burg.
As far as routing – flying EgyptAir through CAI is probably preferable to flying in coach, despite the current political turmoil – you’re not leaving the airport. The poster below is incorrect, EgyptAir does have business class and has largely phased out first class. No alcohol is served, but if you get one of the newer aircraft it’s a decent product. You might also check long-haul flights into Cape Town – there aren’t a ton, but KLM flies year-around from AMS and BA from LHR, and there are seasonal flights on Air France from CDG and Lufthansa from MUC, although they may not be operating in April.
Should’ve also mentioned that Ethiopian flies IAD-ADD, and ADD-JNB.
Great info, thanks. I did see the Egypt and Ethiopia options when I searched Star Alliance, but I just don’t think my dad is up for that. He is most interested in getting there in timely fashion over luxury. Seems like my options are to wait longer for preferred availability, consider some fancy routing options or to fly in coach. Thanks for also confirming that Cape town is the place to be. That was my understanding and I’m glad to know it’s best to spend as many nights there as possible.
Neither EgyptAir nor Ethiopian is exactly luxurious, but business on either will be a heck of lot more comfortable than coach on any carrier. For a short hop over the Atlantic I’d just suck it up, but we’re talking about 24+ hrs of flying from MSP. BTW, I looked up Delta award availability on some random dates in April just to see what it looked like, 150,000 R/T was the lowest I could find in coach and 315,000 in business. Yikes. I saw no availability on United’s website for April in business (which would be just 120,000 R/T, one of the best deals on their award chart), but many days of availability in coach (UA to IAD, SA to JNB with a fuel stop in DKR, same plane) at just 80,000 R/T, which you could do by transferring Ultimate Rewards points. Realize you’re kind of stuck with Delta in MSP, but this is a pretty good illustration of why Delta’s miles are called Skypesos – and something I keep in mind any time I begin to grouch about United’s service.
That’s my struggle and why I’m looking outside of Delta. As of now, I might just set an alert on the South African flights out of IAD and JFK for whenever business class opens up. If it opens up by the end of the year, I’ll go with that and add on the MSP leg later. If it does not open up, then it might just be paying cash on Delta in coach.
Be aware that the business availability on these SAA flights to IAD / JFK is extremely sparse. I was planning on doing the same (for my return segment. The outbound will have a stopover at LHR.) But I realized the probability of finding business availability on these flights is extremely low. I’ll still set alerts for them and hope for the best – but I won’t plan my trip around them.
Sorry if I misspoke / was unclear below. I meant to indicate (as you have) that Egypt operates a two-cabin product with their premium cabin similar to domestic first (and marketed / sold as business). My mistake.