bryanwallace

im trying to understand the free transit tour ..is this still on?
i have a flight in with turkish then out with egypt air from cairo 12hrs later-would this qualify?

jphripjah

This thread is very helpful. I'm eyeing a $417 ticket from CDG-CAI-N'Djamena for only $417 with a 12 hour overnight stopover. It would be a great boon if I could also get free hotel.

danielm

Like the above posters, I am also wondering if this is still available. Does anyone have any experience? If the hotel isn't available, I'd likely take a better routing.

vincewy

For those who want 1/2 day tour but the schedule doesn't fit Karnak's schedule (they leave 7:30 am), consider staying at one of the hotels nearby the pyramid

http://greatpyramidinn.com/

In the example above, they provide free shuttles to/from the airport. When you're rested, you can simply walk to the Pyramids. I'll also get to see the glimpse of Light and Sound Show before the flight around midnight.

IAN-UK

The hotel's quite brilliantly located, but don't expect too much. You're very fortunate to get transport from the airport included in a one-night stay: and the return trip to CAI will always be subject to negotiation.

Ayaz Hajimalang

I wrote to Egypt Air and they have confirmed that hotel will be provided for my stopover of 23 hours.

Can someone please tell me if I can pay using my card for the Karnak tour? Or do they accept only cash? If cash, do they accept only USD or will they accept EGP or AED?

Is there an atm before the Karnak travel desk?

Thanks!

vincewy

I just did the stopover/transit between 2 cheap fares.

Well they will charge $15 for the transportation to/from hotel if you're only staying 1 night. Even if you have to pay this, it's still worth it with this arranged so you don't get robbed/scammed by taxis, Egypt isn't for faint of heart, be prepared to deal with scams, hassles, and rip offs everywhere, anywhere.

Not sure about Karnak but if you don't carry enough EGP most will be glad to accept USD and EUR and give you change back in EGP.

If anyone is thinking about going to Pyramids alone, forget it unless you look and speak Arabic, touts will be all over you like piranhas from the entrance all the way to the pyramids, just join the largest tours possible and avoid the headaches

aSiAnRiCk

Hello,
We're flying IAD-CAI/CAI-DXB with an 18-hour layover in CAI.
Is this "free airport hotel" still available as of recent? We're flying MS for both segments, in Y on UA Award.
Thank you.

thnok

This thread was quite helpful! Anyone who went through this process, do you know the hotel you'd get assigned?

Dan72

I have never found out until getting the voucher from the hotel transit desk. Egyptair's hotel contracts can change, there was a spell when they weren't using the Le Meridien, although not for long. Egpyptair used to also use the Novotel and Le Passage for non-status economy passengers. Obviously the Le Meridien is better, but starting to show its age too.

qraec777

Can someone update on their experiences post-COVID? Are the tours still on and most importantly, is it worth having an 18 hour layover in CAI? We are planning to fly MS in J to YEG via YYZ this August and are thinking of spending 18 hours in CAI for the tour or would we better off taking a later flight from our origin and having a two hour layover in CAI?

thnok

I did this in November 2021 (can't remember the exact dates but close to the end of the month). I did JFK to CAI then CAI to BOM for a 11hr layover. I'm from a country that can't get visa on arrival at Egypt. So I landed in Cairo, then went to Egypt Air transit desk the agent directed me towards another Egypt air desk that is hotel accommodations. This desk originally said can't give (since there was an earlier flight, I said my flight is not that and had bit of a confusion), but then the transit desk person called this one and then took my passport + boarding pass and asked to take a seat. There were only few passengers actually who was there so the hotel person came 10-20 mins later, assigned me to Novatel. Then kept the passport and gave another paper to give to security when I came back to collect passport.

The Egypt Air person escorted me out of security and then was out for a hotel shuttle. Hotel needed the slip from Egypt Air (all meals covered), and I went my way for the tour. I booked the tour prior to landing through TripAdvisor ($75 or so per person). Tour took around 4-5 hrs then back to Hotel. I went to airport early, gave the slip to airport security at Terminal, they returned passport.

If you'd like to explore Egypt and can extend your layover to 8 hrs or more, I'd highly recommend. You'd need 2-3 hours for paperwork (initial hotel assignment then to retrieve your passport). Egypt is a country which is hard to get (lengthy and slow) tourist visa for certain passports so this is ideal (you can explore with much less paperwork).

I had a positive experience, it was kind of hectic but it was as mentioned in posts no hiccups. I booked my ticket with points through United paid only fees ($40 or so).

qraec777

Thank you for this extremely detailed post! It really helps!