DrPSB

Well, after my shiny new *G card arrived from hitting 60k long miles with Egytpair arrived it seemed to me time to upgrade some flights. Here is my story so far... checked their website and no way to upgrade flights using miles online. Called them from the number on back of the card and was told I had to physically go to one of their ticket offices to upgrade flights. Went to their office on Talaat Harb street which is rather pitiful - jam packed with customers, flies, hot and with two ladies on the dingy business class desks in the corner. After shoving through the crowds I waited in line to speak with one of them. After somebody jumped in front of me to talk to her at the last minute I told them I was there first and expected to be seen first. Lady agrees but takes 3 phone calls before finally talking to me, and her English is very poor. I produce the ticket information and ask for the upgrade. She is confused how to do this and spends 45 minutes talking to colleagues to understand how to do this. Then she insists she has to call to verify my my miles and she can't get through to their main office. After an hour trying to get this sorted I left in disgust and resolved to try another ticket office where perhaps they would know how to do this. Called to complain to Egytpair and they explained I HAD to go to a ticket office, perhaps I should try a different one, and then that ticket office requests the upgrade and has to wait 24 hours to get an email back from the main office confirming availability. Sheesh - and they let them into Star Alliance??!?

Rambuster

Why am I not surprised by this story ?
Seems like you chose the wrong FFP - best to start in a different program from scratch.
Perhaps BMI will status match you ? They seem to be equally well organised and probably have not noticed that MS is in *A !

Alternatively, get a statusmatch on OW (there are quite a few offers out there right now with Aeroflot or AY) and then use this card to get a match into BMI.

Then try to spend those MS miles on awards as quickly as possible so that you don't have to go to their fly ridden offices anymore.

DrPSB

Thanks kindly and it is a suggestion I've been seriously considering today. I went to the Sheraton ticket office where I was told that none of three flights I wanted to upgrade had upgradeable seats - and why didn't I check with Egyptair by telephone before coming out to even see if the seats were open? Hmm.. good question, I guess because when I called I was told I had to physically go to their ticket offices to check.

Yeah Rambuster, I think it may be it is time to move on.

DrPSB

My upgrade saga continues.

This morning, per the advice given the day before, I decided to call the frequent flyer number to see if an upgrade was available for a flight to Paris I'm booked on an eticket to take in a few days. The person said they couldn't help me to see if any upgradeable seats were available and I should call the central reservation number instead. Interestingly, their voice menu had an option regarding frequent flyer program but when connected to this person she said she had no way to help me check on this and gave me the number back to the frequent flyer program 26964391. So I tried calling them back and after a number of busy signals and unanswered rings finally got to another agent who again said they couldn't check for available upgrade seats and I should go to a ticket office or call back to the central reservation number again. At this point I've spent probably 5 hours chasing an upgrade. Frustrated I asked to speak with the supervisor who had excellent English and seemed interested in helping. She was able to confirm a business seat was available and advised me to call the central reservation line to see if they could confirm the seat but I still had to physcially go to a ticket office. After calling the central reservation number they said no problem, would hold the business seat, go to the ticket office. Off to the ticket office and after 45 minutes finally the person there sent off my frequent flyer information back to the central program and told me I needed to return later in the afternoon to see if my upgrade had cleared. I came back to my office, called the flying program number and they confirmed that they can't email me an eticket or confirm the upgrade has been issues and so I must again go back to the ticket office.

That is where I stand now.

Mr H

So all this is to get a bigger seat on a 5 hour daytime MS flight

My FFP (BD) doesn't allow you to buy upgrades with miles. You either do a redemption booking or a paid fare booking. Are you sure you're not just trying to get the MS FFP to do something it is not designed to do?

If I were you, I'd just sit back in Y, rack up the miles, burn them on a decent airline and join a different programme that better meets your needs.

DrPSB

I admit this absurdity is a bit of tilting at windmills. Still, the airline promises the availability of upgrades with miles on their website even to the point of offering how many miles it takes to upgrade. I also suspect trying to redeem for a ticket would be a similar runaround but who knows.

Perhaps ranting online is just therapeutic as nobody at Egyptair really seems to give a darn about how poor their program is Staralliance also seems to have no standards for admitting members.

DrPSB

It's been a while since I updated my experiences with upgrading using points from Egyptair's frequent flyer program (part of the Star Alliance). After about 5 trips to the ticket office I finally got my upgrade on my CAI-CDG flight. I felt pretty good when I arrived at the airport for my flight and went to check in at the first class line (which I'm entitled to do as a gold member of their program - according to their website and literature). It was a busy morning and even at the business counter there was a bit of a line so I felt great I could skip the line using the first class counter. But of course it wasn't to be so easy. I was told by the supervisor that I wasn't allowed to use the first class check in as I had a business ticket, even though as a gold member I am supposed to be allowed to use first class counter. We really got into a loud argument about this and I must admit to muttering a few profanities. After I get airside I find one of their brochures lauding their program - and of course it also mentions the benefit of using the first class check-in. I so wanted to go back and confront them with their own literature but too much hassle trying to get out through immigration.

Today I went back to their ticket office to see the status of an upgrade request I put in for my flight from CAI-RUH on Saturday. I had been told it would be waitlisted and after waiting for the agent to spend thirty minutes typing on her terminal was told my name was no longer on the wait list and no business seats available. When I asked why, I was told they tried to call me at my office number on the weekend and couldn't get hold of me. We have voicemail and no message was left.

So... after my ongoing experiences with Egyptair I'd like to offer some tips on anybody who wants to upgrade their flight using their Egyptair miles.


1. If possible don't fly Egyptiar if you want to use your miles to upgrade because it is going to be a huge hassle.

2. Show up at 9am at one of their ticket offices that serves foreigner so you have a chance to get help from an English speaking agent. You can call their frequent flyer office before you go on the off chance somebody there will help you to see if there are even business seats available - but don't hold your breath they will be able to help you as sometimes they say they can access the information and sometimes they can't.

3. When you show up at the ticket office expect one of two things will happen. Either they will say they can upgrade you which will require you provide them with information and come back again at the end of their day - around 330pm. OR they will say no seats available but they can waitlist you. If you go the waitlist option BE SURE to give them your mobile telephone number as they don't leave messages at home or office and if you aren't there the second they call the upgrade goes to somebody else.

4. See number 1.

Shumba

At least it puts things in perspective for me. I won't complain about SAA Voyager again!

TravelinWilly

DrPSB, thank you for posting your ordeal(s). I really feel bad for what you've been going through, esp. after you bothered to invest time/money in MS, but your sharing your experiences (terrible as they've been) is what FT is about, and it's appreciated.

I'm incredibly frustrated about this and I'm not even you...

Will

gleff

Wow and I thought my days as a Mexicana Frecuenta Gold years ago were antiquated. Wow.

Perhsps MS is the precedent AI finally needs to join *A...

DrPSB

Thanks most kindly. I don't mean to whine about this but it really is pretty incredible that StarAlliance has accepted them when their practices are so poor. Following another poster's advice I just applied for, and was accepted, as a status match for Continental's program and from now on will attempt to use my Egyptair flights to gain miles in their program. While CO wouldn't status match me based on my Egyptair gold *A card they did accept my gold with skyteam. Even though my skyteam gold is set to expire in March 2010, CO is giving me the full year next year as *G with their program.

Interestingly, one plus side to Egyptair *A gold is that it is good for two years. So even if I have difficulty maintaining status with CO next year I'll still have *A gold benefits until 2011 at which time I'll be leaving Cairo.

Mr H

This does make an interesting compare and contrast for the many posters on TravelBuzz who assert that developing a tipping culture is a guarantee of good customer service.

Lin49

The next challenge with Egypt Air will be trying to register a Onepass account number in the reservation. When booking online, CO is not listed.

I e-mailed them this month in regards to this, and was told that since CO is not part of the Star Alliance, I could not earn Onepass miles in Egypt Air flights. I replied that CO is now part of the *A, and I even included the link to the press release in egyptair.com stating this.

I have yet to receive a reply. I will have to try doing this at the aiport or mailing the BP to CO after the flight.

DrPSB

I've found many times that even when I had my Egyptair number in the reservation and on the issued boarding pass I still didn't get credit and had to fax a copy of my card, a copy of the eticket and the boarding pass to their frequent flyer program. They have an online system to claim missing miles and sometimes it works and sometimes nothing happens even after you file the claim so you have to go through the fax thing. I just flew CDG-CAI last week and at check in asked them to change my frequent flyer number to my new CO number, so we'll see what happens and what hoops I have to jump through to get credit. The question is will I go through Egyptair or CO to get the retroactive credit if it isn't automatically issued.

Lin49

Here are the instructions to get Onepass miles from partner airlines:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...s/default.aspx

I've mailed the form, BP, e-ticket several times, and the miles have been posted after a couple of weeks.