The Ghost Booking Panic

I price up flights, check Avios redemptions, and find biz reward availability one‑way. I call BA, and the agent is brilliant—helps me book the reward leg plus the cash single, both in business. Total: 53,500 Avios for two plus £1,034 for the return and fees. Only slightly more than an economy return, so I’m happy. I assume everything is fully booked and paid. 

Wingman and I arrive at Heathrow T5 at lunchtime, ready to breeze through security for fizz and food. The BA agent checks us in but spends a bit too long typing, then sends us to another desk. The second agent asks for my e‑ticket (haven’t been asked for one in ages). I produce the email—but it’s only for the inbound flight. No outbound e‑ticket anywhere. 

He explains the outbound is reserved but not actually ticketed—fees unpaid. Fine, I think, I’ll pay now. 

“I can’t take payment here; we have to call the Avios line.” 

We’re in T5—BA’s home—and apparently no one can take a payment. Okay then. 

I call BA Club, select Avios, and we stand there dreaming of fizz while hold music slowly destroys my patience. Then the darker thoughts hit: what if this is a ghost booking? What if reward space is gone? What if the flight is full? There were no other BA flights to Cairo that day—and missing GEM flashed before my eyes. 

I stay outwardly calm.  

After 30 minutes on hold I ask again, “Are you sure no one here can take payment?” 

“Absolutely sure.” 

“Another number you can call?” 

“Sorry, no.” 

I look around T5—BA’s purpose‑built hub, flagship lounges, the whole empire—yet not a single person who can take a payment. Bonkers. 

Eventually, after 55 painful minutes, we get through, pay, and finally get the booking issued. 

Fizz on the horizon 

We head through fast‑track security to the BA Lounge North for our first fizz, some food, and then it’s off to board. 

We board our A321neo—my first time on one—and I’m thrilled to see it’s fitted with the new Collins Aerospace Meridian seats. Slimline, dark navy leather with a subtle herringbone pattern, and a refreshed silver‑outline BA swoosh at the front of the cabin. Even the wooden‑effect flooring and upgraded ceiling lighting feel more Emirates than BA. My inner plane geek is very happy. For fellow geeks: aircraft G‑NEJ has this new interior. 

We settle into seats 1A and 1C—loads of legroom in the bulkhead row. We take off late but get a gorgeous sunset. 

The cabin manager introduces himself—warm, friendly, clearly loving his job. Fizz to start, then dinner: smoked salmon for me, shepherd’s pie for Wingman. Both great. I move to a vodka tonic, Wingman to a G&T, and we share a cheeseboard with wine. 

There’s a lot of chat about this being a long route for BA to run with a Club Europe cabin, which is essentially an economy seat with the middle blocked. Not ideal for anyone expecting lie‑flats and IFE, especially on a 5‑hour flight. Cairo joins Sharm, Hurghada, Istanbul and Tbilisi as some of BA’s longest Club Europe routes. 

I’d downloaded films, but Wingman and I  chatted the whole flight—as expected! I spoke to the cabin manager about the new interior, and once he spotted my geekiness, he fed it happily. I asked about the lighting system; he asked what colour I wanted the cabin to be.

“Orange!”  He slowly faded the whole cabin to a warm orange glow. Geekiness explosion. 

After landing, he even arranged for us to visit the cockpit. The captain and co‑pilot took our photos—little touches that make a trip so memorable. 

A brilliant flight from start to finish. No complaints. 

Then we stepped out into the chaos that is Cairo. If you’ve been, you’ll know exactly what I mean. 

The £90 Round  

We pulled up at Sofitel Nile El Gezirah. We booked this hotel as we decided we wanted to be on the Nile and have a Nile view. This did not disappoint.  

The building is a unique circular shape and prominent on the Nile riverside on an island. Inside, it feels like we have arrived in an authentic African hotel, with a Moroccan vibe to it. A huge mezzanine area, filled with terracotta walls, the longest of curtains I have even seen hang grandly from the ceiling down two floors, topped off with a beautiful chandelier. I likey.  

It’s 1am but we decide to have one drink and to sit outside and take in the Nile view. There are still many out and we set up camp with blankets and order some shisha. Two Tanqueray Gin and Tonics are ordered.  

Eventually, we decide to hit the sack, and I ask for the bill. £45 for each G&T. Yep, that was a £90 round. I think I have worked the conversion out wrong. I checked again in the morning, and nope, I was right.  

The area that served breakfast was surprisingly small for such a large hotel. However, small does not mean a small offering. On the contrary, this was a great hotel breakfast. We ate – a lot. I enjoyed Tahina, you just don’t get it in the UK like you can in Africa or the Middle East.  

They had some wonderful health shooters- had a couple of those to help shake off the fizz fuzziness from the day before. 

GEM: Cairo’s Crown Jewel

Then, to the main event! GEM! We easily booked an Uber and it’s about 25 min dive there and I think it was around a £3 fare.  

As you approach GEM it’s evident just how colossal the scale of it is. You get dropped off on the main road which is a little chaotic but then straight through to the initial entrance to the GEM site. Bags through an X Ray and then into a forecourt with a tiny café outlet. 

We grab a drink and wait patiently before our time is due and we successfully navigate through the queue and whilst it looks hectic, its all very well managed. 

And there you see GEM. Gorgeously new but the exterior is perfectly complementary to its surroundings. It’s beautifully modern and sharp yet with its triangular finishes, it reeks of Ancient Egypt. 

When you first walk ‘inside’ (its open ended) the vast open space makes the hotel’s lobby seem minuscule. It’s breathtaking.

The architecture of the building and the displays are all beautifully and impactfully on point and the number of artefacts just goes on and on. And on.  

The King Tut displays were striking and respectfully displayed. What we couldn’t figure out though, was that there was a room that had a no photography sign and was labelled as King Tut himself. But inside was an empty display case. I tried to research this afterwards and read that his mummy is still in Luxor. Are there plans to move it? I am interested in knowing why there is a display case built if there are no plans to home the mummy there. Reach out to me if you have the answer!  

We spent a good couple of hours there and it was well worth the ticket price (just under £22) Visit here to purchase. 

The gift shop is tasteful and no water bottle tat in site. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into keeping away from usual attraction clutter. 

There were some lovely cafes to eat at, and we stopped at 30 North – a sandwich-type offering but once again, all really carried out to a high standard.

Our only critique of the museum was the storytelling. We amble round but then realised we had started the exhibition partway through, so from a chronological perspective we saw King Tut before seeing the displays on the discovery of his tomb. And this part I felt was underwhelming. I get that the treasures are the big ticket items, but thinking back to what captured my imagination as a child was Howard and Carter making this miraculous discovery and I thought that it could have been more impactfully displayed.