Emirates Air & Travel With Guns

IdaRam

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I've been wondering if any issues were going to arise with the cancelling and shuffling of Emirates flights. Looks like the answer is yes. I received the email below from Steve at Travel With Guns today.
By the way, Steve and Fred at Travel with Guns have been very good to work with so far. I have had a somewhat complex set of travel needs for this upcoming trip including round trip USA to JoBurg, guest house reservations, car rental, Kruger Park, flights to and from Botswana from JoBurg, Chobe Park lodging, several couples with different travel dates/needs, etc.
The folks at TwG have been extremely helpful, knowledeable and a pleasure to work with.
And now, with a few complications to deal with I am very happy someone else has to sort it out :D Regardless of who you might choose to work with, Travel Express, Gracy, etc, when problems arise, even minor ones, it sure is nice to have someone in your corner.

Hi Dan

Further to my email to Peggy, which I copied you in on, I have the same problem with your outbound flights in that the 940am departure to Dubai has been cancelled. Unfortunately there is another complication, and that is the later flight on July 5th is sold out and Emirates have booked you for a July 6th departure which would not get you into Johannesburg until the morning of July 8th at 530am.

I have contacted Emirates to see if I can get you confirmed on the July 5th departure to arrival at 530am on the morning of July 7th – this means instead of an overnight at Africa Sky on July 6th – you clear Immigration and Customs and head straight out to camp.

Question – if I cannot confirm July 5th – could you depart on July 4th to arrive the morning of July 6th?

I’ll be back in touch with you as soon as I hear back from Emirates regarding July 5th departure. If July 4th departure does not work – I may be able to route you through San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Sincerely

Steve
 
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After reading Steve's email to you, I am truly dizzy!!! IdaRam, I hope you understand better than me since it is your trip! By the way you do have a complicated itinerary for an agent to deal with. If your trip all works out as you want, I think you owe the agent a tip!

By the way....Good Luck!!!
 
No issues at all. It gets a bit more complex with an agent than without because they can't use the super easy online permit form the way a passenger can.

Regarding emirates cancellations, they cancelled only a few flights, 90% of those cancelled were the second flights from a US city each day, the remainder were Ft lauderdale going from 7 flights a week to 5.

TWG will sort it all out for you and you'll have a great time. I'll be hopping on my emirates flight in 4 days for my safari and I have zero worries about air logistics.
 
Good luck IdaRam ! I'm sure you will work it out!
 
I'm sure it will all get worked out, but honestly if I were in your shoes I'd be freakin out as I'm a planner and don't do well with sudden changes. Most of all have a great and safe hunt looking forward to your report.
 
Nothing like flight cancellations to screw up an itinerary.
Dominoes come to mind.

Nothing like having a pro on your side when this happens.
 
After reading Steve's email to you, I am truly dizzy!!! IdaRam, I hope you understand better than me since it is your trip! By the way you do have a complicated itinerary for an agent to deal with. If your trip all works out as you want, I think you owe the agent a tip!

By the way....Good Luck!!!

Yeah, I had to read it a couple times to wrap my hands around the issues. The easy answer is for us to fly out the evening of the 4th instead of the morning of the 5th. That will put us into JoBurg about 12 hours earlier than planned, so we will just relax at Africa Sky, go pick up the rental car, etc.

I'm sure it will all get worked out, but honestly if I were in your shoes I'd be freakin out as I'm a planner and don't do well with sudden changes. Most of all have a great and safe hunt looking forward to your report.

My GF was doing a little bit of freaking out :eek: I am very fortunate that I have a lot of flexibility with my job, so it's pretty easy to roll with the punches. I'm kinda the laid back one in our relationship :D

Nothing like flight cancellations to screw up an itinerary.
Dominoes come to mind.

Nothing like having a pro on your side when this happens.

Absolutely! Press the easy button :)
I know @rookhawk prefers to handle things himself and that seems to work best for him. I on the other hand like being able to send back one email and say please see if you can make this work. One and done. No worries.

Thanks to all for the kind wishes.
 
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Just received this email from Steve

Hi Dan
Thank you for the email – you are all confirmed for departure on July 4thper new itineraries below.
Will make sure you are met on arrival at 530am to clear your firearms and transfer to the Africa Sky Guest Lodge on morning of July 6th.

Sincerely

Steve
 
Just received this email from Steve

Hi Dan
Thank you for the email – you are all confirmed for departure on July 4thper new itineraries below.
Will make sure you are met on arrival at 530am to clear your firearms and transfer to the Africa Sky Guest Lodge on morning of July 6th.

Sincerely

Steve
Hopefully all will work out and you will be checking zero right on original scheduled time in camp!
 
I know @rookhawk prefers to handle things himself and that seems to work best for him. I on the other hand like being able to send back one email and say please see if you can make this work.

No, I like pampering and service as much as the next guy too. It's just that using TWG costs $250 in service charge andnemirates tickets cost $350 more than buying on Emirates with "thepointsguy" coupon code.

So issue 1- costs $600 more

Issue 2 - I need to connect on Air Zimbabwe and travel agents cannot sell those fares, so I have to play travel agent anyway

Issue 3 - any of the gun permit services are behind the ball compared to an Emirates customer because the customer can do things online and hear back direct from airline. Travel agent must fax and play a cumbersome middle man introducing complexity without much benefit.

Issue 4 - two years ago my rifles were lost for 3 days of the hunt at an impact value to my trip of $6000. I then had to pay bribes to corrupt officials and a courier to get hem to me: $550 or so as I recall. So paying for the services didn't provide a substantial help.


I would probably use an agent if I was trying to use multiple airlines to avoid overnights and I needed rifle permits in RSA too. That's where the $600 cost makes sense.
 
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Gotcha, thanks rookhawk.
So, is there a website called "thepointsguy" where you can get a coupon code for Emirates? Hadn't heard of that.
As I was shopping fares prior to booking I was finding that the flights I wanted through Alaska Airlines to Seattle and Emirates to JoBurg was going to be about $1900. Compared to over $3000 on Delta. I ended up paying $1628.76 through TwG and feel like I got a pretty good deal. I paid about $300 more than that for Economy Comfort on Delta 2 years ago.
I hope you have a great trip @rookhawk ! I look forward to hearing about it when you get back. In the meanwhile, safe travels and good hunting :)
 
Gotcha, thanks rookhawk.
So, is there a website called "thepointsguy" where you can get a coupon code for Emirates? Hadn't heard of that.
As I was shopping fares prior to booking I was finding that the flights I wanted through Alaska Airlines to Seattle and Emirates to JoBurg was going to be about $1900. Compared to over $3000 on Delta. I ended up paying $1628.76 through TwG and feel like I got a pretty good deal. I paid about $300 more than that for Economy Comfort on Delta 2 years ago.
I hope you have a great trip @rookhawk ! I look forward to hearing about it when you get back. In the meanwhile, safe travels and good hunting :)


I used a coupon code on a website. Slick deals, TPG, or some travel site. I booked with that code on Emirates.com. It was like 6% off or something. Maybe 7% off. So on a $5000 ticket it took off -$300

Travel agents charge us a fee, in the case of TWG around $250. They also make a ticket commission, or are charged a higher price for a fare. Example, no coupon like above.

It's still a good value for many people, but it is certainly not free.
 
@IdaRam if you are not aware already, Emerites and Alaska are both very good airlines, but... even though they are code share partners, they DO NOT have an agreement regarding the transfer of firearms. You will have to pick up you firearm and check them in again when transferring between the two airlines in Seattle REGARDLESS WHAT THE NICE LADY AT THE COUNTER SAYS, I learned this the hard way...
 
I have been booking my own airline tickets on Expedia or orbitz of many years. Granted if I were traveling to somewhere extremely remote that may not be an option but I always save money compared to using a travel agent.
 
Agreed johnny! Heading over with my family and I saved approximately 1500$ (7passengers) booking my own flights to RSA this summer.
 
@IdaRam if you are not aware already, Emerites and Alaska are both very good airlines, but... even though they are code share partners, they DO NOT have an agreement regarding the transfer of firearms. You will have to pick up you firearm and check them in again when transferring between the two airlines in Seattle REGARDLESS WHAT THE NICE LADY AT THE COUNTER SAYS, I learned this the hard way...

Mekaniks, thank you for the heads up. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge from what sounds like "experience" :)
I will be claiming my firearms and re-checking in Seattle.
 
No, I like pampering and service as much as the next guy too. It's just that using TWG costs $250 in service charge andnemirates tickets cost $350 more than buying on Emirates with "thepointsguy" coupon code.

So issue 1- costs $600 more

Issue 2 - I need to connect on Air Zimbabwe and travel agents cannot sell those fares, so I have to play travel agent anyway

Issue 3 - any of the gun permit services are behind the ball compared to an Emirates customer because the customer can do things online and hear back direct from airline. Travel agent must fax and play a cumbersome middle man introducing complexity without much benefit.

Issue 4 - two years ago my rifles were lost for 3 days of the hunt at an impact value to my trip of $6000. I then had to pay bribes to corrupt officials and a courier to get hem to me: $550 or so as I recall. So paying for the services didn't provide a substantial help.


I would probably use an agent if I was trying to use multiple airlines to avoid overnights and I needed rifle permits in RSA too. That's where the $600 cost makes sense.
My problem is that I can't put the tickets from different airlines together like a travel agent can. I have to depart on American and, in this case, transfer to Delta at DFW, then SAA from JNB to Zim. When the travel agent does the ticketing regardless of whether or not they are "all on one ticket" the gate agents see in their computer that the tickets are attached and bags check all the way through. I am afraid if I buy 1 AA ticket, then one Delta ticket, then one SAA ticket I'll b screwed on baggage.
Now if I lived in a Dallas and was only going to JNB I'd gamble on not using a travel agent.
Maybe you can further explain how you do it, what airlines you use, and how you put guns on your tickets.
Regards,
Philip
 
My problem is that I can't put the tickets from different airlines together like a travel agent can. I have to depart on American and, in this case, transfer to Delta at DFW, then SAA from JNB to Zim. When the travel agent does the ticketing regardless of whether or not they are "all on one ticket" the gate agents see in their computer that the tickets are attached and bags check all the way through. I am afraid if I buy 1 AA ticket, then one Delta ticket, then one SAA ticket I'll b screwed on baggage.
Now if I lived in a Dallas and was only going to JNB I'd gamble on not using a travel agent.
Maybe you can further explain how you do it, what airlines you use, and how you put guns on your tickets.
Regards,
Philip


Your fears are founded. Even if they say they will check through different airlines, they don't. Lost my rifles this way once.


Solution: fly Emirates direct from Dallas to Dubai, then into Harare. Take a domestic puddle jumper, charter or bus to your final Zim location.
 

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