gayletmom

I am planning a Tanzanian safari in May of 2014 with the family. I have been saving my points and miles and am thrilled to have gotten 3 business class tickets for the trip from IAH to Nairobi. We will then book inter-africa flights from there. I need to book two more paid bus. seats on the same AirFrance flights departing the US. One way business fares are coming in at a high price ($8k each). I am wondering if anyone has any insight on whether the prices might go down and how I can get notifications? Any suggestions?

ShayTay

Try www.kayak.com. You can compare flights and also set up alerts. I usually fly Precision Air from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania.

marky68

Hi gayletmom,

The price you have specified is too high.If you willing to book these tickets from other flight carriers like Turkish Airlines or United Airlines etc. You can get really cheap deals. I have seen the price of 1 seat from IAH to Nairobi and the price is about $1K(USD) which is very less as compared to your specified price i.e. $8k.

I used the website- tripntourpackages. Hope it can also help you.

sandi

But that Turkish air 'very tempting' fares gets into NBO about 2:30am and departs 3:30am. These do incur additional hotel costs both on arrival and departure dates.

For all flights regardless carrier whether award or paid, do make certain you have sufficient transfer/layover time for ongoing to/from NBO. And remember that weather can have an impact on delays, though May would be unusual unless you get tornadoes... ugh!

Only recommendation is to keep watching, but expect Business Class, any carrier to cost about the same as the entire safari for each pax.

LyndaS

We were quoted 8k for a one way business class ticket from NBO-LHR-YVR in May 2013 from British Airways, so your quote from Air France would be in the ballpark. We ended going with Emirates for 4k, but warning, we did end up spending the other 4k in Dubai! (but it was a very exciting three days & we wouldn't have traded it for the world)

sandi

Lynda, that comment made me laugh as there's always somewhere to spend whatever we think we're saving and you did it in Dubai. Hey, why not!

Emirates is a darn good air carrier with competitive fares and plane interiors that do not have any blue color, which was so darn refreshing the first time I flew with them about 5/yrs ago when they still had only 1/terminal. At this point I've lost count as they continue to expand.

Waiting to read your report when you can get to it.