Flights to Dar es Salam

Old Apr 7th, 2005, 01:23 PM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,516
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Flights to Dar es Salam

I was just doing a little surfing to get an idea of flght prices from west coast USA to Dar. Was looking at Sept time and keep coming up with prices over US$3000 per person. Is this real??? I checked for Feb and came up with $1700. Is Sept just a crazy time to go??
Thanks J
jules39 is offline  
Old Apr 7th, 2005, 01:34 PM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 4,222
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Jules,
I had seem something a few months ago--need to find the web site--September, SFO or LAX to Dar for $1100.

Patty will know. But I will check. Didn't bookmark (stupid) b/c there's no way I can go this year.
Leely is offline  
Old Apr 7th, 2005, 01:48 PM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 4,222
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts

Hmm, it's a "sale" fare, so I'm not sure if that helps you with a general idea of fares at that time.

FWIW I got to the UKAir.com site via travelzoo. They're running Middle East/Africa fares starting at $929 (fr. JFK), Sept. 1-Oct. 29. LA and SF are at $1128.

If I could swing it this fall I'd jump on it. (insert sad face here.)
Leely is offline  
Old Apr 7th, 2005, 03:21 PM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,402
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
jules39,
Where are you flying from? I just priced LAX-DAR with random weekday dates in Sep and came up with $1785 on BA. This is an M class economy fare valid for the following seasons - 3APR-29MAY, 1SEP-26OCT OR 16-23DEC. The reason that you're coming up with $3000 may be that M class fares are sold out on the particular dates that you checked.

Try shifting your dates around some more, keeping in mind that service on BA from LHR to DAR only operates 3x per week. It's Mo/Th/Sa southbound and Tu/Fr/Su northbound.

This is currently the lowest published fare. The KLM fare (a Q class fare valid 25DEC-31MAY OR 2SEP-15DEC) is about $100 higher but they do offer the advantage of flying daily into DAR from AMS (the southbound flight makes a brief stop at JRO to drop off passengers).

Try using this site to check fares:

http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm

It displays the fare class or fare 'bucket' information so you can easily see if a particular fare, i.e. an M fare, is available before selecting and pricing your flights. Look under the Notes section and it will show a string of letters and numbers like this:

Cabin class: F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 R9 V9 N0 0 0

The letters represent various fare buckets within each class of service, for example F and A are first class fare buckets, Y and all the letters appearing after Y are economy class buckets. Y represents the full undiscounted economy fare, B/H/K/M/R/V/N are all various discounted economy fares. The number after each letter shows how many seats are still left within that particular fare bucket with 9 being the maximum that this system displays (in other words there could be well over 9 seats left). If you see a zero after the letter that means that there are no more seats for sale in that fare bucket.

Each airline uses it's own particular set of letters. There are similarities between all the airlines, for example F is always first class, J is always business and Y is always economy, but an M fare on BA will not be the same as a M fare on another carrier (the above string was copied from a BA flight). In addition, there are slight price variances within each fare bucket, for example a weekday M fare may not be the same as a weekend M fare. When I changed my weekday dates to Sunday (both departing and returning), the fare came to around $2000 on BA. Both were M fares but the difference in price was the result of the day of travel.

Sorry to ramble on, does this make any sense or is it all gobblygook (I can never tell when I'm writing these things)?

Finally, check some of the consolidators that offer air to Africa. They may have access to fares that are even lower than the lowest published fares. There have been a few names mentioned on this board. I know that here in LA, Somak Safaris advertises their fares in the travel section of the LA Times every week.

Good luck!
Patty is offline  
Old Apr 8th, 2005, 08:25 AM
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,516
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thank you Leely & Patty that is reassuring. I did find those BA flights Patty, prices much more in the real range. Yes we will fly out of LAX.

Thanks again
J
jules39 is offline  
Old Apr 8th, 2005, 08:55 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,402
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
jules,
I found similarly priced flights on KLM as well at $1789 per person. Earlier I'd glanced at the KLM base fare only and forgot that the air taxes are much higher when flying through Heathrow than most other airports. On BA the taxes total $261 versus $114 on KLM, so in the end, the total fares are about the same on both airlines. BA does offer more direct service from LAX with only one stop each way at LHR, whereas the one daily LAX-AMS nonstop on KLM arrives too late in the day to connect to the DAR flight, so you'd most likely have to fly Northwest via Minneapolis to connect.
Patty is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Gynna
Air Travel
6
Mar 13th, 2014 10:14 AM
poutine
Asia
7
Aug 7th, 2007 09:31 AM
dupher
Europe
4
Jul 24th, 2007 07:30 PM
clueless
United States
31
Sep 3rd, 2004 05:17 PM
cooter
Europe
9
Apr 19th, 2002 04:21 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -