Booking flights for 2024
I’m looking for some advice regarding the booking of flights for the Kenya/Tanzania safari. We’ll be traveling in July of 2024.
1) How far ahead of time should I book our flights? (As someone on the forum so aptly noted, I’m trying to balance cost, comfort, routing, and length of travel in booking.)
2) For anyone who has traveled from the east coast to JRO recently (in 2023), would you be willing to share the route/airline you took? (We’ll be beginning our journey from the Charlotte, NC area. Don’t know whether to go to Atlanta, Boston, or maybe Philadelphia for the first leg of our flight.)
3) Once out of the United States, we’re open to stopping at some location along the way to break up the flight a bit. I would appreciate hearing of any stop you were able to take along the way, whether its purpose was to sleep or sightsee. We plan to arrive in Arusha a day before our tour begins, but think a break along the way might be prudent.
I’ve gleaned many helpful bits of information from reading through the forum, and thank you for any insight and advice you can offer.
Comments
We will be booking our flights for July in the next couple of weeks. We prefer to get there and rest when we get there rather than break a journey. We’ve flown to Arusha three times in the past.
No matter how you cut it, it’s a long way to Tanzania. We had one trip where we had a long break at LHR and went to the Sofitel. A little food, drink, shower, nap, and back on the plane. We have done. it in coach, premium coach, business, and first. We felt pretty much the same when we got there regardless of the inflight experience. I think for me premium coach is best. The lie flat beds in business and first are not designed for people over six feet tall. I’m more comfortable in the larger premium coach seats. I actually preferred the old first class lounger seats. They were comfortable. Forget all the enclosed ‘cabin’ stuff, just use the space for a big well cushioned lounge chair. I book our flights to Africa for the shortest total enroute time that allows comfortable connection times. I hate Heathrow, so most of the time we go through Amsterdam.
We did K&T many years ago, but flew Ethiopian: IAD - ADD (3+00) - JRO going over and NBO - ADD (2+50) - DUB (1 hr gas only stop no deplane) - IAD coming home.
We usually buy tickets when the 330 day window opens (window may vary slightly by airline). I have never seen a reduction in price for business airfare from the time we booked until flight.
Goodness knows how much the flights will be this time around. We have to book 9 seats. We hope my husband and I can book business but the kids will be in coach and we hope they will buy their own tickets. We will help out if necessary.
I am also looking at airfare prices for Africa 2024. I definitely know I sent to break up the super long flight somewhere because depart from California. Looking into Emirates and stopping in Dubai again and then onward to Livingstone.
We’re starting a Tauck tour tomorrow but spent a week in Nice, FR before the tour begins, Treasures of the Mediterranean. If anyone e needs a beyond fabulous private tour guide for Nice, Monaco, and vicinity let me know. He just happened to be our Uber driver and also a tour guide. We also booked some walking tours with Tours by Locals and Viator that weren’t so great in my opinion. The French Riviera is beautiful and delicious food as well. I didn’t know that one French croissant is 4,000 calories (according to our guide).
We booked our flights for Tanzania last night. We initially called Tauck the day before but the agent had difficulty locating flights that were direct, we hoped to fly Qatar, she could only get us on those flights with extra stops in Dar es Salem ,a terrible airport, we flew home from there from Zanzibar. She then came up with the Delta KLM flights but the prices she could get were crazy, so she suggested we book ourselves as the contract prices she had were obviously not good.
She also told us that Tauck has changed their policy on booking flights. All flights they book except to Europe now have to be paid up front, so it really takes away the advantage of booking with them now. We used to love not having to pay for their flights until the final invoice.
So we then called Amex, the guy was clueless, had us flying all over the place. He was supposed to call us back but did not. Last night, my hubby called again. We live in Philly but will fly from JFK to Arusha via Doha. We will get here by limo for us all. The connection is tight, so we may use the expedited service to get us to our ongoing flight like we used there last year. Someone was waiting for us as we exited the plane and took us all the back routes, missing security and straight to the other plane. We are also considering taking just carry on for this reason. Anyway, the flights are half the price the Delta KLM route is and that route always risks bags not making it anyway.
We just returned from our trip and flew with Kenya Airways from JFK-NBO-JRO and then back NBO-JFK. I really appreciated having a single longhaul flight and not having to worry about connections. I find it easier to get rest on a single 14-hour flight than two seven-hour flights.
We had only booked our trip about four months before we took it, so that may have affected the prices we were seeing, but in addition to the streamlined itinerary, booking directly with KA was cheaper for business class than any of the other options (Delta, Qatar, Ethiopia, KLM) that we explored.
Hi British, glad to see you are home and already planning more trips. When I book with American Express (I just did for Nova Scotia) I always book on line, only call them if I have problems. There's always a lot of options when you look on line.
Good thought Gladys, but for nine people, two in business class and seven in coach plus adding all the passport numbers it may have taken forever. We will give it a try next time it’s just for us. Thank you.
British you are right, I was thinking it was just for you 2, forgot this is your family safari.
I booked Delta/KLM from Washington DC with just one stop in Amsterdam and today got the bad news that the flights changed and now they're awful, with multiple stops and long layovers AND arriving a day later and leaving a day early! After gnashing my teeth, I'm starting over. Let's get together and charter a flight! Only partially kidding...
You know, I think when my hubby was looking for flights a couple of days ago for us, that was what was on offer for that route! I can only think that there are still not enough people going to Africa
Older thread I know... just thought I would add my two cents. As some of you know my wife's family is handling this much like British is - but it is absolutely the kids' responsibility to book flights. There is no way I could have expected her parents to pay for the trip and all the flights as well. In my case, I'm booking 4 of the 7 plane tickets (2 adults and the 2 kids (grandkids)). Knowing this trip was upcoming and we would likely be taking more, my wife and I decided to (should have done this long ago) get an airline credit card and start making our $ we already are spending work towards some rewards. We got a late start on that project (June 2023), but I should hit American Airlines Platinum in the next 1-2 months. The Tanzania flights alone breezed us through Gold and nearly Platinum in one swing.
Given our efforts to use the card, we chose to remain and book/fly via American and their partner Qatar. This maximized our miles and loyalty points. I've been tracking the fares and they were definitely the cheapest right at opening window but they have fluctuated up/down a bit. So when they dipped again in early November, we jumped. However, we still couldn't swallow the cost of 4 let alone 2 business class seats. So we made the concession to buy 4 economy and then purchase advance seat reservations - getting me at 6'4" the extra legroom and the family right behind me with the preferred seats. [Side Note - Qatar changes the price on extra legroom and preferred seats daily. I figured out the prices/patterns and saved 40-50% booking all the seats over the course of 3 days] My wife was more than willing to pass on the business class seats/expense knowing we have a night at the Oryx Airport Hotel ready and waiting for us to crash in a real bed. We saved a little by taking a longer layover/extra stop in DAR, but it also meant the kids had a bit more down/recovery time in DOH. July 2024 Flights = ~ $8400, Seats = ~$1000
BOS -> DOH (Oryx Airport Hotel Booked) DOH -> DAR (technical stop/don't exit the plane) - JRO
And since I learned that I can't use AA miles to upgrade AA codeshare flights that are not directly operated by American, British Airways, or Iberia, we will just bank these miles/perks for future travel which I know is coming.
My in-laws booked through an agent - they are going Ethiopian Air (business class for both of them) out of Chicago
Dogdoctor: I approached it somewhat the same but I have to admit, I’m not as analytical as you. I Discesa the prices go up and down too. I knew I wouldn’t be able to transfer our points from American to Qatar. We booked business class seats for two adults (myself and husband) and economy for daughter and her husband for August 2024 headed to Botswana with added surcharge for extra legroom for them. That charge was 300.00 per person for extra legroom! I just could not see being squished like a pack of sardines for that long of a trip for two younger adults flying from the west coast. We also booked the Oryx for a good nights sleep.
Only 8 months to go now! We are in Africa right now and it’s as fantastic as usual. Our last day of a 23 day trip tomorrow. We are in Victoria Falls. Just come back from a boma dinner with dancing and drummers. We all played on drums and danced away, awesome!
book as soon as it opens, call the airline and ask them.
As soon as it open, jump and book. Y flew Delta US- Amsterdam (KLM) - Kilimanjaro. Coming back Kenya-Ams. (KLM)- AMS- US Delta.
We are going on KLM with an overnight in AMS due to our connect time disappearing. That’s fine with us to get a break in the middle of a very tiresome journey. We. are coming back on Air France via CDG.
We are currently sitting in the Doha airport lounge, our favorite route to any place in Africa.
I am making the Bridges trip to Tanzania in July 2024–the week after British goes. There will be 6 of us, and I tentatively planned to go through AMS with a one-night layover to break up the trip as we will have youngsters with us. Seeing the comments about the KLM/DL flight changes, will likely rethink and take Kenya Air from JFK to Mt. Kilimanjaro.
I will be buying all the tickets and am feeling as if it would be terrible for me to fly business and have the family in coach, so am relieved to see the comments about finding something in the middle for all of us.
I have no problem flying business when my adult kids fly premium economy. They are just very happy they get to go all expenses paid.
There are nine of us, we are paying for the tour and the flights for all of them, but they are flying coach and we are flying business class, we have absolutely no guilt. We were in our sixties before we could afford business class for ourselves.
No question that I’m guilt-free as well.
My husband and I are doing the Mountain Gorilla Safari in Sept 2024, coming from Los Angeles. Really amazed to find only a single layover with Qatar (through Doha) each way, flying into JRO to start and out of Kigali at the end. The layover in Doha on the return is tight, so I'll look into that service you mentioned, British!
We're bringing along our parents too. Luckily his are going from LAX too, but my parents are coming from Miami and thinking of connecting to JRO through Amsterdam. Thanks for the tips!
Just to mention, the gorilla trek is tough, it’s a level 4 trip, just checking, are your parents up to it?
British- My wife and I are booked for the K&T Classic Safari in September 2024. We are flying from Charlotte to London and then London to Doha before our final leg on to Kilimanjaro (combination of American Airlines & Qatar). We only have a 75 minute layover in Doha so I wanted to obtain some information on the expedited service that you previously mentioned. This information will be much appreciated!
Dan
My husband found it on the Qatar website, concierge service. We will be booking it again for our July Tanzania trip.
Thanks British.
Funnily enough, I just received an email from Qatar with a time change for our flights in a July and we now have an extra 45 minutes between flights going to Arusha. We are just discussing whether we will still get the concierge service. We likely will, especially as there will be nine of us and last time it worked extra well, we missed going through the security which was a huge bonus. If you haven’t traveled through Doha, security is really strict and I now cannot go through metal detectors which has caused a couple of delays the last two times through Doha while I wait with extra questioning and a female to pat me down.
I just realized you are flying to London too, yikes, Heathrow is a nightmare too.
He may have a better Heathrow experience because he should be using Terminal 3 and Terminal 4, not the dreaded Terminal 5. My ‘favorite’ there is Terminal 2. It is actually a pretty nice place. It’s really easy if you don’t have any luggage to check. BA arranged that for us. They sent it to Frankfurt and then to our home while we went to Russia.
Sorry for the delay, British! Our parents are all in their early 60s, very active and mobile (Peloton and pickleball fanatics). I think the altitude will be what we all feel most, as we all live at sea level. But based on Tauck's activity guide (Level 4 meaning capable of 3 miles over terrain), hopefully we are all set!