We were Talking with a travel agent last week-- We said our plan in getting to South Africa was to use air miles to buy Business class seats on SA Airlines from Atlanta to Johannesberg at 120,000 miles each- they are a Delta partner.
She said most "foreign" airlines would not let you do that - they would let u get one seat with miles but make you buy the other one.

Any truth to this - was she just trying to get us to buy the tickets?

anyone used air miles like this?

We are planning to do precisely what you are talking about but not until 2007. The way I thought it went was that 120K skymiles bought one first class ticket. I haven't contacted Delta yet, but I guess I will now, otherwise I may not go. The cost of a first class seat was prohibitive and 14 hours is a little long for the cheap seats. I have to make my safari reservations in March so if anyone has the answer that would be great. We plan to go in the middle of April, is that a good time?

I was told Atl to Johanesberg was 19 hours with a refueling stop but you can not get off the plane.

Atlanta to Johannesburg is 17 hrs. People will get off for Johannesburg and people will get on for Cape Town. If your going to Cape Town from Atlanta, you will stay on the plane while it's in Johannesburg. Total time to Cape Town from Atlanta through Johannesburg is about 19 hrs. There is a non stop flight from Atlanta to Cape Town that's about 18 hrs. I believe it leaves on a Tuesday and Thursday, but check. I think JFK has direct flights too.
Greg

Edward--I think your agent is giving you some stuff, as I think if you have the miles, you can get the FF seats....

Edward -
We had friends who cashed in 240,000 miles to get the type of seats you are speaking of. They did this about two years ago, but maybe something has changed with all the airlines woes? Does Delta's website (the Skymiles section) give you any guidance?

Carol is right, there has been no change to Delta's policy (and Delta has gone out of their way to assure SkyMiles members that they are not messing with the program during bankruptcy). Of course there will be instances where only one FF seat is available for a given flight. If so, you may choose to redeem one and buy the other one that you need. But if there are two FF seats available on the routing you want, and you have the requisite number of miles, they're yours.

There are sites that you can buy/sell excess miles for business and first class seats. It is cheaper to buy these miles than to actually buy the business class seat.

As Greg mentioned, pay particular attention on what day you fly from Atlanta to CPT or Jo Berg. Every other day it stops at the other city first adding time to an already long flight.

Some time I would like to visit the Cape Verde Islands during daylight.

SAA is scheduled to join Star Alliance which means their partnership with Delta may not be available much longer. If everything goes as planned they will be in partnership with United, US Airways, Air Canada, etc.

when will they join star?

Sounds like the end of March 2006 according to the following from a press release I found on their web site.

JOHANNESBURG. 6 October 2005. South African Airways (SAA) will, once joining Star Alliance, end its code share agreement with Cathay Pacific, its partner to the Far East.
SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula informed Cathay of this intention at a meeting between the airlines in September.
"It is with extreme regret that we will no longer be able to continue this long and valued code share," said Ngqula.
The code share agreement has been in place since 1999 and will end in March 2006.
At this time, SAA will become a fully fledged member of the Star Alliance, while Cathay is a member of the Oneworld Alliance.