dmlove

Hi all. I posted this on the Africa & Middle East forum and they suggested I repost here.

For a variety of reasons, our trip to Egypt in August (yes, I know it'll be HOT) has been on-again, off-again, but now its definitely on. We are traveling from San Francisco, planning to leave here August 16th, so we can meet up with our son and his girlfriend in Cairo on August 18th, travel around ending in Sharm El Sheikh (for the divers), then fly to London for 3 days (his girlfriend has never been, plus they want to end their year+ in Africa with a stay in a a large Western city), then home on Sept. 2nd.

We always do our own planning, but this time are finding it extremely difficult to nail down routes and prices. Yesterday, we found what we thought was a good route, good times and decent price, and of course, it has disappeared today.

So, we are thinking of using a travel agent for this part of the trip. Does anyone have a recommendation of a US travel agent (we'll get to the Egypt-planning part soon) who can help us find and make at least our air plans?

Thanks for your help and advice.

BeachBoi

Well here's what I'd do.Might take a day/time or two.Go to your closest big mall.Most large ones have a travel agency.Mall based travel agencies are almost 100% leisure, as opposed to having corporate clients.Just walk in and whoever acknowledges you, tell them what you want.If there is an expert, either international or Middle East, they will normally introduce you, have you wait.Whoever helps you, they can make a reservation and it will hold for 3 days, usually.So if you go Saturday, you will have till Tuesday.Though a good agent will tell you the fare may not be guaranteed until the ticket is issued.In the meantime, look in your Sunday Travel Section.There may be an agency that advertises as "Africa Experts" or something like that.An ad may catch your eye.It's hard to pick an agent without some sort of personal recommendation.But thats not to say it hasnt been done before.Best of luck.I did meet someone last week is doing something similar and their tickets are in the $2,400 range.And yes, the agent will charge a fee and normally make it very clear."The fare is $XYZ and we have a $30 ticketing fee per ticket issued."

dmlove

We came up with $2400 Last night too but with an awful flt from Cairo to London - I think we will try a regular agency tomorrow to see if they can put it together with a better option to London.

BeachBoi

Its not cheap.Just walk in the door of the agency and say you want to speak with the international agent.In a "real" agency, that person usually is the one with the most experience.But, these days , anything goes.Best of luck.The problem is, those flights, to and from Cairo, are sooooo full...Cheap seats, if there were any, are long gone.I emailed my oown T/A and he sent back a similar fare of what I had found.....Almost $900 was in taxes..So the fare alone is in fact cheap...And then came the taxes...

dmlove

We know it's not going to be cheap - no expections. We just want to find decent flights and connections at this point. Part of the problem is that 2-3 of the group need to decide (and soon!) where they want to dive - Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh or (the easiest) Alexandria. Then another two of the group have to decide if they want to go to the beach at all, or leave earlier and go someplace else in Europe before regrouping in London. It's a mess!

dutyfree

You could fly SFO to JFK and then nonstop to Cairo from JFK on Delta(flight just started earlier this month). Possibly Air France from Cairo to CDG to LGW or one of the other partners in SKYTEAM and then LGW to JFK,CVG or ATL on Delta where you would connect back to SFO.

freeman0819

What about Birtish Airways round-trip with a stopover in London on the return in London. It would probably be cheaper than buying SFO-CAI, CAI-LHR and then LHR-SFO separately??

Paulchili

Have you tried these sites:
http://www.airgorilla.com/Engine/Itinerary.asp
http://www.kayak.com/
They usually have lots of options to chose from

Underhill

Our neighbors fly each summer from San Francisco to Frankfurt to Cairo, usually on Lufthansa. You might try that airline's web site and see what turns up. You could also fly a different airline from SF to Frankfurt and then take Lufthansa the rest of the way.