OVERVIEW: Our South African Honeymoon with Points
Hello there! Thank you for stopping by my first blog post.
My wife and I have been fortunate to travel widely over the years, usually booking with frequent flyer points. It’s a never-ending cycle of earning and burning. I’m sure many of you can relate as well.
For our belated honeymoon, booking Business Class with points was a given. The question was… where to? We wanted to journey to somewhere completely new – that ruled out Asia and Europe.
Ultimately, we settled on exploring the natural wonders of South Africa.
Utterly magical: on our very first game drive, we come head to head with a herd of giraffe.
Planning the trip with points
We’re not big points hoarders. Once we earn them, we aim to spend them as soon as possible.
With our goal to travel during Easter 2024, I started making the bookings almost a year in advance, during May 2023.
This forward planning enabled us to snag two reward seats on the dates we wanted.
Our Business Class award booking from Johannesburg to Perth with KrisFlyer miles.
Our itinerary ended up being:
Perth to Singapore
Qantas Economy Classic Flight Reward
18,000 Qantas Points + A$134 per person
Later upgraded to Business Class for 38,100 Qantas Points per person
Singapore to Johannesburg
Singapore Airlines Business Class award
78,000 Velocity Points + A$294 per person
Johannesburg to Durban (and back)
Economy tickets on FlySafair
Around A$250 per person return
Johannesburg to Singapore to Perth
Singapore Airlines Business Class award
81,500 KrisFlyer miles + A$75 per person
Total Spend: 215,600 points/miles + A$753pp
OUR BASIC ITINERARY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Two nights in Johannesburg to rest and explore the city
Three nights at Rhino Ridge Lodge in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park for the safari drives
Two nights at Kosi Forest Lodge in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park for river activities
Three nights at Thonga Beach Lodge for a beach resort escape
A final night in Johannesburg before we flew home the following day
Taking in the serenity of the wetlands at Kosi Forest Lodge.
The three lodges at the heart of our itinerary are all part of the Isibindi Africa Lodges collection. We booked with the company directly and organised an eight-night honeymoon package for roughly ZAR 91,175 (A$7,350).
We are usually quite frugal travellers, so this package was definitely a one-off splurge!
The price included all meals, all major activities (including twice-daily game drives at Rhino Ridge and various excursions elsewhere), and luxury accommodation in the highest room category.
With the honeymoon package, we also were treated to complimentary bottles of sparkling wine, massages, private dinners, and more.
Inside our dreamy Honeymoon Bush Villa at Rhino Ridge Lodge.
As a self-drive itinerary, we decided to hire a car in Durban and drive between the three lodges ourselves. Kosi Forest and Thonga Beach required 4WD transfers as well.
But more on that another time. I really want to talk about the lodges in more detail, so keep an eye out for a future blog post!
Our Business Class flight experience
QaNTAS
The Qantas Airbus A330 Business Class cabin is a staple of the airline’s east-west transcontinental and Asia routes. I’m very familiar with it. I love how the seat is quite spacious, and it’s easy to store my various gadgets along the side console.
Our flight to Singapore was a leisurely five hours. The crew were in no rush, taking almost three hours to complete the long lunch service. I quite enjoyed the updated menu, which included dishes such as Korean-style pork belly skewers and a beef fillet with wasabi butter.
Singapore Airlines
Our remaining three long-haul flights were on Singapore Airlines and these were all excellent. We both had a particular craving for comfort Asian food, so the ‘Book the Cook’ service in Business Class was greatly appreciated.
On the flight to Johannesburg, I ordered the Singapore-style prawn noodle soup while my wife chose the char siu wonton noodles. Look at that serving! It might be ‘cheap’ hawker food, but it’s a treat to satisfy your cravings at 35,000 feet.
On the flight back, I requested a honeymoon cake to surprise my wife with. The cabin crew took a lot of effort to present it beautifully, including two flutes of Champagne and a dry ice ‘candle’!
Final words
Our South Africa trip is one I’ll cherish for many years to come. However, this overview is only the tip of the iceberg.
Stay tuned for the next instalment of this series – I want to take you deeper into the rich and vibrant country that is South Africa.
