Cairo: T1 Connection on Split Ticket
 

Hi all --

I scored a great CAI-BKK roundtrip fare on QR in F for travel in a few month's time, and I was hoping you might be able to help with my journey. During my return journey, I plan to arrive in CAI at 11:20p on QR, and then fly on AZ at 3:30a to FCO (hopefully just over four hours is enough time?).

After doing some research on the connection experience in T1, I've become a bit concerned about connecting on a split ticket. This article implies that there's limited service in the T1 transfer area, and an airline agent needs to bring one's boarding pass to the transfer area. Since I'll be on a separate AZ ticket, I doubt the staff in CAI will know where to find me!

With this in mind, I see a couple of possibilities to pull off the connection:

1. Enter the transfer area and hope for the best
2. Enter Egypt and check-in at the AZ counter as a local customer (I plan to get a multi-entry visa, but not sure if it's allowed to entry the country and then leave again so soon!)
3. Book the VIP service mentioned in that article I linked to...it's a bit pricey, but getting a private transfer from a hardstand sounds like a unique experience!

I'd greatly appreciate any and all advice! Thank you!

Passengers transfer through Cairo all the time. True, most will be on single, multiple sector, MS tickets; but the transfer officials are used to dealing with cases similar to yours.

There's no question of officials having to find you; you'll remain in limbo-land until they give you the boarding cards and stamp your passport.

But if you have a multi-entry visa, then it might be faster and more straightforward to go landslide and check-in in the regular way. Of course there's no minimum time you need to stay in Egypt.

You'll need to be aware of airlines switching from T1 to the newly (re)opened T2.

Thank you very much for the advice! Is there any publicly-available schedule of when more moves to T2 will take place?

I will be doing very much the same as you and was wondering how T2 transfers work and also whether doing Doh-Cai-Doh is fine with the same plane turnaround of about 3.5 hours?

There really an awful lot written about this in the QR forum and the Middle-east Airline one, as well as here. I guess T2 will simply be a variation on he established theme.

In essence the back-to-back seems to work as a regular transfer. QR's Cairo team must be used to dealing with this, and liaising with the immigration police. The transfer is irregular in that it doesn't fulfil the usual definition, which would involve a third airport/destination/country, but this doesn't seem to be a concern.