How far in advance do you usually buy your tickets? I will be heading to Zim in Sept. Prices for round trip business class right now are in the $10,000+ range (a bit more than I was expecting). In your experiences, should I expect prices to come down at some point? What has this airfare run any of you in the past?

We fly Delta from Atlanta and try to book out tickets as soon as they become available for the flight we want (partly because we use Skymiles and partly because we prefer certain seats). We've been flying to Africa for several years and it seems that fares are always going up. I have seen some cheap (?) fares advertised on other airlines, but not business or first class. On the other hand, I know one individual that purchased his tickets (Atlanta to Joburg) about 3 weeks before departure and paid considerably less than what was advertised at the time our tickets were purchased.

if you go to the hunting conventions, there are several travel agents there who specialize in African plane travel and always have business class tickets at less than market rates. check them out( they also all have websites/toll free numbers).

Man, I haven't the foggiest. We have always flown back in the cattle compartment.

I always buy my tickets in January, no matter which month I intend to fly. The new schedules for the year always seem to be in place at that time and I've always found the prices to be good. In fact, my business class tickets this past year were about 1/3 cheaper than they were the year before -- the World Cup notwithstanding.

It could be that I've just been lucky.

buy coach & use miles to upgrade. that's the only way we'll go business. i know comfort is important, but if you divide the xtra cost by the hours in the air, you will make alot of dough per hour

Personal Experience: in January of 2010 I got a deal to hunt RSA for plains game in April. I called Kathi Klime, wonderful business woman, and she got me the round trip for about $1200, Boise and back.
Talk to her.

Rich
DRSS

I tried that Rich. Couldn't get timely replies by phone or email (sometimes no replies), and she only suggested we wait for prices to come down. Within 5 minutes of talking to Steve Turner I had business class booked at a good price.

quote:

Originally posted by opus72:
I tried that Rich. Couldn't get timely replies by phone or email (sometimes no replies), and she only suggested we wait for prices to come down. Within 5 minutes of talking to Steve Turner I had business class booked at a good price.

Same thing here

Steve is a good guy! I haven't yet had the pleasure of Ms. Klime but she gets a lot of positives.


.

I really liked Kathi and enjoyed speaking with her. I tried to deal with her first because of all the positive things I heard from AR posters. Unfortunately, when it came down to it, she couldn't get the job done. My last email regarding flights wasn't replied to within about 2 weeks (again), so when I saw Steve's booth at DSC I decided to see what he could do. In about 5 minutes he had me booked for 30+% less than the best price Kathi had found for me. Since booking, I've emailed a couple questions to Steve and he's replied within an hours time. I don't feel like I'm on the tail end of Steve's priority list.

Steve is the way to go. Definitely.

Our group just purchased 5 BC class tickets with Steve.
$4400 each not a bad price as BC tickets go.
Have to go through Germany.
Delta direct to Joe-burg 10 grand each.
Steve did a good job for us.

I'm going to talk with Steve for my next safari. I have used others, but I think that it's time to give Steve a try.

The level of service Steve Turner provides is second to none. I won't hesitate to use him again, and would refer anyone I know to him.

Jason

Steve has done quite well for me also.

anyone have a contact email for Steve/or better yet a booth # in Reno
Thanks
Mart

Steve Turner
Travelwithguns.com
(210) 858-9833
Toll free (866) 427-7166
steve@travelwithguns.com