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South African Airways is offering its new nonstop A350 service from New York (JFK) to Johannesburg, South Africa from $755 round trip via most major travel agencies (Priceline, Expedia, directly from South African Airways, etc). You can alternatively save a few bucks with cheaper online travel agencies listed at Skyscanner or fly round trip on 50,316 Ultimate Rewards points if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. While this is a long ~15 hour flight, the nonstop service will certainly appeal to some.
The Deal
- Nonstop flights from New York JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa are on sale from $755 round trip via major OTAs or from $722 RT via SkyScanner or from 50,316 Ultimate Rewards points through Chase
Key Terms
- Best prices are available February to March and October to December
Quick Thoughts
Friends and family often ask me for my favorite travel destination and it always seems nearly impossible to answer. I love the beach and will always be happy in Hawaii or on a tropical island in the Pacific, but there are lots of beautiful beaches in the world. I love vibrant cities, my favorites include Bangkok, Prague, Paris, and New York. I could categorize one list after another for my favorite this or that. However, if I had to pick one favorite travel experience, it would without a doubt be driving around Kruger National Park in a car with just my wife and I spotting animals all day long. I’ve stayed in the rest camps within the park as well as at the Protea Hotel Paul Kruger Gate using Marriott points. It’s awesome any way you do it.
My wife and I loved it so much the first time around that we booked a trip to go back and do it again about 15 months later. That second trip was three years ago this week — which was also my first week with Frequent Miler. I snapped these leopard pics on my way to a rest camp to write some quick deal posts for the night. It was another fortuitous moment as we had mostly given up on wildlife spotting for the day when my wife and I both caught a glimpse of it at the same time and I slammed on the brakes in time to catch its eye and then watch it slink across the road and disappear into the trees. It was amazing how quickly it blended in and we lost track of it.
Of course, there is more to Johannesburg and South Africa than safaris. During our 40K to Far Away challenge, Greg had an amazing sunrise breakfast and visited a cool market in Johannesburg and continued on to explore Cape Town during his short time in the country. See this post for more. There are many great things to see and do in South Africa.
And keep in mind that you can book Comair flights via British Airways Avios if you’d like to fly to other countries in the region or use Greg’s excursionist perk trick to fly across Africa cheaply.
All that is to say that I always love to see a fare sale to South Africa, even when I can’t take advantage.
In this case, the best deals from New York are $755 round trip this spring and later in the year. While you can fly via Doha on Qatar or some European cities for less on some days, this is a great price for nonstop travel.
You’ll find the same dates a bit cheaper through smaller travel agencies listed on Skyscanner, though note that cancellation policies and customer service may vary from what you’d otherwise expect.
Those with the Chase Sapphire Reserve can book these flights with just over 50K points round trip since points can be used at a value of 1.5c per point with that card.
While many readers will surely prefer business class award flights, it’s hard to beat 25K each way without the need to hunt for availability and/or connect in Europe or Doha, adding 5-7 hours to the journey.
Keep in mind that seasons are flipped, so spring here is fall there and winter here in the US is their summer. Those interested in wildlife should keep in mind that summertime vegetation makes it harder to spot some animals, so you may be better off planning your trip earlier in the year rather than later if you can (though I went during South African summer twice and saw all of the animals I hoped to see between my two trips).
Overall, this is a nice deal for those who don’t mind the long flights and/or want to save a connection that stretches things further.
H/T: Thrifty Traveler
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[…] Nonstop New York to South Africa from ~$750 / 50K Chase Ultimate Rewards RT […]
Better use a card that will offer protection if SAA goes under considering they are cancelling a bunch of flights this month.
Nick, did you do any tours guided by others or just self-guided? TIA
Just self-guided. We were actually scheduled to do a ranger-led night game drive during one of the trips (I think it was on our first trip), but we saw so much on our own that we didn’t feel like we needed it. That said, the ranger-led trips (whether game drives or walks) were really cheap (I’m thinking like $8 to $12 per person per drive if I remember correctly — you can check it on the South Africa National Parks website). We just enjoyed being on our own and the peacefulness of just pulling over and looking / watching. The park is huge and cell service is not good (you do get it in some places, but then not at all for long stretches). You’ll want to have a physical map and/or to download the local maps if you can. And when they tell you to drive slow, you should listen to that. First of all, you don’t know when an animal might cross in front of you. Second, there are really hard beetles in elephant droppings that we were told can puncture a tire. And that brings me to the third point — you don’t want to blow a tire. We did come across a park worker one day who had blown one. He said he had just been hoping he could get to the bridge where we found him before he bent the rim (changing a tire in the wild could be dangerous; at least on a bridge you’re more likely to see whatever is coming in advance). My wife played lookout and I helped him change it. If you’re the type to be nervous about that sort of thing, you might consider more guided tours. There are main roads in the park that are paved and see plenty of traffic, but then there are plenty of secondary dirt roads where you could potentially not see anyone for a long time. Each of the rest camps (there are a bunch of them in the park) have restrooms and each has a store and restaurant, so there are places to stop to eat, use the bathroom, buy snacks and drinks for the car, etc. It’s very doable on your own if you’re reasonably self-sufficient.
All that is assuming you were talking about the safari portion. We don’t usually do any other guided tours either, but I’m not against doing one…we’ve just always kind of looked stuff up and self-guided on stuff in general.
Maybe change ur tire with a .375 H&H near bye it’s not Kansas . I saw by video what happened to a young lady who got out of the car and walked over to the drivers door pissed off .Lions or snakes don’t play games .
Remember Steve Irwin he Was quick ..
Cheap isn’t good in Africa be Safe Pay the $$$ .
CHEERs
You can’t use the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
Yes, you certainly can. It’ll just cost you more points since you’ll get 1.25c per point in value (60,400) rather than 1.5c per point with the CSR (50,300 points).
SAA also usually has sales around Thanksgiving, with fares at or below these.
From Johannesburg it’s not far to Namibia, which is another great place to visit.