The trip has begun! We’re expecting at least seven months in Eastern and Southern Africa. First stop is Tanzania.
For our flights from San Francisco to Kilimanjaro airport, Tanzania; We flew business class on Swiss Air and Ethiopia Air. This was booked using United Airline miles. This cost us 160,000 United miles + $53 in taxes. If we had paid cash instead of miles, this would have cost us $39,000!
We normally always travel with just a carryon and a daypack. But because we will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, we also brought a checked bag. This bag is filled with some of our older mountaineering gear. After the climbs, we will give this gear to our guides since we don’t want to lug it around Africa and there’s no way to ship it home.

For our first month, the sum total of airline and lodging expenses if we had paid cash would have been $40,728. But by using points and miles our out-of-pocket expenses were only $837.

For our second month, the sum total of airline and lodging expenses if we had paid cash would have been $13,259. But by using points and miles our out-of-pocket expenses were only $2,937.

For our third month, the sum total of airline and lodging expenses if we had paid cash would have been $4,106. But by using points and miles our out-of-pocket expenses were only $1,136.

Flights from SFO to Kilimanjaro: 160,000 United miles + $53 tax. Avoided cost $39,000.

3 nights Airbnb in Moshi free after Airbnb credits. Avoided cost $72.

3 nights Arusha hotel $135.

2 nights Arusha hotel $98.

4 nights Holiday Inn Dar Es Salaam: 36,000 IHG points + $100. Avoided cost $500.

Mbeya Forest Hotel $29 (we never stayed but lost this cancellation fee).

Sai Villa hotel $56.

Flight from Iringa to Dar Es Salaam $311.

Ramada Resort Inn by Wyndham Dar Es Salaam: 13,500 Wyndham points. Avoided cost $302.

Flight from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar $54.

3 nights Airbnb free after Airbnb credits. Avoided cost $171.

10/15/25. Start of second month.

2 nights Le Mersenne Autograph Collection: 2 Marriott FNCs + top up of 14,500 Marriott points (cost $100) + $15 tax. Avoided cost $976. (Single upgrade first night and double upgrade to a villa on the second night)!

10/18/25 (start of second month): 3 nights in Double A Nungwli beach hotel. Our cost $50. Avoided cost $527.

10/21/25:  night in Holiday Inn City Centre Dar Es Salaam. Our cost $88 (could have used points, but this was the better option). Upgraded to a $127 room. Avoided cost $127

There were no good point options for our flight from Dar Es Salaam to Nairobi on Kenya Airways. So we paid $459 cash.

10/22-10/25/25: 3 nights Hemingways Nairobi (upgraded to an executive suite). Free through using three FNCs. Avoided cost $3,528,

10/25: Lake Naivasha simba lodge. Paid $880

Mombasa Airbnb. free through Airbnb credits. Would have been $128

Watamu. paid $185 for an Airbnb

Flight from Malindi to Lamu $130 cash

Lamu Island. $75 of the $143 Airbnb cost was free through credits

flight from Lamu to NBO. $285. No point options.

11/10/25 Razana Hotel in Nairobi  $47 cash +$26 Expedia credit (avoided cost $73)

roundtrip flights from Wilson airport to Finch Hattons airstrip and back. $660, no point options.

Nov 11-14: Finch Hattons safari tent camp. 375,000 Virgin Red points (cash cost would have been $5,940.

Nov 14 Hyatt Westlands Nairobi. 3,500 hyatt points. Avoided cost was $194

11/15/25: Start of third month

Nov 15: Flight from NBO to ADD. 14,000 Virgin Atlantic points + $208. Avoided cost was $900.

Nov 17: End of second month (middle of Ethiopia tour).

Start of third month.

Night of Nov 27 Ramada by Wyndham Addis Ababa. 13,500 Wyndham points. Avoided cost $115. Should get 7500 to 15000 points rebated.

Flight from ADD to EBB 24,500 Etihad miles (transferred from Amex) +$69 cash. Avoided cost $948

Nov 28 Kampala lake point villa $54

Dec 1 Kokii hotel $82 after one key cash. actual cost $84

Dec 2-4 majestic Nile hotel Expedia $108

Dec 4 hotel expedia jinja igar plaza hotel $103

dec 5-7 Jinja (Deluxe 12 $100 never responded). So we got a refund from VRBO, we got a $100 credit from VRBO and we got comped a $352 stay at the Jinja Nile Resort

Night of Dec 7 Entebbe Expedia Lakepoint Villa $48.

Dec 8: EBB to HRE on Kenya Air for 31,000 Virgin Atlantic pts + $326/pp. 6+50 one stop flight.departs 3:50 am and arrives 9:40 am. DL9PLQ booked through Virgin Atlantic. Avoided cost $1,294.

Dec 14: end of third month.

Botswana tour

Start of fourth month

Dec 15 Maun Airbnb. We paid $68 cash.

Dec 16 flight from Maun to JHN (Johannesburg). There weren’t any good flight options from Botswana to Mauritius, so we needed to go through JHN. And as long as we were going to be there for two days, we decided to add a couple extra days. There were no point options so we booked a flight through Expedia for $539.

Dec 16-20 Johannesburg IHG 29,000 points. Avoided cost $427. Staying at IHG let us use their book three nights with points and get the fourth night free program.

Dec 20 flight from JHN to Mauritius. No point options so we paid cash. Expedia $1,050.

Dec 20-24 IHG Intercontinental Resort Mauritius for 253,000 points. Avoided cost $3,340. We again used the IHG book three nights and get the fourth night free option. This was probably the nicest hotel we have stayed at. Upgrading us to the honeymoon suite had a little to do with that, but the property was amazing.

Dec 24-27 We moved to the south end of the island and stayed in an Airbnb free with credits. Avoided cost $257.

Dec 27 flight from Mauritius to the Seychelles. Again, no point options. Expedia $905.

Dec 27-29 laïla, Seychelles, a Tribute Portfolio Resort 85,000 points from Kate’s Marriott acct. (we transferred 62,000 Kate Amex points to Marriott. A 30% bonus yielded 80,600 points. She already had 5,000 points in her account) and we used one of Mike’s FNCs. Avoided cost $1088. Upgraded to a partial mountain view junior suite.

Dec 29-Jan 1. Hilton L’escale. We used 220,000 Hilton points from Mike’s acct. And one FNC from Kate’s acct. The avoided cost was $3,954.

Jan 1-4 Praslin Island. L’Hirondelle. No point options. So we booked an apartment through Expedia for $615.

Jan 4-6. La Digue Island: Expedia Rising Sun Guest House. Again, no point options so we booked a guest house through Expedia for $383.

Jan 6: We had a flight booked for January 6th to Nairobi, but it was rescheduled to the following day. So we scrambled to find a hotel on Mahe. We stayed at the Runway Lodge. There were point options at Laila or L’escale, but we we only needed a place to crash so it would have been a poor value to use points. We paid $209 cash through Booking.com.

Jan 7: Flight from SEZ to NBO  Kenya Airways flight. No point options, so we paid Expedia$1308 cash for both. Plus, we had made a change at one point so we paid a $50 change fee.

January 7 – 12. Climbing Mt Kenya.

Jan 12 IHG Holiday Inn Nairobi. 17,000 IHG points (Kate’s acct), upgraded to a junior suite. The avoided cost was $210.

Jan 13: NBO-CAI on business class on Egypt Air 850. We used 63,000 lifemiles (Kate’s acct) + $165 for taxes. The avoided cost $3,309.

Jan 13: Egypt air 084 from Cairo to Aswan. We paid 30k air canada miles + $100 ca. + $26 for a flight change. Biz class. avoided cost $302. No economy class options available.

Jan 13-16. Blue Lotus Nile Suites hotel. Expedia Kate’s acct. $45 one key cash applied +$309.48 (our out of pocket expense). Avoided cost $354.

Fourth month expense report:

Lodging: cash out of pocket was $1,375. If we hadn’t used points, the cost would have been $10,905.

Flights: cash out of pocket was $4,043. If we hadn’t used miles the cost would have been $7,413.

The main thing that killed us was the lack of any point options for flights from Maun, Botswana to Johannesburg; Johannesburg to Mauritius; Mauritius to Seychelles; and Seychelles to Nairobi.

Lodging had no points options on Praslin or La Digue and additionally, a last minute booking due to a flight rescheduling caused us to book a hotel for cash in Mahe.

End of fourth month.

Start of fifth month. 

Jan 16-19. B&B Saluga Sehel Island Nubian House. We ended up cancelling this and paid a $129 cancellation fee. 

Jan 15: Flight to Abu Simbel (ABS) and tour of Abu Simbel. 30,000 Air Canada miles + $89. Egypt Air 145. Avoided cost $472

Jan 19-21 Jewel Luxor hotel Nile. No good point options so paid $186 through Expedia. 

Jan 21. Air Nile flight from Luxor to Cairo. No good options so we paid $77 cash. 

Jan 21 – 23. Marriott Mena house Cairo. Used two Kate FNCs (from opening the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card). Avoided cost $1,395 (upgraded to a suite for the second night)

Jan 23-27. Nile Ritz Carlton. Used 4 Amex FNCs + $744 cash. Upgraded to Deluxe Nile view room. total nile ritz carlton avoided cost $4,314 ($3,564 + $400 prop credit + $350 5 breakfasts x 2 person @ $35 each). Out of pocket $373

Jan 27-29: The Edit Alexandria: Four Season hotel at San Stefano  (I used The Edit credit) paid $472 ( $722.46 – $250 The Edit credit). Plus $100 property credit.

Jan 29-31. Kate’s acct. 70k hilton points. Hilton Alexandria Corniche. Avoided cost $281. 

Jan 31. Dept CAI at 7:00 PM and arrive CMN at 11:45 pm.BU9VOP, 64k lifemiles (Mike’s acct) + $132 biz (Mike’s amex platinum). Avoided cost $1,498. Egypt Air 861.

Jan 31 – Feb 2. Hilton Garden Inn Casablanca Sud. $200 (could have used points but the cash value was better). 

Feb 2-5: Airbnb booking Apartment in Rabat: Le Cocon d’Agdal: Elegance and comfort. $216 ($116 of Airbnb credits + $100 Airbnb Superhost coupon).

Feb 5-8 Mitzi 101 Studio Apartment Marrakech. $284 but was free through our Airbnb credits. 

Feb 8-11 desert trekking

Feb 11-12. Mitzi 101 Studio Airbnb ($82 paid her directly)

Feb 12-14  Sahara Tour

Feb 14: Ramada by Wyndham in Fes. Paid 6,750 Wyndham points (Mike’s acct). Avoided cost $130. 

Feb 15-18. Ramada by Wyndham in Fes. Paid 20,250 Wyndham points, mike’s acct. Avoided cost $231. 

End of fifth month. Fifth month expense report. 

Lodging: cash out of pocket was $1,365. If we hadn’t used points, the cost would have been $8,543

Flights: cash out of pocket was $298. If we hadn’t used miles the cost would have been $2.047.

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How did you earn the United miles?

We transferred 66,000 Chase points to United (1 to 1); we transferred 122,000 Marriott points (this gave us 70,000 United points); We utilized a few shopping portal bonuses (500 to 2,000 points here and there). We had some points left over from the 60,000 mile bonus from opening the United Explorer card. I utilized a bonus of spend $1,000 and get 10,000 United miles.

How did you get the Wyndham points?

We got them through our Wyndham Business Earners cards. Besides the welcome bonuses, these cards provide 8X on gas purchases and 5X on utilities. And I used a shopping portal offer to sign up for two months of an American home Shield warranty ($30 x 2) for a 60,000 point bonus. We’ve also purchased Wyndham points when they were on sale for future use, but we haven’t had to break into that stash yet.

How did you get the Hilton points and FNCs?

We opened three Amex Hilton Aspire cards which yielded 600,000 Hilton points (welcome offer + minimum spend points + 20,000 Hilton points by using my referral for Kate’s card). They also yielded three FNCs.

How did you get the IHG points?

We opened two Chase IHG personal cards and one Chase IHG business card. This yielded 320,000 IHG points. We’ve also purchased IHG points when they were on sale for future use, but we haven’t had to break into that stash yet.