plr

Well I was just about to shell out a huge amount of money to upgrade to Business Class on this airline, in celebration of my first trip to Egypt this winter. The tour is with OAT, so I have no choice of airline. When I Googled reviews of EA, I was blown away by the negative descriptions. Any recent experiences by readers?

cougfan

While not recent, we did fly Egypt Air from JFK to Cairo in Feb. 2006. I was also worried when I read reviews about this flight but the flight was fine. We traveled in Economy, so I am sure that in Business class the flight will be fine. There were a lot of other people on the flight who were traveling with Grand Circle or OAT.

Julie

sunshine007

I've flown it in Egypt and it's clean with friendly staff. In the past there was a problem with the crew smoking on the international flights, but I don't think that's still going on.

No alcohol.

plr

Thanks to both of you. I probably should have given a bit more information. I will be flying JFK-Cairo. The many complaints that most concerned me are: water availability, since it can't be carried on board; seats only recline about 40degrees, even in Business class; and seat size seems to be the same as Coach, but with a space between the two? My primary reason for considering the luxury of such an expense was to help assure that I am able to sleep, which is usually impossible for me to do in coach. "Tired," "shabby," and "dirty" were unfortunately frequent descriptions of the interior. Yike.

martinlevine

My wife and I went with OAT, business class, New York to Cairo. For the money it did not seem to be that much different from coach. Rude flight attendants, shabby interior, mediocre food. Group members we met in Cairo who had flown tourist, were happy.

divine54

i don't need any discriptions - i simply wouldn't fly that airline.

you have got only one life - so don't waste it on an airline which hasn't got a great safety record.

if i had no choice - then i stay at home!

simple as that!

dic

Dana_M

Div,
The OP is asking for people with recent experiences to post those experiences. Do you have any to back-up your statements? If so, please help the OP out by posting something useful, rather than just drivel.

neejas

I traveled from JFK to Cairo on Egypt Air in August 2006. Traveled Economy Class and was really fine. On the way back from Cairo to JFK in early September we landed in the middle of a tropical storm that had made it's way up the east coast. The pilot had to have been very experienced in landing our plane with no incidence. Traveled on lots of airline carriers, I would rate my experience with them as pretty good.

lisa1420

I just flew Egyptair from Montreal/Cairo in Business class. It was just fine. The plane was a bit old but I was able to sleep the whole way. The seat reclined fine and I found it more comfortable than Lufthansa's business class seat. The food was ok, not faboulous but eatable. A salad and we had veal with scalloped potatoes and mixed veggies. Cheese and fruit after dinner. Breakfast was a yogurt,cereal and a danish.

I would upgrade just to have a business class seat as in economy you get alot of families with kids and it was very noisy in our departure lounge.

My brother in law took MS from JFK/CAI last month and had no complaints either.

There was NO smoking on our flight either by flight attendents or passengers.

Hope that helps,
Lisa

plr

Thanks for your appropriate response, Dana. It is true that I am seeking clarifying experiences here, to make a reasonable choice about whether to go coach or business class.

Martin, how recent was your trip?-- as this is the sort of feedback I was reading which prompted my post here.

Neejas, I appreciate the reassurance on the pilot's skills, though that particular concern had not yet occurred to me. Can you give details about the seats and water availability, etc in Coach?

And Lisa, your detail is very helpful. Are the business seats any larger and do they have any more leg room, and do they recline any more than the seats in Coach? (What is MS?)

martinlevine

Pir, we flew Egypt Air in November, 2006. Hope this helps.

sunshine007

my Egyptair flights within Egypt were abut three years ago. The interiors were clean & looked new.

Thee are wome websites that rate airlines. Perhaps you can go to the Airlines section in Fodors & see if they can help you find them.

sunshine007

I just checked Fodors for comments on Egyptair & thee are a fair number. "Wally" flies a lot and seems to provide accurate information ^ good analkysis. Just run the word Egyptair in the box at the top right.

plr

Thanks again, and my apologies to all of you. Sometimes the obvious eludes me. It never occurred to me that there was a section on the boards for just "airlines." I will go there now and will continue to check here as well...

huladolphin

I've flown EgyptAir several times in the last year and a half and never had a problem. I flew it in country a few times and once to Amman. It's an average airline, but then Egypt's not known for luxury, either.

Laura

plr

Thanks, Laura. I do feel a lot less disheartened than when I first began reading reviews of this airline. It seems that most folks writing on the subject do not feel that Business class is worth the extra cost. I'd still be interested in a comparison of the seat pitch, size, and recline angle between coach and business. Anyone?

Casual_Cairo

Is it at all possible for you to get out of the OAT tour? If they won't let you pick your own airline, I sure would try. Not that Egypt Air is that bad, but other airlines will be close to the same price or lower and have excellent Business Class accomodations. Last year, I found the combination of KLM and Northwest to have the best prices to/from the West Coast and the NW Bus. Class was fabulous. Near full laydown seats with massage units in them. It was heaven!
Unless Egypt Air has nearly as good, I wouldn't pay the difference.

You might try www.seatguru.com too to see if Egypt Air planes are listed there yet. It helps pick out a good seat.

lisa1420

We have flown lots of different airlines in business class and I really found Egyptair(MS code) very comfortable. The seats don't recline fully but enough that you can get your body in a semi laying down postions and the foot rests come up so all in all very comfortable. My son never sleeps well on the plane but went right out and was comfortable. He has long legs and didn't complain.

In my opinion you should pay the difference to upgrade to Business class if you can afford it. With business class you can preboard, leave the aircraft 1st and have your luggage tagged priority(although in Cairo it really didn't matter much about the luggage as our's came off last!)

Hope that helps. if you have any other questions please feel free to email me.

By the way British Airways has the best business class seats and service.

[email protected]

Momliz

here's some info:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/egypt.htm

and you can browse here (there's a lot of Africa related flight info as well):

http://flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=471

Casual_Cairo

"...and have your luggage tagged priority(although in Cairo it really didn't matter much about the luggage as our's came off last!)"


I wonder if the PRIORITY tags are written in both English and Arabic? Probably the ground crew on this end can't read them any better than the ground crew at JFK could read them if they were written in Arabic, and training on this end is probably a bit worse. HA!