El Andalous - No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

El Andalous - Walkway by Shops

I had this great idea to visit my brother in New Zealand next February – I felt it would be a good use of some of the inheritance money from my parents and also I’d amassed quite a few airmiles (216k to be precise) that I’d been half-saving for a NZ trip in order to fly business class. I am now not limited by time either, so I can go at my leisure. It all sounds good, doesn’t it?

Ha! Well, it just wasn’t so easy.

First of all, as already reported, the guy at EgyptAir hadn’t heard of New Zealand and I discovered that, although EgyptAir was part of the Star Alliance, they wouldn’t let me book a flight with my Star Alliance miles because my card was with Swiss and not EgyptAir.

I wasn’t too sure at this stage whether this meant that I could book flights only with Swiss or whether I just had to book through a Swiss office. I looked online and the Swiss booking system didn’t allow award flights as far as New Zealand since online booking was limited to only some airlines in the Star Alliance.

Anyway, after a bit of searching, I discovered that I needed to phone the Swiss Star Alliance office in Cairo. I was not keen on this idea since even simple phone calls are fraught with problems over here and my query was pretty complex (what are my options to get to New Zealand using my air miles, were there flights available that I could use my airmiles with, could I book using any Star Alliance partner; indeed, how did I book?).

I emailed the office instead and waited for a reply. After four or five days, I got an email from Lufthansa in Germany (phew!) asking me for my Swiss PIN and they would see which flights were available. I replied straight away and got no reply.

Meanwhile, my brother pointed me to a NZ website which allowed me to find alternative routes myself and filter results by Star Alliance only.

After getting no reply, I simplified my query by suggesting a route and asking which dates flights would be available for me to book with my airmiles. Again, no reply.

I simplified my query further and asked them to book me a specific flight. Again, no reply.

In the end, I decided I would have to phone. I dialled but got a message saying the number was wrong. I tried a few other permutations but only one got a response and it was a recorded message in Arabic with music in the background. It didn’t sound like Miles and More.

I gave up and asked my brother in New Zealand to book it for me. Unfortunately, it turned out that he was off on holiday in a few days’ time. However, he did his best before he left. He looked at the first leg of my journey (well, second leg, to be honest) and found the times and availability for that and dug up another website that I could try.

Unfortunately, whatever the website, it still held that there were only limited Star Alliance partners that permitted online booking of award flights and I was reluctant to book the first (second) leg without knowing whether the next leg of the flight would also be possible.

I was stuck. How on earth could I book this flight?

I returned once more to the Swiss website and found an online form I could fill out. This, at least, got me the helpful reply that booking via email was not allowed and that I had to phone the Cairo office to book my flight award. The reply was from one of those addresses where you’re not allowed to reply back. So, back I went to the online form to explain that the Cairo number they provided did not work. They replied that it was the correct number.

Are these award flights a myth?

In the end I decided I’d just book the leg of the flight that I could do online and then pay for the other flights myself. I had an itinerary all worked out. 

I went online, picked my times, only to find that when I clicked on the link, I could only book on a route that used an extra change of planes. This wasn’t what I was expecting. Moreover, my return date that I was allowed differed from the one I had planned.

Consequently, I had to find out if it was easier for me to fly direct to the place where I changed planes or go to my original point of departure. And I had to check that my connecting flight still flew on the new date. It was all so complicated.

Finally, I booked this one return leg of the journey. It wasn’t even free as it still cost me GBP 500 in fees and taxes. Moreover, I didn’t have enough miles left to book the next part of the journey, even if I could. At least paying for myself makes the options a lot easier.

All done, finally? No!

My next step was to ensure I had a place on the tour we wanted to go on. I emailed the agent to ask, not really expecting a problem, but she informed me that the dates I wanted in early March next year weren’t guaranteed and she strongly recommended booking the tour before or the tour after. Argh!

Never mind, I thought, I’ll just change my flight booking online. However, when I went to do this, the options of eligible flights had changed and a date that was available earlier was no longer free. So, once more, I sat there working out various new itineraries.

Eventually, I changed my flight. All was good. Or was it?

No, I had an email from Swiss saying that I needed to pay a fee for changing my ticket (not much and I expected this, but was surprised my online booking hadn’t requested it) and could I ring Cairo to pay it? Again, this email from Swiss was from a no-reply address, so I couldn’t explain that the Cairo number didn’t work. Anyway, that’s one of my “let’s just leave that to hang” strategy items, so let’s see what disaster awaits.

I still have to book Singapore-Auckland, but I’m hoping this will be less traumatic than the rest, since I’m paying proper money for it. I’m beginning to think the airmiles are a bit of a con as it is is so difficult to use them and the fees are so high. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t booked with airmiles and had saved them up for a special deal instead for maximum benefit, but it’s all too late now. Maybe someone out there can learn from my experience. It would have been easier if I weren’t in Egypt, as well.