A (Cheap) Ticket to Cairo

February 14, 2007 11:27 AM

Help me find the cheapest ticket to Cairo!

I'm looking to get the cheapest flight possible, potentially by using ticket consolidators, though I'm open to the suggestions of the MeFi community. I've done the general Google searches for consolidators and cheap tickets, and what I'm looking for now are alternate choices - including travel agencies that deal specifically with Egypt or the Egyptian community, courier flights, etc.

I'm also interested in the best city to fly from (in the US or Canada) that might have the cheapest deals. Dearborn, MI, perhaps?

posted by awenner to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

I found tickets for last December from Iberia for about $850 (I bought them in... September, I think). That was the lowest price I've seen, at least from Chicago, for flights around Christmas. I didn't look too seriously at other airports, because the $100 or so I would have saved buying the tickets would then be spent on a train or bus to the airport, which is just annoying. It's a long flight from anywhere, and I wasn't able to find anything from another airport that would make it worth my while.

No real tricks, just a couple months of pricing out different itineraries and pouncing when I found the cheapest tickets. Try varying your departure dates throughout the week; it was over a hundred dollar difference leaving a day before or after with my tickets. I searched through all the regular cheap-o websites, but had the most luck with kayak. I eventually bought the tickets directly from Iberia because it was about $5 less than cheaptickets.com.

I had to console myself with the fact that the plane tickets were way, way, pricey, but once there Cairo is quite affordable, at least in US dollars.
posted by ruby.aftermath at 12:36 PM on February 14, 2007

I am also looking for tickets to Cairo! My strategy is to get to London as cheaply as possible and then get a cheap ticket LDN-Cairo.
posted by k8t at 12:39 PM on February 14, 2007

I bought tickets from New York to Cairo for $600 round trip a couple of Octobers ago. I don't have any contact info (or even the name of the company) on me, but I'll pass by on Friday and try to get get it for you, unless someone provides something better before then.

Dearborn doesn't have many Egyptians. There are plenty in New York though, and if you flew from Detroit you'd have to pass through New York anyway.
posted by textilephile at 12:44 PM on February 14, 2007

k8t - that's an option I've been playing around with as well. Any luck on the London-Cairo side of things?
posted by awenner at 12:58 PM on February 14, 2007

Cairo Meetup? I'll be there in April...
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:48 PM on February 14, 2007

Okay, here ya go... I've been looking into Cairo flights lately so I'm actually on top of this.

First off, Away.com searches Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, Cheap Tickets & Priceline all simultaneously. And here's the Consolidator Flight Engine.

Lately I think the cheapest flight to Cairo is flying to NY & then going to direct to Cairo on Egypt Air. (And FYI, most other carriers will connect in London or another European hub city before heading to Egypt.)
posted by miss lynnster at 5:12 PM on February 14, 2007

I don't know if your overall goal is Cairo or Egypt as a whole but there are a few charter airlines which fly to more resort-y type places on the Red Sea, like Hurghada and Sharm al Sheikh, which might be easier to get to, and if you were going to visit those places anyway, why not start your trip there?

Here is a link to Skyscanner's page about Egypt's flight connections with the rest of Europe.

(Oh, PS - I'm in Indonesia right now, so it's showing my prices in rupiah, but I imagine it's not too tough to switch to US dollars.)
posted by mdonley at 6:18 PM on February 14, 2007

This is the place I used. Their web site isn't so slick, but I did't have any problems with them, although I went in person. Note that I used the Brooklyn location, even though the web site says that that is the Hajj and Umrah division.
posted by textilephile at 12:49 PM on February 18, 2007

I ended up flying Aeroflot LAX - Moscow - Cairo for under $800. WOO! Leaving in a week!
posted by k8t at 10:23 PM on March 16, 2007