Africa Plane tickets...

[Moosie]

Website to purchase ?
Best price ?
Lease amount of time ?

Etc.......

talk to me.... June 21st of next year.

thanx !!

 

[guppie9]

I don't know about anyone else, but I have almost always bought my plane tickets from Expedia.com. They always seem to have the lowest prices and I have never had a problem. I don't know about international, though. What amazes me is that they have lower prices than if you go to the actual airlines website. I don't know how they do it.

 

[Moosie]

We looked at Expedia. wasn't as low as Cheap tickets.com

We have a call into a travel agent just to see as well.

 

[IDHunters]

What worked well for me was 120,000 airmiles on my wifes card!

First advice is to book as early as possible. The fairs went from 1700 to 2500 in the 2 months it took us to sort out our schedule. Sometimes the cheaper fairs aren't the best flights-layovers, etc. The best (shortest) flight we found was Delta out of Atlanta to JoBerg. 18 hours yee haw!

Good luck and get something booked. I would be happy to share any travel tips with ya-I got some great advice from Cali Hunter and others here.

 

[Calif. Hunter]

I used the airline miles on my credit card, too. Flying business class was a first for me, but I would not want to go coach for that long! We had Kathy Klimes book for us a year to the day ahead of our departure date to make sure we got on with the miles. We went Delta from Atlanta to Jo'burg. I have no complaints about the flight or service at all - other than how long it was! I am already building up miles to go back with my son in a couple of years by using the card for everything and paying it off each month.

 

[91xlt]

pm sent...

 

[the nikster]

just did a quick search on
ultimatefares.com
right now from slc to s. africa is $1447+ taxes
should be within budget for us bzillionaires!!

 

[Moosie]

Dates are June 21st, 2008 and June 29th, We ended up booking them today. Paid $2,250. Flight was not a bad one with little layovers and more direct flight from the US.

We sure couldn't find any for $1,500 WOW !!

 

[MNHunter]

For future reference, kayak.com is a very nice site as well as very easy. it is nice to set parameters on takeoff/landing times

 

[MNHunter]

Here is a screen shot

 

[Moosie]

I'll check it from Boise. My guess is the price is about the same ?

thanx for the link though, I'll go take a look-see !

 

[IDHunters]

Note trip duration---32 hours SHEESH. Can you say cattle car? Ever look up 1st class just for fun? I'm guessing $8-$9k;

 

[Bambistew]

Moosie,

See what International airports SAA flies out of. You might be able to break it up and get a cheaper flight? Also you might want to talk to a travel agent and see what they can do for you. For my trip the end of May before the 'high' season starts in June, I'm looking at $1200 for a direct flight out of Dulles.

FIY, if you go with a travel agent, I woudln't let Kathy Klimes book my dogs a stay in the kennel, but thats just me.

 

[Elkfitter]

Check with Kathi at Wild Travel.
She did a good job on our tickets to Namibia in May.
[email protected]
708-425-3552

 

[fowladdict]

220 days Moosie...220 days

 

[Moosie]

Getting closer.......

 

[Muleyslyr]

Here's one less animal that'll be there when you go Moosie....

They do have a lot of these which I figured might interest you the most. Kinda remind you of the deer back home.

 

[wapiti7]

Nice animals! How big are the Kudu and steenbok?
Moosie---I would call shawn at Gracy Travel.
wapiti7

 

[JJHACK]

The least expensive tickets are always the most attractive, however when you consider that the flights on Delta and SAA are over sold for every flight and the chance of an empty seat is somewhere around zero, if something should go wrong, you will not be going on the trip. As I said every flight is full and there is only one flight per day on SAA and Delta. If you don't make the one you were scheduled for, you sure won't be making one the next day or the next week because they are already all overbooked. This is just a fact of life in the airline industry today. Having been a million mile flyer in my life I fully understand the way this business works and it aint pretty when you have the trip of your dreams swirling the bowl without any more options!

Who you gonna call when there is a problem? How do these discount shops service problems? How do you contact them from South Africa? What time zone are they working in? What relationship do they have directly with the airlines for some pull to get you a seat?

I don't have all the answers but I will say that when SAA went on strike a few years ago every flight was over booked, and every hotel full with the hundreds of people stuck there for up to 2 weeks or more waiting to get on a flight out through Europe which they had to pay for.

I've had a pair of hunters miss a flight in Denver due to weather. They then missed the flight out from Atlanta that morning. Never made the trip that year due to the missed flight. They could have been put on a wait list and stayed in Atlanta for a week trying once per day to get on a flight, in the bizzare hope that somebody would not show up and they would both get a seat. But then they still have to come home on the same flight originally scheduled. Because the other days are also full. So arriving three days late on a 7 day hunt means you barely have a couple days for the time change and the hunting and you're headed back home again.

They cancelled the trip because they could not make the flights work after they missed the Denver flight. Another guy with one of these really cheap discount tickets missed a connection in Richards Bay(RSA). He was stuck there for several days trying to get out. Nobody to call in the USA with the time change and the hold time to speak with somebody. How do you even leave then a message when they cannot call you? You won't likely have an RSA Cell phone right? His land line Long distance costs could have bought a good portion of another ticket. The "1-800" number they offer is only good within the USA. So now that discount ticket cost about 50% more then buying a ticket with a real agency involved.

The Delta and SAA flights have more people waiting to get on then there are seats available between about May first and end of June, maybe even mid July. I would strongly suggest you work with a very experienced and reputable agent to make this work properly. One screw-up will cost you the loss of the trip, or a whole lot more money in Hotels and delays to get on another flight.

I use an agent that has an office in Miami and another in Capetown. They book more SAA tickets then any other office in the USA. They may not be the least expensive but will compete pretty well, however they have some pull with SAA when one of their passangers have a problem. They also are in the same time zone in RSA if you have trouble on that side. In 2007 my Luggage did not arrive for the first time in over 15 years. The process to fill out lost luggage seach documents and have these jokers find them is not at all impressive.

One call to the agent in the RSA office alerting her to the significance of my problem was all it took. She called SAA and they stayed after it until it was found and delivered to me 5 hours drive from the airport. Not sure who you call when this happens using an "online" discount service. I'll state straight up that 200-300 extra bucks for a ticket that included somebody taking ownership of the problem with my luggage and over 5000 bucks worth of rifles was cheap at that moment!

I get zero income or benifits for this part of the business, I really could not care any less who people fly with, it's not my business. I just wanna know when I have to fetch them and bring them back. I have however heard and seen plenty of stories about problems.

 

[hntrjohn]

I have done alot of flying to Amarillo Texas this past year. With laovers, because there are do diect flights from any airports around me. About 8 hours. Then I need to drive 90 minutes.

Private airplane is the only way.
3 1/2 with a turboprop.
2 1/2 with a little speedier

my part id $400, when there is room. Leave out of Modesto, show my ID for the FAA, and leave withen 15 minutes.

So what the movie stars/ Al Gore does, book a private plane.