Travel

Flights to Africa are expensive. Tips on saving money?

  • Last Updated:
  • Aug 12th, 2017 7:28 pm
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes

Flights to Africa are expensive. Tips on saving money?

Thanks to some inspiration from Talamasca Smiling Face With Open Mouth, we are seriously considering booking a safari for next year. We are looking at late August, into early/mid September 2018. We are looking at a safari that starts in Maun, Botswana and ends in Livingstone, Zambia. We'd also like to visit Cape Town.

I can't search for flight prices for our proposed travel dates yet, because it's too far out. The best I can do is compare dates for August/September 2017, but since those dates are about a month away, I'm sure that affects flights prices. In playing around with various dates and cities, I can see that flights between Toronto and Cape Town or Jo'burg aren't TOO pricey, but if I use Maun or Livingstone as a destination, the price goes up a lot (less demand, fewer flights I guess).

I'm thinking that we will have to take at least one regional flight ie Livingstone to Cape Town. So we could fly YYZ to Maun, then regional flight Livistone to Cape Town, and then Cape Town to YYZ. But with Maun, the flights are so expensive (ie $2500 pp). Any advice on how far out to book to get a decent price? I think I've read 3-6 months out is best (so I'll have to wait until next year to book, which is fine, but I want to make sure this trip will be within budget before we commit to a safari).

Has anyone flown from YYZ to Maun and gotten a flight for less than $2K? Any other advice on booking affordable flights to Southern Africa?

Thanks.
30 replies
Deal Guru
User avatar
Apr 26, 2004
13166 posts
3738 upvotes
Mississauga
Sign up for KLM's email list. Through them and their partner Kenya Airlines, they seem to be the airline most likely to have cheaper flights to Africa. I got my flight from Toronto to Livingstone for about $1300. Good luck!
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
Talamasca wrote: Sign up for KLM's email list. Through them and their partner Kenya Airlines, they seem to be the airline most likely to have cheaper flights to Africa. I got my flight from Toronto to Livingstone for about $1300. Good luck!
Good tip, thanks :)
Deal Guru
User avatar
Apr 26, 2004
13166 posts
3738 upvotes
Mississauga
Another tip for your safari itinerary: If you are having trouble finding an itinerary from Maun to Livingstone, consider one from Maun to Kasane instead and have the safari operator arrange a transfer from Kasane to Livingstone, which should be fairly simple. In Africa, I've found the tour operators to be friendly with their fellow operators, and everyone always knows someone else who is useful. You end up getting passed along from person to person like living cargo, but it always works out.
Banned
User avatar
Jun 8, 2008
3977 posts
1423 upvotes
Toronto
We ended up flying Toronto to Montreal to London to Johannesburg because it was the cheapest routing we could find. We actually saved a few hundred dollars flying through Montreal (which added up since we were buying flights for four). We flew home from Cape Town. Managed that routing for $1100 each in June a few years ago. We booked the October before.

We also looked into flying in Livingston but wanted our own vehicle and decided instead to rent a truck/camper in SA and drive up there through Botswana and then back down to SA through Namibia. We had a lot of time though and we didn't do an organized tour.
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
Talamasca wrote: Another tip for your safari itinerary: If you are having trouble finding an itinerary from Maun to Livingstone, consider one from Maun to Kasane instead and have the safari operator arrange a transfer from Kasane to Livingstone, which should be fairly simple. In Africa, I've found the tour operators to be friendly with their fellow operators, and everyone always knows someone else who is useful. You end up getting passed along from person to person like living cargo, but it always works out.
So far the safaris I'm leaning towards start in Maun and end in Livingstone. But I did notice that it seems relatively hassle free to arrange for transfers, if we need them.
andr3w282 wrote: I can't comment on your locations of interest, other than Cape Town. Something to perhaps consider is flying into Johannesburg and using that as your base flight. Johannesburg is quite a decent hub with direct flights from London, New York and Doha.

We flew Ottawa to Johannesburg via Boston and Doha for $1200 on Qatar. My girlfriends family go quite frequently (they're from SA) - 1000-1400$ CAD range with 1 or 2 layover is the norm. Our flight Johannesburg to Cape Town round trip was around 140$CAD round trip if I recall. Was cheaper than doing a multi-city back to North America. Might get decent flights to Botswana and area from Johannesburg. Highly recommend Safari in SA Kruger park too =)
Johannesburg is fine for one end of the trip but we want to visit Cape Town too, so it makes most sense to fly back to Canada from Cape Town. The $140 round trip between Johannesburg and CT...do you remember which airline that was with? Because that's a decent price for a return transfer and if that makes for a cheaper option vs a multi city back to Canada, that would be great.

Do you know how far out your girlfriend's family books their flights? I'm thinking that the prices I look up now could be high either because I'm looking at Sept 2017, which is kinda last minute or the farthest I can go is July 2018, which might be too far out.
wirebound wrote: We ended up flying Toronto to Montreal to London to Johannesburg because it was the cheapest routing we could find. We actually saved a few hundred dollars flying through Montreal (which added up since we were buying flights for four). We flew home from Cape Town. Managed that routing for $1100 each in June a few years ago. We booked the October before.

We also looked into flying in Livingston but wanted our own vehicle and decided instead to rent a truck/camper in SA and drive up there through Botswana and then back down to SA through Namibia. We had a lot of time though and we didn't do an organized tour.
Wow, that's a good price! So about 8 months out and a couple transfers got you that price. I'd rather just have one stop over but right now we are open to ideas.

Sounds like you had a great trip! I thought about perhaps doing Kruger via self drive, but I don't like driving much :(
Deal Addict
Jun 15, 2015
2879 posts
2271 upvotes
Toronto
You cant compare prices for August/Sept 2017 because of how close we are to departure.

We were supposed to go to South Africa in a few weeks with a side trip to Zanzibar for our anniversary. Unfortunately, my FIL has some health issues we need to stick around for. We changed our trip to Christmas/ NYE.

I can tell you a few months ago we paid $3600 per person round trip in business class with Air France. We have a 15 hour layover on the way to SA but plan to spend the day in Paris (one of my favourite cities!). Air Canada had really good rates as well a few months ago. Don't know if you have CC points but your certainly have time to start collecting. We used Avion and ended up only paying $1600 out of pocket for our flights. For the safari / hotel accommodations we are using our First Class Infinite Visa.
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
BrunetteGirl wrote: You cant compare prices for August/Sept 2017 because of how close we are to departure.

We were supposed to go to South Africa in a few weeks with a side trip to Zanzibar for our anniversary. Unfortunately, my FIL has some health issues we need to stick around for. We changed our trip to Christmas/ NYE.

I can tell you a few months ago we paid $3600 per person round trip in business class with Air France. We have a 15 hour layover on the way to SA but plan to spend the day in Paris (one of my favourite cities!). Air Canada had really good rates as well a few months ago. Don't know if you have CC points but your certainly have time to start collecting. We used Avion and ended up only paying $1600 out of pocket for our flights. For the safari / hotel accommodations we are using our First Class Infinite Visa.
Yeah, I realize that comparing Sept 2017 isn't going to be accurate, which is why it's hard for me to get idea of pricing for that time of year.

$3600 pp is way too pricey for us, we wouldn't go if flights costs that much. Based on previous posts, seems like we needn't pay close to that much if I time my flight purchase right.

We don't have a travel rewards CC :( I just use the PC World Elite CC.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jan 31, 2006
5020 posts
888 upvotes
Toronto
For the SA safari or the other ones that you guys mention, do you suggest joining a tour to go there or can we go there by ourselves like rental a car and drive to the safari instead.
HEATWARE 18-0-0 since 2006
EBAY 38-0-0 Since 2003

IG: mkdrone_
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
marktang wrote: For the SA safari or the other ones that you guys mention, do you suggest joining a tour to go there or can we go there by ourselves like rental a car and drive to the safari instead.
You can do a self drive in Kruger park, for sure, and in other national parks. You can book your own accommodation in the park on the sanparks.com website. We thought about that but then decided that we don't really want to spend so long driving ourselves around for our first visit to Southern Africa. I'm not sure if you are allowed to drive your own car around the private game reserves in South Africa. I would guess not. Depending on where you plan to go, a different type of vehicle may be necessary. For Kruger, a regular car is okay, but for other locations I suppose you'd need a more rugged vehicle. Seems like you can certainly do your own drive.
Banned
User avatar
Jun 8, 2008
3977 posts
1423 upvotes
Toronto
amz155 wrote: You can do a self drive in Kruger park, for sure, and in other national parks. You can book your own accommodation in the park on the sanparks.com website. We thought about that but then decided that we don't really want to spend so long driving ourselves around for our first visit to Southern Africa. I'm not sure if you are allowed to drive your own car around the private game reserves in South Africa. I would guess not. Depending on where you plan to go, a different type of vehicle may be necessary. For Kruger, a regular car is okay, but for other locations I suppose you'd need a more rugged vehicle. Seems like you can certainly do your own drive.
We did our own drives into the parks in Botswana and Namibia - with a Toyota Hilux with roof top tents - and needed it in Botswana especially - as we spent a fair amount of time driving in deep sand. Also, you'll need to drive standard if you're driving this! We drove in SA but not in the parks so I'm not sure. We would have been fine with a smaller vehicle in Etosha in Namibia, the roads were better.

Ours looked like this:

Image
Deal Addict
Oct 18, 2014
2050 posts
925 upvotes
HK
Air Canada usually have a Business Class seat sale every year, around $3500 (used to be $2500 or so), which is not bad considering the price of Economy.
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
McKinsey wrote: Air Canada usually have a Business Class seat sale every year, around $3500 (used to be $2500 or so), which is not bad considering the price of Economy.
We want to spend about half that pp. Economy is fine for us. I'm looking for ways to find flights for, say, $1200-1600 pp.
Deal Addict
Jun 15, 2015
2879 posts
2271 upvotes
Toronto
McKinsey wrote: Air Canada usually have a Business Class seat sale every year, around $3500 (used to be $2500 or so), which is not bad considering the price of Economy.
+1 I know OP said he was not interested in J but for anyone else I can confirm this was the price in March/April of this year when I was looking for August/September. The flights were through LHR or CDG.
Sr. Member
May 7, 2015
528 posts
179 upvotes
Toronto, ON
I'm not sure what safari company you're going with, but I'm surprised it's starting in Maun and ending in Livingstone, are they skipping Kruger (South Africa) entirely? There are a number of companies that cover the same turf and go between Jo-Burg and Vic Falls (ie On The Go, Nomad, G Adventures), which would make for easier and cheaper flight routing.

That being said, if you're set on the tour you want, and you also want to see Cape Town, I'd suggest flying into Cape Town and then out of Vic Falls or Livingstone (whichever works out better). My safari last year ended in Vic Falls, but I flew out of Livingstone, it's about 30 minutes in between them not counting border wait time. Then you can see Cape Town and take a separate one way flight from Cape Town to Maun. South African Airways has a direct flight, but it may be cheaper to connect in JoBurg or Gabarone.
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
BaconBaron wrote: I'm not sure what safari company you're going with, but I'm surprised it's starting in Maun and ending in Livingstone, are they skipping Kruger (South Africa) entirely? There are a number of companies that cover the same turf and go between Jo-Burg and Vic Falls (ie On The Go, Nomad, G Adventures), which would make for easier and cheaper flight routing.

That being said, if you're set on the tour you want, and you also want to see Cape Town, I'd suggest flying into Cape Town and then out of Vic Falls or Livingstone (whichever works out better). My safari last year ended in Vic Falls, but I flew out of Livingstone, it's about 30 minutes in between them not counting border wait time. Then you can see Cape Town and take a separate one way flight from Cape Town to Maun. South African Airways has a direct flight, but it may be cheaper to connect in JoBurg or Gabarone.
There are so many Safaris that start in Maun ;) We havent settled on a company yet but are leaning towards the itineraries between Maun and Livingstone. We aren't looking at itineraries that visit Kruger, so yes that would be skipped. I probably wouldn't need a guided safari in Kruger. We figured that a Kruger self drive, plus the Blyde Canyon and the Drakensberg could be an entirely sepearte trip all together for a future trip :)

There are indeed tours that start in Johannesburg BUT just with the Maun start we are looking at 11 days. A Johannesburg start would mean a longer safari which might be beyond what we want to spend. But we are open to options so I will definitely consider that too. Like you said, it'd make routing easier. Fly from Canada to Jo'burg, safari from Jo'burg through to Vic Falls, fly Livingstone to Cape Town and back home from Cape Town. i think our preference would be to see Vic Falls as early as possible in the trip so we'd probably do Cape Town last.

Thanks!
Banned
User avatar
Jun 8, 2008
3977 posts
1423 upvotes
Toronto
amz155 wrote: There are so many Safaris that start in Maun ;) We havent settled on a company yet but are leaning towards the itineraries between Maun and Livingstone. We aren't looking at itineraries that visit Kruger, so yes that would be skipped. I probably wouldn't need a guided safari in Kruger. We figured that a Kruger self drive, plus the Blyde Canyon and the Drakensberg could be an entirely sepearte trip all together for a future trip :)

There are indeed tours that start in Johannesburg BUT just with the Maun start we are looking at 11 days. A Johannesburg start would mean a longer safari which might be beyond what we want to spend. But we are open to options so I will definitely consider that too. Like you said, it'd make routing easier. Fly from Canada to Jo'burg, safari from Jo'burg through to Vic Falls, fly Livingstone to Cape Town and back home from Cape Town. i think our preference would be to see Vic Falls as early as possible in the trip so we'd probably do Cape Town last.

Thanks!
Its been a long time since I looked at itineraries but you *may* save money by just doing the tour from Maun to Kasane. We didn't make it as far as Livingstone but I'm guessing you want to see Vic Falls. We went to Vic Falls through a one day tour company. Was a long day but we got picked up in Kasane, driven to the Zimbabwe border, we switched to another vehicle there, driven to Vic Falls and visited the Zimbabwe side, then crossed into Zambia (walked over the bridge) and visited the side there - then we went back. Would have been easy to stay in Vic Falls too. That might be a cheaper option for you.
Newbie
Oct 28, 2009
51 posts
21 upvotes
My wife and I went in January-February 2016, our flights from Winnipeg to Johannesburg were $1700 via YYZ and LHR. We flew home from CPT via MUC and YYZ, but stayed 4 nights in Munich on the way home, which was a nice cooling off period. We rented a Hilux outfitted like the one posted by wirebound, except with only one tent, and drove from Johannesburg to Windhoek. We passed through Maun, the Delta area, and the Skeleton Coast. Lots of driving, but very enjoyable.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 9, 2003
5132 posts
981 upvotes
Calgary
Yes yes for Capetown

Look at Kenyan Airways which has a direct flight CPT to VFA

Maybe consider safari to Chobe from Vic Falls

Use IATA search and press travel agent to match
I apologize for offending sensitivities of alt right, alt left, or anyone in the middle, for humor or perspectives, for my maturity and occasional errors. I apologize for misunderstandings on gender, religion, politics, race or deals.
Deal Fanatic
May 14, 2009
6759 posts
1499 upvotes
Cough wrote: Yes yes for Capetown

Look at Kenyan Airways which has a direct flight CPT to VFA

Maybe consider safari to Chobe from Vic Falls

Use IATA search and press travel agent to match
Cape Town gets such good reviews. We're definitely interested in visiting for about a week at the end of our trip.

Will try the IATA matrix.
andr3w282 wrote:
Flight was South African Airways - there's multiple flights per day between Jburg and Cape Town.

Girlfriend's family usually go in February/March/April (we went in April) due to winter here / summer ending there. Usually have it booked before or around Christmas time, so 2-3 months prior.

Regarding the Safari, when we went we were limited on time so we coughed up a pretty penny for a 2 night stay at a private "luxury" lodge on the edge of Krugar which included 2x per day game drives on a land rover. Was absolutely worth it, we saw the big 5 within the first hour on the first drive and the lodge experience was fantastic.

If you're interested in Sharks and have some spare time in Cape Town, I really recommend checking out Marine Dynamics in Kleinbaai (about 2 hr drive from Cape Town, wonderful drive too). Really amazing experience, some video I took:



There's so much to see and do in SA (it really is an amazing place ...other than the dangerous crime and corruption...) that if you can't spare too much time there, it might be best to make it a second dedicated trip. We spent just over a week in Pretoria (family + tourist stuff), a week in Cape Town and 3 days for Kruger and we barely made a dent in the things to see and do. It's too bad it's such a costly and long journey from Canada. Keep in mind you basically lose almost 2 days in travel going there and 1 coming back.
Okay thanks, that's helpful.

Yes, SA is huge and there s so much to see. At first we were looking at just visiting SA with a self drive to Kruger, then seeing Blyde Canyon, the Drakebsberg (sp?), Garden Route, Addo, and of course Cape Town and surrounds. But we decided that we don't really want to drive ourselves around for *this* trip. So, this time, it's looking to be Johannesburg, Botswana, Vic Falls, Livingstone, and Cape Town.

We were thinking of three to three and a half weeks, but with the cost of flights and like you said the time to fly, we may extend to a full four weeks.

Thanks!

Oh, shark cage diving is on the kit. But I have to read up more abaout it since the ethical views on it seem to be mixed so I have to decide how I feel about it.

Top