praffen

We will be flying from JFK to Cairo in February.

Which airline would you recommend? Which would you absolutely never fly? Don't mind paying a bit more for more comfortable seats and better service. Thanks.

sandi

Egypt Air is the only non-stop from JFK to CAI. It's been received well by Fodorites who have flown with them.

P_M

I have never flown Egypt Air, but I will always go for non-stop service if it's available. But if comfort and service are a priority, you might check out British Airways' World Traveller Plus. This is a premium economy class with larger seats and more legroom than coach. It's not as nice as business class, but a lot less expensive. The only bad thing about flying BA to Egypt is the schedule, as you will arrive into Cairo at 11pm, and you will have a rather long layover at LHR. Personally I'd go for Egypt Air.

USNR

We recently flew EgyptAir from JFK to CAI, to and from Amman, within Egypt itself, and from CAI to JFK. All flights were on time, both departing and arriving. The aircraft were clean, the food was OK, and the service was excellent.

Casual_Cairo

I just want to post that I concur with everything said so far. Working with tourists that arrive on all sorts of airlines, I have to agree that BA probably rates highest for comfort during your trip, but Egypt Air has the advantage of the direct flight. If it really matters to you when you arrive, the Egypt Air flight arrives in the middle of the day here in Cairo too, if you see that as an advantage.

moschops

not sure why last post didn't show so trying again!!!

Hi Praffen
i work in the travel industry (can't say which company!) but we do a lot of holidays to Egypt - and EgyptAir are diabolical - the amount of sched changes - pulling flts at the last minute - bumping passengers etc...
Glad to hear some people haven't had problems with them but beware

gail

We flew several flights - JFK to Cairo and internal flights in Egypt - on EgyptAir 4 years ago. New plane, efficient service, staff spoke English - no complaints. Nice to be able to fly non-stop rather than stopping somewhere in Europe in what would have felt like the middle of the night.

JamesA

Egyptair are fine, if you don't mind changing planes route via a small hub with a good airline, perhaps Austrian or route via Munich with Lufthansa, Swiss and Air France have good schedules too.

sunshine007

One Egyptian told me that he was embarrassed that Egyptair had the name Egypt in it. I've flown within the country 7 times. Each time, it was clean, no smoking allowed, with pleasant flight crew and everything was repeated in both Arabic & Egyptian.

Th 8th time, they cancelled my flight to Abu Simbel, so Emeco (my Egyptian travel co.) had to rearrange 2 days of my itinerary. When I returned to the Abu S. airport after seeing the temple, it was chaotic. At 9:45 there was a huge tour group whose plane was scheduled to leave 15 minutes earlier which hadn't been able to get into the airport (let along check in at the gate) due to the long lines waiting to get through the airport doors and past security. They had good humor about it, but it was a mess. It turned out that Egyptair held the plane for them, but no one bothered to tell them that the plane was being held.

I'm chuckling while I write this -- it was pretty funny.

Maybe there's a difference between Egyptair within Egypt (where there's a monopoly) and intercontinental Egyptair (where there is competition.)

moschops

yeah i'd agree with Sunshine007 - the international flts are always OK - its the internal flights that are always being changed/pulled/passengers bumped etc