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Egypt is known as the cradle of civilization. During ancient time, Egypt was home to the development of writing, agriculture, urbanization, organized religion and centralized government. The country is known for its incredible monuments like Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, and Valley of the Kings.
Today, nearly 15 million people visit Egypt annually. The country isn’t the easiest to get to from the United States since there are only two non-stop options.
Ways to book:
All Nippon Airways Mileage Club
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
American Airlines AAdvantage
Avianca LifeMiles
Emirates Skywards
How to Earn these Points and Miles
Best Use of Points and Miles to Egypt
All Nippon Airways Mileage Club
ANA doesn’t fly to Egypt, but they do partner with several Star Alliance airlines that do. ANA does have three Star Alliance partners that fly into Cairo.
Austrian flies from Vienna into Cairo. SWISS flies from Zurich. EgyptAir is also an option, but I’ll into that option further into the article.
One downside of ANA is that you must book round-trip tickets. You can’t fly say SWISS to Egypt then fly British Airways back home. s back home. One way around this? You can book a multi-city ticket. Pair on another city to your trip and you’re good to go.
Points required are quite reasonable with ANA.
| Economy | Premium Economy | Business |
|---|
| 60,000 | 88,000 | 105,000 |
Round Trip Redemptions using ANA Mileage ClubANA also passes along surcharges from other airlines. Austrian and SWISS both have high surcharges. These fees can easily be several hundred dollars. Surcharges are less if you fly EgyptAir.
ANA charges less surcharges if you fly Turkish Airlines. While Turkish only flies into Cairo from Istanbul, Turkish does flies from several US cities.
| ATL | BOS | DFW | EWR |
| IAD | IAH | JFK | LAX |
| MIA | ORD | SEA | SFO |
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
I love the Flying Blue program for their amazing economy deals to Europe. But the combined Air France and KLM loyalty program still has great uses. Getting to Egypt is one amazing use of Flying Blue miles.
Flying Blue no longer has an award chart. That doesn’t mean there isn’t great value from the loyalty program. Here’s what you can expect.
| Economy | Premium Economy | Business |
|---|
| 34,000 | 68,000 | 85,000 |
One-Way Redemptions using Flying BlueOnly Air France flies to Cairo. You’ll be connecting through CDG in Paris. There are tons of cities in the US that you can catch an Air France flight from.
| ATL | BOS | DFW | DEN |
| DTW | IAD | IAH | JFK |
| LAX | MSP | ORD | SEA |
| SFO | | | |
Air France also partners with Delta in the SkyTeam Alliance. Delta flies to Paris from a couple of different US cities.
| ATL | BOS | CVG | DTW | JFK |
| LAS | MSP | RDU | SEA | SLC |
American Airlines AAdvantage
One of my favorite airlines to redeem miles with is American Airlines. I love redeeming them for international first or business class like their Flagship Business product.
One of the most popular ways to use AA miles to Cairo is on Qatar operated flights. Qatar flights from many airports.
| ATL | BOS | DFW | IAD |
| IAH | JFK | LAX | MIA |
| ORD | PHL | SEA | SFO |
Another way to use AA miles to Egypt is via London-Heathrow on British Airways. The United Kingdom and BA does have high taxes and fees.
American uses a zone-based award chart. No matter where you depart from the US you can expect the below prices. AA does have dynamic prices so the actual prices might not match.
| Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|
| 40,000 | 52,500 | 70,000 | 115,000 |
One-Way Redemptions using American Airlines
British Airways 777 Club World Seat
Related: American Airlines 787-9 Premium Economy Dallas to Amsterdam: Review
Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca is another popular program to redeem miles through. The South American based airline doesn’t fly to the Middle East. But they are part of the Star Alliance. They partner with other Star Alliance airlines, EgyptAir and Turkish, that do fly to Cairo.
| Economy | Business | First |
|---|
| 42,500 | 78,000 | 105,000 |
One-Way Redemptions using AviancaAvianca isn’t known for their customer service. Make sure you plan on taking this trip if you book through this loyalty program.
Emirates Skywards
With an incredible first-class product, Emirates is on every luxury traveler short list of airlines to try. But any class of service you fly with Emirates will be a great experience.
Award prices for Emirates are higher than other options on this list. But the experience will be much better.
| Economy | Business | First |
|---|
| 70,000-73,750 | 127,500 – 136,250 | 150,000 -160,000 |
One-Way Redemptions using Emirates SkywardsWhy the range? Pricing changes depending on the final distance of the award ticket. If flying from the Wast Coast, you can expect the higher prices. East Coast flights will be at the lower range.
Emirates flies from many different cities here in the United States.
| BOS | DFW | EWR | IAD |
| IAH | JFK | LAX | MCO |
| MIA | ORD | SEA | SFO |
Emirates also has free stopovers in Dubai if there is availability for your dates. You’ll need to call in to book this.
First class passengers have access to an onboard shower | Courtesy: Emirates
Related: Best Uses of Aeroplan Points
How to Earn These Points and Miles
ANA only partners with one flexible points currency in for United States. American Express is your go to for points transfers to ANA. One of the best business cards to rack up points is the American Express Business Gold. This card earns 4X on two of your top earning categories like advertising and shipping each month. One of my favorite cards to earn tons of Membership Rewards is The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express. It earns a flat 2X on the first $50,000 each year.
Flying Blue and Emirates miles are incredibly easy to earn. Both loyalty programs accept transfers from each major transferrable points programs. You can transfer from American Express, Chase, Citi and Capital One. The Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Premier and Capital One Venture are all great cards to earn points for Flying Blue and Emirates redemptions.
American Airlines is the most difficult program to earn miles for from this sweet spots list. They don’t currently partner with a transferrable points currency. But there are many cobranded credit cards with Citi and Barclays. One option is the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard with 50,000 AA miles.
Like Flying Blue, Avianca LifeMiles are easy to earn. They partner with American Express, Citi and Capital One. One of the highest welcome offers to earn miles for Avianca is The Platinum Card from American Express.
Best Use of Points and Miles to Egypt Bottom Line
As a history nerd, Egypt is one destination that I really want to go to. While there aren’t a ton of non-stop flights from the United States, there are plenty of redemptions to choose from. Keep in mind that most of the options on this list have implemented dynamic pricing. Watch out for higher pricing!
Have you been to Egypt? Let us know how you how you got there?
These opinions in this article are the author’s not those of a bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.