Today’s reader question comes from David, who is trying to get from New York City to South Africa on a short timeline. He must have read my earlier article about avoiding fuel surcharges and using the cheapest miles to South Africa and written in from that
David writes:
I just came across your site (wow—you know your stuff!) not sure how I’ve missed it. I have a question for you: was looking for better ways to get to Johannesburg from EWR or JFK in August (I have travel there) and have been trying to upgrade on SAA via UA’s program (I have a gazillion miles on UA—I’m in northern NJ so they have a pretty firm hold on me.) But no luck, and time is running short (need to leave Aug 2 or so, for 2 weeks.)
Do you know of any way for me to get there on biz class with miles? Or a discounted fare? This last post on your site (http://www.pointswithacrew.
com/?s=South+Africa) came close but not quite, so I thought I’d write directly.
Getting bit by the traveler’s triangle
My first thought was that David is in a bit of a tricky situation because he has to go to a specific place at a specific time, which means that options are going to be limited (i.e. cost more). I wrote about that quite a bit a year or so ago in an article called The Truth of the Traveler’s Triangle: the relationship between location, time and price
Some saver availability or using other mileage currencies / airlines
David was not clear if he might have other mileage currencies, but looking at the original post on the cheapest miles to South Africa, United came out the winner. 80,000 miles one-way in business with no fuel surcharges is pretty good for business class. There is some availability (specifically I see some on July 31st, August 10th and a few other dates). So depending on how flexible his dates might be, that could be an option.
The one other thing I was not sure about was if there were United partners that don’t show up on united.com that might be options.
Standard Awards
Next thought was the possibility of booking a standard aware (Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and book a “standard” award). At a minimum, if David truly has a “gazillion” miles, he could use 180K to fly business class one way EWR-GRU-JNB. That’s twice as much as you normally have to pay (a “standard” award) but it might be worth it.
Cash and upgrade?
I was also not sure if David already had a cash fare booked or not, or if he has any status with United. I figured if you’ve got a lot of miles then the chance that you had SOME status might be an option. So perhaps an upgrade would be an option, though as someone who doesn’t have / chase elite status, I’m not entirely sure how that would work. I’m hoping one of you smart people will provide some tips on that in the comments 🙂
Also if David does have any status, he’ll want to make sure to be logged in to United.com when he is searching as United elite members (and United credit card holders) have access to more award space than the rest of us.
Any other options or suggestions for David on how to get a business class flight to South Africa on a tight timeline? Leave them in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
If he can get to ORD on AUG second there’s space ORD-MUC-JNB. The first flight leaves at 6:05pm or 9:20pm (UA or LH) so probably could find a cheap NYC to ORD flight to position.
There’s also a IAD-MUC-JNB option. That leaves at 5:30pm or 10:15pm (UA or LH flight).
Both these options are 80k and $23. They both have a pretty lengthy connection in Munich….but I’d go explore the city for the day. There’s seems to be at least 2 seats on each option.
There should be reasonable availability in premium cabins in August. The peak time is Northern Winter, otherwise premium cabins tend to be largely filled with business travellers who won’t be going in August. He should also consider flying to CPT which is even more seasonal. If he’s stuck on Star Alliance, pretty well all the obvious partners fly there – LH, LX, TK, Ethiopian, Egyptian etc.
I would not suggest routing via Brazil unless the traveler brings a yellow fever card. South Africa requires it when arriving from Brazil, seemingly even just during a transit through a nonrisk area. The worst case would be to be in Brazil, stay in the airport for a long transit, get denied boarding, and have to figure out how to get out of Brazil especially if on a passport that requires a Brazil visa.
Just staying in the airport to change planes in GRU, last October, was absolutely no problem on this route in to SA.
i am not sure of the flight timings but it looks to be ok if they are in transit less than 12 hours and remaining in the sterile area of the airport.
Health & Vaccination Information
Destination – South Africa (ZA)
Health
Vaccination against yellow fever required if arriving from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission .
Exempt from Yellow Fever vaccination:
Children under 1 year of age.
Passengers transiting countries with risk of yellow fever transmission for max. 12 hours and not leaving the transit area.
Passengers transiting Senegal and Ghana but not leaving the aircraft.
Holders of a certificate of contraindication on medical grounds, who will be placed under quarantine.
JFK-JNB is the only true direct flight and will save a lot of connection time if taken. Business seat on SAA are very good so are the crews/food.
SAA award availability seems to open up randomly here and there, so better plan ahead. In David’s situation, I would call United or SAA directly and inquire what’s available today – agent may gave you more choices, as website have glitches.
Some connecting option include Egypt Air with stop in Cairo, Turkish – through Istanbul, and some European variables… but connection time may not be optimal if one is not planning on sightseeing at stopover (although you can do pyramids in 12 hours between the flights).
Another option is to get ticket in Economy and apply a cash bid for an upgrade on SAA once you receive your SAA reservation number. They are first-come first-serve and you can succeed if space is available on particular flight.
Just checking united.com from NYC, there’s plenty of availability for 80K saver to JNB on 8/1, via FRA, and back again for another 80K in 2 weeks. I don’t understand what this post is about, since you ignore the obvious. Unless, of course, a “gazillion” miles is less than 160K.
Thanks for the comment. I had only been searching from EWR but you’re right that there’s availability on United and Lufthansa out of JFK
What click bait!!! Surely, if you’re so intent on helping Dave, you could easily get more details from him instead of /prior to writing this post with so much unknowns.