My brother has invited my family on a trip to Egypt from December 25 to January 6. I can't make the reservations until Monday as I must first make sure there is space on their cruise. That puts me past the 14 day advance purchase. The chances are slim that I'll be able to find a decent fare but I thought some of you might be able to offer suggestions. Also, are there any website I should avoid because of reliablity problems.
Thanks.

This is going to take you some computer work, I think. Because I am waiting for the coffee to finish dripping, I just spent a few minutes on-line checking some sites.

The usual expedia/travelocity, etc. list lowest fare at about $1600 (JFK-Cairo) Since that seemed high to me, I checked EgyptAir website - can't figure out how to get price, only routes on that site.

So then I thought, since you might be able to catch a winter deal to Europe, I checked JFK-London and London-Cairo. That came up with a lower total fare - done as 2 separate bookings, but flight to Cairo was on Turkish Air, and I am not sure how I would feel about that (total was about $1200). And I only checked London and did not do a real complete search - that would take some more time.

I think if you play around with this, depending on what your departure city is, and perhaps try US-Europe-Cairo you might be able to catch a decent fare. I do not know best ways to get good price US-Europe and certainly don't know deals Europe-Egypt, but I am guessing that might be a cheaper way to go. You could repost such questions on Europe board - they seem to get higher traffic than here.

Hope you get to go - Egypt is great.

Thanks so much for the help. I didn't even consider trying two separate bookings. If that doesn't find something decent, I'll post on the Europe board. We are leaving from San Diego and I have found fares from about $1,700 on up. That may be the best I can do at this late date. Thanks again for the time donated. I'll let you know what I find.

I wish I was in San Diego right now - I love that city and I am looking at 18 inches of snow in my yard!

You may also want to check the FlyerTalk message boards. They're real good about tickets, flights, prices, etc.

If you wind up booking two separate tickets - US/Europe and Europe/Cairo, be sure to leave sufficient connecting time between flights (in both directions) and if, on say, Turkish Air (a good airline) as OP mentioned be sure the flight from London doesn't first stop in Istanbul before, continuing to Cairo.

And if connecting in London, be sure both your arriving and ongoing flights are from the same airport - Heathrow (LHR) or Gatwick (LGW) so you don't have to do a road transfer between airports.

www.cheapflights.com a flight aggregator.

Thank you gail, sandi, and thyra for your help with airfare. After all the searching, we decided not to go. Airfare was high and my husband would have had to leave a few days before the trip was over. I enjoyed researching the trip so much, we are going to try to take the same or similar trip next year. I have plenty of time to plan this trip!