Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Possible to book on Egyptian EgyptAir website as a USA citizen?

Hey Folks,

Hoping someone can help me out here. I'm trying to book flights intra-Egypt, and the price on the Egyptian EgyptAir website is half the price of what I can find on the US EgyptAir website. When I try to complete the payment on the Egyptian site, however, the transaction doesn't go through.

Does anyone know if there's any way to book on the Egyptian site as a US resident, or is it simply not possible? I really hate paying double....:D

Thanks in advance for any help!

About two years' back, MS hiked local fares and (ostensibly) did away with "foreigners' fares".

As far as I know, the local fares should be available to you in Egypt (notwithstanding your country of residence) - though it looks as though the website is set up to discriminate for markets of sale. CAI LUX is coming out at USD100 - cheap by most standards, but, as you say, annoying to see it available in the local market for EGP330, half the USD fare.

Depending on your patience, phone bill etc, you might like first to try the US sales team to find out what's happening, then move on to the Cairo central reservations office.

Depending on the time you spend in Cairo before your first internal flight, you may have time to pick up a ticket there.

There was a thread about how someone had difficulty booking flights on the web site. this was because they allow only mastercards that were enrolled in the "verifed by mastercard" program.

Thanks for theinfo, IAN-UK and UA Fan ! Waiting till Egypt probably wouldn't work, since there are only three days in CAI before CAI-LXR. It's still not that expensive when booked on the US website, but it adds up. We're looking at CAI-LXR-CAI and CAI-SSH-CAI, and it's coming out to $750 all-in for two people on US website, while it's under $350 total on the Egyptian website.

If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!

lucky have you checked the verified by mastercard thread either in this forum or in the middle east one?

lucky have you checked the verified by mastercard thread either in this forum or in the middle east one?

Thanks. Upon further searching I came up with this thread (http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=760857), which seems to bring up a similar issue. Before I pursue that too much, I'm curious whether I would have problems if it did work? In order to get the cheaper itinerary I have to book it on the site where I agree that I'm an Egyptian resident. If it works would there be problems at check-in with a US passport and no proof of local residency? Based on my call to EgyptAir it seemed like it's a discount for locals, and not just an issue of where the ticket is bought.

Any further thoughts?:)