How do I find the best route from Seattle to Kampala?
June 30, 2013 3:17 PM Subscribe
When I say "best," I mean with the least travel time. Cost is a factor, but not the deciding one.
There are dozens of ways to get from Seattle (SEA) to Uganda (EBB), but how can I find the optimal route without sifting through hundreds of less desirable options?
This is for mid-November.
For example, United.com has Seattle > Chicago > London > Kampala, at a travel time of 26 hours and 6,000 miles. But how can I know if there's not something more direct using other airlines?
Many thanks!
The ITA Matrix will let you sort by duration (I guess most of these things do, but Kayak is not finding all the flights). It shows that you can get down to 22 hours by going SEA -> AMS -> KGL -> EBB, booked through KLM or Delta. However, it probably makes sense to either talk to someone well-versed in travel to Uganda or to pay someone to find flights in case 'everyone' knows flying through Nairobi or wherever sucks or something.
posted by hoyland at 3:34 PM on June 30, 2013
posted by hoyland at 3:34 PM on June 30, 2013
Running this through Kayak, filtering to get things under 26 hours:
- Lufthansa does it in 23:55 via Frankfurt, Khartoum, and Addis Ababa;
- British Airways does it in 22:20 via London;
- KLM does it in 22:00 via Amsterdam and Kigali;
- Air France does it in 23:55 via Paris and Nairobi.
In general you want to get to Europe on the first leg; you lose a lot of time by flying east out of Seattle to somewhere else in North America instead of flying basically north. Looking at the Sea-Tac wikipedia page it looks like your possible European destinations are Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris, so this is probably a pretty good guess at the possible routes (at least for the transatlantic leg) and airlines you should look at. (KLM and Air France have partnerships with Delta.)
posted by madcaptenor at 3:41 PM on June 30, 2013
- Lufthansa does it in 23:55 via Frankfurt, Khartoum, and Addis Ababa;
- British Airways does it in 22:20 via London;
- KLM does it in 22:00 via Amsterdam and Kigali;
- Air France does it in 23:55 via Paris and Nairobi.
In general you want to get to Europe on the first leg; you lose a lot of time by flying east out of Seattle to somewhere else in North America instead of flying basically north. Looking at the Sea-Tac wikipedia page it looks like your possible European destinations are Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris, so this is probably a pretty good guess at the possible routes (at least for the transatlantic leg) and airlines you should look at. (KLM and Air France have partnerships with Delta.)
posted by madcaptenor at 3:41 PM on June 30, 2013
The most direct route is almost certainly Seattle to London, and then London to Kampala
posted by thewalrus at 1:24 AM on July 1, 2013
posted by thewalrus at 1:24 AM on July 1, 2013
Response by poster: Via London is it. Thank you all!
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:13 AM on July 1, 2013
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:13 AM on July 1, 2013
One final note: here's a map of the great circle route SEA-EBB and the various routes I suggested, as well as the route via Chicago. The SEA-EBB great circle heads northeast out of SEA, so it doesn't travel over anywhere populated in North America, but it does pass very close to the air travel hubs in western Europe. All the via-western-Europe routes are similar in mileage, so the way to win is by taking two flights instead of three.
posted by madcaptenor at 10:51 AM on July 1, 2013
posted by madcaptenor at 10:51 AM on July 1, 2013
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posted by grudgebgon at 3:20 PM on June 30, 2013