Free Hotel & Meal Vouchers from MS at CAI - Impossible?

[gluedtothewindow]

Hi all, my girlfriend recently said a friend of hers was flying BEY-JFK with a layover in CAI. The friend apparently was "put up in a hotel" and given "free meal vouchers." I asserted this was probably because the friend missed the connection and was forced to fly out the next day, but she said no, EgyptAir just paid for everything on a regularly scheduled overnight layover.

My instinct tells me this is ridiculous. Is it possible EgyptAir would give a Y passenger one free night's hotel stay & dinner/breakfast vouchers even though the passenger was always scheduled to fly out the next day? Is there another potential explanation other than a missed connection?

[MKE-MR]

Yes, there is.
It's called STPC and it is not so common any more, but it used to be when there were many airlines operating schedules that were less than ideal for transit passengers (like, 18-20 hour layovers). On high-fare tickets, even in economy, the carrier would pay for the board of the passenger in transit as an incentive for them to take that routing (or if you prefer, as compensation for such a long layover). This may be what happened here. if it was an overnight layover as you mentioned. Don't know off the top of my head whether STPC is offered by EgyptAir in that market, but it is certainly possible. You can see it in the fare rules of tickets sometimes though I don't see it for EgyptAir economy fares.

[Cedar Jet]

From past experience an STPC from MS esp in Y will be nothing to write home about. I had one in F and the whole experience was abysmal to say the least.

As with anyone flying MS may the flying Gods be with you(you'll certainly need them)


CJ