We are off to London for a few days, so I thought I would share with you my Cairo Airport experience. And what a lovely one it was!
Recently after the crash in Sinai, everyone has been talking about the extremely impressive security that the airport has adopted. Security at the airport in Cairo has always just been a word: security… It hasnt meant anything and it has never existed. Its been a way for police officers to be nosey, check where you are going, how long, flirt a little if you are a women, try and get ur number and thats basically it! I mean how many airports have you been to that have police officers working all over?! Arent they usually in designated areas, such as passport control? They even have an extra screening before you can even check in where the police officer checks your ticket is valid, and he cant even read english. This time I just handed him 3 pieces of paper and said 3 people. He looked quickly at the paper without realising 2 of the papers is just one ticket printed twice! My husband had extra crew and the officer just let us pass without checking his extra crew. He didnt check out our passports either! So guys to get to the check in desk, just make sure you have a small book in a green/red colour that could be a passport and an A4 sheet of crisp folded paper with computer typed writing, the content aint important, as long as there is a egyptair logo we are good!
Then at check in we again had a lovely experience. My sons ticket was wrong as usual but the guy could override the system and get us checked in…. SCARY! This random guy can override the check in system and check in a faulty tickets whilst both in London and Copenhagen they have not been able to override the system. Rules and security people! Not even the MANAGER at Star Alliance in Copenhagen could override the system whilst a random check in guy just slammed a few things into his computer and voila, checked in! Amazingly safe!
Whilst I was at the check in counter a random guy with a badge went to check in at the counter next to us. He had 5 suitcases and one ticket. Im checking in the guy over there, this is his luggage. Okey, are you travelling with him sir? No im just checking him in. He pointed at an area with no human beings, not a living, moving soul! Check in guy looks a little confused and proceeds to check the guy in?!?!?!? Wait what? You cant even see the guy and your checking in 5 suitcases? In other airports you cant even bring someones elses suitcase, here is a guy checking in 5 suitcases that arent his AND getting a boarding pass (access to the aircraft, HELLO?!) Then the guy gives him the boarding passes and gives him the info about where the gate is… Does the passenger have hand luggage? And the guy points again to an area with NO ONE!!! The check in guy looks around, cant find anyone and hands over the boarding passes and wishes him a nice flight! Thank god this was not my flight the baggage was bound for, or I would have peed my pants the whole flight! Yes the WHOLE entire flight!!!! Amazing security! You can check someone in and you aint even supposed to be inside the airport coz your not flying!
Then at the gate there are security checks again! Well its called a security check point, looks like one, but doesnt work like one! We show our boarding cards and pass to the xray machine. When my husband takes his jacket off because its our turn the police officer sees his uniform and informs us to please take the fast track next to us. Okey so we have waited in a queue for about 10 min and when our turn comes you tell us to go to another security check point because my husbands a captain?!? Its much faster if we just proceed through this one now…. Nope we have to go squish past ALL the other people in the queue and go back to where we came from and sneak into the fast track!
No no no no, excuse me, you cannot pass through here, this is fast track…. Please go back to the queue of the other security check! Oh God, slap me in the face and call me a whore why dont you!!!! My husband explains the situation and he says ah okey sorry your a captain, go ahead?!! What its okey to talk to NOT captains in this way?
Shoes off!!!! Says an officer in a rude way to me… My husband says she is with me and he says okey okey no problem.. But thats not the annoying part! I chose to leave my uggs at home and wear trainers so I dont have to take my shoes off! I HATE people seeing my feet, I hate feet, so I wore my trainers to avoid this issue. Then he tells me to take them off, probably because he has heard of foreign security checks where they ask you to take your shoes off! What he doesnt know is there is a system, boots are to be taken off, not trainers?!?! Then he tells me no problem because he sees my husband is a pilot?!? What pilot wives dont have to take their shoes off?
Anyways liquids, no problem, you dont even have to put it in a bag, they dont even have bags, they just have the sign that says no liquids over 100ml and place in plastic bag…. Just a sign, great work!
We go through the metal detector, but the woman doesnt trust the machine, or its not on because it didnt beep, and she still doed a full on search on me!? Why do you have a metal detector if you do manual searches anyways? Sell the machine!
They see that I have an ipad in my bag on the xray machine, so she asks my husband, is there an ipad in your bag? She squinches her eyes as the guy behind us mutters something. He says the same thing again… She asks can i see the ipad. Then guy steps in and says: He is a CAPTAIN!!!!! So the lady at the xray machine says: aaaah im so sorry no problem captain… Wait… What just happened? She wanted to check the ipads but because my husbands a captain it doesnt matter? Im confused… Whats the relation between an ipad and a captain? I thought security checks were for security, but I guess not… Or well I guess it depends on where you work and who you are travelling with!
My advice: No need to pack your own luggage, you dont need valid tickets to enter the airport, you dont need to check in yourself, you might have to take your shoes off, and ALWAYS travel with a captain!!!
Femieshe 