Abd

Love the quote!!!!

IAN-UK

Travelling frequently to Cairo, this made me envious of the good fortune of Bavarians. From the UK, £250-£350 is the low-fare benchmark: sometimes lower if you accept weird timings. So I checked for Munich flights around my January and February trips.

Pleased to see the lowest fares for reasonable flights around my dates are just under EUR300 - so UK origin fares don't look so bad (we get punished by high government taxes - i think £73 APD in economy against EUR23 Luftverkehrsabgabe for those departing Germany).

Aegean does come in at EUR220 from MUC, but it's a 29-hour marathon via Thessaloniki and Athens. Egyptair, Alitalia and Swiss seem to offer the best flight time/cash options. I'm sure he sub-200 fares exist, but they might be hard to find.


I have no issue with security at Cairo. For pretty obvious reasons the airport/airline has had to up its game in this area.


Absolutely spot on advice, especially with two or three on-airport hotels available. Nasr City / Heliopolis hotels are fine, but nervous visitors could find the taxi system daunting and hotel cars can be pricey.

thebakaronis

I get that. But I guess my question was how does it work logistically if you're based, say, in San Francisco? You have to fly to CAI in the first place to use this deal. And when you do, you end up back in CAI and need to fly back to SFO from there. In effect it's 2 RTs, with one of them using this deal and the other through other means. Or am I overthinking/overcomplicating this?

whimike

I am based in SF and I have excellent use for this.

I have to be in Dubai and/or South-East Asia every 3 months. So, I buy a USA<->CAI round-trip, outbound January and return December. Then I buy CAI<->USA for the return January trip then coming back in March. Then I buy another CAI<->USA for the flight home in March returning in June. Then the same coming back home in June going back out in September, then one more coming back home in September and going out back in December where I catch my first itinerary's return leg home.

From CAI it is a cheap positioning flight to/from my intended destination and I earn tons of miles.

Doing this takes planning and an expectation that my itineraries can't change much, but it hasn't been a problem in the past.

crombiestone

I live in Egypt (UK expat) and regularly travel through CAI .

For first timers it can be a bit daunting but if you ignore the opportunists its not so bad . I just cant get my head around that T3 is so quiet and peaceful outside but T1 is a total zoo ! Hopefully the issues of T1 will be redundant soon once operations move to the refurbished or is it rebuilt T2 ? which is walkable from T3 .

I usually arrive T3 domestic and have to transfer to T1 . There will be taxi drivers harassing you at arrivals but the APM (train) is a five minute walk to the right of the terminal . NB you cannot walk its about a mile away .

The crowd outside T1 is the most daunting sight and there will be numerous people will offer to get you in quickly past security number 1 , for a tip obviously sometimes its worth it believe me as ME people don't travel light ! . Once inside there are 2 queues for security number 2 . Avoid the one directly to the left and move forward to the one that has barriers and some sort of organised queue . Once through there check in and fill in departure card .Then head to immigration which is ridiculously inadequate for the volume of people( all 3 ME airlines are scheduled around the same time ! ) Pick a queue and wait . After immigration its plain sailing .

Head up 2 floors to the "V.I.P lounge" . Have a look at the disgusting food and have a coffee or a cold drink .Look across to the pub serving alcohol but dream on as there's none in this lounge .

If your flying business or "regional first" as some airlines call it dont rush to the gate and security number 3 because you are boarded last by bus as T1 has no air bridges .

Once boarded relax and enjoy the excellent service from your airline ......You made it

3 security checks I never felt uneasy about security here !

Praying T2 will be fully operational ASAP :P

Potreroflyr

I did a transit through CAI last month -- in fact it was like the first week that T2 was in operation, I was told. Also RJ's first few days after moving in.

I arrived on Oman air in Terminal 1...but the transfer desk was closed (around 6p) and there was no one there to help. Not a lot of English spoken...still I kept asking some of the airport/immigration staff and finally some one picked me up in a van and drove me to T2.

The guy had to do a lot of explaining to immigration officials. Even the RJ staff was still working out all the bugs. But I managed to get my BP and there's even a Business lounge that was open...kinda. It has several new seating areas and what looked like a temporary refrigerator case for sandwiches, pastries, etc. And there was a waiter who delivered (soft) drinks. No bar or buffet...yet.

whimike

I have transited CAI several times. Having some small money to give as tips works wonders, but isn't required. I have never had issues transiting.

vincewy

Comfortably or cheapest possible? Comfortably I'd say fly one-way DY Premium and get to one of the cheap EU gateways that A3 can take you to Cairo.

For those who fly back and forth between Europe/Middle East (also Asia), planning ahead and you'd be able to use the return portion US/Canada - Cairo for the next trip, you get the same miles for fraction of the cost, US-Cairo rt costs a lot more.

In my case, I go to Milan one way using award ticket and get myself re-positioned to the FLR-XXX-DUS deals from AZ, CAI-YYZ is basically my plan and also backup plan to get back to North America. I save the return portion (YYZ-CAI) for next trip to take advantage of deals ex-CAI to Asia where there are so many , ie Oman Air to BKK for $475 in J recently.

When you return from Asia or elsewhere to CAI, book another CAI-.... cheapo fare and start the cycle again.