Glad you had a great holiday at the RGA , sounds like a brilliant hotel would love to try it.

I am travelling to Egypt soon on a Thomas Cook flight and I understand they are even worse than Thomson.

The flights to Sharm and Hurgarda are a huge disadvantage to visiting, I can just about cope with these tin cans for a two hour hop to Spain or Portugal, but they are the pits for a 5 to 6 hour flight.

There is no point in shopping about though as they are all simialr, went on Monarch last October - just the same, and dont suppose easyjet are any better, so I just book with whoever has the deal I want at the right price.

Doe

You're absolutely right, we would not visit Egypt again if it means enduring a flight like this.

Yes I am sure it puts a lot of people off of making a second visit. Its a shame as there are lots of lovely hotels out there.

The other down side for me is that I normally only go for a week of wintersun, so have to endure the flight twice in 7 days. They could really use long haul planes for it but it's all about cost I suppose.

We have been to Egypt 6 times now (including RGA last Aug/Sept) and have always booked extra legroom. If extra legroom wasn't available I simply wouldn't fly with Thomson let alone Thomas Cook LOL!

Hi Pat

I think that is a good point, I am obviously just too cheap to do it, but the older I get the more I think I will have to get out my wallet if I want to keep going there, and I do at the moment. I am very short, but my joints aren't what they once were. and can barely stand upright at the end of the 5 hours.

For the coming trip to El Gouna, I ticked the select your seat thing by mistake.

I went on the TC site to choose them & seriously thought about selecting three aisle seats, all behind each other, rather than three across in a row, so that we all could at least stretch a bit when no one was walking up & down & so that we didn't bother each other when we wanted to go to the loo, but dont know if the system allows you to do this.

Doe

Doe - yes the system does allow you to do that and I would have thought they would be thankful too as it frees up 3 lots of window and middle seats for couples!

Hi Doe,

Booking 3 aisle seats one behind the other maybe another option, but even the aisles aren't very wide, and when you have cabin crew and passengers walking to/fro to use the toilets it could still be a pain ...... mind you, your right/left leg will get plenty of exercise LOL!

Apart from the total lack of legroom on these mid haul flights (which is appauling) one of my other pet hates is when the passenger in front of you reclines their seat back onto your space. Personally, I feel that there should be no recline in these seats as it reduces even more of the little space that you do have.

We flew Premium Upgrade to Aruba 2 years ago, and even with the amount of space that we had, the woman in front of my husband had her seat reclined for most of the flight going out. Even during meal times my husband had to ask the cabin crew to ask her to raise her seat while he was eating ...... talk about lack of consideration to other passengers LOL!!

Pat

Don't get me started on reclining seats Pat, I think they should be taken out completely from these tiny seat pitch planes. All it takes is the people in row 1 to recline and then all the other 32 seats behind have to go back regardless of if the person want's to recline otherwise you have a seat back in your face and can't get your tray down. If none of them reclined we would all still get the same amount of space, so it seems nonsense to me.

I guess if I put either my DD or my DH infront of me I could control if the seat came back at me.

I did book them & I have booked 3 in a row. I read somewhere the computer systems are selective as to what you can book apparently if you try and book a middle and an aisle on some flights it wont let you, as they then end up with loads of empty window seats dont know how true that is?

Hi Denny I missed your post, did you try it ? Glad to hear it lets you do it, maybe next time if i am too tight to fork out for the extra leg room. We are all adults & not fussed about being next too, would rather be comfy (ish)

Doe

If it's all about wanting to go to Egypt but not going on a Thomson / Thomas Cook charter flight you can always book with Egyptair. Flights go via Heathrow to SSH requiring a change of plane from Embrair 170 over to an Egyptair A320.

The cost for 2 people is around 1000GBP for 2 people return and the journey will take longer of course.

Saying that, my friend has been looking at flight only with Thomson/Thomas Cook and prices there have been around the 500GBP per person for Manchester to Luxor.

So I suppose the real decision comes down to: Price, Convenience and Flying Time over Comfort?

Our flights from Larnaca to Luxor are all with Egyptair. This time it looks like the Embrair 170 is being used from Larnaca to Cairo, with an Airbus for the internal flight, Embrair 170's for the whole of the 2 leg journey back. Last time, we had Airbus flights for each leg except the Luxor to Cairo return leg.

It looks like the route is not so popular now since our journey in 2010. Seats were comfortable and pretty much as I recall the first time we went to Cairo on a city break from LHR in 1992 with Egyptair.

There was no entertainment onboard and passengers were allowed to smoke then. I've never seen hand luggage so big (think of those expanding hessian bags on wheels that looked like they weighed more than I did) and for the first time in my life I was worried about flying. I was convinced we wouldn't get off the ground if that's what they classed as "hand luggage".

Enjoy!
Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

Hi Doe,

I never book my seats numbers on line. I always phone the airline up direct to ask when the seats will be loaded for our flight, and then phone them back on the day they are released to ensure we get the seats numbers we want.

Pat

Hi Shell & Pat

Shell, do you mean that you can fly direct from Heathrow to Sharm on an Egyptair flight ? But you mention via, and another type of aircraft, does that mean the change is in cairo or luxor ? I'm not sure if £500 per person is a good price, as can get compete holidays for that at certain times of the year in 4* hotels not much more for a 5*, but it's good to know there are other options.

Pat do you have to pay for the extra legroom seat and pay the £15 for the pick your seat as well? Am trying to get my head round it all for the future.

Doe

I always seem to sit behind the first seat to be reclined on the flight !
This didn't happen on the Sharm flight and I didn't see any other seats reclined so maybe the mechanism is disabled

What gets me is the ones that recline prior to take off, then the stewards have to go along and tell them to put them back up for take off. How they expect the people behind to get into the brace position I dont know, I guess they just dont care.

I end up reclining because the person infront does, if they don't then I keep my upright for the whole flight. As you say maybe there is a disable facility somewhere on board, good idea really.

Hi Doe,

Last year when we went to Sharm we paid £50 each return for the extra legroom and that included choosing our seat numbers.

Pat

Thanks Pat that sounds quite reasonable, partuclarly in the context that it is £15 per person to choose your seat anyway, so only another £35 for the extra space. I will defiantly consider it in the future.

You get quite a lot of hotel for your money out there, so that is good trade off against paying £50 for extra leg room IMHO.

Doe

Hi Doe,

IMO the extra legroom is well worth the extra cost. If I couldn't get the extra legroom I wouldn't book the flight ...... couldn't stand being cramped into such a confined space!

Regarding getting a lot of hotel for your money in Egypt, it cost us more to stay at the RGA last August than what we paid to go to Aruba in Aug 10 (although we did upgrade) and are looking to go back to the Caribbean this August.

Pat

I'm in Luxor at the mo and flew out with easyjet and it was the best flight I've ever had to Egypt, we flew with Thomson to taba and had ex legroom and that was good , I remember going to sharm with monarch and that was cramped , but this time easyjet was great,
We booked speedy boarding and queued for less than 2 mins at gatwick , normal checkin and bag drop looked about 30 min queues , we were about 10 th in speedy queue ( I'm not one of those saddoes who stands at the front about 45 mins before boarding just to get the coldest seats on the plane in row 1 ) I go for row 12 with the emergency exits which have a bit more legroom than others , usually one of the flight crew stands there directing and if you faff around long enough everyone else sits down as you chat with crew member and they direct them to the back , so we had 3 seats between the 2 of us .
They did 3 drinks services during the flight , and the flight just went so quickly , I was quite pleased to get a premier checkin service , extra space seats for £46 pounds , quite a saving from Thomsons £100 , which was spent today on a felucca at sunset with canapés and chilled white wine with just the two of us so plenty of seat space and legroom It's an easy life , thank you easy jet !!!!!

Hi Shell & Pat

Shell, do you mean that you can fly direct from Heathrow to Sharm on an Egyptair flight ? But you mention via, and another type of aircraft, does that mean the change is in cairo or luxor ? I'm not sure if £500 per person is a good price, as can get compete holidays for that at certain times of the year in 4* hotels not much more for a 5*, but it's good to know there are other options.

Hi Doe,
Yes, you can book direct with Egyptair from Heathrow to SSH but if you want to fly from a Regional airport such as Manchester, you will be booked onto a BMI flight (operated by Egyptair) into Heathrow then you will need to change planes for the journey to Sharm.

Most flights operate via Cairo which means you have to change for another flight - but there is a flight LHR direct to SSH which in the summer months leaves Heathrow at 22:30 and arriving SSH at 05:15 next day with no flight change. The Return journey leaves SSH at 16:10 arriving LHR at 21:15. Flights are on an Airbus A320.

Not the best of flight times outbound but okay for the return leg to UK. I just checked that direct flight and the cost appears to be at less than 300GBP per person for flights from 13th May for 14 nights.

http://www.egyptair.com/English/Pages/Default.aspx - just make sure to tick the box for Direct Flights Only before you hit the Search button, or - you can sort the results by number of stops if you forget

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

Thanks everyone, lots of good information on flights so has given me somethings to consider in the future, they all sound better than the economy Thomas Cook flight seats that I am looking forward too in a few weeks time. That is a good price at £300 Shell.

Sounds like you are having a brilliant time Andy glad it's all worked out for you, don't think I could get my hubbie to stand in a queue for 45 mins at an Easyjet gate, I would though.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Doe