I am embarressed to say I can't even get my trip planning started because I can't even figure out flights to Egypt and the South Africa - help!!
 

We are going on our first safari (Wilderness Safari) next September. Prior to the start of the safari, we would like to spend about 3 days in Cairo. For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out the best airlines/routes to take. We would be leaving from Tulsa (actually will probably have to leave from Dallas) and our multi-city route would be Tulsa/Dallas to Cairo to Johannesburg -- and then from Livingston or Victoria Falls back to Tulsa/Dallas via whatever route is required. I realize we will probably have to use multiple carriers but I can't seem to figure it out. We have TONS of FF miles on American Airlines but are not restricted to them though it would be nice to use those miles if at all possible. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Thank you!!

Patty is our FF miles specialist... hopefully she'll catch this thread and have some ideas for you.

Airlines usually release their seats about 330 days prior to the date of the flights. You'd want to start trying to get your seats 330 days before your last flight home. Try calling American's international FF desk now and get an idea of what routing they could use. You might also use their website and see what comes up for July flights for next summer.

American is part of the Oneworld alliance. You can look up flight options that leverage all the Oneworld partners here: http://oneworld.com/

I believe part of your problem is there is not an easy way using Oneworld/AA miles to get from Cairo to Johannesburg. You would need to fly back to Europe, spend the night, then fly to Johannesburg. Or just buy a one-way ticket from Cairo to Johannesburg.

It looks like you would be fine for the Johannesburg/Livingstone or Vic Falls flights.

Forgot to add that British Airways appears to be your best (or only)choice for those African cities.

Take a look at the carriers that participate in AAdvantage partner airline awards and see which ones fly to your destinations and the routing (use the Oneworld website or the individual carrier's website for non-Oneworld airlines) http://tinyurl.com/27a9bb

I don't see an issue to Cairo or departing Livingstone or Vic Falls, but from Cairo to Johannesburg, it looks like you'll need to route through Istanbul on Turkish or Tel Aviv on El Al. I don't see a participating carrier that operates nonstop between the two.

I'm not well versed in AAdvantage. You might want to cross post this in the airlines forum where someone like AAFrequentFlyer may see it and he'll probably have more ideas.

Good luck!

The AAdvantage partner award has many more participating airlines than just Oneworld and while Comair (BA affiliate) may be your only choice out of Livingstone or Vic Falls, you have additional carrier choices into Cairo and out of Johannesburg.

AA has a separate Oneworld award which is distance based and limited to Oneworld carriers, but in terms of number of miles needed for redemption, I don't think you'll benefit from using this award.

Sounds like a crazy mess just for three days in Cairo!

I just did a search on kayak - kayak.com, my favorite - and clicked on multi-city at the top of the page, rather than return. Then, I clicked on one world on the left in the filters. British air seems to fly from DFW to Cairo, and then to JNB, Johannesberg. I searched in June, because you can't reserve too far ahead, but it should be the same in September.
Try it, there are lots of options.

BA flies between Cairo and Johannesburg via London Heathrow.

Are you sure you want 3 days in Cairo? If you had stated you had a week, I think it would be a fine idea to include Egypt. But 3 days seems like a crazy mess to me also.

If you have an extra 3 days, you could add them to your safari or to Victoria Falls. What does your itinerary look like? If you post it then you can receive lots of suggestions on how to add 3 days.

or Cape Town.

You can try to look for fares from Emirates airlines.....by the time, your safari rolls around, they will have direct non-stop service from Houston, Texas to Dubai. From there, you can easily hop over to Cairo. Cairo to JNB....you may need to go back to Dubai!

Good luck!
Hari

Agree with Lynn, 3 days is too short....Egypt warrants atleast a week's visit at a minimum!

Not sure the purpose of your layover in Egypt but you would have other options on the AA partner carriers such as London (BA), Madrid (Iberia), Brussels, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem (El Al) each of which flies from that city to Johannesburg without an additional flight segment.

If you really wish to visit Cairo, even for 3/days (Cairo is interesting, so why not if you can coordinate doing so), consider flying into TLV (Israel).

Believe flying into TLV will offer the shortest and probably least expensive tickets to CAI...both El Al (or an Israeli charter) or Egypt Air fly this route, different days of week. This would be a separate "paid" ticket, if able to book the rest of the itinerary using FF miles.

You have to consider all possible options.

Oklahoma traveler,
I have booked FF awards on AA from the US to Africa. If you want to use FF miles for air tickets, you need to call AA now and talk to the international awards desk about general routing (you may have to give them "fake" dates that are within 330 days to have them look up routing). Tell them your plans and see what they have to say. It can take hours of calls (and your time) to get it figured out. But the saving can also make your vacation budget go a lot further.
I don't know the specifics of your route, but if you can not get a direct flight from Cairo to SA (CPT or JNB), then I think 3 days is too short of a time to make the extra stop. International air travel is time consuming and can be exhausting.
All that said, good luck and go for it.

OK, after briefly perusing this thread on Flyertalk this morning, I don't think Cairo would be an allowable stopover on a North America to Africa AAdvantage partner award anyway http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440733

<i>North America To/from Other Regions:
In addition to the final destination, one stopover is allowed at the North American Gateway on the outbound or return, not both.
In addition, one stopover is allowed at the first International Gateway on the outbound or the last International Gateway on the return, not both.</i>

Given the participating carriers on this award, I don't think it's possible for Cairo to be the &quot;first International Gateway&quot;.

You could choose a different stopover city that would qualify and skip Cairo or redeem an open jaw Tulsa-Cairo and Livingstone/Vic Falls-Tulsa and purchase a separate ticket for Cairo to Johannesburg (which you may be better off doing anyway as you could get a nonstop).

With the Oneworld distance based award, a Cairo stopover might be allowable. However, I don't see a way of getting from Cairo to Johannesburg in any kind of efficient manner via Oneworld.

Thanks everyone for so much information. It appears as though the responses are mostly dealing with American Airlines FF miles. I mentioned them in my original post as it would be NICE to use them for this trip but it is not a requirement -- simply an option. We travel extensively and use our FF whenever possible and I am very well versed in the &quot;330 days out&quot; requirement, and all the One World Alliance nuances -- mostly because of trial and error over the years! I was just having difficulty in figuring out if I could stay on the same carrier if flying into Cairo and then from Cairo to Johannesburg. It appears I might need to break up the carriers and I wasn't sure which way to route ourselves in the most efficient manner. Having never flown to Africa, I am in over my head! But you've given me lots of things to think about and I should be able to get it straight soon.

I know, I know! Three days in Cairo/Egypt certainly is not enough. I didn't go into a lot of detail in my origianl post BUT we are taking the safari for my 50th birthday BUT my birthday is 3 days before the safari begins. My husband (who is THE BEST!!) insists we be someplace spectacular on my actual birthday and since (1) I've always wanted to see the pyramids; and (2) we will already be on the correct continent, we decided to see the pyramids for the actual birthday before heading off to the safari which is the actual birthday GIFT. Normally we would spend well over 3 days in such a fascinating area but time constraints won't allow us to (this will be the 3rd &quot;major&quot; trip for us in 2008 within about 4 months and there's just so much time one can be away from the office!!).

Again, thank you for all the GREAT advice!!

The only way to stay on one carrier would be to take Egypt Air from New York to Cairo, then Cairo to Johannesburg, but then you'd have to backtrack through Cairo again.