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Booking flights on short notice between Istanbul, Cairo and Athens

Posted by on

I'm flying into Athens Oct. 3 for a Turkey / Egypt / Greece trip on a shoestring budget. I do not have any further flights booked but hoped to go immediately on from the Athens airport to Istanbul. I have never traveled to this part of the world before and am not a frequent flyer anyway. As things stand I can purchase a flight from ATH to IST the afternoon of my arrival for about 150$. Many flights are significantly cheaper but apparently that Sunday is a bigger travel day. Because I don't know how long I want to stay in Turkey before moving on to Egypt and finally back to visit Greece (best guess is a week in Turkey and Egypt with a few days at the end to see some of Greece) I have not yet booked those one way flights. I'm monitoring the prices for ATH to IST and they change frequently up and down.

I would love to hear more experienced travelers thoughts on whether I should book everything now and just live with the set schedule. I am assuming because travel is still below normal that I am not going to get stuck without a flight.

Thank you for any thoughts / info.

Posted by
6113 posts

You may find that you are denied entry to countries if you can’t show that you have an onward flight out.

I presume that you have checked that travel is permitted between your various countries due to Covid and the relevant requirements? Be prepared for changes to occur quickly.

Posted by
16 posts

Thank you, good to know about possible entry denial.

Yes I've checked on the covid restrictions, I've got my vax certificate so I think my only concern may be getting a pcr test to travel from Egypt to Greece since Egypt isn't on their "covid safe" list.

Posted by
17891 posts

When arriving in Istanbul you will be asked to show your forward boarding pass. If you don't have one you will be routed to the arrivals line where you will have to show your visa, PLF, and your vaccine card. You will then be dumped into the baggage claim area to get your luggage, then the arrivals hall where you will have to go up to Departures to the ticket counter, buy your ticket, get your boarding pass, recheck your luggage and go back in through security to your gate.

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