Last October I spent a whirlwind week and a half jumping off bridges, going on safari, flying on a microlight, and swimming to the insane Devil’s Pool overlooking Victoria Falls while crisscrossing South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia.
The intra-Africa flights were tricky though, as COVID entry rules were changing daily and I didn’t want to purchase tickets and be locked into something that wouldn’t work out.
Most of those flights were operated by Airlink, which has an excellent network in Southern Africa. However at the time they had no mileage partners.
On the plus side, the airline did serve a surprisingly tasty kosher meal on the short 90 minute flight from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to Cape Town:
But you now can redeem United miles for Airlink flights!
Mileage requirements seem to be 15.5K miles for shorter nonstop flights and 25K miles each way for longer flights or connecting flights in economy.
For a limited time, you can earn up to 150,000 miles on a new Chase United Business Card.
A flight from Livingstone, Zambia (one of 2 airports that serve Victoria Falls) to Nelspruit, South Africa (one of several airports that serve the Kruger National Park) is 15.5K miles each way. That’s an excellent value for flights that sell for about $370, or a value of 2.06 cents per mile:
A flight from Livingstone to Johannesburg, South Africa (home to many incredible kosher restaurant bargains) is also 15.5K miles each way. Those flights that sell for about $254, or a value of about 1.32 cents per mile:
A flight from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg is 25K miles each way. Those flights that sell for about $380, or a value of about 1.3 cents per mile:
A flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town (quite possibly the most beautiful city in the world) is 15K miles each way on Airlink, but it’s also bookable on SAA for just 8.8K miles. Those flights only sell for about $74, so it’s not a good value at just 0.44 cents per mile.
But if you do book a paid Airlink flight, you can now also earn United miles for it. You can use a card like Chase Sapphire ReserveĀ®Ā to book paid flights at a value of 1.5 cents per point.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any award space to S. Helena Island/HLE, which is one of Airlink’s priciest flights and one of the more remote destinations out there.
Will you redeem miles to fly Airlink?
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12 Comments On "United Adds A Valuable New Mileage Redemption Partner"
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As I read this article, I was so excited that I could finally use points to get to St. Helena.
And then I got to the end š
Tristan da Cunha?
No flights!
However if you do ever visit make sure to ride the āPotato Patches Flierā
Also, if you are thinking about visiting Tristan using mileage, you may just be lucky:
https://www.kosherhorizons.com/antarctica
Dan, I get rejected from new Chase cards bcs I have 5 cards within 24 months. Is there ANY loophole or some way around this restriction?
This is great news. When I went a few years ago I paid for a few pricey flights on Airlink because they were the only option.
HLE was the first thing that popped in my mind seeing this. Fingers crossed!
waiting for TR š
Whats the best way to get to Zanzibar?
Depends where you want to get to, but if you just want to āget thereā Turkish should be your cheapest and best option
If youāre looking for a more scenic route youāll need to go with the regional airlines to connect
United added Airlink as a redemption partner back in June, so this is nothing new. Avios was 4,500 points each way. Qatar signed a codeshare agreement with Airlink, I wonder if Qatar avios redemption will ever be possible?
I had a grand mini trip planned to Victoria Falls in June using Comair with BA avios, just then they ceased operations so that all fell apart.
In the end My wife anyhow didn’t let me travel for more than the bare minimum (for a wedding), so I ended up spending 2 and a half days in South Africa. terrible wasted opportunity, but a happy wife