OK, I've tuned into MMM in the last couple weeks, and now I need some help from my fellow Mustachians...
I need to get my family of two adults and two kids (not babies) from Durban or Johannesburg to Chicago (or Milwaukee or Madison) Between May 1 and May 15, 2015.
I'm from the US but living in South Africa for 10 months for my wife's job. We have return tickets on Lufthansa for February but need to push them to May. (February was the latest we were able to book when we bought the tickets.)
Now, Lufthansa (through our travel agent) is saying it's $700+ per ticket to change. ($300 change fee plus ticket price difference). Original tickets were $1364 per person (round trip).
I can get tickets on Emirates, Qatar, or Etihad for around $550, from either Johannesburg ($509, five hour rental car drive away) or Durban ($580, 1.5 hour drop off from a friend).
Obviously, the latter is cheaper. But I'm wondering if one of you might have some tricks up your sleeve that could save me a bit.
Any thoughts?
Thanks much! I look forward to the conversations here.