Booking 38 Hours in Business Class for $170

When booking my trip to Africa, I knew it would require a lot of flying, with at least one or two connections in each direction. Frequent readers of Nonstop Points know that while I am truly happy flying in economy, on long flights like this, I will try my luck at sitting in business class for sleep and comfort. This article is about booking 38 hours in business class for $170 and how I did it. 

When looking over the best mileage options to fly to Africa, one in particular stuck out. Realizing how I could maximize the deal for multiple flights, I booked it. Despite some delays and downgrades, the ticket got me to and from Africa. Here is how I did it:

This article is part of my Trip Report: Starting Summer in East Africa including:

• My Comically Bad Luck Flying to Africa
• No Compensation for an Involuntary Business Class Downgrade?!?
• Review: Lufthansa Senator Lounge IAD
• Review: Lufthansa Business Class Lounge IAD
• Review: Lufthansa B747-8 Economy IAD-FRA 
• My First Flight on the Queen: My Thoughts
• Review: Lufthansa Senator Lounge FRA
• Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge FRA 
• Review: Lufthansa A330 Business Class FRA-NBO
• Review: DoubleTree by Hilton Nairobi Hurlingham
• Review: Air Kenya into the Safari
• JW Marriott Masai Mara Review: Luxury in the Savannah, a Truly Unforgettable Safari
• Is the JW Marriott Masai Mara Worth $3k a Night?
• Review: Aspire Lounge Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta (NBO)
• Review: Kenya Airways NBO-ZNZ E190
• Exploring Tanzania: My Thoughts on Zanzibar
• When Flights Don’t Go as Planned: Delayed in Zanzibar
• Review: Air Tanzania ZNZ-ARK
• Mt. Kilimanjaro Day Hike: My Thoughts
• Exploring Moshi, Tanzania: What Everyone Gets Wrong
• Review: Twiga Lounge by Aspire Lounge Kilimanjaro International Airport
• Weirdest Flight Delay I Have Ever Had… 
• Review: Hyatt Regency Addis Ababa Executive Regency Suite
• Exploring Addis Ababa: My Thoughts
• Review: Ethiopian Cloud Nine Business Class Lounge Addis Ababa
• Review: Ethiopian Cloud Nine B787-8 Business Class ADD-IAD
• My 18 Hour Odd Business Class Experience: A Stop in Lome, Togo?

Planning Out My Award

The mileage sweet spot I came across for travel to Africa is ANA MileageClub’s round-trip Star Alliance business class awards. For 104,000 miles in business class, you can fly round trip from the U.S. or 65,000 miles in economy.

It was easy enough to justify an extra 19,000 miles per direction to be upgraded to business class, especially with routings in both directions easily exceeding 15 hours with the possibility for multiple red-eye flights. 

It got even sweeter when I realized that ANA allowed me to add a stopover and an open jaw on this ticket. A stopover is when, for example, you fly from location A to location B, stopover for a few days, then continue on to location C, all on one ticket. Think flying from New York to London, spending three days there, and then flying to Paris. 

An open jaw is when the pair of cities on a round-trip ticket does not need to be the exact same. For example, flying from New York to London but returning to Chicago. Alternatively, flying from New York to Paris, finding your own way to Germany, before returning from Frankfurt to New York. 

ANA’s program is rare, allowing for both of these benefits on a round trip award. I wanted to maximize both and pay the least out of pocket. However, ANA passes on fuel surcharges, so I needed to avoid flying Lufthansa, Austrian, and Swiss for budgetary reasons.

Finding Space

Despite only booking 2-months out before the trip, I found a decent amount of award space on Ethiopian Airlines. Most flights only had one or two available seats using awards, but I had the flexibility of dates for both my schedule and award availability since I was flying alone. 

I knew I wanted to start in Nairobi and had a two-day window for flights right after finals wrapped up. When I found space to fly United Airlines from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Lagos, Nigeria (LOS), before connecting on Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD) to Nairobi, Kenya (NBO), it seemed to make the most sense time-wise.

Neither Ethiopian nor United pass on significant fuel surcharges, so this was ideal. 

The open jaw came in helpful on the return flight home. While I flew into Nairobi, I was targeting to leave out of Zanzibar or Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. I could only do so because of the open segment between Nairobi and my second city (there are no Star Alliance direct flights on these routes). 

After having a look, Kilimanjaro had award space in business class, so that became the plan. I again had to connect via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before flying back to Washington. But then I realized that I hadn’t used my free stopover.

I added a free stopover in Addis Ababa after flying in from Kilimanjaro, allowing me to visit Ethiopia for two days before returning to the U.S.  

Booked: 38 Hours in Business Class for $170

Ultimately, my routing ended up being:

• Washington (IAD) – Lagos (LOS) – Addis Ababa (ADD) – Nairobi (NBO)
• Kilimanjaro (JRO) – Addis Ababa (ADD)
• Addis Ababa (ADD) – Washington (IAD) via Lome (LFW) (same flight with a refueling stop)

Although I ended up flying Washington (IAD) – Frankfurt (FRA) – Nairobi (NBO) on the outbound due to a delay, I was thrilled with this booking. 

For 104,000 miles and just $170, I could book 38 hours in business class over six flights. This translates into just over 2,700 miles per hour of flying time, which is an incredible bargain. At this rate, it is similar to flying from New York to Western Europe for about 20,000 miles in business class!

I transferred the miles from American Express to ANA. The transfer took about 54 hours which I was impatiently waiting for. Once they appeared, the award space actually disappeared, only to show up again a few hours later. It had me scared, but it all worked out. 

Despite being such a complex ticket, I could book online this time without calling ANA or waiting on hold. 

My Thoughts

The low taxes and fees that are customary for flights on Ethiopian and United were the cherry on top of this fantastic award. Note that I did not have to pay the difference in fuel surcharges when I was rebooked on Lufthansa due to a delayed flight. 

The cash price of this ticket was just a tad over $5,000, so netting close to 5 cents per American Express Membership Reward point was something that I was pleased about.

I was also meant to fly on Ethiopian’s b777-300er, b787-8, and a350-900, which would have been fun to compare in addition to flying on United’s Polaris. Ultimately, I ended up flying two different configurations of the 787-8, which is fine by me!

I could leverage an open jaw and a free stopover to visit Nairobi, Kilimanjaro, and Addis Ababa on ONE TICKET! In between Nairobi and Kilimanjaro, we visited Zanzibar as well, but ultimately, the mileage savings from not purchasing these tickets separately was significant. 

For comparison, United wanted 88,000 miles each way. With the excursionist perk offering the free flight from Kilimanjaro to Addis Ababa, the ticket still would have been 176,000 miles if booked with United. That’s nearly 70% more than the 104,000 price.

The Last Point

While booking this award took time, patience, and flexibility, it paid off. I was able to fly to Africa and back in style, all with the number of points you can earn from just one sign-up offer.

Booking 38 hours in business class for $170 was a success and a great way to fly to my African adventure. 

How would you make the most of ANA’s generous routing rules?