This is probably a very rudimentary question but does anyone (Patty?) know which airlines fly from Kigali to the US? I assume this will be via Europe. Just exploring the idea of flying into NBO and out of KIG and am having a difficult time figuring out schedules, etc. My other plan is Entebbe which seems much easer to research.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Brussels Airlines flies from Kigali (KGL) to Brussels (plane stops in Entebbe for an hour) where you can switch to American to Chicago or some other airline to other places in the US. In fact, for the time being AA has "codeshare" services from Kigali using the Brussels flight.

AA also has a codeshare arrangement with British Airways into NBO, so you could ticket your open-jaw through AA, with your route being (Your town) - London on AA, London - Nairobi on BA but carrying an AA flight number, then Kigali - (Entebbe) - Brussels on Brussels Airlines (again carrying an AA flight number) - Chicago - (Your town) on AA coming back.

The same idea is possible with KLM, using KLM planes over the water, then a combination of Air Kenya and KLM planes to/from Kenya and Rwanda, but all flights carrying KLM flight numbers.

Brussels is the only carrier I can think of that flies to KGL from outside of Africa but the service isn't daily. Otherwise, Kenya Airways flies from Nairobi, Ethiopian from Addis and Rwandair from a number of African cities.

EBB has more service to/from Europe.

Very helpful, thanks to you both. I meant KGL of course. KIG would take me somewhere completely different.

So it looks like I have basically two options: AA/BA/Brussels Air and KLM/KQ. I find Schipol a lot easier to deal with than LHR but it'll all come down to $ and schedule.

Thanks again!

Hi, another question--only tangentially related but I'm hoping Patty and Gardyloo or others in the know can help me with my novice ideas.

I am now most likely going to fly SFO-NBO and get a KQ flight to Kigali b/c flights in and out of NBO are more plentiful and cheaper. I have a paltry 38k miles on Flying Blue and would love to get rid of them somehow and just be done with FB for once and for all (not sure why I ever signed up). I had been hoping that perhaps this would be enough to cover my NBO-KGL return flight but it looks like inter-Africa flights are all 80k--yes?

In other news, I have 110k SkyMiles that I would love to use to offset some of the cost of this trip but cannot figure out if it's in any way possible. I rarely fly, have never booked any awards, etc., so I want out of the FF game b/c it doesn't make sense for me. <i>However,</i> if there's any way to use any of this stuff, I would love to.

Advice?

I just checked the FB chart and it does indeed look like Africa to Africa is 80K miles!

With your Skymiles, you can get a US to Africa award for 80K in economy or 120K in business provided there's availability. You're allowed a stopover so that should take care of both KGL and NBO on a single award.

KQ isn't bookable on delta.com. It used to be on nwa.com but I'm finding that less and less accurate for KQ these days. Your best bet is to call.

The other way to use Skymiles is Pay With Miles which offsets the cost of a purchased ticket. You have to be a Gold or higher Delta Amex cardholder. However I don't think your routing would be PWM eligible anyway plus it's a poor value.

Good luck and shoot me an email if you run into problems.

Good news--I was finally able to find award seats on my dates.
Bad news--for 180k miles!

Why? And does this ever change? I am assuming some of the flights (or all of them) are considered top tier or something.

Coach or business? Even if just one segment is mid or high tier, it bumps up the mileage requirement. You could try identifying which segment(s) it is and see if you can possibly replace it with a low tier segment(s).

Yeah, some segments are business but I actually had a really helpful agent and he did try to check it all for me and couldn't find a workaround. We also looked at the whole itinerary flopped, leaving and departing later in June and returning in July. He again found flights but came up with the exact same mileage issues.

I didn't ask him to dump the NBO-KGL-NBO segments but I wonder if that would make any difference. If I buy that ticket myself separately I keep my FB miles alive for another year and a half. The other issue is the NBO-AMS flight that has availability is a morning departure and arrives after the appropriate connections leave so I have to overnight in AMS the way home, which believe me is no problem unless for whatever reason it's adding miles to the itinerary .

I am beginning to think Africa awards are the Holy Grail of FF. But I'm sure everyone must feel that way about their chosen destinations.

The overnight in AMS may be causing some of the increased mileage requirement if you already have stops in both KGL and NBO. That AMS stop may be counting as an extra stopover. I would check if removing the NBO-KGL-NBO segments changes the mileage requirement. There may be something else that's causing it too. It's somewhat difficult to pinpoint as there are many possible combinations now since you can mix/match tiers, classes of service, extra stopovers, etc. The mileage amounts are auto-priced and most agents don't even know how it breaks down.

In case this ever proves useful to anyone else out there, I was able to get my dates SFO-NBO-SFO all business except one segment--with much help from Patty (she actually found the flights for me when the Delta folks could not). Had to drop to drop NBO-KGL-NBO because I needed to do my stopover in AMS on my return. Could not get back to SFO without doing that.

It was interesting how many times I had to call and how many times the person at the end of the line couldn't access KQ flights.

But a happy result. Asante sana, Patty!

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Unfortunately since they got rid of the SLC partner award desk this year, it's been a total crapshoot when it comes to agent experience. Next time you'll know if you hear an agent tell you that W is high biz on KQ, you should politely end the call

The last agent I got was great! She got it done in minutes and proactively changed the KQ segment without me asking!

See you in Nairobi!

Again for posterity in case anyone is ever asking these exact same questions (doubtful, I admit):

As it turns out, I believe I can book Africa-Africa award FB award tix. NBO-KGL-NBO is 25,000 economy, 30k-and-change business. Of course the taxes are outrageous given that the paid flight is about $400 all in. The chart shows 80k for whatever reason but if I try to book an award ticket it's far more reasonable.

I may be able to burn my Flying Blue miles after all!

KLM is starting KGL service in Oct (combined with the EBB service). I know too late for you

Next time...