3-16-20 - Out of Egypt (Part I) - The tickets that weren't
/Kyle is awoken at 2:25 am by the dreaded text ping sound that at 2am never portends anything good. Kyle goes to the bathroom to read the text which sure enough is the barer of bad news. “Kiwi.com regrets to inform you that we were unable to obtain seats on your flights so your booking has been cancelled and your money will be refunded.”
Leanne is awoken at 2:30 am by a loud “oh F**K!” exclaimed by Kyle emerging from the hotel bathroom. Another killing insect encounter was her first thought (see Costa Rica blog). “What?” A groggy Leanne asks.
“They cancelled our tickets. Our CONFIRMED tickets. The agent swore up and down three ways to Sunday that the tickets were GAURENTEED. I waited three hours on hold yesterday, the credit card charge went through and it turns out she was full of shit. We have no freaking flight out of Egypt today,” an irate Kyle is about to exploded into a pile body parts.
Clearly getting out of Egypt and even aborting the trip after a very brief stay here in Cairo is proving quite difficult. Global Air travel is running havoc ever since Trump announced the travel ban on flights from Europe and the UK. People are starting to panic. It feels more dire now than it did just 24 hours ago.
While we thought we were staying ahead of the wave, apparently the water is crashing right over our heads. Help! Coronavirus Anxiety Meter is now at 130 on a 10 point scale.
Leanne grabs her phone and starts searching Orbitz to see what’s available. It will nearly impossible to get another flight for seven last minute. There were barely seats yesterday. “Using Orbitz is amateur hour,” Kyle informs Leanne, “there are four other sites that are better at getting international flights.”
Kyle sets to work and the first thing that comes up is a route with a direct flight from Cairo to London Heathrow, transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick, overnight in a hotel at Gatwick, flight from Gatwick to Antigua. It is actually a better itinerary with only two flights and full night sleep in Gatwick. The problem is….it’s through Kiwi.com.
“No,” Kyle yells out, “there is no way I’m ever trusting Kiwi.com ever again in my life.” Kiwi is showing a price of $11,000 for the 7 of us which is about what the original itinerary cost. Kyle tries to replicate the two flights direct. The first flight from Cairo to London is $348. Not bad, this is going to work Kyle holds out hope until he plugs in the Gatwick to Antigua flight and almost falls out of bed when the result comes back at $3,000 per ticket. So the total for 7 of us for both flights is $23,450.
“That’s insane,” Kyle declares, “we might as well buy our own damn plane at that point.” Kyle soldiers on looking at every permutation. Every flight to Antigua in the universe seemly goes through JFK in New York or London.
The issue with going through the US is that we’d have to get our bags, clear immigration and customs and re-check in for the other flight. Since the borders to the US will be closed in the next couple days, people are pouring into JFK. We saw pictures yesterday of a thousand people in a mass mob on the immigration line.
“There is a 100% chance that someone in that line has the Coronavirus and a 100% chance the Coronavirus is happily jumping from person to person on that line,” Kyle says, “there is no way on God’s green Earth we’re going back through the US and that.” It is entirely unsurprising that New York City turned into the epicenter in the US when you look at that picture.
John walks in soon thereafter and tells us “did you see the report that came out from the Toronto researcher.... he estimates Egypt has 20,000 cases already.” Really? 20,000. When we arrived on Friday, it was under 50 cases and two reported deaths. Kyle was right to be untrusty of the governments reported data.
Maybe it is the continued stress of the situation and the fact that it’s now 6:00 am and we still have no flights but Kyle smacks his forehead and exclaims, “I forgot to try the throwaway ticket!” The throwaway ticket can be the logistic master’s best friend and is definitely in the travel toolbox. The throwaway ticket is when you only need one way but you buy a roundtrip and throw out the returning flight because you’ll never use it.
Kyle returns to British Airways website and plugs in the one way and receives the same $3,000 per ticket. He then changes to round trip and throws in an arbitrary April 30th return. The screen comes displaying $500 per ticket. No shit, to fly both ways is $2,500 cheaper than just one way. Obviously, Britain doesn’t want its people flying to Antigua with no plans on returning. Kyle fist pumps the air and shouts a victory scream. Leanne’s guessing we’re not the most popular room with the other guests on the hotel floor.
Kyle then also figures out that by going to from Cairo to London Heathrow on Egypt Air, we can use the value of the original ticket from Cairo to Dubai towards this flight. So Kyle, who has earned his PHD in Travel Logistics on this trip, has turned a $23,500 fiasco into a $3,500 out of pocket cost. Smiles, shits and giggles are back as we return to daydreaming about Antigua at breakfast.
Our flight is at 5:30 pm and Leanne says, “I just hope they don’t shut down the borders and airports before we get on that plane.” “They won’t even shut down the tourist attractions for fear of the economic hit so I highly doubt they’re going to shut down the borders,” Kyle tries to reassure her.
