[Expired] [Fare Alert] East Coast to Johannesburg from $543 Round-trip in Economy

Update:The offer mentioned below has expired and is no longer available.

Is Africa on your list? How about South Africa? After all, those lions aren’t going to view themselves. If you’re located on the East Coast, we’ve got a sale for you, with flights as low as $543 round-trip all the way to Johannesburg. Let’s take a look.

Fare Deal — Details

If there is a route you’re looking to book, you’ll want to act quickly. These routes are hundreds of dollars less than usual and we don’t expect them to stick around.

• Class: Economy
• Routes: Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), and Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Johannesburg (JNB)
• Dates: February 2023 to November 2023
• Rates: As low as $543 round-trip

These discounted flights are operated by a variety of carriers, including Virgin Atlantic, Delta, and KLM. We’re seeing the cheapest prices from both New York (JFK):

And Washington D.C. (IAD):

The cheapest rates and dates are from February to May 2023, though Chicago (ORD) features routes into the fall as well:

These flights include both checked and carry-on luggage, which makes this an even better deal. When else are you going to get to Africa for less than $600?

Best Ways To Book

These flights can be booked either directly with the airline or via a third-party provider such as an online travel agency (OTA). Although you’ll nearly always find the cheapest flights via OTAs, use caution when booking. If your flights need to be canceled or changed, they’re often much more difficult to deal with than when booking directly.

If an OTA is the route you end up using, be sure to use a card that’ll give you elevated earnings on your flight. The Chase Sapphire Reserve^®, for example, will earn you 3x Ultimate Rewards points per $1 spent on all travel. We value Chase points at 2 cents each, which means that you’ll receive a 6% return on all flight bookings when using this card to pay.

If, instead, you opt to book directly with the airline, The Platinum Card^® from American Express is your best bet. It earns 5x Membership Rewards points per $1 spent (up to $500,000 per year). Because we value Amex points at 2.2 cents each, you’ll be netting an 11% return on your booking with the Amex Platinum card.

Hot Tip: Check out our guide to recommended websites and apps that offer flight deal alerts to make sure you don’t miss out on the next great travel deal!

Final Thoughts

Hop on over to South Africa this year with round-trip flights for less than $600, including luggage. If this is something you’re interested in, book now —  we don’t expect this to hang around!