im also based in Northern Europe the thing is that you need to balance the costs versus benefit if I took KLM/Lufthansa for a similar route (even direct from AMS/FRA) I would be hard pressed to find a flight even in business class for this price. Most of Europe is a 3-4 hour flight from CAI depending on the connection etc, so for me it's important to factor that in when deciding if this deal is good for you.

Dont forget a lot of the guys/gals on FT are a little crazy so sometimes the great deals found here are useless for a normal vacation, but great for earning miles which could be used for that "dream" vacation. For me it's worth it.

does travelling to cairo from the US and then getting on a connecting flight require a visa? or can you directly go to your connecting flight

I almost went ahead with this (one-way for $1300 ish instead of RT) but getting to CAI was an issue. There's only one nonstop to CAI from GVA on MS; and it gets in right after midnight. Since CAI transit doesn't let you leave the airport without a visa, I'd have been stuck on the terminal floor all night. No thanks.

You're allowed to leave the airport if your transit time is > 6 hours.

Arigato Gozaimasu bison - I see, not everyone lives in Cairo.
I will make a list of Pros and Cons and decide then :)
( I hate making decisions!!)

Wow, did not know this. Finding out information about Egypt visa for Swiss citizen was not obvious; but I found a website saying I could transit for up to a 12h layover without a visa but could not leave the terminal.

Flip a coin, usually works well for me when I'm feeling indecisive. (Yes, I've made a significant number of travel decisions this year based on the outcome of a coin flip!)

anyone finding a US exit?

You're allowed to leave the airport, of course.

You can try telling the immigration police you don't need a visa, but ...... be prepared to buy a visa :D.

At the end of the day it's the easiest thing in the world to do, and costs but $25. And really, it's not the best idea to get into an argument about what Timatic says with the immigration police. But by all means try, and report back.

There are apocryphal tales about visa free entry. While this might work if MS is arranging things (the airline has muscle!), immigration officers are going to send you to buy a visa from the bank counters.

I call that a pretty wise decision. Positioning from Europe is likely to include at least one overnight stop, adding to the ticket price four or five hundred euros, as well as a measure of inconvenience. Really it's only fun if you want to include a few days in Egypt, or if you need to be in Cairo anyway.

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I am sure you have browsed the forums a bit and have gotten familiar with how FT (=FlyerTalk) works. Most people start by lurking around the different forums and try to pick up on the lingo and different topics, which does take some time to get familiar with, especially for people (like myself) with English as a second language.

Now to your questions.....

Do you all live in Cairo? Don't think any of the people that are considering to take advantage of the great business & first class fares live in Cairo, most take a flight to position to/from Cairo to take advantage of these fares.

I am based in Singapore and I am thinking about routing my January flight from Frankfurt through Cairo to Singapore instead of going straight from Frankfurt ("home" airport when I am back in Germany) to Singapore.

I could then return to Cairo in say March and take another business or first class flight to another Asian/North or South American or Australian destination.

To sum it up, one could go Cairo - Dubai - Singapore return, then immediately take another flight from Cairo - Dubai - Buenos Aires/New York/ Toronto etc. for work/vacation etc.
To return to my Singapore base, I'd have to buy another CAI-DXB-SIN ticket.
Hope you get the picture.

One would need to commit more time to do the above scenario, rather than take a direct flight (if applicable) however, since all flights would be in business or first class, come at a relatively small price compared to doing the same from other airports around the world.
By taking flights in business or first class, one can accumulate a decent amount of redeemable miles, which then can be used for further free flights for yourself or family & friends.

Or Do you buy separate air tickets to Cairo? Yes, people buy a separate ticket or if a revenue ticket is too expensive, they would go and use their miles & points to get a "free" ticket to Cairo.

I'm very curious - doesn't it cost money/energy/time if you have to travel to Cairo first?? Sure does :) But since you are flying business or first class from Cairo onwards, it is something a lot of the FT members are willing to do or go through. As other forum members have mentioned, the people who post on FT aren't necessarily a good benchmark for questions like "Does this makes sense to do?" ;)

I live in a small town in Northern Europe, so it's a bit expensive and takes time (+10hours!) to fly down there.
Humm. It sure does take time, effort and also quite a bit of money, but it sure gets you to new places like Cairo and the Middle East, that otherwise you likely wouldn't experience (also part of why I am considering to do this, haven't spend any time in Cairo or the Middle East).

I can imagine it works exactly the way you describe )) I wonder, though, what happens to the citizens of the countries that "are allowed" 48 hours visa-free transit, but are not allowed VOA?

That's exactly what I was balancing. Ended up going with an AA award to SYD instead. 120k miles for QR Y to DOH + QR F + EY F to AUH / SYD. Cost me about the same overall without the mileage earned, but avoids the CAI headache.

[QUOTE
Flip a coin, usually works well for me when I'm feeling indecisive. (Yes, I've made a significant number of travel decisions this year based on the outcome of a coin flip!)[/QUOTE]

:p:p:p

Found a decent price for CAI-DXB-JNB with First a380 on JNB leg

10960 RT Miles so not as good at the Asia routes but price/mile seems ok

1816 Euro / 1899 USD / 1547 GBP

Cairo is no different to any other transit point. On a through ticket, you're fine - but might face a long wait airside.

On separate tickets, XXX-CAI and CAI-YYY, then you simply won't be allowed on the Cairo flight without a visa in your passport if you are not in the VOA club.


MS used to offer hotel to long-transit passengers on MS tickets: I think they managed to get visa requirements waived but you sacrificed your passport during the stay. This could be the 48-hour free transit you read about. No idea if they still do this.