A and M: I do understand - only so much we all can do - we keep having constant home repairs (very old house) which has funny way of eating into travel funds - PLUS we want to visit you two!!!!!

Joanna,


:banana: WHEN :banana: WHEN :banana: WHEN :banana:

You have always been on our travel radar - we'll talk on Fjords!!!! :hug: :hug: :hug:

I am counting on it!

Arlene, I definitely understand about the constraints of being a working stiff! I really want to do the Baltics, but time off in June, July and August is pretty much off limits with my job. If MUSH had been a few days earlier last year, I wouldn't have been able to go.

Glad you will still be on PANDA and we're looking forward to seeing you then!

Dena

I'm just bumping up this thread so we can get a new roll call. Guess I'm missing the group already, living for Roar2 that is 14 months away!!!

Andi and Doug (4 Days Birkenhead House, Mateya & Lion Sands)
Yvonne and Guy
Yvonne's mom/Andi's BF Cheryl

We're looking forward to meeting you, Cindy.

Alan and Donna
Capetown, Birkenhead House, Capetown, Mateya and Lion Sands. (I think this might be Choice 1? I don't remember anymore.)

Sure looking forward to this trip and also seeing you again, Cindy. And, we finally get to "landcruise" with Andi and Doug!

It is hard to believe we will be doing air in 3 months. It seems like YEARS away when this started but soon it will be September and then it is only ONE year away.

Blink and we will all be winging our way across the African bush after seeing the sights of Cape Town and being totally pampered at Birkenhead House, full of anticipation of our first game drive!!

Just to get the juices going click on Kens Smugmug pages from ROAR and TUSK. I just did and it is a walk down memory lane for those that went and a reminder of what is in store for those doing this for the first time.

http://ngaire.smugmug.com/AFRICA/199466

We are option One as well. Leopard Hills and Madikwe are our camp choices. Birkenhead House in room 6!

Greg & I are CPT the first two nights, Birkenhead House room #9, CPT two more nights, then Leopard Hills & Madikwe Hills the remaining 6 nights. Cindy, hopefully we end up at the game camps on the same nights! If I understand correctly from Ngaire, some of us will be doing the reverse.

Ngaire, since you brought up air :) ... when the time comes that we are able to book, are you able to give us a quote and have it be part of our package, or will the air need to be done separately?

We're on for overnight in Capetown, Birkenhead House, Madikwe Hills & King's Camp.

Cheers, Anne

We are one night Cape Town, Birkenhead House, back to Cape Town, Madikwe Hills and Leopard Hills.

Yes, Ker and Downey can quote you the air once it is in the system. They can do both Coach and Business Air. I will get them to quote that for those that request it from their gateway city.

Order of camps for each person is not 100% confirmed yet but the camps you are booked at are definite. Changes do continue to occur and it is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. I have to make it all work.

We now have one opening left by the way for Kings Camp and either Madikwe HIlls or Mateya.

Kristin,
We're also in room 9 at Birkenhead. I think we're 2 nights @ Birkenhead, then to Cape Town for 4 nights, then Madikwe & Leopard Hills for 6 nights (not sure which one is first).

Other than the Pre-RoarII tour to Botswanna,I'm not sure of where or when we hit the campsor which camps but then it really doesn't matter to us :cool: we'll go anywhere anytime so lead on oh fearless leader <img border="0" alt="[bounce]" title="" src="graemlins/ubbbounce2.gif" />
I think we are part of Option 1 and in room 2 at Birkenhead. Madikwe then Lion Sands.ye gads--14 mos out and already getting excited <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />
I can only imagine how hyper I will be by next September

We are also Option 1. Birkenhouse the 1st couple of nights, then back to Capetown for a few nights. Then off to Leopard & Madikwe.

In Ngaire we trust! It can't be easy to fit all of our bookings into a neat puzzle, with all the locations that all of us are going, that's for sure! But we know that we are in good hands and have no worries.

When K&D is able to price airfare, we'd like to see what their options are. Are there benefits to booking air through them vs. doing it on our own, things we may not realize? I apologize in advance for being such a novice! :ohmy:

Not really any additional benefits. They do get contract rates and sometimes are a little less than the fare you get from the airline. Not siginificant though.

I remember on ROAR 2 that K&D could not quote right away as they did not have their contracts yet (same as Regent - often months after rates are available). When they did quote it was a little less than the AMX deal (2 for 1).

Sometimes the 2 for 1 is great other times the price is so high on the first ticket it is not a good deal.

There are many variables. They book BA, KLM and South African. South AFrican airways is the easiest way to go. It has the best coach cabin now as they have taken seats out and have the best pitch in the business. Also easier, no long layover just a refueling stop on the way.

KLM is often the cheapest via Amsterdam.

Those who are not using FF miles just email me if you are going to buy and I will put you on a list to get pricing. (Kristin you are on the list). I will contact regarding air fares. If you are buying there is no rush to buy the day things open. It is only the FF miles that have to be done instantly.

Thanks, Ngaire, I appreciate it. In doing some research across the months, it did look like South African would probably be our best option. It's so hard to believe this trip is only 14 months away!

Do we know what is the date for ff requests?

For AA it is 329 days before departure. However, not all flights necessarily open at the same time and some are held back. It is a real mess. Used to be you could count on them opening on time but not any more.

Watch LCT around that time. The posts will be flying.

We really hate long flights!!!

In order to survive getting to and from So. Africa we've decided to use the "One World Award". It cost 150,000 miles p.p. for Business Class but it allows you lots of stopovers etc. We have it planned to go LAX to JFK on AA (spend a few days with family), JFK to Cape Town via London on BA, then returning we're going Johannesburg to Zurich to stay with friends for several days, then Zurich to JFK (this time stay in Midtown for a few days), then back to LAX. We're stretching ROAR into a 27 day trip.

The "kicker" for qualifying for this One World Award is you must use 3 different airlines that are all members of One World. This was very easy for our itinerary. Ironically, AA said that just going to and from South Africa in Business Class would have still been the same 150,000 f.f. miles!

Say bye bye to our AA f.f. miles!!

I've posted this before but a reminder what a helpful site this is for calculating the "go" date for booking f.f. tickets. Just plug in the first day of travel and subtract 329 days or whatever # fits the particular airline.
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

Dear Marcie, :app: :app: :app: This site is tremendous for persons such as myself who are mathmaticaly handicapped :hug:

Marcie, we're also going to use AA miles for South Africa and I've looked at the OneWorld award as an option. Out of curiosity, what airline are you planning to use for Johannesburg - Zurich? The only OneWorld options I've come across for South Africa are BA and Iberia. Also, will the OneWorld award allow you to fly BA from JFK-London?

Dena

When we went on ROAR and used AA miles, we were on Swiss Air/BA going to Capetown via Zurich and Johannesburg and Iberia returning from Johannesburg via Madrid. Try to get BA if you can, but you'd go through London rather than Zurich. I don't think Swiss Air is part of One World anymore. Or you could probably do Iberia both ways through Madrid. Madrid is certainly easier to maneuver than Heathrow!!

Swiss is now part of Star Alliance & the Lufthansa Miles & More program.

How was Iberia's service, Peggy? Amen to not going through Heathrow as it currently stands. There is some thought they will ease the one bag restriction, but they are also filming people as they go into security and doing a final passport check. That slows things down, too.

Cheers, Anne

I'm also interested to hear first-hand about Iberia, Peggy. I think that will be a strong possibility for us.

Dena

Anne & Dena, We flew Iberia Air about 5 years ago in Biz Class and it was just fine, no problems at all.

Peggy, we'll be spending 4 days in Zurich so this isn't just a change of planes for us. I sure wish Swiss Air were still part of One World, we've flown them several times and always happy!

We were also in business class on Iberia. I'd say it's about average -- not outstanding, but not terrible either. I read somewhere that Iberia was going to upgrade their Business Class cabin--don't know whether that happened or not. The seats we had were not lay flat seats. They were those seats that recline at an angle. You're sort of flat, but not quite. I'm short and kept sliding down in the seat and waking up. The food was OK--again, kind of average. If they've improved the seats, I'd say it would be pretty good. I agree with Marcie, we liked the Swiss Air flights better. Swiss Air even has an all Business Class flight from Newark to Zurich. That's the flight we were on and we really enjoyed it.

We will be using United ff miles and will appreciate any and ALL advice. I hope the emails start flying so that I can put my battle plan in place before it's time to start dialing and dialing and dialing!