Discount flights for charity workers

klh2g09

Hi, I'm new to the forum so I hope I have put this in the right place! I am just wondering if anyone knows if/how airlines can give discounted flights to charity workers? I am a medical student looking to volunteer in a paediatric ward in malawi next year and was hoping something might be possible to reduce the cost of flights (a minimum of £800 with South African Airways).
I would be grateful of any help on this matter, please feel free to PM me if you would prefer.

Takecareofthepennies

No idea about free or discounted flights for charity purposes, but Kenya Airways / KLM / Air France tend to regularly come in cheaper to Lilongwe than SAA. You would only really need SAA if you wanted to fly into Blantyre.

Voyager2002

Many flights are discounted for students, and the obvious retailer for such flights is STA. Check airline web sites carefully: for example, the BA web page indicates that lower fares are offered to students who satisfy particular conditions, although you need to telephone to find out how much such fares are.

Some charitable organisations are able to buy cheap flights for the people they are sending abroad. For example, VSO used to send "volunteers" on BA, and the cost to VSO for each such flight was a good deal less than the fares quoted to the general public. So ask your medical school and/or any agency involved in organising your placement.

And you might find that a flight to Beira (Mozambique) and a bus ride over the border costs less than flying all the way.

hxm

I used to work for an aid and development charity who booked all their flights through Key Travel. I've never booked with them personally, but it might be worth having a look at their website.

littlestar1981

When I was volunteering in Tanzania, two other volunteers told me about Key Travel, they said they were great. I haven't used them myself like hxm but definitely worth a look, would be very MSE :-)

klh2g09

Thank you all so much for your information and suggestions. Takecareofthepennies, I will be traveling to Blantyre and as far as I can work out South African Airways (and Air Malawi from Jo'berg) is the only one stop service to Blantyre from London.
I have realised that costs can be reduced by about £200 by flying to Jo'berg and getting a coach service from there to Blantyre. My worries about this being time of travel and safety (inc. breakdowns and that I'll be traveling alone etc).
I would still be interested to hear any other suggestions

Takecareofthepennies

Do you really mean coach travel from Jo'burg? That's a long way to go!

There are several coach services from Lilongwe to Blantyre. The trip takes about 4 - 5 hours
(from memory). I'd recommend going for one of the better services though (not the "chicken bus" as it's locally known!).

You are correct that Blantyre is not terribly well connected by air. Air Malawi can be a bit of a gamble in terms of reliability / service availability.

I guess your best way forward is to speak to one of the agencies recommended above and see what they can come up with for LON - JNB - BLZ and LON - NBO - LLW respectively. Then decide whether the saving on the airfare is worth the extra hassle of an overland coach trip.

I found Malawi to be a relatively safe (and friendly!) place compared to some other corners of Africa. Some common sense always helps, of course.

gld73

BA do a charity fare, but I don't know if you can get it yourself, it maybe needs to be done through the charity. I've managed to get reduced rates a couple of times through this (booked through the head office of the charity I work for), and the rate is much better than I could find myself online. You also get extra baggage allowance for carrying any educational or medical equipment required for the charity work - the only slight hiccup with this is that it applies to the BA flights only, so if there is another airline on the routing, you would be liable to pay excess baggage on that leg.