Booked: Four Seasons Desroches Island (Seychelles)+Madagascar
Intro
Gosh, it's like I cannot get away from Africa. In the past 7 months, I have traversed across over 20 countries in Africa, ranging from Libya in the North to Somalia in the East to Mauritania in the West.
Well, as I have spring break coming up and about 2 weeks off, my mum wanted to take me on a trip to a place that I basically wouldn't be able to go to without her. Considering she wanted some beach time at a nice resort as well as a bit of an exploration, I decided that we should head over to the Four Seasons Desroches Island in the Seychelles and then over to Madagascar to traverse the island.
The Products I'll Be Reviewing
The products I'll be reviewing for this journey are quite interesting and ones I hope will help people out in the future.
On the outbound, I managed to find space from Washington to Brussels onboard a 777-300ER in Polaris, followed by a Turkish Airlines A330-200 from Brussels to Istanbul, and lastly, a Turkish Airlines A330-300 from Istanbul to Mahe. As I spoke about in the Discover Airlines review, United has a sweet spot from the US to Africa for 80K miles if you are platinum or above, and hence, I was able to snag up this space!
Once we land in the Seychelles, we have decided to stay a night in the Kempinski on the main island, as the Four Seasons don't operate any flights on Friday from Mahe to Desroches?? We might end up switching this reservation to the Four Seasons in Mahe, but it's showing an astronomical 2200$ per night...
The next day, we'll head out to the Four Seasons Desroches Island and spend three nights at a beachfront pool villa. All in all, at 1200$ per night, it's not that bad of a deal...
Finishing up the three-night stay, we'll head on Emirates on their direct flight from Mahe to Antananarivo onboard the 777-300ER. We are still unsure whether or not it'll be in Business or First, as currently, there is only mileage space in Business. However, we shall see how that goes closer to the time.
Then lies Madagascar. My mum has always wanted to visit, and I have persuaded her not to just go sit at the beach the whole time at some luxury resort. Instead, I hope to show her the ins and outs of this majestic country (from what I've heard). I recently had a couple of mates that went there, and they have set us up with a guide to take us around for 5 days exploring the capital and the surrounding forests.
Ahh, now for the return. I happened to stumble across a decent fare from Addis Ababa to Los Angeles on some products that I have wanted to try. For 3100$ roundtrip, this fare would see me fly the following in business class:
Addis Ababa-London Heathrow (A350-900/A350-1000)
London Heathrow-Montreal (Air Canada 787-9)
Montreal-Los Angeles (Air Canada A330 NEW)
Los Angeles-Montreal (Air Canada A330 ex SQ)
Montreal-London Heathrow (Air Canada 787-9)
London Heathrow-Addis Ababa (A350-900/A350-1000)
Considering I am on a quest to retain 1K status, and I would love to try out the new Ethiopian Airlines A350-1000, this should net me just shy of 5000 PQPs. Considering I paid a fraction over 3o00 USD roundtrip, this is a pretty nice deal.
Final Thoughts
This is a trip that has been on my bucket list for quite a while. However, it might even get a little bit crazier since I am working on trying to get the week before off to head over to Afghanistan to explore Kabul and the surrounding areas. Even if that doesn't come to fruition, visiting the Seychelles and Madagascar with my mum, I couldn't ask for any better bonding time! 🙂
I cannot wait to share these reviews!
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