Me again. It's been awhile since there was any activity here, but as this trip nears (leave mid Sept) there is an open issue as far as I'm concerned. It involves, and I discussed it briefly in a thread about, the electronics travel ban. Our J award flight home is on Egypt Air routing through Cairo. This causes some grief with bringing our normal tablets along (solved, in a sense) but our cameras are still an issue. Information on how this airline might accommodate electronics seems scarce. Anyway ...
I've been watching for alternate routes, worried that the ban might expand and defeat any change I might make. However, recent events tell me there may be a dependable light. There is a JNB->DBX->JFK flight that is very similar to what we current hold. Dubai is now clear of the electronics ban ... is this correct? Oh, these are Emirate flights to be precise.
So, there's once question: does this flight remove the headache of dealing with the Electronics ban. I believe this to be a "yes", so playing further ...
I would have to cancel my existing flights. Wanting to get the Aeroplan miles refunded, it will cost me about $134US x 2. No biggy, this is acceptable to me to get back the 150k for some use in the future.
The existing flights left us in JFK on Saturday mid-afternoon. I booked a paid Delta flight home from there at 6-ish. If we keep the original booking and deal with the electronics issue, these Delta flights still work. If we change the flights to Emirates (Alaska miles) we land in JFK at 8-ish, too late for these Delta tickets to be useful. I paid around $200 each (using $100 each of AMEX airline credits, but still $200 each). The cancel/change fees on this would be $200. Basically, I don't see a way to win here. Anyone?
They did change this Delta flight ONCE. It was awhile ago, and the departure time was pushed back a whole 5 minutes. I don't think I can argue for a refund with this fact.
My wife is seeming to prefer changing flights. In fact, I would love to also (if it leaves my camera on my person), but the nearly $700 total price tag is the part I don't like. My bad ... I should never have booked a common positioning flight so early. Lesson learned. Will our Emirates experience be $670 better that with Ethiopian?
There are other alternate flights but all arrive even LATER that the one mentioned (one ends up in Toronto). So, they all incur the cost of cancellation. The Delta tickets are obviously the most costly and mentally painful. Even the best alternate requires an overnight near JFK and a flight to CLE on Sunday, an additional expense that I didn't count until just now.
Am I missing an AMEX transfer partner to check? I did my normal list, but I'm still a newbie here and not used to being too creative. Any ideas welcome, but the big questions are above. Thanks in advance!