Star Alliance member Egyptair offers a huge business class sale from European airports Amsterdam, Brussels, Miland and Paris, selling business class tickets to Bangkok, Beijing and Johannesburg as low as €1,106. All flights include a short layover in Cairo. The leg between Europe and Africa is mostly Boeing 737 service while onward flights are operated by widebody aircraft.
Single aisle Boeing 737-800 aircraft operate flights between Europe and Cairo. Long haul segments receive Boeing 777 or Airbus A330 service. Unfortunately, neither of these aircraft feature fully lie-flat-seats in business class – a slight angle remains.
Search & Book
Unfortunately, these flights are really hard to find as neither Google Flights nor the Airfare Matrix displays them correctly. You can use Google Flights as an indicator when prices are lowest (instructions). However, the lowest fare displayed on Google is usually €400-€600 higher than the cheapest ticket. On some dates, prices drop below €1,200 when entering the same dates in our flight search. On other occasions, they don’t. Still, this is the best way to at least have a clue when to suspect these outstanding fares, since fare rules don’t even give a travel period.
In some cases, one or both connections between Europe and Cairo are ticketed in economy class without explicit notice. It may add some extra time to your search, but it is possible to get the lowest fares with an all business class itinerary:
This is the only way to maximize value, comfort and mileage earnings.
Mileage
This part makes the offer even more attractive, as Egyptair issues all business class tickets in booking class Z. Star Alliance frequent flyer programs will credit it with at least 100% of your travel distance without tier bonuses. Most will even go up to 125% or 150%. This example is given for a Brussels to Bangkok roundtrip:
- 26,068 Points on SAS EuroBonus
- 26,068 Miles on TAP Miles&Go
- 26,068 Miles on Egyptair Plus
- 19,552 Miles on Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 19,552 Award Miles + 480 Points on Miles&More
- 19,552 Miles on Aegean Miles+Bonus
- 19,552 Miles on Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- 16,294 Miles on Asiana Club
- 16,294 Miles on Air Canada Aeroplan
- 16,294 Miles on EVA Infinity MileageLands
- 16,294 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
- 16,294 Miles on Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- 16,294 Award Miles + 13,034 Tier Miles on Avianca LifeMiles
- 13,034 Award Miles + 2,176 PQP on United MileagePlus
- 13,034 Miles on Singapore KrisFlyer
- 13,034 Miles on ANA Mileage Club