Booking Flights in advance to Egypt

[gkrane]

How far in advance should you look to booka flight to Egypt to get the best price. I have a liveaboard trip to the Red Sea next July and want to make sure I get the best rate.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

It depends a bit on your port. You mentioned Egypt and the Red Sea but we also have charters we book to the Sudan Red Sea. I assume Egypt is your destination. If you plan to use air miles or rewards, now is not too early to secure seats. However if you are purchasing tickets, a good window is minimum 3 months before your trip starting to check fares and availability say 6 months before your trip. When there was some unrest in Egypt, we were routing divers via Turkey and that worked very good. While in Egypt you might consider the pyramids and a Nile trip. We do those as add-ons and offers a sense of the culture.

 

[gkrane]

Out Port will be Hurghada aboard the M/V Tala. Thank you so much for this information. I figures the prices looked a bit high right now. I will start looking 6 months before the trip to book. I don't think we will have time this trip for a pyramids tour but it is something I plan to do in the future.

 

[drbill]

Not sure about flights from your area but Turkish Airlines had good fares from LAX and I flew there from Philadelphia on Qatar Airways and back on Egyptair/Air Canada

 

[Tippytoes12]

We are lucky enough to do a couple of long haul trips a year to Asia from the UK. The Philippines with emirates in February was over 900 pounds some time ago but has now fallen to 750. I agree three to six months is a good time to start looking.

Enjoy Egypt , it's a wonderful destination x

 

[Barracuda22]

Delta (Air France) has a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Paris. Not certain if Phoenix has the same. I booked Dr. Bill's Red Sea trip, August 14-28, 2015 approximately 3 weeks in advance. Flew SLC to Paris to Cairo with no additional layovers. Then return direct to SLC from Paris for just under $1500.00. It was the best price and shortest flight I could find after watching the flights for about 2 weeks. Most of the other flights included additional stops and long layovers.

Read Dr. Bill's trip summaries. It may change your mind to include a land based tour. It would be worthwhile to see more of Egypt while you are there.

 

[gkrane]

Delta (Air France) has a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Paris. Not certain if Phoenix has the same. I booked Dr. Bill's Red Sea trip, August 14-28, 2015 approximately 3 weeks in advance. Flew SLC to Paris to Cairo with no additional layovers. Then return direct to SLC from Paris for just under $1500.00. It was the best price and shortest flight I could find after watching the flights for about 2 weeks. Most of the other flights included additional stops and long layovers.

Read Dr. Bill's trip summaries. It may change your mind to include a land based tour. It would be worthwhile to see more of Egypt while you are there.

From what I have read to get any type of descent rate you have to book flights much further out than you do with domestic or carribbean locations. $1500 seems extremely high to me. As far as the land based tour, I would love to but time restraints and the current political climate have me wanting to stay near the port.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Hughada has an airport, but direct international flights to it tend to be holiday charters. I went this year from Dubai - door to door was 15 hrs as we had to stage via Cairo (Where as door to door to London is only 9)

I would suggest you book to London then take one of the many cheap no fills holiday charter to Egypt, as they manage the immigration process for you too.

currently any unrest is much farther north so you shouldn't worry at the moment. Also Hurghada airport is set up specifically for tourists so easier

on the plus side because Egypt wants foreign currency and welcomes divers they tend to turn a blind eye to over weight bags

 

[Jumana Ameeri]

I have just returned from a diving trip to the Red Sea (Sharm Al Shaikh). It was kind of a last minute planning so we booked about 6 weeks before the trip. We used Egypt Air as most flights were all full due to it being the peak/holiday season and the prices kept hiking everyday, so it is better to reserve at least 2 to 3 months before as July will also be holiday season.

 

[Nasser]

Flight prices can change literally from day to day so there are really no hard and fast rules. It can all come down to your timing. I was traveling in Europe recently and decided that I wanted to extend my stay for a week. I was given a quote for 240 USD as a "penalty" to change my ticket to a later date! I held out a bit and a few days later the same ticket dropped down to about 90 USD. Airlines are obnoxious in that way!

I'm heading out to Sharm in a couple of days and I managed to get a pretty decent rate within a couple of weeks of departure.

Generally speaking though, the sooner you book the better. Do a search on the net and compare prices and check with an agent, sometimes they can get prices that aren't available on the net and you can save quite a bit.

I like to visit this site from time to time and have gotten some pretty good deals:

Find Cheap Flights & Airline Tickets | KAYAK

cheers,
Nasser