Question Red Sea RE Aggressor trips to Sudan?

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Our latest airlines ticket check from Atlanta - Istanbul - Hurghada on turkish air 21-24 hrs $ 1,400.00 FOR MAY 2023.
 
Our latest airlines ticket check from Atlanta - Istanbul - Hurghada on turkish air 21-24 hrs $ 1,400.00 FOR MAY 2023.

That appears to be very reasonable. I rather fly Turkish than Swiss or Lufthansa (I used to fly Swiss extensively and accumulated over 0.5 million miles on Star Alliance). Swiss over Lufthansa (10 times better).
 
I've done the Hurghada route on Turkish (from IAD) and it's not bad at all. I would definitely fly them again. Food is great and the seats are comfortable. You also get two free checked bags! Checking in at the Hurghada airport on the way home is kind of a mess but that would probably be the same with any airline.
 
I've done the Hurghada route on Turkish (from IAD) and it's not bad at all. I would definitely fly them again. Food is great and the seats are comfortable. You also get two free checked bags! Checking in at the Hurghada airport on the way home is kind of a mess but that would probably be the same with any airline.
We flew Turkish Airlines JFK to /from Hurghada via Istanbul last month (ca. $1300 USD). Overall it was fine but:
(1) my dive bag was described as "missing" with no further information; I had an Apple AirTag in it and located it at JFK, then in Istanbul the next day, so I knew I should be at the Hurghada airport that night to retrieve it just hours before the liveaboard sailed. Almost no help from Turkish Air. Also, I was told Egypt Air would deliver missing bags to hotels when they arrive, but Turkish does not (hence my round trip Uber to the airport at midnight. FWIW, Uber in Hurghada was great - much cheaper and easier than negotiating with the taxis.)

(2) our original return was supposed to start with the Hurghada -> Istanbul flight leaving at ca. 12:30AM. About 10 days before we left I got an email that the flight had been canceled and they moved us to the 4:45AM flight, which arrives in Istanbul at 8:30AM. Great, except the Istanbul -> JFK flight leaves at 7:30AM! Turkish did NOT automatically rebook us on the 1:30PM flight, nor did they even mention we needed to change the now-impossible connection!

(3) This wasn't a major deal, but we had booked (and paid for) 2 window seats near each other, but at check in they noticed we were traveling together and "helpfully" gave us middle and window seats. This happened going both ways, and we had to make an issue of it to get two window seats (and not the original ones we had been assigned.)

So, Turkish Airlines had a decent fare and very convenient travel times, but wasn't always as professional as you might expect some other airlines to be.

YMMV
 
I’m glad you posted this question @scubadada and have @Ahmeddawood answered & cleared up some confusions.

Looking forward to joining you on one of these trips to Sudan / South Sudan.

I would like to see Thresher shark & schooling of hammerheads. I’d like to see the Sundan’s “hammerhead wall” relative to what I have seen in Banda Sea, Socorro, Cocos & Galapagos.

I only saw one or two hammerheads in Brothers Daedalus and Elphinstone (BDE) route. However seeing the Oceanic Whitetip (Carcharhinus Longimanus) in Elphinstone made that trip a memorable one. I hope Sudan would be better than BDE.




Hammerheads in spring in Sudan, March-April-May. Threasher inme, best chance in Brother Islands (Big Brother) in summer.
 
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Reactions: Dan
For 2023, it looks like both May trips and the late April trip are sold out.
RE_Deep South.jpg
 
contact Ahmed Dahwood at royalevolution to check on availability rather than website., hopefully he will know for sure. My experience with this boat and this itinerary is book it 11 - 12 months ahead of time.
 
I just got done booking a Red Sea trip and used a very interesting business class fare deal on Star Alliance. You can fly into Hurghada or Marsa Alam round trip in business from the US for $2,600 to $3,000 but the trick (and the benefit) is that you have to add a stopover in Europe in at least one direction (and you can do two).

I am breaking my journey both ways in Munich and will spend a few nights in the city on one break and go into the Alps for hiking on the other one. There are a lot of other potential stopovers (e.g., Zurich, Brussels) and you have to play around with the routing a lot because some segments won't price out properly. But here's what I booked (I am going to be in DC that weekend so I started there--yep, open jaws in the US work).
Capture.JPG
 
It is getting tougher - and taking more time - to find deals these days but the info posted by @blueeyes_austin shows that it can be done!
 
"I was surprised when they announced they were becoming part of Aggressor, equally I am surprised at how short the relationship has been."

Bit late to this conversation but....

I'm not surprised at all - at the short relationship.

The diving style on Royal Evolution was really not compatible with Aggressor 'principles'. Much more pragmatic diving policies and a much safer boat design overall. But priced accordingly.

I would dive with Royal Evolution again.
I would not dive with Aggressor in Egypt again.

I was on RE, off the coast of Sudan, when Covid lockdown hit. They absolutely came through for everyone on board and i'm glad to see they are back up and running. The diving was quite good too. I certainly have them in mind for future tips.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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