as an alternate Airline - look at Ethiopian Airlines - they are good...the faster way to get to southern Africa is a United Air flight Newark to Capetown...but much more expensive than Eastern USA/Europe/Southern Africa.
In JBerg it is possible to rent a vehicle and go one way to Maun (Botswana) - about 14 hr drive (so one stops halfway and overnites). Why? you can bring much more luggage this way than on the short flight Jberg-Maun (and the cost works out the same for two people).
Deb and I have flown business class via Lufthansa NYC-Germany-Namibia. The Germany-Namibia segment was not a great experience (narrow seats that did not allow me to lie completely flat because the foot area was too narrow and not long enough...and I'm 6"1').
Last year to fly to Australia we saved several thousand dollars each by flying NYC to Toronto (American; First Class) and then United Polaris Toronto/San Fran/Sydney. Polaris is touted as being a great flying experience...it was OK. Anyway, my point being here is if you think outside the box (and major NA cities) for getting to your destination, you can save a lot of money.
For example, if you fly NYC to Spain (Madrid eg; or even Portugal), you can get a very good price on a flight to East/Southern Africa so that it comes out to about $3200 RT rather than about $5k (all business flights/per person) by flying one airline all the way through NYC/Europe/Africa. You will be flying two different airlines (save money but lose time), and perhaps going through customs/immigration...If need be just get a hotel room in the airport and stay overnight...or use the high end CC to get lounge access and spend time there. Lounges usually have showers and places to sleep (cubicles). The Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul is our favorite one for that...
Think outside the box...look where no one else is looking...We're off to Northern Minnesota for Great Grey Owls Monday - it is an irruption year.
