Aug 20, 2016

rhfrhf

Just signed up.
Who else is on this trip???
Looking for suggestions on arriving early.

Sealord

We are booked in a day early and plan on just getting some rest and adjusting. We did K and T last year traveling in coach and it was awful ... the ride not the safari, which was wonderful. Just scored business class using miles for our outbound on this trip, and I feel like we just won the lottery. I will probably get a 'day room' for our 9 hour stop in London, but if we didn't get bus. I would probably have planned on spending at least a day there, or arrive two days early in Livingstone. In a couple weeks I will play 'airline roulette' trolling for bus. on the return trip ... or maybe we will just become residents of Cape Town. (;-) i used to work flying in Africa, but I had no idea how far away it was until I did it as a passenger. The best seats in the aircraft are the ones that have windows that look out of the front. (;-)

AlanS

Sealord wrote:

We are booked in a day early and plan on just getting some rest and adjusting. We did K and T last year traveling in coach and it was awful ... the ride not the safari, which was wonderful. Just scored business class using miles for our outbound on this trip, and I feel like we just won the lottery. I will probably get a 'day room' for our 9 hour stop in London, but if we didn't get bus. I would probably have planned on spending at least a day there, or arrive two days early in Livingstone. In a couple weeks I will play 'airline roulette' trolling for bus. on the return trip ... or maybe we will just become residents of Cape Town. (;-) i used to work flying in Africa, but I had no idea how far away it was until I did it as a passenger. The best seats in the aircraft are the ones that have windows that look out of the front. (;-)

You might want to check out Ethiopian. They fly non-stop from Dulles to Addis Ababa and have connecting flights to Jo'burg. They have or will soon start flights from Capetown to Addis where you can catch the flight to Dulles. As you may know, their Business Class fares beat everyone else by a mile. Their planes were just fine (777-300, 777-400, and new 787-8 Dreamliners). The 777's had decent slightly angled flat bed seats while the cavernous 787 business class had 1-2-1 full flat-bed seats. You never know what plane you'll end up with. Bole airport in Addis is kinda the pits but ok for a few hours.

Sealord

AlanS wrote:

You might want to check out Ethiopian. They fly non-stop from Dulles to Addis Ababa and have connecting flights to Jo'burg. They have or will soon start flights from Capetown to Addis where you can catch the flight to Dulles. As you may know, their Business Class fares beat everyone else by a mile. Their planes were just fine (777-300, 777-400, and new 787-8 Dreamliners). The 777's had decent slightly angled flat bed seats while the cavernous 787 business class had 1-2-1 full flat-bed seats. You never know what plane you'll end up with. Bole airport in Addis is kinda the pits but ok for a few hours.

Thanks, but I'm not in Ethiopian's frequent flier program, nor do I have any 'Ethiopian' miles, but I have lots of AAdvantage miles, so British Airways is how I get to Africa unless I have to resort to cash. Looks like I will have to do one long leg in coach, but hopefully all the rest business.

oakhill

rhfrhf wrote:

Just signed up.
Who else is on this trip???
Looking for suggestions on arriving early.

Not sure if I am doing this correct!

rhfrhf, you stated you signed up for the 20Aug2016. So did I few months ago. It appeared to be in correct weather timing. I am most likely coming solo which I am sure there will be a few social people and I am independent. In the past, with Tauck, I have never had any problems.

I am looking forward to this trip which I am sure you are also. I have always arrived one day early just to get myself centered. I hear there are ones arriving more days early. I do hope one day should be enough.

oakhill

Sealord

Sealord wrote:

Thanks, but I'm not in Ethiopian's frequent flier program, nor do I have any 'Ethiopian' miles, but I have lots of AAdvantage miles, so British Airways is how I get to Africa unless I have to resort to cash. Looks like I will have to do one long leg in coach, but hopefully all the rest business.

Got rid of the last coach leg ... Yeah! I was checking everyday for weeks for business seats using miles, then bingo, no business, but up pops two 'first' class seats. I could barely type fast enough getting those puppies on 'hold'. I had to give them an additional 25,000 miles, and we go through JNB, but worth it.

rhfrhf

We are two couples from Florida that will be on this tour. We are adding on a trip to Namibia at the end. We will fly to Windhoek when the Tauck tour ends. Spending time on getting our vaccinations in order, then will turn to packing issues.