Holiday Problem - Airport and hotel nowhere near each other

PeacefulWaters

I do hope you get it sorted.

But thank you for the funniest moment of a quite disappointing weekend!

Doshwaster

dex986 wrote: »

@PeteDoff - Flights from Luxor to Sharm El Sheik all go via Cairo. I haven't even looked at whether we can realistically make a same day connection. Transfers were not included as an option. We were not too bothered at the time because the hotel itself said it was only 15 minutes from the airport. It didn't say Sharm El Sheik airport...

If you can't do same day transfers then why not turn the holiday into a two centre trip? See if you can take a couple of nights off the Sharm El Sheik hotel booking and add in a stopover in Luxor.

PasturesNew

At least you didn't book to fly from Birmingham.... Alabama.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537961/Couple-booked-bargain-flight-Birmingham-Caribbean-turned-away-ALABAMA.html

lea2012

Or perhaps finding yourself on an extremely long flight to Grenada and not Granada!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-24705723

PeteDoff

Doshwaster wrote: »

If you can't do same day transfers then why not turn the holiday into a two centre trip? See if you can take a couple of nights off the Sharm El Sheik hotel booking and add in a stopover in Luxor.

Best idea yet,
one lot of sand is much like another anyway.

Buzby

Ouch! There is a ferry from Safaga (Luxor side of the Red Sea) to Sharm. There's also Hurghada but not in Winter. It certainly the easiest option avoiding Cairo flights, and you're away from the main problem areas, however - Egyptian customs is tight, and your passport needs to be stamped In and Out at each conurbation - miss one and they have a field day. Taxi's are relatively cheap, but I wouldn't dream of hiring a car.

As to who's error - sorry, the obligation to get it right was yours. Sharm is a restricted area anyway your visa at Sharm prohibits you going into the desert, but the army would most likely stop you before then.

dex986

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. As I suspected I may have to accept the fault lies with me although I take heart from the post by lea2012. That is essentially what has happened in my case.

The company is lowcostholidays.com and I've just noticed they are not ATOL protected. If you go to their website and choose London as the departure and Egypt as the arrival. Date is from 16th July for two weeks. The cheapest flight is currently a Thomson flight to Luxor. If you select that you are taken to a list of hotels. All the hotels are Sharm El Sheik based. There is no information on distance from airport, nor can you sort the list by distance.

Given the post by Buzby it just seems nigh on impossible to make the journey from Luxor to Sharm El Sheik given the current situation in Egypt.

Cheers,
Dex

tamiami

The problem seems to be that you selected Luxor instead of Sharm for your flights.


Booking online is all well and good but sometimes it is better to call to book, especially if you are unsure of the geography.


If you call them they may be able to switch your flight from Luxor to Sharm. Thomson do fly from Gatwick to Sharm on that date so I cant see why they wouldn't swap it for you.


Maybe call Thomson directly and explain the issue to them.

tomtontom

Which hotel is it? The ones I have looked at state 'Distance from Airport: 10 miles - Sharm el Sheikh'

dex986

tamiami wrote: »

The problem seems to be that you selected Luxor instead of Sharm for your flights.


Booking online is all well and good but sometimes it is better to call to book, especially if you are unsure of the geography.


If you call them they may be able to switch your flight from Luxor to Sharm. Thomson do fly from Gatwick to Sharm on that date so I cant see why they wouldn't swap it for you.

The flights to Luxor are booked and non-refundable. They're happy to book a new set of flights from Gatwick to Sharm for about £2k.