sylbea

Please tell me if I have totally lost my mind!!!!!! We have the FF miles to fly to Europe but not all the way to Kenya. I was thinking about using the miles to go to some place in Europe, spend a couple of days on each end, and then purchasing a ticket from Europe to Nairobi independently.

Has anyone done this. What did you find was the best place to fly into Kenya other than Amsterdam and London. I know that there is a flight from Zurich. However, by the time I get hotels, etc. it might not save me anything! Thanks for your help.

sandi

Seems the major cities would be London with British & Virgin; Amsterdam with KLM or Kenya Air; Zurich with Swiss; Brussels with Brussels; Frankfurt with Condor; Dubai with Emirates; (believe Doha with Qatar)... and I'm sure there are others. Turkish Air flies from Istanbul. You might even be able to pick-up Ethiopian in Rome, but they have a stop at Addis Ababa before landing NBO.

Except for one trip 12/yrs ago when I did a stop over in AMS, I usually fly straight on when going and returning. But, I'm flying from JFK; might reconsider for stop over if coming from the West Coast.

Personally, I find AMS airport the most civilized and the city itself is small enough to get in lots of sightseeing on a short 2/day stay.

Good luck!

spassvogel

I would opt for ZURICH and SWISS to NBO.

I love Zurich as it's a pleasant small airport compared to AMS.

Queenie

I've done this several times through ZRH, however its probably not worth using your FF miles.

ZRH - NBO or AMS-NBO is often only $300 - $400 more adding on the US connection (depending what your departure city is, of course).

I wouldn't use my FF miles for that small amount.

And paying for hotels would make this a losing proposition if you are looking from a stictly economical point of view.

sandi

Queenie -

Where do you find $300-$400 return between AMS/NBO or ZRH/NBO? It's usually more like twice that! And, I haven't seen a $400 return fare between the States/Europe in years.

sylbea -

Depending on time of year, fares from NYC to NBO can be as low as $1050 thru London, or as high at $1600 (sometimes even higher) return. When the fares are at their lowest (or whatever amount I don't mind paying), I'd prefer to use my miles to upgrade to Business.

Queenie

Sandi-
I wasn't very clear.

Over the past several years (when I lived in Zurich) I have found ZRH - NBO and AMS-NBO return to run about $1000.

ORD - NBO runs about $1300 (Chicago). I wouldn't use FF for Europe to save $300. But thats from my home airport.

sandi

Queenie -

That's more like it.

Have often considered to maybe use FF one segment, i.e, across the pond and then pay for Europe/NBO and find it's just not worth it. The Europe/NBO segment can be anywhere from $750-$1000+ return and for another $300-500 from the States, I won't waste the FF miles. Except, of course, an upgrade to Business.

However, if one has lots and lots of miles, spend them however. Unfortunately, that's never my situation!

spassvogel

EMIRATES from FRA to NBO has fares from 512€ incl. tax/fees for Sep.
SWISS is 600€ from Oct
BRUSSELS is 710€ for Sep

Add-on might be cheaper.

But compared to the tax/fee you have to pay on top of the miles it's not worthwhile to spent miles in Eco.

crosscheck

sylbea, We just used miles to go to London, then purchased premium economy tickets from LHR-NBO (we later paid to upgrade on one leg). There were four of us traveling from the west coast and we booked only 5 weeks before our trip, so it was a miracle that we got award tickets and bargain premium economy. Heathrow would not have been my first choice in Europe, but there was no other way to work it out using AA miles.