Zurich - Flight to Hurghada

Arriving in Hurghada

I was actually ready to return to Egypt this year; I was working from home in Zurich and a lot of changes were taking place in my work environment, so it was nice to leave it all and go back to a more relaxed lifestyle in Egypt.

I try to make things easy for myself, so I decided to check my luggage in the night before my flight and then check whether I could get the last-minute upgrade within 24 hours of the flight or if it really did have to be the same morning as the flight. I had three laptops to take back with me (don’t ask!), so most of my hold luggage was taken up with that, leaving me no room to pack any breakfast cereal  (which is either not available or very expensive in Egypt).

I got to the airport, feeling quite pleased with how organized I was being. I yanked my suitcase onto the conveyor belt and explained it was for the Hurghada flight the next morning. To my astonishment she asked me if I had any laptops packed in my hold luggage and then said that laptops have to be carried through as hand luggage on flights to Hurghada. This used to be the case for the UK but not for Switzerland and then they changed the UK rules back again to allowing laptops in hold luggage.

I was stunned and wasn’t even sure if three laptops would be allowed in my hand luggage (too heavy?). But there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. So, I removed the laptops from the suitcase and handed what was now a virtually empty case over for night-before check in. What a waste of effort! Had I known, I could have packed some cereal after all. Having said that, if I’d learned that my laptops weren’t allowed in my luggage at 5am in the morning, it might have been even more stressful.

I was fortunate to have a bag with me that I could put them all in to carry back home. I lugged the laptops with me round to the Edelweiss counter (I was supposed to be empty-handed at this stage) in the next terminal to ask about getting a last-minute business class upgrade (I was thinking that at least all that hand luggage would be included in the business class allowance!). They informed me that the price had gone up by 50 CHF and that I couldn’t get the upgrade until the morning of my flight. The man happily explained that there was only one upgrade left but that they were open from 0430am the next day, so I could rush in then and get it. I’m sure only a Swiss person would think that this is a reasonable suggestion. There’s no way I was coming at 0430; in any case the first tram of the day to the airport isn’t until about 0515 and that was going to be painful enough.

After the usual sleepless Angst of wondering if it really is humanly possible to hear an alarm that will wake you in time to catch the 0515 tram, I did indeed get to the airport with my very heavy hand luggage and managed to get my upgrade. I went through the business class security check and felt a bit sorry for the others in the queue knowing I had to unpack virtually all my hand luggage in the process.

The woman at security asked me which two laptops were mine, indicating the first two. I pointed to the third one and said that all three were mine, but she assumed I meant that it was the last two laptops and not the first two laptops, so I had to reiterate that all three were mine. She looked a bit surprised but made no objection. Phew.

Since I was thirsty and had paid for an upgrade, I wanted to go to the business lounge for a quick orange juice and coffee. However, when I got there, I discovered it didn’t open until 0600 in that terminal. Looking at the queue at the cafe in the terminal, it was very long and I didn’t have that much time, so I ended up buying a juice from a vending machine. As soon as I got it (I was really parched, so I drank it within seconds), the flight boarded, so actually I could have waited. Next time.

But apart from all that, the flight was fine!