Several weeks ago United Airlines revealed some new long haul flights, including to Africa, India, and Hawaii. So far United has put its new flights to Bangalore, Johannesburg, Maui, and Kona, on sale, and now the airline is opening reservations for yet another one of its new flights.
As of May 14, 2021, United Airlines will launch 3x weekly flights between Washington Dulles and Accra. The route will operate with the following schedule:
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At just 5, 282 miles in each direction, this is one of the shorter nonstop flights between the US and Africa. The flight is blocked at 10hr35min eastbound and 10hr50min westbound.
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United will use a Boeing 787-8 for the Washington to Accra route. United is in the process of reconfiguring these planes with new Polaris seats and Premium Plus seats. Here’s how the two configurations differ:
Let me be clear — I obviously don’t work in network planning, and I also think United has some of the brightest people working in international network planning. I’m sure United has good reasons for the schedule it chose, though I’d be fascinated to know all of the thought that went into this. The advantages of this schedule are obvious:
But let’s imagine for a moment that the schedule were shifted by 12 hours on the return, so that the utilization was instead as follows:
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It seems like United has greatly decreased its late night bank of flights at Dulles Airport, so I’m guessing all of this comes down to lack of connections at Dulles if the flight were to arrive around that time.
So that makes me wonder why the flight isn’t scheduled more like this, shifting the outbound forward by a few hours, and shifting the return forward by around 15 hours:
Obviously that would make connections in Accra challenging, but then I guess it depends to what extent this flight will rely on connections within Africa.
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It’s cool to see United Airlines’ growth in Africa, as the airline plans to fly to Accra, Johannesburg, and Lagos. Two of those three flights are now on sale, with the Accra flight being the latest addition.
Since this represents a route resumption for United, I wonder how it will perform this time around. Only time will tell if this sticks around in the long run, especially given South African Airways’ demise, or if this is just the best use of a plane for the time being…British Airways flies to Accra, Ghana. Historically the airline has operated its Ghana service out of London Heathrow Airport, but for flights as of March 28, 2021, the airline had planned to operate the flight out of London Gatwick Airport.
Ghana’s government wasn’t happy about this change. Gatwick is generally considered to be less premium than Heathrow, so the government called this change “unfavorable” towards Ghanaian passengers.
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Ghana’s government decided to threaten British Airways with reciprocal action — if British Airways wanted to transfer the Ghana flight to Gatwick, then Ghana would require British Airways to use a less premium airport in Ghana.
There was only one small problem with the threat — Kotoka International Airport (ACC) in Accra is the only major international airport in the country, so there’s not another airport the service could practically be moved to.
You’d think British Airways would have maintained its stance, recognizing that the government’s threat was baseless. That’s not what happened, though — British Airways has made the decision to continue operating the Accra route out of Heathrow rather than Gatwick.
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The service is operated out of Heathrow as of now, and that will continue to be the case even as of later this month, when the transition was supposed to happen.
British Airways will continue to operate its service to Ghana out of Heathrow rather than Gatwick. The airline was going to change the airport for this service as part of a strategy shift, though Ghana’s government threatened the airline over this.
The problem is that this was clearly an empty threat, as there’s no practical option to punish British Airways with reciprocity, given that the country doesn’t have another major airport.
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However, British Airways gave in, and will continue to operate this service out of Heathrow. I’m curious to hear what Ghana’s next complaint about British Airways will be, given that the government has a history of taking issue with the airline.Eric Rosen originally joined TPG as the site's first managing editor back in 2011. He contributed to major publications including Bloomberg, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler and Travel + Leisure before rejoining TPG as director of content in 2021.
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We’ve seen some phenomenal airfare deals from the US to regions all over the world, including Africa. Back in December 2017, for example, South African Airways flights from New York (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD) to Johannesburg were just $666 round-trip in economy.
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However, business-class fare deals can be hard to come by, and a trip to Africa offers some great opportunities to put your miles to use thanks to airline partnerships and alliances such as those between American Airlines and Etihad, Alaska and Emirates, and United and South African Airways, among others.
The selections included here were made by comparing not only factors like seat comfort and amenities, but also award availability and route networks. For instance, RwandAir’s new business class looks pretty nice, but unfortunately, the airline doesn’t fly to or from the US yet and isn’t part of a major alliance, so it doesn’t make the list. On the other hand, though South African Airways’ business class can be a mixed bag, thanks to two flights to the US and award availability that opens up from time to time, the airline earns a spot here.
Where you plan to fly in Africa will also significantly impact which carrier is best for your needs. For instance, if you’re going to Kenya, you’re going to want to look into options that might differ from those that will get you to Zambia.
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With that in mind, here's a list of major carriers that fly nonstop or with one stop from North America to Africa. Read on below for our top choices of carriers with great business-class seats you can book with miles, including some mix-and-match options.
Air France: With several gateways in the US and destinations in Africa including Johannesburg but also Lagos, Dakar, Abidjan, Bamako, Luanda and more, Air France is a compelling choice.
Air Namibia: Namibia's national airline operates a daily flight to/from Frankfurt and doesn't have any mileage partners, so you won't find it on our short list. However, keep it in mind for connections throughout southern Africa to other destinations like Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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British Airways: The UK airline flies from its hub in London to destinations all over Africa. The two drawbacks are enormous taxes and fuel surcharges, and business-class seats that belong in the last century.
Cathay Pacific: Do you want to fly to Hong Kong in order to get to Africa? Probably not, so we won’t cover it here, but it is still something to consider since Cathay’s business class is among the best in the world; the airline will soon operate a new route to Cape Town; and award availability between the US and Asia and Asia and Africa tends to be pretty good. American Airlines might not let you book an award like this thanks to its third-region rules, but Alaska will.
Delta: The only US carrier to fly nonstop from the US to Africa, Delta operates routes to Accra in Ghana, Lagos in Nigeria, Dakar in Senegal and Johannesburg. However, its business-class seats are old, and it is impossible to find the lowest saver-level awards on its flights to any of these destinations in the current booking calendar (we looked!) so we’re leaving it off the list for now.
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EgyptAir: Angled business-class seats and a tense political situation keep this carrier or destination off our list, but it might be worth considering as it is part of Star Alliance, award availability is wide open and the airline has a well developed route network in northern Africa especially.
Emirates: With an extensive route network to the US as well as in Africa, the largest of the Middle Eastern carriers presents some great opportunities…if you have some Alaska Airlines miles to spare.
Ethiopian Airlines: This African carrier has upped its game in recent years and flies from a few US cities to its hub in Addis Ababa, either nonstop or with a stopover in Europe, plus award availability using partner miles is pretty good.
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Etihad: This member of the ME3 flies from four US airports via its hub in Abu Dhabi to Cairo, Casablanca, Dar es Salam, Entebbe, Johannesburg and Nairobi, giving travelers lots of options and some fantastic business-class seats to choose from.
Kenya Airways: This airline will begin flying directly to the US in October 2018, and connects with partners in hubs like
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