Egypt and the Pyramids

My first stop was the Delta Sky Club to wait for batmandds' MSP-LAX flight arrive.

The lounge was packed, and since it was LA, lots of interesting guests.   Nice to see another LA father-daughter trip.

I'm thinking why bother, maybe just stay home.... for the rest of your life.

Lots of "food" optons. 

The pork carnitas was actually quite tasty.

While I had my just-in-case-72-hour-anitgen Covid test this morning in Denver, batmandds opted to do it at LAX.  We trekked over to T6 and the very efficient Clarity test facility.  Oddly, it would not be his last visit today.

Then another trek to the Bradley Terminal, which was packed... at least at the south check-in counters.

 Much more civlized at Air France.

And the La Première lane which was oddly roped off.   Our doc check went well until we got to the Covid PCR test part.  While we both has current negative PCR results, neither of us had a test result with a QR code, an apparent requirement for Americans to enter Egypt.  I got off easy when I showed the agent and supervisor my French-issued Pass Sanitaire and its QR code.  The Pass Sanitaire is magic as they told me that I was good to go and didn't even need PCR test to enter Egypt.  batmandds, not so much.  He did not have a QR code so he needed a new PCR test stat.  The AF supervisor said that batmandds didn't need the results by boarding time.  All they needed to let him board was for him to have taken the test.  So off he went back to T6 for round 2...

....while my La Première Personal Assistant escorted me thru security to the TBIT concourse... 

... and Vino Volo, the temporary La Premiere Lounge since The Qantas First Class Lounge is still closed and AF's new lounge is under construction.

Air France gives each La Première passengers a $115 tab allowance, apparently a change after a few expensive 4 figure "open tab" experiences.   I started with a Napa Cab wine sampler while I waited for batmandds to return.

The warm brie plate was delicous.

Our 77W arriving across the tarmac.

Once batmandds arrived, we celebrated with a bottle of Opus One, only $85 net after our La Première allowance.

At around T-40, our two Air France La Première PAs came to retrieve and escort us to our plane.

Vino Volo was a perfectly adequate alternative to a lounge.  My PA told me that she anticipate that the new Air France LAX lounge should be open by April.  And it will include a La Premiere section with full La Premiere dining.  

Air France La Première Lounge at CDG

... to our BMW for the ride to the Lounge.

Time for an Alain Ducasse lunch.

Oh yeah.

We both started with the fabulous croque-volaille/comté/truffe noire.

Followed by the amazing Coquillettes jambon/truffe noire with more comté.

Wonderful and so tempting dessert options.

At about T-30, Angelique stopped by to escort us to our Cairo fliight.   One last view.  See you in 3 days.

The Nile Ritz-Carlton Cairo

After a quick 25 minute middle of the night drive from the airport, we arrived at the Ritz-Carlton just before 2am local time.

My Bonvoy Platinum status got me an upgrade to a nice Nile River view room on the Club level.

Breakfast at Cucina.

Photo: ritzcarlton.com

 

Photo: ritzcarlton.com

 

Egyptair to Luxor

Once again, the secret to driving in Cairo is... to travel in the middle of the night.   Not a lot of passengers at the airport either.

Since the Egyptair app is pretty much useless, neither of us could not get a digital boarding pass as the app froze every time we click "display boarding pass".  On the other hand, the old fashioned airport kiosks worked and spit out our paper BPs.

Our first security check of the morning got us to the check-in counters.

Not a lot of morning domestic departures.

Let's check out the Egyptair Business Class Lounge.

Meh.  Not very exciting, to say the least.

Carbs much?

Time to head to our gate.

OK, this makes a lot of sense.  A 2nd security check.

More security equipment at the gate, but not is use today.

Nice new plane but terrible 2-3 all Economy seating with the first three rows comically designated as Euro-fraud style Business Class. 

We lucked out with a middle seat in our third row, oddly numbered row 22.  Huh?

More carbs for "breakfast".

On the other hand, our Egyptair A220 had Wifi and it worked.  Gotta love the price and my receipt for $0.00. 

Beautiful scenery as we approach Luxor.

And such a contrast from the lush greenery around the Nile River.

Not a lot of action this morning at Luxor "International" which has no jet bridges and where all planes park far, far away on the tarmac and use buses to transport passengers to the terminal.

Kudos to Egyptair for a separate bus for Business Class passengers.

But the terminal was a mile from our plane's parking area.  Seriously?  You couldn't park any closer??

Five minutes later, we are outside in Luxor where we met Nermeen, our wonderful guide for the day.    Cute local kids.

And Luxor's pretty new-ish terminal.