Quick question to those who have had quick turn-arounds in CAI before commencing RTWs...

I will be arriving 0245, ticket office opens (I understand) at 0600.

Question: what to do in between?

Are there any facilities at the airport? (thinking coffee...)

Is the ticket counter normally busy when it opens? (ie should I start the queue when I get there - or am I in no hurry?)

If I'm in no hurry and there are no facilities for a hot drink at the airport, is there a hotel nearby (Novotel??) that I can get to for refreshments and use of WCs?

Help and suggestions much appeciated.

WG

There are painfully few facilities at CAI airport even when it's fully operational during the day!!!

Suggest you get a cheap room at the nearby Meridien Heliopolis (only about 5-10 mins drive from the airport).

If you book through hotels.com or expedia it should save you a fair bit on the rack rate.

There is a 24 hour cafe in the underpass between the arrivals and departures area. Certainly does coffee and some snacks. (You would probably need EGP cash, although you might be able to use USD at a premium exchange rate.)

I have always found it fine to sit in the hall outside the BA ticket office until it opens (doing overnight turnrounds on BA, so a couple of hours longer than you have). A good book and a bit of people watching has passed the time. There are quite a few flights going overnight, so it never gets quiet.

There are, of course, toilet facilities, although they are not 5* hotel standard.

On the two occasions I have done this there was once one other person waiting to pick up a ticket when the BA office opened.

The airport is fine for the few hours you will be there except the seats in the waiting area are hard. Coffee and snacks are available. Assuming you have a UK passport, you can buy a visa on arrival for about �10 and also exchange some money at the same place you buy the visa (there are several booths on your way out to immigration) or use the ATMs in the arrival area.

BTW, the seats are hard!

Someone has a sense of humour

Am sitting at LHR . Just flew LHR-CAI on BA 155, then did a turn around to catch LH 589 from FRA-CAI to start a ....forgive me.....STAR RTW. I already am flying two OWE this year. FOR ALL THOSES WHO NEED ASSISTANCE IN CAIRO TURNAROUNDS..it is easy, and all adivse on this board is sensational. In brief..

1.) You will arrive in terminal 2 ( except if you are flying Egypt Air which is terminal 1 )

2.) As you deplane follow the signs to passport control. As you approach the passport control there will be THREE BANKS in a row all who have vendors who are yelling "VISA mister??" Go to any of these banks and pay 10 pounds or 15 dollars. They will give you 2 postage sized stamps. One is orange and the other is blue. PASTE these visa stamps in your passport yourself. Then head to passport control. It takes less than 5 minutes. It is much easier than I though.

3.) After passport control you will be in the arrivals hall. If you have a turn around at the airport DO NOT GO OUTSIDE of the arrivals hall. Turn left before the exit doors and you will see a large sign saying EXIT with some stairs. Walk down these stairs and walk 100 feet to another set of stairs. These stairs go up and voila...you are in the departure area ready to make your turnaround flight.

4.) I decided NOT to go through transit as there were some pretty scary stories on this board of some FT having their passports held until flight time.

Once again thanks to everyone on this board.

Way to go, RTW4 ...

Yes, very scary to have the guy not giving back my passport AND tickets!

I had about a 70$ cell phone bill calling my way through to the FRA station manager on duty....

From my experience, spending 2,5-3 hours in sitting in front of the BA office wasn't very difficult (I arrived from Budapest to Terminal 1 and took a taxi to Terminal 2, costs USD3). I had a good book (Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari) and a box of cookies). We were five customer waiting in front of the office when the office opened. After getting the ticket, I still had to wait for departure, but this time in the lounge.

Many thanks for the replies - much appreciated.

Re the advice from RTW4 to 'not go outside the arrivals hall'... if I need to get to the BA ticket office I am figuring I WILL need to go outside the arrivals hall (ie out into the big wide world and up to the check-in level?)

Is this correct?

Many thanks once again,

WG

No - you are making the false assumption that arrivals and departures are above each other. This is not the case in Cairo (nor in many other places). They are beside each other at ground level.

You do exactly as RTW4 says... when you exit from customs into the "greeters and taxi drivers" arrival hall turn to you left; walk to the end of the hall and you will see a large staircase descending. Go down these steps and straight on for about 40metres/yards to a similar set of steps going up (back to ground level) which brings you to the departures hall immediately outside the BA ticket office.

You do not need to go outside the building at all. Once you have got to the "meeters & greeters" area you do not go through any other doors.

There is a small cafe in the underpass which is open all night.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited Jan 12, 2004).]

Does that mean there were 5 AONEx pickups that day?

I think that at that moment it was just me. The office manager served me first, because the tickets were all ready, he just hand them to me without even checking my identity.

Remember to get some EGP (US$5-10 will be WAY MORE THAN enough). The waiting area outside BA office is OK but the seat is just OK. The problem is the lighting (stadium "orange" type) and it make reading books very hard, also it maybe cold when you just sit.

The cafe offer hot/cold drinks, snacks and some strange snadwich, the seating is nicer and use FL tube lighting.

for your reference: tea/coffee is just EPG 2 or so and snadwich is EPG 4 or so...