I've just flown Heathrow to Cairo on Austrian Airlines with a very quick connection (35 minutes) through Vienna. I was a little concerned by the shortness of the connection, but Austrian promote it as a valid connection, and the steward I spoke to on the aircraft said that one of the advantages of a small airport like Vienna as your hub meant that people almost always made their connections. Which we did, it's just that our luggage didn't. Nor did any of the other people on the flight transferring from London - which isn't all that surprising, perhaps they were just having a bad day. However, while in Egypt I met 2 other people who had made similar connections through Vienna, NONE of whose luggage had arrived in Cairo with them, and the ground staff in Cairo indicated that this happened all the time. If that is the case, quite apart from the fact that Austrian shouldn't consider that a valid connection, you would have thought that their processes for dealing with compensation would be a bit slicker - one woman in an impossible-to-find office in the airport, who only works there for a few hours a day for a few days a week, will give you compensation for essentials on production of a receipt. (Ever tried getting a receipt in the average Cairo shop? It's not easy). The whole situation is a complete farce!

In addition to that, the local number they give to you when they request you to reconfirm your return flights doesn't work either.

One tip for those leaving Cairo - the only airport cafe charges extortionate prices for alcohol: US$7 for a can of nasty beer. However, if you wander into duty free you'll find a chiller cabinet of cold Heineken for US$1 each!