Emirates is a great airline, but bear in mind that its a double reward ticket from the US to East Africa and, hence, a lot more miles to use Emirates. But you could get a stopover in Dubai -- I haven't been but its on my list. Its also a longer trip, so if you leave on Friday night you don't get to East Africa on Sunday. I think their flight leaves JFK around 11:00pm and get into Dubai the next night around 9:00pm or so, and then you catch a morning flight the next day to East Africa.

Dubai Airport at night may be interesting if you've never been there before - however, it can be quite boring if you have to wait there for several hours.

Mitch

jasher,
I am 200% sure that there is no air conditioning at Nkwali...and pretty sure that Puku Ridge and Luangwa River Lodge don't have it either.

Also, be careful about using Lusaka temps for your decisionmaking. Lusaka is VERY substantially cooler than it is in the lowlying river valleys like Luangwa and Zambezi. When I arrived in early May, Lusaka was delightful. The same day temps in the Luangwa Valley were at least 20 degrees hotter. And it stayed hot at night, unlike Lusaka (Lusaka is on a plateau .)

Kenya Airways is the only nonstop option from Nairobi to Lusaka-- coach airfares were somewhere around $450 to $700 rt this year. You can also do some connections thru Harare or possibly Lilongwe. (Yuck. another flight.)

From Joburg, only SAA has a nonstop. I think it is also in the range of $400 to $500 rt. Again, might have connections possible thru Lilongwe or Harare. (BA does fly to Livingstone, but that isn't a great option, as all the flights to Mfuwe go thru Lusaka.)

Remember, there is also an additional flight to Mfuwe, which was about $300-$360 roundtrip.

I thought Julian was in the UK or am I getting confused? From London I believe it's possible to take a redeye getting into Dubai the following morning and connecting same day to a DAR flight.

As for KLM, their DAR flight leaves AMS around 10:00ish, so you would need to depart London on a very early flight (around 6:00ish) to connect same day.

If you're not near London, please ignore!

Yes, I'm in London. I've looked into the KLM option before, but there are basically no reward seats on the London-Amsterdam sector (even looking a year in advance!) I could buy a ticket, but then would have to collect my luggage in Amsterdam which could take awhile.

Thanks for all of your input, guys. Sadly enough. it sounds like South Luangwa is out because of the temperatures -- I thought the Lusaka temperatures sounded pretty bad, and if it's hotter in the valley that would pretty much guarantee that it would ruin my trip. From what I've heard after emailing the camps in the Selous, that area would be pretty bad too -- so it looks like a Cape Town/Londoz combination, since Phinda is too hot as well.

But someday I will get to Zambia and Tanzania!

Cheers,
Julian