Visiting Egypt is high on a lot of people’s bucket lists. Personally, I have dreamed of visiting Egypt since I learned about Ancient Egypt in 6th grade. Therefore, I decided to plan a trip to Egypt using points during my winter vacation. It took a little effort, but I will outline how I did it to help future travelers out with their planning.
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Egypt Using Points
One of the first things to think about when planning a trip to Egypt using points is your itinerary and the length of stay. For my trip, I planned a one-week Egypt itinerary and went from there.
Egypt Airfare
The first step in planning a trip to Egypt using points is to figure out the airfare. This is where, if you are flexible on your dates, you will have a much easier time than I did and can find some better deals. Since I had to plan around my winter break and the holidays, I spent a lot of time exploring my options and trying to find the best deal. This is what I ended up with.
Flight to Cairo
I flew from Los Angeles to Cairo with a layover in London for 55k points plus $109 in taxes and fees per person. I booked this via Aeroplan, which I transferred to from Amex and Capital One. Chase and Citi are also transfer partners to Aeroplan.
Our flight from Los Angeles to London was on United in economy. From London to Cairo, we were in EgyptAir Economy. Originally, we were supposed to have a 3-hour layover in London, but our flight changed, and we ended up with a 24-hour layover in London. To me, that was a bonus stop, as I love London.
Inter Egypt Airfare
Within Egypt, you will most likely want to fly between some of the cities as well. For our trip, we flew from Cairo to Aswan and Luxor to Cairo. From Cairo to Aswan, the flight cost $94 a person on Egypt Air Economy. I used my $300 travel credit from my Capital One Venture X card to cover this.
From Luxor to Cairo, the flight cost $86 a person on Egypt Air Economy. Again, I used my $300 travel credit from my Capital One Venture X card to cover this.
Flight Home
Finding a flight home was a bit trickier. While we could have flown from Cairo to Los Angeles, I knew I wanted to spend some time in Europe before heading home. Therefore, I found a flight from Munich to Los Angeles.
This cost 30,500 points and $230 in taxes and fees for a person on Lufthansa. I booked this through Singapore Airlines, where I transferred points from American Express. Note that I definitely could have found flights home from Cairo, which started around 50,000 points for my dates.
Egypt Hotels
One of the major decisions when visiting Egypt using points is deciding on your hotels. There are a ton of different options in Cairo you can book using points, it just depends on what points currency you have and how much you want to spend! TripAdvisor is a great place to start your hotel search. Search for the best Cairo hotels here! Other options include the following hotels.
We stayed at four different hotels during our time in Egypt. These are the hotels that worked best for my itinerary. Ultimately, I will provide some alternative options with other point currencies.
Le Meridien Cairo Airport
We arrived late in Cairo the first night, so we opted to stay at the Le Meridien Cairo Airport hotel. This cost 17,000 Marriott points for one night, which I feel was a steal. Due to my gold status, we also got upgraded to a club-level room, which came with breakfast. This hotel would have cost around $250 for the night had we paid cash.
This hotel looked like it was a super nice resort with a lot of amenities. I wish I had had more time to spend here. It is connected to Terminal 3 of the Cairo airport, which also made it super convenient when we landed.
Basma Hotel Aswan
Aswan was a hard one to figure out how to plan Egypt using points. There are no major US chains in Aswan, so options were limited. While there is a Movenpick, it took a LOT of Accor points for one night that I just did not want to spend. Therefore, I used up the rest of my $300 Venture X credit to book this hotel for $96 for one night.
Hilton Luxor Resort and Spa
Being a Hilton girlie, of course, I had to make sure to stay at a Hilton at some point during my Egypt trip. The Hilton Luxor is the only major US chain in Luxor. Since we were here in peak season, the lowest price for this room was $250 a night.
We booked our stay at 30,000 Hilton points a night for a total of 60,000 points for our two nights. Due to my Hilton Diamond status, our stay included breakfast, and we got a small upgrade to a partial Nile view room.
The resort had several on-site restaurants, two pools, a gym, a spa, and a sauna. It is the perfect place to relax after spending a lot of time exploring the various tombs across Luxor.
Marriott Mena House
One of the best hotels to stay at is the Marriott Mena House due to its location next to the pyramids in Giza. This stay cost 35,000 Marriott points a night or 70,000 points for our two nights. We actually had two free night certificates that covered our stay.
This resort is very nice and has a pool, several restaurants, and spacious grounds. It is a very short walk to the pyramids, and they can be seen from all over the resort. The cash price of this resort would have been $553 a night.
How to Get Hilton Points
The first way to get Hilton points for getting to Egypt on points is by opening a Hilton Credit Card. There are three different cards you can open, but I recommend the Hilton Honors Surpass Card to start off with. You will receive 150,000 points after spending $3,000 in 3 months. It has a $95 annual fee and gets you Hilton Gold Status (more on the importance of that later).
Next, you can get Hilton Points by using that credit card for all of your expenses. Depending on the category, you can earn 3 to 12 times the points. For example, you earn 6 times the points for dining out.
You can also earn points by signing up for the Hilton Honors Dining Rewards. This gives you even more points for dining at certain restaurants. You can stack this with the points you earn from the credit card.
Another way to earn a lot of Hilton points is to stay at Hilton Properties when you travel. With each stay, you will earn 12 times the points by using your Hilton Credit Card. You will also earn points in general for your stay.
You can also change your member benefits so you can get extra points instead of getting extras like snacks during your stay. All of these extra amounts of points can quickly add up when you stack them together.
If you have an additional person in your family, you can also open another Hilton Card for bonus points.
How to Get Marriott Points
The first way to get Marriott points for getting to Egypt on points is by opening a Marriott Credit Card. There are three different cards you can open, but I recommend the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card to start off with. You will receive three free nights (for hotels up to 35,000 points/night) after spending $3000 in 3 months. It has a $95 annual fee and gets you Marriott Silver Elite Status.
Next, you can get Marriott Points by using that credit card for all of your expenses. Depending on the category, you can earn 2 to 6 times the points. For example, you earn three times the points for dining out and grocery store purchases.
You can also earn points by signing up for Eat Around Town by Marriott Bonvoy. This gives you even more points for dining at certain restaurants. You can stack this with the points you earn from the credit card.
Another way to earn a lot of Marriott points is to stay at Marriott Properties when you travel. With each stay, you will earn 6 times the points by using your Marriott Credit Card. You will also earn points in general for your stay.
If you have an additional person in your family, you can also open another Marriott Card for bonus points. In total, it took me a few months to save the 87,000 points I needed.
Teacher Tip: Remember that you MUST pay off your credit cards each month in order to earn points. Do not open credit cards if you are not going to be financially responsible.
Additional Costs
While I was able to cover a large portion of this trip to Egypt using points, there are still a few things you will have to pay for out of pocket.
Tours
When visiting Egypt using points, you will still need to pay for any tours you may want to take. We used George Transportation and Tour to book our Aswan and Luxor tours. This included a driver, an Egyptologist guide, and transportation. It did not include admission into any of the temples.
For our three days, we paid $530 for two people. This included Aswan with a trip to Abu Simbel, Aswan to Luxor with stops at two temples, and Luxor with five different stops on the West and East banks.
In Cairo, I booked a tour for $38/person to visit Saqqara, Memphis, and the Pyramids of Giza. We then used Uber to get around to the museums and the citadel and spent about $25 for the day.
Admission Tickets
The cost to get into any of the tombs and temples was not included as part of any of our tours. We spent around $235/person for admission fees and booked them online here so I could get more credit card points.
Food
Almost all of our hotel stays came with breakfast. We skipped lunch most days since we were busy traveling, but I had packed protein bars to eat. Dinner was the only meal we had to pay for, and we usually ate at the hotel. We spent around $100 total on food for both of us. This did not include what we spent at the Hilton Luxor Resort ($100) because that was covered by the resort credit on the Hilton Aspire Credit Card.
Visa
You will also want to note that in order to visit Egypt, you will need to get a visa. This cost $25 a person. You can opt to get it online ahead of time (the website never worked for me) or make sure to have $25 cash to get it at the airport.
It was very easy to get it at the airport. You can go to any bank window that is clearly marked right before immigration. There, you pay $25, and they give you a sticker for your passport.
Credit Cards that helped me book this trip
- Capital One Venture X ($450 annual fee)
- Hilton American Express Surpass ($95 annual fee) or Hilton American Express Aspire ($450 annual fee)
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless ($95 annual fee)
Total Costs for Egypt Using Points
- Hotel: 87,000 Marriott Points (or two free night certificates and 17,000 points) and 60,000 Hilton Points
- Airfare: 85,500 points plus $339/person or 171,000 points plus $678 total plus $156 total for fees not covered by the Venture X credit ($834 total for airfare)
- Transportation: $265/person or $530 total
- Activities: $235/person or $470 total
- Food: $50/person or $100 total
- Visa Cost: $25/person or $50 total
- Total Cost Out of Pocket $992/person or $1984 total
Total Value of Points Used
- Hotel Value: $1050/person $2100 total
- Airfare Value: $1200/person or $2400 total
- Other Credit Card Coverage: $200/person or $400 total
- Total Savings with Points: $2450/person or $4900 total
Final Thoughts on Egypt Using Points
Egypt Using Points is a fun and exciting way to take a bucket list vacation. You can get some great value in doing this, and it leaves visitors more flexibility to spend more money seeing the tombs and taking tours during their time in Egypt. If you have traveled to Egypt using points, how did you do it?
Looking for more vacations to take using points? Check out my trips to the Maldives, Maui, and Fiji Using Points.
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