Fly to South Africa via Paradise for $3,545 Return in Business Class

With South African Airways no longer flying to Australia, Qantas now is the only airline offering direct flights between Australia and South Africa.

Qantas currently flies non-stop from both Sydney and Perth to Johannesburg. But Qantas’ Business Class airfares are expensive, award availability is extremely limited and the Perth-Johannesburg flight will only operate until March 2023. After that, Qantas will only offer flights from Perth to Johannesburg with a lengthy detour via Sydney.

If you want to travel from Australia to South Africa in Business Class, there are other one-stop options such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates. But there’s another little-known airline based on a subtropical island in the Indian Ocean that offers easy connections between Perth and Johannesburg.

Air Mauritius recently resumed flying twice weekly between Perth and Mauritius. These flights are operated by new Airbus A330-900neo aircraft with lie-flat Business Class seats.

Air Mauritius also offers onward connections from Mauritius to Johannesburg (as well as to London and Paris, if you want to fly to Europe).

Air Mauritius Business Class fares from Perth to Johannesburg via Mauritius start from around $6,300 return. But there is a way to book this for almost half the price!

The airline is one of the many partners of Air Canada, meaning you can redeem Air Canada’s Aeroplan points to book flights on Air Mauritius. This creates an interesting opportunity because there is actually reasonable award availability on Air Mauritius, including in Business Class, and Aeroplan points are relatively cheap to buy!

It costs 60,000 Aeroplan points + CAD117 (~AU$131) to fly one-way in Air Mauritius Business Class from Perth to Mauritius. And depending on when you want to fly, some flights on this route may even have up to 9 Business Class award seats available!

Alternatively, you could fly all the way from Perth to Johannesburg in Business Class, via Mauritius, for 80,000 Aeroplan points + CAD123 (~AU$138):

Due to the flight timings, an overnight stop in Port Louis, Mauritius is required on the way from Perth to Johannesburg. But a shorter connection time of around 3 hours is possible on the return journey.

An Airbus A330 is also used on the Mauritius-Johannesburg route, meaning you can lie flat all the way to South Africa.

With Aeroplan redemptions, you can add an en-route stopover of between 1 and 45 days for an extra 5,000 points. Plus, if you wanted to travel onwards from Johannesburg to somewhere else in Africa, you could add a connecting South African Airways flight onto the same ticket (e.g. from Johannesburg to Cape Town) for no extra Aeroplan points!

This means that you could book an itinerary such as the following for 165,000 Aeroplan points + CAD289.80 (~AU$325), with all flights in Business Class except for one sector from Cape Town to Johannesburg:

Buying Aeroplan points

Aeroplan points cost CAD35 (~AU$39) per thousand to purchase at full price. But Aeroplan regularly offers bonus points. In fact, until 29 November 2022, you can earn up to 105% bonus points when buying Aeroplan points from Air Canada!

With a 105% bonus, it would cost you CAD2,800 (~AU$3,141) to buy 164,000 Aeroplan points.

You could then pay CAD70 (~AU$78) for another 2,000 points to make up the shortfall. (You have to buy in specific increments and the minimum purchase is 2,000 points.)

If we consider that you also need to pay CAD289.80 (~AU$325) in taxes when redeeming those points, the total cost to fly round-trip from Perth to Cape Town in Business Class – with a stopover in Mauritius in one direction – is CAD3,159.80 (~AU$3,545). That’s a very good deal!

Rather than paying for Aeroplan points, you could also transfer points across from CommBank Awards or earn them with an Australian HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

Fly with Air Mauritius to Europe

This Air Mauritius trick also works if you want to fly from Australia to Europe in Business Class!

It costs 110,000 Aeroplan points to fly one-way from Perth to Paris or London in Air Mauritius Business Class. Again, for an extra 5,000 points, you could choose to add a multi-day stopover in Mauritius as well.

If you don’t live in Perth, you can even add on a domestic Virgin Australia flight from your home city to Perth onto the same ticket – and still pay the same amount of Aeroplan points.

For a bit of variety, you could even use Aeroplan points to fly to Europe via Mauritius and then return home via Abu Dhabi (with Etihad) or Vietnam (with Bamboo Airways).

As an example, the above itinerary would cost a total of 230,000 Aeroplan points + CAD455.90 (~AU$512) in taxes. You could buy enough Aeroplan points to book this during the current 105% bonus promotion for CAD4,200 (~AU$4,712). That brings the total cost to CAD4,655.90 (~AU$5,224).

For an extra 30,000 Aeroplan points, you could even book the above itinerary with First Class from Paris to Abu Dhabi!

The total cost of buying enough points and covering the taxes for the above itinerary would be CAD5,005.90 (~AU$5,616). That’s a great deal!

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Air Canada partners with Air Mauritius

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.