...may kill my plans for a safari in late July 2008. Rats!
I'm thinking of buying airline tickets for specific dates and then making up an itinerary to fit. We're planning a private safari anyway. I realize that we may not get the properties we want, but what the heck, we might not get them anyway. Frankly, with our budget, there are LOTS of properties I'd like to get into but won't. Or I may wait a while and see if these oil prices are a speculative bubble that will burst in a few months.
Any thoughts on this from the community?

Yes, airline tickets are expensive this far out and who knows what the future will bring, but I just got an e-mail from British Airways for $169.00 (plus taxes etc.) ($253 from the West Coast) one way fares from NY to London through March. Hopefully there will be specials later in the year too and onward to Africa. I'm going to book my lodging soon and worry about the airfare closer to the time I plan on travelling.
Good Luck!

Where were you planning to go? Some companies have contracts with airlines flying to Africa, so you might find some deals there. Also, I've been checking www.kayak.com for fares to Nairobi for next year and have found some good deals. That's for September, though. For East Africa (Kenya, anyway), the fares drop almost $600 after August. It's shoulder season for airfare, but is still high season for safaris.

Thanks ShayTay,

I wish we had more latitude on travel dates. I would have liked to travel in September, but we can only go in late July/early August. I placed my bet on airfare continuing to rise for a few more months while lodging availability declined.
We got RTx2 for $3357 DEN to NBO thru Heathrow. That's as good as it gets right now. I've promised myself that I am NOT going to look again in a few weeks!

$1,700 return DEN/NBO is excellent for July/August travel. You did well.

... and don't check further now that you have your tickets. There maybe a special, but likely it will be for low-season, as Apr or May. Doubt anything for peak travel season during the summer.

Now, you can work on your itinerary.

I browse here from the Asia forum but saw the mention of air fares.

Just a reminder - Delta start flights 'direct' to Nairobi from June 2008, that may be of interest if you did not know ( the flight stops in Dakar on the way ), there were several threads about it a while back, no idea what the fares would be like but it's a direct flight !

I just topped the message.

ccipups-

I see you found air and this wouldn't have helped you anyway because of your travel dates but for anyone else...

I noticed that LTU (a no-frills airline) in Germany flies to Cape Town from Munich and Dusseldorf until the end of April for Summer in South Africa. Which coincidentally lines up perfect with cheap flights to Germany from the US because it is NOT summer there. I don't know if this is a necessarily cheaper but with all those cheapie specials, it might be sometime.

Maybe you all know this though?

Hello,

FWIW I've seen a dip in US-SA fares in late January / February for the past two years, for travel through June. It went as low as $1200 from Chicago to Joburg.

If you're planning to route through Europe, the airline fare structure includes a bump in fares on that route from July onwards due to the timing of European school holidays.

Cheers,
Julian