Smirnoff

My latest wacky flight schedule involves a possible connection at CAI.

It would be an international arrival at T1 at 0520, with the onward connection on BA from T2 at 0845.

Paging PhilTheFlyer or any other CAI experts. What is involved to transfer from T1 to T2. How easy/seemless is this? Any passport/visa issues?

Is PYOBP available from CAI? What is T2 like, and how is the lounge? Am I likely to be arrested for suspicious flying habits?

LHR Tim

The lounge is cr@p (IIRC). I don't know what is worse the terminal area or the lounge.

JonNYC

You mean the crime of "catching a connecting flight at an International airport"? I think they've probably seen that one before.

Smirnoff

There are some places where presenting yourself as a transit passenger meets with bemused looks. You must as well as well have arrived, shouting: "I am a lunatic. Lock me up and throw away the key."

I can assure you that not many people use DAM for example as a connecting hub. That was an interesting experience.

And in TLV, connecting from one non-Israeli airline to another one, makes you an almost certain terrorist in the eyes of the security staff.

huntejm

On a related note, I'm flying into T2 at CAI tomorrow and my wife is flying into T1 a couple of hours later. Where's the best place to meet her?

Smirnoff

Where's Phil The Flyer when you need him?

Is it camel washing day today?

flyclub

No I believe that was yesterday.

sunrisegirl

Isn't Thursday the start of the weekend in Camelland?

Smirnoff

Ah so that would explain why Phil The Pyramid has to catch up on all the work he should have been doing during the working week.

VC10 Boy

Tell me about it. Have picked up the new motor and the manual for the sat nav alone is the size of a volume of Britannica Do they actually expect people to read these things.

Abstract1

I too am very interested in this. I take it you will be opurely transiting? Where does the 0520 arrival originate from. I've been trying to work out a way to transit in CAI for an EX-CAI. Its just annoying that the BA flight is so early!

Smirnoff

You can do it as a simple transfer, if you arrive off the CY flight from LCA. Departs LCA 0400, arrives CAI 0520.

The only problem is the 2 terminals are 2 miles apart and from all reports the shuttle bus runs when it feel like it. Also, unsure about whether I need a transit visa, and this can just be paid for on arrival or not.

Phil the Flyer

sunrisegirl - amongst all the wacky posts on this thread your post stands out as a beacon of sensibility. ^

Camel washing indeed! Doesn't everyone know by now that the servants perform those sort of tasks? If there's one thing I hate, when travelling to work at the start of a new work week on Saturday morning, it's mounting a smelly camel (don't get any ideas VC10 Boy).

Smirnoff - with reference to your specific CAI T1 to T2 transfer this is the response I gave someone else in a previous thread:

Although CAI terminals are not physically linked in any way, a taxi transfer between terminals is only a 10 minute exercise, and shouldn't present any problems - apart from arguing the toss with the taxi driver over the fare. It's not worth your blood pressure to get too worked up about the fact that you're probably being ripped-off for an extra US$5.

See the whole thread here:

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=598175

With regards to the transit visa issue, I've never actually done this in CAI (despite landing at the airport well over 100 times now). Worst case - you pay US$15 for a tourist visa prior to T1 Passport Control, clear Immigration, collect your bags, clear Customs, exit the terminal (to be greeted by about 200 no.taxi drivers) and take a ride across to T2. Far less risky than waiting for any transfer bus, worrying about whether your bags will make the BA flight, etc.

I'd recommend a quick trip to a nearby hotel for breakfast, but given the three and a half hour transit time you might not want to risk it. What I would recommend in all seriousness - and you, Smirnoff, will particularly appreciate this - is to empty your bowels and/or bladder on your inbound flight just prior to landing at CAI. The airport toilets are not somewhere you would wish to linger (well, except for VC10 Boy).

I'm afraid the T2 lounges are mediocre at best. T2 has recently introduced some new coffee shop style eateries - they are far cleaner and better looking than the lounges (which are shared by all airlines, one smoking lounge, one non-smoking lounge).

PYOBP is definitely not available at CAI yet.

Should you have a specific desire to get arrested at CAI and thrown in the slammer - this can be arranged at 24 hours notice (it takes that long to round up half a dozen transvestites to share your cell).

Abstract1 - please feel free to PM me if you've got any specific CAI-transfer concerns. Bottom line though is that CAI is extremely tourist friendly - their economy depends upon a constant flow of foreign visitors, so unless you're a drug runner you're going to get a very easy passage through airport formalities.

VC10 Boy - My 10 year old son can operate the Lexus RX navigation system with his eyes closed. Bin the manual and just get stuck in.

Smirnoff

Phil, Will I need local currency for the visa and taxi? Or USD? Or will anything do (CY£?). The consulate websites are unclear on whether I needa transit visa? Or no visa if I am departing straight away. I assume no airside transfers?

Is the transfer to T2 too far to walk?

Do any of the airport hotels do shuttle buses, to make it worthwhile hopping on a bus to a hotel, waiting there an hour, and then back on a bus to the other terminal? Or is it taxis all the way?

LRD

I did the T1-T2 shuttle last night... The bus is a first-rate service, absolutely contemporary to anything you would find in any modern airport (clearly marked on the front with the destination terminal, all signage in English, very clean, tons of space for luggage, etc). According to the EgyptAir in-flight magazine, the service runs every 30 minutes.

(Naturally, the cabbies and touts in the arrivals area claim to know nothing of this bus´existence, but I found a helpful gentleman manning the information desk that clued me in.)

Since T1 has three halls the bus doesn´t stop at each one but rather some place close to the center. The place to stand for a pick-up is right in front of the new ¨airmall¨. (BTW: the airmall has a great internet/phone store - the bargain price of 5.5 Egyptian pounds will get you an hour of seriously quick internet access - better than many of the internet cafes or airline lounges I´ve used at airports back home.)