And you were charged the relevant CAI rates? Was the fact that your credit card billed to a non-Egyptian address ok too?

Where can Mrs Sobhi be contacted?

Yes of course I was charged the Egyptian rates. They were converted into USD at a slightly favourable rate: EGP 27150 = USD 4534 when the inter-bank rate would have given USD4544, and the normal credit card rate would be over 4600. The base price for the AONE3 was USD 4220 as converted. (For some reason BA does not wish to bill the credit card directly in EGP, so they convert the Egyptian price to hard currency first.)

Absolutely no problem with the overseas credit card.

But to be clear, I physically picked the ticket up myself at Cairo airport. The faxing served simply to get the ticket issued in advance and get comfortable before I set out since I was only going to be in Cairo airport for a few hours.

Mrs Nabila Sobhi is at BA's Cairo telephone sales office. Tel: +2 02 578 0742. Fax: +2 02 574 7674.

Excellent help providing these contact numbers - makes life a lot easier

Thanks Christep, sounds like the end of my CAI TA dramas.

You're right that dealing with BA CAI direct seems to be the way to go. I called them this morning, by this afternoon I'd received a fax confirming the re-price. Let's see how the payment bit goes...

Sorry to ask yet another question, but can I make the reservation with AA and then call BA in CAI to ticket it, or should I make the reservation directly with BA?

AA and BA use different rez systems. Either make the rez with BA CAI direct (you can FAX them the itinerary) or book it with the BA RTW desk in the US and give CAI the record locator.

If anyone is going soon, and would be willing (for compensation) to pick up a ex-CAI AONE5 for me, using my credit card, please e-mail me. If there's reason to believe such a thing is not possible, please advise as well . Thanks!

Jon - this really shouldn't prove necessary. Call the BA CAI office, ask them to confirm pricing and then fax them with your details. They will fax you back to confirm payment, so that you can collect tickets when you get there. (Understand your caution!!)

FFS For the 325th time (or thereabouts) KEEP THE RESERVATION AND TICKETING SEPARATE!!!

All you need to tell BA in Cairo is the routing and the details of the flight out from Cairo. Get the rest of the ticket made as OPEN. Handle the reservations separately through a TA or directly with the airlines. To avoid difficulties with changing reservaions it is often easier to have them on a number of separate PNRs.

Thanks. Sounds easy enough. Are they enforcing the 20 segment rule in the BA CAI office? How far in advance of your trip should you contact BA CAI?

BA CAI will run your itinerary through their London rate desk so I would count on the 20 segment rule being enforced. If your itinerary is simple, a couple of days in advance should be enough but I'd suggest at least a week to allow for contingencies.

While I agree that open tickets make life easier, they sometimes make ticketing tougher when dealing remotely. I had problems with trying to convince London that I was only making transits of HKG and LHR due to the lack of specific flights and dates. Finally got it ticketed but they ran me down to the wire.

BTW, BA CAI is only open Mon-Thur although Mrs. Sobhi is usually in the office on Friday.

How long should I give BA CAI to answer my fax?

I sent my itinerary to Mrs S on Friday and as of today (Wednesday) have heard nothing yet.

I was hoping to fly to CAI to collect the ticket in a weeks time, am I cutting it too close?

Thanks (as always)

Keep the faith.............keep flying

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Always within 48 hours for me, but why not just call her to check?

+202 578 0742 or 0746

Call her on +20(2)578-0746. It is wise to precede and follow up a FAX with a call in these cases. The office is closed on Fridays. Office hours are 0800-1600. The time difference is BST+2 (GMT+3).