Last week I checked on airfares from ATL to JNB. Needed 2 business tickets. BA was $6500 for both, Qatar was $7800, and Emirates was $14,000. All these fares came direct from each airline website. I got a notice today that BA fare had jumped a bit- TO $14,500! Damn, inflation is a bitch! Guess I better check QA again.

I was watching some on Qatar, went from 1200 to 5200, for cattle class

As of 2 hours ago, business class the first 10 days in September is $3750 for one...

Going to Moz first two weeks of Sept, bought tickets about 2 weeks ago, business class from DZfW to Beira about $7500 for two. I figured (as have others on AR) that fares would increase. Didn’t think the increase would be that drastic, though.

Out of Europe you get Cheap Business Class Deals with Lufthansa (Star Alliance) or Etihad to Africa.

I booked Emirates B.C. last week from Houston to Uganda for a March safari, $7200 with cancellation refund option.

quote:

Originally posted by mboga biga bwana:
Out of Europe you get Cheap Business Class Deals with Lufthansa (Star Alliance) or Etihad to Africa.

Unfortunately, Etihad no longer flies to JNB.

You may want to look at Orbitz. Yesterday we booked 3 business class tickets from DFW to Harare on Qatar for early September at $3300 each. Oddly, these fares don’t show up on Qatar’s website or Expedia. We did receive the e-ticket confirmations from Qatar the same day. These flights/rates are still available as of this afternoon. As mentioned above, rates with all carriers have skyrocketed for some reason...

Unfortunately, the flight options from ATL,at least for some airlines, is more limited.

I now see Orbitz hooks up Qatar with Fastjet so that is how they are selling a HRE ticket. You can’t find that with Qatar website

I spoke with Shawn Kennedy of Gracy Travel a bit earlier today, different route San Francisco to Dar es Salaam in August. She advised Ethiopian is about $4,500 & Emirates is $6,500 business class. At the moment though, Emirates is not flying to Tanzania. I also checked Orbitz and Qatar is about $4,500. Turkish about $100 less. Those quotes aren’t that much different than I expected, hope they stay close to that till my dates get firmed up.

At the end of the day, flying to Africa, especially business class, is going to be a lot more expensive this year.

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Originally posted by jdollar:
At the end of the day, flying to Africa, especially business class, is going to be a lot more expensive this year.

Jerry,
Have you checked fares on Ethiopian Airlines through Addis Ababa? Would be interesting to see how they match up against the rest.

Our round trip fares Boston-Kasane on Quatar and SA Airlink for later this year ended up being US$2,000 less than our round trip fares Boston-Lusaka on Emirates in 2019.

The problem I have for a bit cheaper fares is the J'Burg connection. I just don't trust it this year.
Also, the Covid test result is a 6 hour deal in Harare, so will have to overnight there and then I'd have to overnight again at J'Burg on the way back to catch the flight back home.

I suspect that anyone making long term travel plans, to anywhere, is very likely get disappointed.

We had tickets booked to Dar for last year, and got all scrambled.

We cancelled the flights of course, but did not ask for a refund from Emirates.

They guaranteed price for 24 months, which means we are fixed until late 2022.

Hopefully by that time the world would have woken up.

quote:

Originally posted by tanks:
The problem I have for a bit cheaper fares is the J'Burg connection. I just don't trust it this year.

I don’t disagree. But I learned there are no direct flights from
Europe or Dubai or Doha to Botswana. All must transit Jo’burg.

Yep, and that’s a big problem.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:

quote:

Originally posted by tanks:
The problem I have for a bit cheaper fares is the J'Burg connection. I just don't trust it this year.

I don’t disagree. But I learned there are no direct flights from
Europe or Dubai or Doha to Botswana. All must transit Jo’burg.

Yeah, I am going to Zimbabwe with CMS, so a bit different situation.

Update- the BA fare that jumped from $6500 to $14,500 is now back to $6500! Damn, this crap drives me crazy. I just wish QA and Emirates would drop.....

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Update- the BA fare that jumped from $6500 to $14,500 is now back to $6500! Damn, this crap drives me crazy. I just wish QA and Emirates would drop.....

Supply and demand.

Before this hoopla started, we had to book at least 8 months ahead of our flights to get seats to Dar!!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Update- the BA fare that jumped from $6500 to $14,500 is now back to $6500! Damn, this crap drives me crazy. I just wish QA and Emirates would drop.....

Supply and demand.

Before this hoopla started, we had to book at least 8 months ahead of our flights to get seats to Dar!!

Yes. Emirates is already selling out for some flight combinations (business class) from Dubai to States END OF AUGUST. Luckily I could move around by a day and get a direct flight from Dubai to LAX instead of going through Seattle.

I used Travel Express to book the flight so I don't have to deal with any of the firearms paperwork etc..

Update- QA fare dropped to $3440 last night so booked 2 tickets for early September. Now if all the stars will just align!

I took a leap and booked the day after slow Joes travel ban. Portland to J-Burg on Qatar. $875 RT! August 30. Return October 6.

quote:

Originally posted by John Pomazi:
I took a leap and booked the day after slow Joes travel ban. Portland to J-Burg on Qatar. $875 RT! August 30. Return October 6.

I assume that is economy. Us old folks need to lay down on long flights.

quote:

Originally posted by tanks:

quote:

Originally posted by John Pomazi:
I took a leap and booked the day after slow Joes travel ban. Portland to J-Burg on Qatar. $875 RT! August 30. Return October 6.

I assume that is economy. Us old folks need to lay down on long flights.

Yes Sir!