Went on my first trip to Zim last fall, and as many on this site predicted I was planning my next trip on the flight home. I have a daughter getting married this spring, so it looks like 2013 for the next trip. Flew the last time in Delta "comfort coach", but want to upgrade next time. I have been an American flyer for years, and have over 700K miles, and got a Delta Miles AE card last spring, since Delta flies more to Africa. Any tips on using miles to get there?

i just got one of those cards as well. Good question Dr. J. Theres a few answers if you try the search function but they are a little dated. Id like to know myself

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Business class on Delta will run from 250k to 380k for a round trip to jburg depending on how far out you book and what time of year you want to go.

We've done it several times and have found that it is best to book as early as possible if you are going to try and get business class (like 330 days out). Delta only releases a very few of these seats in business class (of course they might release more as the flight date gets closer, depending on demand, I've been told). We book pretty much as soon as we can.

I just booked Delta from San Antonio to J'burg for 150k miles, and paid for the comfort class upgrade. No problems.

Clarence

I have 300,000 Delta miles in th bank and close to a million miles with them over the years. I could not get squat from them on a Minneapolis to JoBurg flite in July.
Ended up buying coach and they gave me the comfort class.
They said I might be able to upgrade for miles if more seats are released.

The earliest that I've been able to book on United is 11 months before the date I wanted to fly. I just book on their website.

I my experience, the sales agents on the phone have quite a bit of lattitude...The ideal is to find one who's bright & bored...they'll go the extra mile (no pun intended) to find what you want...keep calling til you get that guy or girl!

joester hit the nail on the head. Persistence, and a pleasant attitude pays off when trying to get the good seats for miles.

Just booked Delta today for August business class 380K points.

We used Delta miles on our trip over in 2010.

It cost us 220,000 miles each for Business class round trip to Joburg.

The interesting part is I was coming from Colorado and my buddy lives in the Atlanta area. Therefore, I had additional First class flights to get me to/from ATL; however, the number of miles were the same for each of us even though my buddy was just going to/from ATL.

We booked the earliest day we could, which was about 10-11 months out.