Does anyone from "down under" have any idea what is the quickest (and cheapest) way to get from the South Island of New Zealand to Cairo - e.g. via Sydney, Singapore etc?? We are interested in going to Europe, taking in a tour of Egypt on the way over, but the flights don't look very easy/cost effective from here.

We got an earlybird price in december for our trip last month. Auckland/ Cairo. Return trip, Paris / Auckland, via Singapore each way. That cost us NZ$ 2,715 return each. That's 21 hours of flight, plus any waiting time between flights.

F.K. ~ Pose this question to your T.A. they are experts at this type of thing. Our T.A. has come up with some amazing ideas on flights & stopovers.

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We got an earlybird price in december for our trip last month. Auckland/ Cairo. Return trip, Paris / Auckland, via Singapore each way. That cost us NZ$ 2,715 return each. That's 21 hours of flight, plus any waiting time between flights.

Hi nation : who was the carrier?

We were just discussing this over the weekend. Our maybe swansong trip in 2010 will be CHCH-Tel Aviv-Amman-Cairo and somehow return. From what we have seen Jordanian air seems the only carrier that does the 3 middle east countries collectively. There are several other carriers/ways to do the main section.

Strange this question should pop up at this time - are you clairvoyant FK ??

Not nice at all!

I’m sure that you could arrange something through Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok but the flight into Cairo may not be the best if you want a direct flight.

For example, Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur from Auckland operates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ETD 12:50 ETA 20:05. Then Malaysia offers a flight to Cairo ETD 23:45 ETA 06:50. The snag is that it is not a Malaysian Airline Flight although it has a Malaysian Airline Flight Number; I suspect it is Egyptair. 27 hours total.

Thai offer a similar link through Bangkok, but the Bangkok Cairo leg is Egyptair.

The alternative would be to use one of the Gulf Airlines. For example Emirates Flight EK407 departs Auckland 17:45 a stop over in Melbourne, then change planes at Dubai for Cairo. Total time 25 hours 5 minutes

Etihad could offer something similar but you would have to join them in Sydney.

Yes you are right Tangata there are various options. We flicked onto a few websites just to get an idea of who fly where and via which city but found it was difficult to get an accurate price on the flights. We need a TA's guidance, so we will wait until closer to the time (we might win lotto in the meantime ) and get the loverly Alana to work her magic for us.

Hi Flying Kiwi

A couple of years ago we used Singapore Airlines (and their codeshare partners) and purchased a Round the World ticket because we found it the cheapest way, at the time, to cover both Egypt and Europe.

On that particular trip we first toured Egypt; then Spain, Portugal & Morocco; then Germany-Scandinavia, Russia, Poland, etc, then a couple of days in Canada and finally a few days in Honlolulu before heading home.

Our flights were as follows:

1st leg = Sydney-Singapore-Cairo.
2nd leg = Cairo-Frankfurt-Madrid.
3rd leg = Madrid-Frankfurt-Berlin.
4th leg = Berlin-Frankfurt-Vancouver.
5th leg = Toronto-Honolulu.
6th leg = Honolulu-Sydney.

It worked out far cheaper than adding up the internal flights in Europe etc plus we spent some more time in Vancouver and Honolulu.

We always use Singapore airlines, because of the Krisflyer points. Now we have enough points for a free return trip to somewhere like Norfolk Island. Apart from that, their seating is more roomy, and I like their food.

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Krisflyer points

We haven't bothered collecting points since finding out from our last trip to europe we had enough for travel for one person to Auckland, but not back WOW! or it could have saved us a fantastic $23 (conditions applied)if we used them on the next trip we did. Obviously unless you travel frequently and long distances they are not worth the bother.

So now we just go with the airline that going to where we want it to go and when we want it to go without having the think about loyalty. Agreed SA are a great airline, but we like to use different stop off city/countries each time we travel. We use it as an excuse to see another city/country, even though its usually only for a couple of days.

quote:

Does anyone from "down under" have any idea what is the quickest (and cheapest) way to get from the South Island of New Zealand to Cairo - e.g. via Sydney, Singapore etc?? We are interested in going to Europe, taking in a tour of Egypt on the way over, but the flights don't look very easy/cost effective from here.

FK have a look through the U....d T....l web site flight booking section and see if anything there takes your fancy.

quote:

Originally posted by FLYING KIWI:
Does anyone from "down under" have any idea what is the quickest (and cheapest) way to get from the South Island of New Zealand to Cairo - e.g. via Sydney, Singapore etc?? We are interested in going to Europe, taking in a tour of Egypt on the way over, but the flights don't look very easy/cost effective from here.

Hi F.K.
We have just returned from trip to Egypt. We flew Etihad Sydney to Cairo. Had a stop over in Abu Dhabi for about 8 hrs, airline paid for our accom in a hotel. 14hrs to A.D. then chance to rest in a nice room then 4hrs(I think) to Cairo. They were the cheapest airline very good service. $2100ish return.

I am going to Dubai and Egypt in September/october and am flying with Emirates from Sydney to Dubai, having a few days there then flying directly to Cairo. Then I am flying from Cairo to Dubai, having a few more days there and am flying back to Sydney. The cost is about $2200 or so.

Thanks everyone. I think I will have to talk to my TA. I just didn't want to see her until I had a clearer idea in my mind as to our plans, as I didn't want to waste her time.

We prefer to have a stopover on long haul flights, so I think probably flying Singapore Airlines from Christchurch to Singapore direct would be the least complicated way if possible but as we would possibly then go on to Copenhagen or Helsinki didn't want to make it too complicated or too long a flight.

The other two things we were considering were to do a stopover in a place we hadn't visited and we have been to Singapore before. Also we are Qantas frequent flyer members, so prefered to boost our points, but that is secondary to getting the most convenient & cost effective flights.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FLYING KIWI,

F.K. ~ If I have a random question for my T.A. I email her & always tell her there is no rush. That way if she is busy she knows she can get to it in her own time.

If you have time in Singapore (Changi) airport, try and find this novelty. A carpet, that as you walk over it, the pattern moves out of your pathway. Obviously technology overhead, but so funny to watch on the video when we got home.