Best Way From MEL to West Africa?

[Boganite]

I’m trying to get from Melbourne to West Africa (Dakar is probably best) in June but fares are astronomical - well in excess of $3000 with Emirates or Turkish.

I have around 300K QFF and 300K Velocity points but they’re not much use for that sort of trip. Any tips from experienced flyers? Maybe a reward ticket to DXB and try from there?

 

[kpc]

Where does Qatar fly to in Africa? In Dec I'm flying Qr J Dar-Doh-Adl using Velocity points...high surcharges though.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Welcome to AFF
What's you criteria for best?
Class of travel?
From France/EU may have more options.
Surprisingly QR does not fly to DSS. (reference Wikipedia which is not always accurate)
RoyalAirMaroc & Iberia are Oneworld.
Air France is a QF ffp partner.

Blaise Diagne International Airport - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

 

[Boganite]

Thank you for the kind welcome.

My only criterion is that I either get there in under 50 hours, or enjoy an interesting daytime stopover (eg IST, CDG, even DXB) on the way. I’m fine with economy.

I hadn’t considered RAM. I’m flexible about where I arrive. I’ll even consider Nouakchott or Banjul if they’re cheaper than DSS. Skyscanner is only giving me expensive flights to DSS via Dubai or Istanbul. I was hoping I was overlooking some sort of clever hack.

 

[Mwenenzi]

I’m trying to get from Melbourne to West Africa (Dakar is probably best) in June but fares are astronomical - well in excess of $3000 with Emirates or Turkish.

I have around 300K QFF and 300K Velocity points but they’re not much use for that sort of trip. Any tips from experienced flyers? Maybe a reward ticket to DXB and try from there?

Velocity not much use, but some QF ff partners (IB, RJ, EK & AF) fly to DSS.

 

[Mattg]

If you can get to/from Dubai (even using Velocity points to fly SQ, Emirates generally has very good award availability between Dubai and Dakar (I think this flight is via Conakry in one direction) which you can book with Qantas points. Mind the fuel surcharges, though.

Another option: Ethiopian Airlines (ET) flies SIN-ADD-DSS using 787s (the ADD-DSS leg has a technical stop in BKO) and there is often award availability in both economy and business class. You could book a Star Alliance Award using KrisFlyer miles flying SQ from MEL-SIN and then connecting to ET all on one ticket. This is a bit complicated and you'd need to call Singapore Airlines to book this, but it should be 109,000 KrisFlyer miles in economy or 203,000 KrisFlyer miles in business, round-trip, if you can find availability. If using KrisFlyer miles you are also allowed a free stopover in either Singapore or Addis Ababa in one direction, if you want. You can transfer Velocity points to KrisFlyer miles at a 1.55:1 rate.

Otherwise, consider positioning to Lisbon and then booking TAP Air Portugal the rest of the way. TAP flies to Dakar, Banjul, Bissau and Conakry (albeit on A320s with basic service and no IFE etc.).

 

[Scarlett]

~ $3K is pretty much the cost for a return ticket. You can get a hundred or so cheaper on some days but that’s what it costs. Seems cheaper in early June rather than later in the month.
One world flights via DOH and CMN.
Star Alliance via BKK and IST.

However…
If you use your airline points to get from MEL to either BKK or KUL you can then get your flight to West Africa for less than $2K cash.
So, your task would appear to be two stages:
- Firstly, find award seats to either BKK or KUL using QF, SQ, JQ etc at a points and cash cost you are happy with.
- Find a sub-$2K airfare from those starting points.




Important reminder: as these would be on separate bookings, leave yourself PLENTY of time to make the connections in BKK/KUL; absolute minimum of six hours but even better make it overnight!

Interesting destinations, and you don’t seem too concerned about final destination, so if you don’t mind my asking: why West Africa? I’ll get to all those kind of places one of these days…

 

[docjames]

Ethiopian ex-BKK with a cheap Mel-BKK-Mel?
How long are you staying or what is return date Or are you talking one-way?

A quick search and Ethiopian will sell ex-MEl 3/6 —> 24/6 at ~$2600 (admittedly 50hrs outbound, 36hr return - the final leg ex-HKG is QF30 operated by “Quantas” (sic)……