napamatt

Dennis

The UK carriers are certainly not as generous with their miles as the US carriers, though just try and spend the miles on United et al.

thit_cho

Matt, I have found it very, very easy to redeem my miles (mostly on Delta, but recently on United), but I redeemed many months in advance. Last month, I redeemed 50,000 United miles for Lufthansa flights next May to Kazakhstan and back from Turkmenistan, and it was easy to redeem. I'm also watching the calendar to redeem miles for a trip in August 2007 (either Alaska or East Africa (Burundi, DRC and Zanzibar)). So long as you monitor the calendar, there are plenty of mileage redemption opportunities.

I have friends, though, that, for example, in late November attempted to redeem miles for a Christmas trip to Hawaii, and obviously were disappointed.

Its all about watching the calendar.

Michael

napamatt

Michael

Agreed, but sometimes watching the calendar is not an option, as it wasn't for Rocco here. Also the US carriers products are pretty terrible compared to overseas airlines.

Roccco

It is done...I pushed back my trip a few days in order to start with Botswana and end with South Africa, as well as to allow me to be home for November 04th (a couple big fights and a desired half marathon that has eluded me forever).

I will now fly LAX - CDG - Paris on Air France, arriving in JNB at 7:25AM, giving me ample time to make the JNB to Maun flight. Best of all, it only has a 3 hour layover, making it much shorter than a London layover and getting me to JNB from LAX in under 24 hours, no small feat...must be the best option for flying out of LAX that I have found.

Final itinerary:

Linyanti Bushcamp (3)
Baines Camp (3)
Chiefs Camp (3)
Lebala (2)
Lagoon (2)
Kwara (2)
Michelangelo Towers, Sandton (1)(there is a table with my name on it at Bukhara's Indian restaurant next door)
Sabi Sabi (3)
Mateya (3)

This is how I prefer things...to end with the utmost in luxury rather than to start with it. Although I could be proven wrong about the amount of wildlife, at least by the time I get to Mateya, I will not be disappointed if all I see are wild dogs and not a lot of everything else. I am there only for the wild dogs and for what may be the most luxurious lodge in all of Africa.

The flight home works out very well, also, departing JNB at 8:45PM, arriving in Paris at 6:15AM, departing for LAX at 10:15AM and getting me into LAX at 12:50PM on a Sunday afternoon.

I am very excited to have added 3 nights in Linyanti. This gives me 7 nights between Linyanti/Lebala/Lagoon and 8 nights in the Delta between Baines/Chiefs/Kwara. I don't think I will mind a break inbetween Botswana and Sabi Sand/Madikwe for a night at the very posh Michelangelo Towers.

So that does it!!!

Patty

Rocco,
With all of the bus rides around CDG, you'll need the 3 hours there

Michael,
Sometimes booking late can work to your advantage too as carriers may start to shift some unsold seats into award inventory, but obviously this only works when bookings are lighter and not for Christmas to Hawaii!

csuss

What about Swiss AIr? Not sure if they fly to JNB, but we had a great direct flight from Nairobi to Zurich then direct to LAX using AA miles.

Also - this may be a silly question, but have you checked in with the folks at Flyertalk.com - they know every route in the book.

Roccco

Patty,

It will be my first time at CDG in 17 years since I arrived as a high school graduate ages ago. As long as a section of CDG does not collapse as happened a couple years ago, I won't mind running around a bit. I am sure that the French people I encounter at the airport will be just SO friendly and SO helpful!

However, true story, the rudest airport behaivour I ever encountered was at JFK (New York) when an irate customer, upset that his sandwich was not made exactly as dictated, threw the entire sandwich as hard as he could at the sandwich makers face!

jasher

Hi Dennis,

I've never had problems getting mileage for economy class tickets on Virgin -- if you have an FF account with Continental it will accept mileage for almost all Virgin flights, which you can then redeem with any of their partners -- the most useful ones for African travel are Virgin, KLM, and Emirates (if you don't mind being stuck in Dubai at an ungodly hour).

Cheers,
Julian

Mediatorr

I hate to be such a contrarian with this group but I would hate for people to think that Virgin PE is nothing but fabulous. In May, we flew LAX to LHR and were somewhat disappointed. When we returned from LHR to LAX, our opinion changed to extreme anger and even disgust. The cabin crew was lovely. The plane took us from point A to point B safely. The rest was all negative. The seats are only marginally larger than economy and smaller than business on other carriers. I have an injured neck and was very uncomfortable with seats which barely go back at all. Most importantly, the staff in the airport were rude and dishonest. Another passenger was yelling and screaming at them and I assumed that she was the one who was being rude until we got to the front of the line and discovered that they had given our seats away 3 hours before the flight. Last, but certainly not least, the plane's cabin was FILTHY and disgusting and even the "amenity kit" was handed to me with a hair in it! We'll never fly on Virgin again.

sydvischus

Any recommendations for simply economy going from LAX-LHR? Thanks

Gardyloo

<i>Any recommendations for simply economy going from LAX-LHR? Thanks</i>

Air New Zealand has the most legroom in coach on that route. They also have a premium coach service too, by all reports equal to or better then that offered by British Airways or Virgin on LAX-LHR.

steeliejim

I can confirm first hand, (returned from LHR to SFO on 9 Oct.) that BA economy leg room is really tight, and I'm only 5'-10''.

matnikstym

I'm 6' and didn't find BA too uncomfortable, but we sat in the back on the 2 seat aisle. only thing i didn't like was the movie system wasn't on demand. i second the air new zealand flight if available, great service, food and they have the foot rest things that pop out in economy. going VirginAir in a few days, will let you know on that when i return.

steeliejim

Yeah, felt the same way re. the movies on BA. Seemed like they really wanted to maintain control. Having said that, we sure are getting spoiled aren't we? Not so long ago we were stuck with reading catalogs.

BTW, the BA inflight magazine is the best I've seen on an airline, and better than most travel magazines, IMO.

matnikstym

true, and the magazine has the Mensa challenge!