• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Ask Scott
Travel Codex

Travel Codex

Your Resource for Better Travel

  • Subscribe
  • Credit Cards
  • Reviews
  • Guides & Tips
  • Award Travel

Booking My Ultimate Honeymoon with Points: Flying from Mauritius to Luxor

by Kevin Hanson
Last updated April 20, 2019

a map of the world with a route

After four days of sun bathing on an island in the Indian Ocean, it will be time to switch locales and marvel at the pyramids in Egypt. We decided to spend the bulk of our Egyptian trip in Luxor, and we used United Mileage Plus miles for the flights to get us from Mauritius (MRU) to Luxor (LXR).

Trip Report Index:

  • Introduction
  • Flights from San Francisco to Mauritius
  • Lodging in Mauritius
  • Flights from Mauritius to Luxor
  • Egypt Lodging
  • Flights from Cairo to the Maldives
  • Maldives Lodging
  • Flights from the Maldives back to San Francisco

Just as there is only a single flight operated by South African airlines into Mauritius from Johannesburg, there’s only a single flight out of Mauritius back. The flight leaves from MRU at 4:40PM, and it lands into JNB at 7:15PM. The good part about it leaving this late is that it gives us 3/4 of a day to hang out in Mauritius before we depart.

The bad part is that by landing at 7:15PM, we miss some of the better connecting Star Alliance options. For example, The Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul leaves around 6:30PM so we won’t be able to catch that one. Similarly, there’s a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. Unlike my bad luck on the JNB-MRU route, there were two business class seats open on MRU-JNB for the day we needed. We nabbed them.

That gets us to JNB, but we need to make our way up to Egypt. As I mentioned, by getting in at 7:15PM, we missed the option to be able to take the Turkish Airlines flight. Egyptair, on the other hand, has a non-stop flight to Cairo that leaves at 9:45PM. This flight is operated by one of their A330s. Egyptair is rolling out a new configuration in some of their A330s, but I believe this route is flown by planes with their old configuration.

Hyatt Privé: Addition Perks and NEW Discounts
Trending
Hyatt Privé: Addition Perks and NEW Discounts

When I booked these tickets, there were not two seats available in Business class. There was a single seat in Business Class, and there was a seat in Economy. I got the Economy ticket for me and the Business class ticket for my fiancé. For my ticket, I still paid the Business Class amount of miles. I did this because my MRU-JNB flight was in Business Class, and I planned to check daily for space opening up in Business Class so I could switch to that cabin once it became available.

Once landing in Cairo, there are flights to Luxor nearly every hour, and these flights have plenty of award availability. This is real quick hop in an ERJ 170 plane.

The overall itinerary actually delivers quite a lot of flying for the amount of miles used. To go from MRU to LXR in Business Class is only 45,000 United MileagePlus Miles, and we’re traveling over 6,000 miles. I dropped 45,000 miles for my ticket and an additional 45,000 miles for my fiancé’s ticket. While it was a good value in terms of miles, the fees were quite high! My ticket was $99.60 in fees. Here is the breakdown:

a white paper with black text

The fees for my fiancee’s ticket were actually $1.35 more expensive than mine. Who knows why? Maybe because I booked my ticket in the coach cabin on the Egyptair flight?

Type of Points Used: United MileagePlus Miles

Number of Points Used: 90,000 (45,000 x 2)

Total Dollars Used: $200.55

Update: Oh and FYI – this post is a bit outdated! I checked daily for Business Class space on the JNB-CAI route, and it finally opened up! Woot! I’ll be up front with Katy!

  • 2shares
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Read This Next

  • Booking My Ultimate Honeymoon with Points
    Booking My Ultimate Honeymoon with Points
  • Booking My Ultimate Honeymoon with Points from San Francisco to Mauritius
  • Booking My Ultimate Honeymoon with Points: Lodging in Mauritius

About Kevin Hanson

Kevin Hanson lives in San Francisco, CA, and has been traveling for business and pleasure for the past ten years. He loves planning big family vacations with his wife and son.

Primary Sidebar

Over 100K+ Followers

Subscribe to updates from Travel Codex

none

Learn to how to find the cheapest awards.

Search Now

none

Transfer points to get more value.

See Options

none

Compare credit cards to earn more miles.

Explore Offers

Contact

If you have a question or would like to make a press inquiry, please contact:

Scott Mackenzie
Editor in Chief
scott@travelcodex.com

For updates:
Subscribe to RSS
Subscribe to Apple News

Privacy Policy


© Travel Codex, LLC All Rights Reserved.


Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Travel Codex with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.