South Africa on the Cheap(ish)

[froggerADL]

Last year I wrote a trip report on my cheapskate month in Asia. I was asked to do a follow up, so here it is. The trip is not until May 2017 but I decided to start the trip report now while I can remember all the AFF tips I have used, in the hope that they may help other members.

I need to use my QF, VA and IHG points soon as my flying days are coming to an end due to my ever decreasing ability to walk vertically and in a straight line, even when sober.

I am no longer able to work so that won’t be getting in the way of my travel plans. Total flexibility at last.

A South African safari has always been on my bucket list but has never been something I’ve wanted to do alone, so it remained on the list. But it’s now or never, so I asked my 23 year old son if he’d like to come with me and he said yes immediately. He correctly assumed that I’ll be paying for him. I’m assuming he’s going to be my unpaid carer!

Now that I had decided where we were going it was time to work out how to do this by maximising the value of my points while minimising the use of cash.

 

[Daver6]

Can't wait for this!

 

[Major]

Looking forward to the TR

 

[froggerADL]

I used Google to search for a company that specialises in safaris for the disabled and found Epic EnabledHome - Epic Enabled. They cater for mildly disabled people like me right up to the severely disabled. There’s no chance of a three hour hike on this tour!

Early last year TravelZoo had a special on Hluhluwe Game Reserve | Safari Lodges in KZN | Private Game Lodge. I couldn’t take up the offer at the time but I decided that I would like to go there if I ever got to South Africa. This place doesn’t seem too strenuous at all.

Taking into account flight availability, logistics and climate I decided that May 2017 would be the best option.

This preliminary research stage actually took about three months but I got there.

This is the itinerary:
ADL-SYD
1 night SYD
SYD-JNB
I Night JNB
JNB-DUR
3 Nights at Rhino River Lodge
DUR-JNB
I Night JNB
7 Night Kruger Safari
JNB-CPT
4 Nights Cape Town Tour
CPT-JNB-SIN-ADL

 

[potm]

Greatly enjoyed your last report and I learned a few things, looking forward to this one!

 

[Flying mermaid]

You will find with the exchange rate the way it is things are very cheap, outside of the game reserves. I think we were paying between $4 and $6 for an Uber ride in Cape Town and I had a fabulous Dahl in Durban for $3.

 

[clazman]

Looks like a interesting trip, looking forward to it.

 

[froggerADL]

You will find with the exchange rate the way it is things are very cheap, outside of the game reserves. I think we were paying between $4 and $6 for an Uber ride in Cape Town and I had a fabulous Dahl in Durban for $3.

I do love a great exchange rate!

 

[froggerADL]

I like to keep things as flexible as possible when making travel bookings so that I can make changes as cheaply as possible. The international flights would be on points so that’s about as flexible as it gets. I could see online that there was good availability for both the Rhino River Lodge and the safari so I decided to try to book the international flights first.

The safari I wanted runs once each month and the dates are available online which made it easy to work out the best dates for the flights.

I have a strong preference for day flights so that I can maximise my enjoyment of the business class service. Did I mention that I wanted to use my points on business class flights?

My plan was to transfer Velocity points to KrisFlyer and then fly one way on SQ. In the other direction I planned to use QFF points. Another consideration was a visit to the QF SYD F Lounge. I’ve also read many AFF trip reports about QF63 often flying over Antarctica so that pretty much meant flying QF on the outbound leg and SQ on the inbound. This also means that all international flights would be during the day except SIN-ADL.

I could see that SQ was wide open for two seats in J on CPT-JNB-SIN-ADL but QF had no J availability at all. Oh dear!

 

[froggerADL]

Speaking of exchange rates, the current rate is approximately ten rand to the A$. In my last trip report I spent a lot of time converting Asian currencies to A$ for ease of reading. I won’t be doing that this time for the rand. I always found the ten times table the easiest and I’m sure you did too!

 

[froggerADL]

So, challenge number one. I want to fly on QF63 SYD-JNB in J but there is no availability. Fortunately I have QF WP status so I can make a request for award seats to be released.

In early December 2016 I rang the QFF premium line to request the J seats for ADL-SYD-JNB in May 2017. I made sure I rang during the day on a weekday and had great service from a lovely lady who I assume was based in Hobart. I explained that I would like to fly from Adelaide to Johannesburg on a specific date but there was no availability for SYD-JNB, and that I would like to request that two seats be released.

She put me on hold for a few minutes and then returned to tell me that my request had been granted. Woo hoo! I was offered the 6am ADL-SYD connecting flight which arrives into SYD at 8:20am to connect with QF63 which departs at 10:50am. There are two problems with this option, getting up at 4am and not enough time in the F Lounge.

I then explained that I’d like to depart ADL the previous day. I already knew that the only ADL-SYD flight that wasn’t available that day was my preferred flight that departs at 1pm. No problem. She put me on hold again and had the seats released. Winning!

The total cost was 96,000 QFF points and $372 each. I thought that was quite reasonable.

Challenge number one successfully completed.

In my opinion, being able to get award seats released is one of the most valuable benefits of QF WP.

Flexibility: If I have to cancel this it will cost only 12,000 QFF points.

 

[froggerADL]

I had booked an overnight transit at SYD so needed to book accommodation for the night. I’ve stayed at Rydges Sydney Airport twice previously and quite like it. You can’t beat it for access to the international terminal and it’s a quite reasonable hotel. I’ll even get a free beer!

I've booked a flexible member rate for $238. This is probably the most I have ever spent on a one night hotel stay (including Conrad Koh Samui, but that was on points!) but I will monitor the advance purchase rate as the stay approaches to hopefully get a significant saving. Anyway, it’s worth it to me to avoid the 4am start and a decent visit to the F lounge.

Flexibility: Free cancellation.

 

[JessicaTam]

Yay. Another cheapskate TR!

 

[froggerADL]

I almost forgot to post about the deal I got when I paid the taxes etc. for the QF flights. The total was $744 for both pax. I signed up for an Amex Connect offer of spend $700 at Qantas online and get a statement credit of $150. That was paid on my NAB Velocity Amex to get the QF credit. I thought that was funny.

Still winning .

I found out about Amex Connect through AFF and have saved thousands over the last few years.

 

[love_the_life]

Really looking forward to this

 

[snabbu]

Cheapskate is SEA was awesome so can't wait for this one!

 

[froggerADL]

After writing that post about Rydges I checked the current rates. I wouldn’t book a non-flexible rate at this stage but they had a flexible rate for $226 ($12 less) with a $35 dining credit. I re-booked it.

Flexibility: Free cancellation

This is one of my most profitable learnings from the AFF community. Book flexible rates early on and monitor the site for better rates as the stay approaches.

 

[TomVexille]

Checking in for this

 

[froggerADL]

As I mentioned earlier, SQ was wide open for two J seats CPT-JNB-SIN-ADL. Departure from Cape Town is a very reasonable 10:40am for the two hour flight to JNB with a 65 minute pit-stop before the 1:45pm departure to SIN.

I love the timing on this 10 hour 25 minute flight. I can eat and have a few drinks for a few hours before having a sleep prior to the 6:10am arrival at SIN.

Unfortunately, the only flight to ADL departs SIN at 11:10pm so we have a 17 hour daytime layover before the 6 hour 50 minute red-eye flight. A 9am departure on this leg would be perfect. Oh well, such is life!

The total cost was 61,625 KrisFlyer points (which began their life as 83,190 VFF points) and R4985 each. As you can see, lower points required but higher taxes etc. at almost $500 each. The comparison with Qantas is 34375 less KrisFlyer points but ~$130 more cash (not including the Amex statement credit). I prefer the SQ rates.

I booked the flights and selected seats and meals. The CPT-JNB-SIN flights are on the A350-900 which I tried between SIN-KUL last August. I'm looking forward to the longer flights as I found this aircraft extremely comfortable.

A few days after booking this I realised that I’d made a mistake with the return date as our Cape Town tour ends in the evening, not in the morning as I’d assumed. I simply changed the flights online to the next day at no cost. Easy.

Flexibility: One of the things I love about SQ redemptions is the flexibility. Date changes are free and cancellations are US$30.

 

[scubabe]

BP scanned, I loved your last cheapskate TR and I adore South Africa, so I'm looking forward to reading this one