The Ultimate Guide to United Miles: Part 15 – All The Ways To Get To Africa

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While United only flies to one African destination (Lagos in Nigeria) themselves, they have several Star Alliance airlines which fly to many cities and countries in Africa.  United miles are the best miles to use for flights to Africa!

The Ultimate Guide To United Miles Index

• Part 1 – Earning Lots of United Miles
• Part 2 – Introduction to United Miles
• Part 3 – Understanding the United Award Chart
• Part 4 – United Award Costs/Fees
• Part 5 – Using The United Website To Book Awards
• Part 6 – Stopovers, Open Jaws And Free One Ways
• Part 7 – Using The ANA Website To Find Star Alliance Award Seats
• Part 8 – All The Ways To Get To Europe!
• Part 9 – The Best Tip For Searching On United.com
• Part 10 – All The Ways To Get To Japan, North Asia & South Asia!
• Part 11 – All The Ways To Get To Australia, New Zealand, And Oceania!
• Part 12 – All The Ways To Get To The Caribbean, Central & South America!
• Part 13 – All The Ways To Get To India!
• Part 14 – Using United Miles in the US, Hawaii, and Canada
• Part 15 – All The Ways To Get To Africa

The Best Tip For Searching On United.com

Don’t forget to change your search results to show you 50 flights (instead of the default) when you search on United.com.  This will show you more flight options which may work for you!

Step 1 – Click On “Advanced Search”

Go to United.com and click on  “Advanced Search” at the bottom of the award search page.

Step 2 – Change “Number of Flights to Display” To “50”

Click on the drop-down box by the “Number of Flights to Display” and change it from the “Default” to “50“

You will see MANY more flight options this way!

How To Use The Information In This Post

You could rely on United.com to find you awards seats to Africa.  And United’s website is pretty good.  But it is unlikely to find every possible option on using United miles to Africa.

If you’re really commited to finding award seats to Africa and don’t want to hire an award booking service, you could search for award seats on many of the routes below.

The information below will help you find the long-distance flight to Africa.  The best way to search is segment-by-segment.

Once you find the long-distance flight to Africa, you should start searching for flights to your final destination in Africa and then from your US departure city to the gateway (i.e. where the flight to Africa departs from the US).

And here are ways to earn lots of United miles!

Award Pricing 

There are three separate regions within the African continent. The Middle East region includes Egypt, but also countries like Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Northern Africa region includes Algeria, Canary Island, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The rest of Africa is placed in the Central or Southern Africa region, which includes Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, amongst others.

All 3 regions currently have the same price for awards from the Mainland US and Canada.

For one-way awards from the US, Alaska, or Canada to the Middle East (includes Egypt), you will pay:

• 40,000 miles each way in economy
• 60,000 miles each way in Business Class
• 75,000 miles each way in First Class

For one-way awards from Hawaii to Northern Africa, you will pay:

• 45,000 miles each way in economy
• 65,000 miles each way in Business Class
• 85,000 miles each way in First Class

For one-way awards from Hawaii to Central or Southern Africa, you will pay:

• 50,000 miles each way in economy
• 75,000 miles each way in Business Class
• 90,000 miles each way in First Class

For one-way awards from Hawaii to the Middle East, you will pay:

• 40,000 miles each way in economy
• 60,000 miles each way in Business Class
• 80,000 miles each way in First Class

Non-Stop Flights From North America To Africa

United flies 4 times per week from Houston to Lagos, Nigeria.  This is the only flight on United from the US to Africa.  Availability is generally good in both economy and Business Class. Three Star Alliance partners – EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, and South African Airways – are based in Africa and have flights directly from North America.  You can then find connections within Africa to other destinations.

1.  EgyptAir

• New York (JFK)
• Toronto (YYZ)

Both economy and Business Class awards are available.  There are good connections from Cairo to the rest of Northern Africa and the Middle East.

• Washington Dulles (IAD)
• Toronto (YYZ)

Both economy and Business Class are usually available.  Ethiopian Airlines has good connections to the rest of Central Africa, Southern Africa, and Indian Ocean destinations.

3.  South African Airways

• New York (JFK)
• Washington Dulles (IAD)

In general, Business Class awards are tough, but not impossible, to find on these flights, though economy class awards are available.

Booking A Flight To Seychelles With Minimal Stops

Seychelles is a popular island destination in Africa, but the only Star Alliance airline that serves Mahé island in Seychelles (SEZ) is Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa, and only on certain days of the week.

However, since Ethiopian Airlines has flights to Washington, DC and Toronto, it’s possible to fly to Seychelles with only a few flights.

Let’s say you want to fly from Charlotte to Seychelles.  You will likely have to find an award flight(s) from Charlotte to either Washington, DC or Toronto, then an award flight(s) from one of those cities to Addis Ababa in Ethipia and then finally an award flight from Addis Ababa to Seychelles.

Even though we want a roundtrip, it’s good to search one direction at a time.  Let’s search from Charlotte to Seychelles and see what the United site gives us.

*TIP:  If you do not find award seats from your origin city to your destination, try searching segment by segment.  Start for the longest segment first.

In this case, that would be either Toronto (YYZ) or Washington, DC (IAD) to Addis Ababa (ADD).

Step 1 – Select City Pairs, Travel Date, Number Of Passengers, And “Award Travel”

On the United website, type in the origin and destination airports.  Since this is a flexible trip, we’ll select “My Dates are Flexible” and select a month.  We’re looking for 2 tickets and are searching “Award Travel.”

After clicking search, the United website will try to find flights that can be booked, and display which dates are available.

• The dates that are not highlighted (in white) have no Saver availability.
• The dates in yellow have only Saver Economy availability (though are worth checking anyway).
• The dates in green have both Saver Economy and Saver Business/First availability.
• The dates in blue have only Saver Business/First availability.

Step 2 – Chose A Travel Date

We’d prefer to leave at the beginning of a weekend, so let’s see what flights are available on Saturday, February 8 by clicking on that date.

There are award tickets available from Charlotte to Seychelles on February 8 via Washington DC and Addis Ababa.  The cost is 40,000 miles one-way in economy per passenger, or 60,000 miles one-way in Business per passenger.

Note:  US Airways will be leaving the Star Alliance on March 30, 2014.  While you can book US Airways awards before March 30, 2014 for travel in the future, you won’t be able to change the date of a US Airways flight after March 1 because they won’t be available with United miles.

So in this example, you can’t change the date of the Charlotte to Washington, DC flight after March 1.

Always look out for “Mixed Cabin” warnings on the United website.

In this case, the Charlotte to Washington and Washington to Addis Ababa flights are available in First/Business Class, but the Addis Ababa to Seychelles flight is only available in Economy.

This can still be a good deal, because the longest part of the journey (the ~ 14 hour flight from the US to Ethiopia) is in Business Class.

Flying To Africa Via Europe

While non-stop flights from North America to Africa can be great, they are not always available! Most options for awards to Africa require stopping over in Europe.  This is also a great way to stretch your legs or even see another city on your trip!

You pay the SAME amount of United miles for a flight from the US to Africa if you stop over in Europe or if you fly on a non-stop flight from the US to Africa.

In a previous post, we discussed how to book flights from North America to Europe.  From Europe, we can book connecting flights to Africa.

1.  South African Airways

• London (LHR)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Munich (MUC)

You can book a flight from North America to one of these cities and connect to a South African Airways flight.

• Brussels (BRU)
• Paris (CDG)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Milan (MXP)
• Rome (FCO)
• Stockholm (ARN)
• London (LHR).

3.  EgyptAir

• Amsterdam (AMS)
• Athens (ATH)
• Barcelona (BCN)
• Berlin (SXF)
• Brussels (BRU)
• Budapest (BUD)
• Copenhagen (CPH)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Geneva (GVA)
• Istanbul (IST)
• Larnaca (LCA)
• London (LHR)
• Madrid (MAD)
• Manchester (MAN)
• Milan (MXP)
• Moscow (DME)
• Munich (MUC)
• Paris (CDG)
• Rome (FCO)
• Vienna (VIE)

4.  TAP Portugal

You can fly from Lisbon to many cities in Northern and Western Africa, including:

• Algiers (ALG)
• Luanda (LAD)
• Accra (ACC)
• Bamako (BKO)
• Marrakech (RAK)
• Casablanca (CMN)
• Tanger (TNG)
• Maputo (MPM)
• Dakar (DKR)

You can also fly from Lisbon to:

• Cape Verde (SID)
• Sao Tome (STE)
• Principe (PCP)

5.  Brussels Airlines

You can fly from Brussels (BRU) to many cities in Northern and Central Africa, including:

• Conakry (CKY)
• Dakar (DKR)
• Entebbe (EBB)
• Marrakech (RAK)
• Nairobi (NBO)

Note that United.com does NOT show you Brussels Air flights.  But you can search for them on the ANA website and then call United to book those same flights!

6.  Turkish Airlines

You can fly to many African cities from Istanbul (IST), including:

• Accra (ACC)
• Addis Ababa (ADD)
• Cairo (CAI)
• Cape Town (CPT)
• Dakar (DKR)
• Johannesburg (JNB)
• Kilimanjaro (JRO)

It can be tough to find Business Class awards to popular destinations like Cape Town, but economy class seats are generally available.

7.  Lufthansa

You can fly from Frankfurt (FRA) to:

• Johannesburg (JNB)
• Addis Ababa (ADD)
• Casablanca (CMN)
• Marrakech (RAK)

In addition, they have a seasonal (Northern Hemisphere winter) flight from Munich (MUC) to Cape Town (CPT).

8.  SWISS

You can fly from Zurich (ZRH) to:

• Dar-Es-Salaam (DAR)
• Nairobi (NBO)
• Johannesburg (JNB)
• Cairo (CAI)

However, you cannot book Swiss Air First Class seats with United miles.

Booking Flights To Kilimanjaro Via Europe

Fortunately, booking an award to Kilimanjaro (JRO) isn’t as tough as actually climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines fly into Kilimanjaro airport.  So we can fly via Istanbul (IST) to reach Kilimanjaro. If you search for flights from Istanbul (IST) to Kilimanjaro (JRO), you’ll notice that there is availability almost every single day. That means that we only have to find flights to Istanbul to connect to the flight to Kilimanjaro.

Good thing Star Alliance has many routes between North America and Europe! For example, let’s say you want to book a trip from Houston (IAH) to Kilimanjaro (JRO) with a stopover in Istanbul on the way home.  All for the same amount of United miles as a flight without the stopover. You would search for awards from:

• Houston to Kilimanjaro
• Kilimanjaro to Istanbul
• Istanbul to Houston

Step 1 – Search For Flights From Istanbul To Kilimanjaro

After you find dates where your flights are available, you can insert the cities into United’s “Multiple Destinations” search tool.  While I wouldn’t mind having to connect between Houston and Istanbul (for example, Houston to Frankfurt to Istanbul), Turkish Airlines has a nonstop flight that has decent availability.

Your search reveals plenty of award seats!

Step 2 – Search For Flights With A Stopover In Istanbul

Enter the cities into United’s “Multiple Destinations” search tool.

Your search reveals that economy and Business Class award seats are available.

And there are Business Class Award seats from Kilimanjaro to Istanbul.

There is Business Class award availability from Istanbul to Houston.

Your total cost for a ticket from Houston to Kilimanjaro with a stopover in Istanbul is 120,000 miles and ~ $90.

Because United only serves one destination in Africa (Lagos, Nigeria), prices for business or first class to most African destinations will go up after February 1st because awards with partner airlines will cost more.

Bottom Line

United miles give you the most ways to get to Africa.  You can fly directly from North American to Africa or you can travel via Europe.