How to Get to South Africa with Points and Miles

Is visiting South Africa on your bucket list but you’re just not sure how to actually get to South Africa with your points and miles?

Maybe you want to experience the adrenaline rush that comes from spotting a pride of lions on that once-in-a-lifetime safari or perhaps feel the excitement when a Southern Right whale breaches the water alongside your boat.

Then this South Africa points and miles guide is for you! 

Luckily, if you’ve decided to book a flight to South Africa with your points and miles, there are plenty of options that offer great value and reduce your out-of-pocket costs. 

How to Get to South Africa with Points and Miles

Trips to Africa aren’t considered the most affordable vacations.

A southern Africa safari that includes places like Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls, and the bucket-list-worthy Okavango Delta can start at a couple of thousand dollars to many tens of thousands of dollars depending on your travel style.

So, using miles and points to fly to South Africa can be a huge money-saver!

How many miles to South Africa varies depending on the points and miles award program, but generally speaking:

• Award flights for economy flights can range from 65,000 miles to 80,000 miles round trip.
• Business class flights will range from 104,000 miles to 150,000 miles.  

Also, fuel surcharges can range from about $10 to hundreds of dollars per ticket. So be sure to compare the mile cost to the taxes and fees. 

Now, let’s look at how to get to South Africa with miles and points!

Use ANA Miles: Best Business Class to South Africa

This could just be the best way to get to South Africa using your miles because it’s also the cheapest way to get to South Africa in terms of points. 

It’ll only cost 65,000 ANA miles round trip in economy class!

Or, if you prefer more luxury, you can fly round trip in business class for only 104,000 ANA miles, which is the best award ticket to South Africa in terms of mileage redemption value. 

However, while ANA might be the cheapest way to get to South Africa using your points, they’ll pass on fuel surcharges with certain airlines. So, pay attention to those taxes and fees because they can be hundreds of dollars!

For example, if we look at flying from Washington, D.C. to Johannesburg, it’ll only cost you 65,000 miles and $99.46 round trip. When comparing options to find the best award ticket to South Africa, this might currently top the list in terms of overall value.

If flying in coach for that long makes you cringe, remember it’s only 104,000 ANA miles to fly in a business class seat round trip to South Africa. Not shabby at all!

Fuel surcharges will vary depending on the Star Alliance partner airline you fly.

As you can see above, an itinerary operated by Ethiopian Airlines is much less out-of-pocket. But sometimes award searches on ANA turn up itineraries with extremely high taxes and fees. If this happens, select flights by different partners to see if/how this changes the out-of-pocket costs.

Another important tip to remember when booking ANA award flights using partners, only round trip awards are allowed.

How to Earn ANA Miles

If you need ANA miles, they’re a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.  

You can earn these flexible travel rewards with credit cards like:

• American Express® Gold Card
• The Platinum Card® from American Express
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card

Use Virgin Atlantic Points to Fly to South Africa

Virgin Atlantic Points are extremely valuable and using them to fly to South Africa can be a solid way to redeem them. While the mileage price isn’t the cheapest on this list, it’s still an option to consider because earning Virgin Atlantic Points is just so easy!

The benefit of using Virgin Atlantic is they have a non-alliance partnership with Delta Airlines. Virgin Atlantic does not pass on fuel surcharges for Delta-operated flights which makes this an interesting partnership for getting to South Africa with miles and points.

For example. Atlanta to South Africa in economy class would only cost 45,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and $6 for a one-way flight. Delta operates this flight between Atlanta and Johannesburg. Delta offers the same one-way economy award seat for 50k Delta miles.

Search directly on Virgin Atlantic to find availability. And, remember Virgin Atlantic will cost fewer miles for non-stop flights.

How to Earn Virgin Atlantic Miles

They’re transfer partners of Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Marriott Bonvoy. 

You can earn these flexible travel rewards with credit cards like:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• American Express Gold
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

Add a Free South Africa Excursion with United Miles.

Using United miles to fly to South Africa isn’t one of the cheapest options whether you’re flying in coach or business class. But, United doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges to their customers.

So, while you might save a lot of miles using ANA miles, you also might spend hundreds of dollars on fuel surcharges with Star Alliance partners via ANA.

For example, when looking to fly from Atlanta to South Africa (Johannesburg), some programs like ANA pass on fuel surcharges when flying Lufthansa. Yet, United will only charge 44,000 miles and $42.40. 

For flights operated by United, it can be as low as 40k miles one-way in coach.

So while this option costs more miles and to fly in economy, it gives you more award space options without the hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket on fuel surcharges. 

If you’re looking to fly business class, United charges 80k+ miles one-way for United-operated flights and 88k for flights flown by their Star Alliance partners.

Now, if you decide to use the United Excursionist Perk, this can add some real value to your United miles.

For example, if you were to look at flights from Tampa to South Africa (Johannesburg), but also wanted plane tickets from Johannesburg to Cape Town (JNB to CPT), with an eventual return back to Tampa, you’d pay 40,000 miles and $39.70 to fly from Tampa to Johannesburg,

Then, with the United Excursionist Perk, fly from Johannesburg to Cape Town for 0 miles and $9.20. Yes, only $9.20 to fly non-stop to Cape Town!

Then for the return flight to Tampa, you’ll only pay 40,000 miles and $83.53.  

You could fly this entire route in economy class for only 80,000 miles and $132.43. 

The cash price of this ticket is $3,684, which means you’re redeeming your points at 4.4 cents per point, a phenomenal for an economy ticket! 

Book a Mixed Class South Africa Flight with Avianca Miles.

Just like United, the big benefit to using Avianca miles is the fact they don’t pass on fuel surcharges to customers and don’t charge a close-in booking fee if you’re booking within 21 days of departure 

Booking an economy flight to South Africa, Avianca charges 40,000 miles each way, which is the same as United.  If you were looking for a business class seat, LifeMiles charges 78,000 miles, 2,000 miles less than United’s award chart saver price.

Another great benefit of LifeMiles is the ability to book mixed cabin awards. 

For example, in the above example of flying from Boston to South Africa (Johannesburg), if both economy and business were showing, you could choose business class for the longer flight and economy for the shorter flight.

Instead of a ticket like this having a set price, you’d pay the cost showing for the flights you select. Other airlines will charge you the full business class price for a mixed cabin ticket. 

How to Earn Avianca LifeMiles

Avianca is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy.

You can earn these flexible travel rewards with credit cards like:

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Card
• American Express Gold
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
• Citi ThankYou Premier

Programs like American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points, occasionally have transfer bonuses to Avianca, so you could pay even fewer miles if you were to take advantage of those transfer bonuses. 

Use Flying Blue Miles to Get to South Africa.

Flying Blue might not be the first program you think of when flying to South Africa, but you shouldn’t overlook this program. 

While Flying Blue no longer has an award chart, the amount of miles needed for an award ticket is based on the cash price of a ticket. This dynamic award pricing means sometimes you can find a deal.

For example, flying from Los Angeles to Johannesburg in economy class, it’ll only cost 35,000 miles and $134.81 for a one-way ticket. 

And if you were looking to fly business class to Johannesburg it would be as low as 85,000 miles, plus taxes and fees

When booking with Flying Blue, they’ll pass on fuel surcharges to the customer. So while the mile requirement for economy tickets might be lower than other options, the out-of-pocket cost will be higher as well. You’ll want to compare the award cost to the cash price to see if you’re getting a good deal. 

How to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Flying Blue miles are also easy to earn. They’re transfer partners of Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy. 

You can earn these flexible travel rewards points with credit cards like:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• American Express Gold Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

American Express and Citi have even offered transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, costing you fewer miles for these award flights to South Africa and taking the sting out of those fuel surcharges.

Use American Airlines to Fly to South Africa.

We finally get to a Oneworld partner on this list! While I feel American Airlines offers an underwhelming experience, their miles are quite useful for award flights with their partners. 

If you were flying economy class using American Airlines miles, it would only cost 40,000 miles each way. That includes flying economy on Etihad or Qatar flights. 

Business class will cost 75,000 miles one-way and first class to South Africa will cost 120,000 American Airlines miles. 

Most notably, you could fly in the Qatar Q-Suites from Washington, D.C. to Johannesburg for 75,000 AA miles and minimal taxes.

Or if you wanted to fly Etihad business class, that would still cost just 75,000 American Airlines miles and minimal taxes. 

These options represent an excellent use of your American Airlines miles.

How to Earn American Airlines Miles

American Airlines miles aren’t the easiest to earn because they are only a transfer partner with Marriott Bonvoy.

Luckily, American Airlines has co-branded credit cards with both Citi and Barclays, which can help significantly boost your American Airlines account balance. You can also earn American Airlines miles through their shopping portal, dining rewards, and programs like Simply Miles.

Conclusion: 

Visiting South Africa using your points and miles might sound difficult, but if the thrill of a safari is on your bucket list, then you have a lot of options to get you there for less.

So, which do you think is the best way to fly to South Africa?

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