Hi all,
Going to South Africa for my honeymoon in June 2014 for about 20 days (including travel days), and looking to fly direct in business. Our ideal itinerary is:
NYC -> CPT via JNB on the non-stop SA flight
open jaw
JNB -> NYC on the non-stop flight
If necessary, we could omit the open jaw, but in theory that wouldn't help assure the main flights. I would also like to tack on a flight from SFO -> NYC for August 2013, but in no way is that a deal-breaker, and as I understand, at worst I could just book NYC -> [some other US destination] for up to a year after my flight and then change the dates.
The main concern is right now looking at the farthest booking date (March 2014), there rarely is biz availability on the non-stop flights, and when there is, it's for 1 seat not 2, at least at the saver level. I believe I read on a blog that SA usually releases 1 seat on the NYC -> JNB flight (and vice versa), and once it's booked, they release another seat. Does anyone know how accurate this is? I also think I read once that you can somehow book coach class and pay the biz rate so that you're automatically on standby for the upgrade, which would then seemingly assure you of getting into biz once the next seat opens up. Is this true, if so, how do I set that up? Regardless, how confident should I be that I'll be able to get us into biz on the longhaul flights, and how should I approach booking them? I will be flexible on dates on the front and back end of the trip to some degree, but the whole thing needs to occur within the month of June (and needs to span around 20 days).
For what it's worth, I have no status, but would be fine booking via call center, my sanity is worth the $25.
Semi-related, part of the trip we plan on going to the Seychelles and staying at the Hilton Northolme using the free nights from the Hilton CC, but we won't have those credits for at least a few months (working on the spend currently), and we can't book anyway until flights are settled, which can't occur until at least July when booking for June 2014 opens up. Any idea if we have a realistic chance of getting a room, or do these things sell out literally a year in advance?
Thank you so much!
Going to South Africa for my honeymoon in June 2014 for about 20 days (including travel days), and looking to fly direct in business. Our ideal itinerary is:
NYC -> CPT via JNB on the non-stop SA flight
open jaw
JNB -> NYC on the non-stop flight
If necessary, we could omit the open jaw, but in theory that wouldn't help assure the main flights. I would also like to tack on a flight from SFO -> NYC for August 2013, but in no way is that a deal-breaker, and as I understand, at worst I could just book NYC -> [some other US destination] for up to a year after my flight and then change the dates.
The main concern is right now looking at the farthest booking date (March 2014), there rarely is biz availability on the non-stop flights, and when there is, it's for 1 seat not 2, at least at the saver level. I believe I read on a blog that SA usually releases 1 seat on the NYC -> JNB flight (and vice versa), and once it's booked, they release another seat. Does anyone know how accurate this is? I also think I read once that you can somehow book coach class and pay the biz rate so that you're automatically on standby for the upgrade, which would then seemingly assure you of getting into biz once the next seat opens up. Is this true, if so, how do I set that up? Regardless, how confident should I be that I'll be able to get us into biz on the longhaul flights, and how should I approach booking them? I will be flexible on dates on the front and back end of the trip to some degree, but the whole thing needs to occur within the month of June (and needs to span around 20 days).
For what it's worth, I have no status, but would be fine booking via call center, my sanity is worth the $25.
Semi-related, part of the trip we plan on going to the Seychelles and staying at the Hilton Northolme using the free nights from the Hilton CC, but we won't have those credits for at least a few months (working on the spend currently), and we can't book anyway until flights are settled, which can't occur until at least July when booking for June 2014 opens up. Any idea if we have a realistic chance of getting a room, or do these things sell out literally a year in advance?
Thank you so much!