[Anonymous]

[business traveller]

I had booked a flight from Cairo to Aswan, then Aswan to Abu Simbel, and returning to Aswan the next day.

A week before my flight, my travel agent (Chase) notified me that Egyptair had cancelled my flight and that I should speak with them to book a different flight. I scrambled and called Egyptair, but their phones were broken – none of the phone numbers found online worked. I finally got through to someone in their New York office – and then the call dropped. And then when I called back, I was never able to get through to anyone. Finally, I gave up on Egyptair and called Chase back.

Prasid 0. Egyptair 1

Chase said the flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel and back had been cancelled. No other flights were available for that day, or the day before/after, so I asked them to give me a refund for Aswan to Abu Simbel, but keep the Cairo to Aswan leg intact. I scrambled and paid hundreds of dollars to book a car and driver from Aswan to Abu Simbel and back instead.

Prasid 0. Egyptair 2

I show up at the Cairo airport a week later, ready for my flight to Aswan and they tell me the entire trip has been cancelled. Not just the Abu Simbel leg. There are no seats available for the flight I was supposed to be on, so now we have to scramble to come up with a new plan.

Prasid 0. Egyptair 3

We purchase tickets to a later flight the same day. It's the only way to keep our hotel reservation. Now we scramble to change our car + driver – but because we're arriving in Aswan later in the afternoon, we will miss the tourist convoy to Abu Simbel, and so the only way to get there by car is to pay a few hundred dollars (USD) more to get private security to accompany our car.

Prasid 0. Egyptair 4

it's 3 days later. My girlfriend is flying into Luxor to join us. She's been travelling from the US to Frankfurt to Cairo, and is waiting for the connection to Luxor. 30 minutes before the flight, they announce the Luxor airport is being closed. And the flight is cancelled. I scramble to try to find her a hotel room in Cairo. Then she calls back saying the flight is delayed 2 hours. I scramble to call my car + driver to see if he can go pick her up from the airport with me at 2AM. This will likely ruin our plans to see Luxor tomorrow morning at 7AM, since we now won't get to sleep until 3AM at the earliest.

Prasid 0. Egyptair 5

Egyptair makes visiting Egypt not worth the trouble. Real quote from one of my travel companions "let's just cancel of all of Egypt and go back home."

I told my tour guide about this mess – he said many of the tourist operators have asked the Egyptian government to let other airlines fly the routes to Aswan and Abu Simbel. Egyptair having a monopoly is bad for everyone.

Review courtesy of Seatplans.com. Original review by user prasidp can be found here

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