Questions about Egyptair
 

I am looking seriously at a STI tour leaving on January 4 but they use Egyptair. This airline has gotten terrible reviews and almost looks unsafe. What experiences do other people have with this airline?

I know what you mean.. my worries are the same. I also worry about comfort. Just this weekend I spoke to the travel agent about 2 biz class fares and they were booked, we nearly paid a deposit but we said we'd just "think about it" just in case. I specifically asked for no codeshare flights and the travel agent assured me it wasn't a code share. When I got home and checked it online, it WAS a codeshare with Egypt Air. This would of meant a 9 hour leg on Egypt Air. We would of paid all that money for non laydown seats. I too worry about cleanliness and safety. I will go on it if I have to, i.e. internal egypt flights for half an hour... but not 9 hours.

You could also look at reports on this website -

http://www.airlinequality.com/

Well, this post is timely, I've just finished reading the reviews on airlineequality.com. Oh boy, 2 intertal flights on Egypt air. Do I want to do this? The only option is the train, and I've read lots of negative things about this too (I know there are different types of trains). Almost, makes me want to scrap Egypt as a destination. At least I can avoid them on the long haul international flight!

We flew multiple internal flights on Egyptair and not only were the planes very clean and fairly modern, they were FAR superior to the Alitalia planes we took from Cairo-Rome-Madrid on the same trip. Those planes looked like that hadn't been vacuumed in several years.

While it was admittedly in 2001, we flew JFK-Cairo and then 4 internal flights in Egypt when visiting. The trans-Atlantic flight was very nice - brand new plane, competent cabin staff. The internal flights were more variable.

Unless things have changed greatly in 8 years, I would not hesitate to fly them again.

I've also taken Egyptair internally and had no problems whatsoever-the planes were clean and the safety precautions were the same-wish I could say the same of other airlines out there!

Flew Egypt Air internally last April and it was fine. Also flew Air Sinai (subsidiary of EA) Cairo-Tel Aviv and that too was just fine.

Just got back from Egypt flying Egypt Air 7 times; direct NY/Cairo, Cairo/Luxor, Aswan/Abu Simbal, Abu Simbal/Cairo, Cairo/Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv/Cairo, Cairo/NY and would do it over at the drop of a dime. The service was good. I've traveled to Hawaii, China, Italy and Greece. The condition of the facilities depends on the people on the flight not necessarily the airline. Maybe airlines should consider separate male and female facilities.

Just back from Egypt -agree with metro1 all internal flights were fine - N.Y. to Cairo (and especially the return) are long flights but the equipment seemed perfect(4-3-2-seating in coach- reserve ahead)-experienced none of the problems mentioned earlier. I did hear from someone that if the flight to Abu Simbel is late you may not have enough time (2.5hrs min)at the site. Enjoy - dont worry about EgyptAir

I also was worried about EpyptAir's safety record when I went on a tour in 2005. Apparently they had a couple of horrendous accidents that brought their record down--one was rumored to be the result of a suicide by a copilot, I believe. However, I was very impressed with the facilities and service on our flight from New York to Cairo. The plane left within a split second of the scheduled time and the whole flight was great--also on return. Our group also took internal flights on the carrier that were equally efficient. Of course things can always change, but on the basis of my experience they were first-rate.

We flew from Cairo to Luxor just for the day on Egypt Air in 1999. On the flight down to Luxor someone must have vomited on the back of the seat in front of me and although they had cleaned it up I had the smell of it all the way down. When we arrived back at Luxor Airport at about 7.00pm to fly back to Cairo although we had return tickets for the 7.30pm flight we were not assigned seats and had to wait until about 1.00am to get on a flight.

To be 2 western people (we seemed to be the only westerners waiting in the airport) trying to argue with the Arabs about getting on the plane was frightening and we would not travel with them again. Admittedly that was 10 years ago, things may have improved.

Altho I have not flown EgyptAir from the US to Cairo, my mother-in-law made the trip twice and had no complaints. We flew it several times within Egypt (to/from Luxor and Sharm) and also flew it from Cairo to Johannasburg. This was all between 2001 and 2005.

During that time it was not fabulous, but it wasn't bad. The long haul flights were on time, altho the in-country flights were a little hit or miss. Since then, EgyptAir has become part of StarAlliance and from what I have been told - is much, much better. Perfect? Nah - but nothing I would be concerned about.

Ahhh Star Alliance - that was what I was trying to think of when I was answering that post about how to get from the main terminal to the Domestic Terminal. ALL Star Alliance partners share the new Terminal 3. If you are flying Star Alliance you stay in the same terminal.

That's what I'm here for, Debbie!!!!