Booking your flight can seem like a daunting task. These flights are long and (often) expensive, and finding the best fare can be a complex undertaking. While it’s impossible to give you all the available tips in a small space, we are giving it a shot here. As always, arming yourself with a little knowledge and preparation helps make the whole process go more smoothly. 

Routing Options

There are three main flights that arrive into Kilimanjaro International Airport on a daily basis: KLM via Amsterdam, Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa, and Qatar Airways via Doha. All are safe, reputable airlines that all travelers use all of the time with little incident aside from a delayed bag here or there. 

Here are the details on those options: 

• KLM/Amsterdam: Most efficient routing, mid-range pricing
• Ethiopian/Addis Ababa: Slightly less convenient routing, least expensive pricing.
• Qatar Airlines/Doha: Longest routing, most expensive pricing

You can start with general search engines such as Kayak.com, Google Flights or TripAdvisor, so you can compare fares on different carriers. Once you find the carrier and routing you like, you can choose to head for that airline’s website, as you can skip the search engine’s cut and airlines sometimes guarantee the lowest price on their own websites. Follow them on social media, as well, to keep up with fare deals. Theflightdeal.com has an excellent email you can subscribe to for a daily list of deals from the US.

A few more tips to consider: 

• You might save money by traveling on a major holiday. 
• Search for one-way tickets, even on different airlines; sometimes you can buy these to save money, but other times it just helps in finding the best day to travel. 
• If you are traveling as a pair or in a group, search for individual tickets one at a time; if, for example, there are three seats left on a flight and you’re searching for three tickets, the airline will only show you the price for the most expensive seat. 
• Look for airfare-hotel-car packages; some rental companies and hotels essentially hide amazing deals in these packages, so customers won’t know the discounts they are offering.
• If you live close to more than one airport, check out the fares from all of the airports near you. A short drive or discount airline flight might be worth it.

Since you will have a fairly fixed itinerary, last-minute deals won’t be an option for you. The best general advice here is to book three to six months ahead. More specifically, studies have shown that when traveling from the US, the best fares to Europe are at about 120 days out, Asia around 160 days, Africa about seven months, and South America around 4 months. 

One great option can be using frequent flier miles, and a simple way to attain these is through credit card signup bonuses. Many cards offer up to 50,000 or more miles after you hit a minimum spend on the card. If you’re traveling as a pair, each of you can get a card and pay for at least one of your tickets this way. Thepointsguy.com is a great resource for this kind of “travel hacking”. Some banks or card issuers, most notably Chase and American Express, offer cards that reward you with points that can be exchanged for hotels, airfare, or car rentals. If you get an airline’s card, you will also earn a bonus for using it on their airline; these can be extra miles, priority boarding, free checked bags, lounge access, and so on. In this way, loyalty to an airline can pay off – if you’re not paying too much on their fares compared to other airlines. As always, do your homework.

You can also use a travel agent. Yes, they still exist!

And they sometimes have access to cheaper fares than the public does. Our tip is to do the homework above, find the best fare you can, then take that to an agent to see if they can do better. Sometimes they can get you a better seat or more comfortable layover for the same fare, and sometimes they can just save you money.