Egyptair overbooked flight and terrible irresponsible staff CAI>JNB, July 2012 Egyptair might seem just like any other airline at first encounter, but once there is a problem, that's how you know their staff has absolutely no concept of customer service. I arrived at Cairo airport 2+ hours before my flight to JNB and by the time I was at the counter, was informed that the flight was overbooked and I must wait for further instructions. The representative, which I unfortunately failed to copy his name down, told me to sit next to the check-in counters and there I waited for 2 hours with 4 other passengers who were also facing the same predicament. At 10:45pm, 15 min before our flight was to depart we were quite sure we would not be able to get on the scheduled outbound flight. No one even came to us to update us with any information. Finally, by 11pm, one representative approached and tried to find us other routes to get to Johannesburg. The first problem with this, why did the representatives wait until the flight departed before they began to search for a suitable solution? This was a complete waste of 2 hours in which we just sat there without any guidance. After many unsuitable suggestions that required a ridiculous connection time, the representatives finally suggested us to connect in Dar Es Salaam and then catch a 3rd party non-Star Alliance flight to Johannesburg. When we arrived at Dar, I was lucky enough to have my yellow fever vaccination with me. Another man who was a permanent resident of South Africa did not have a yellow fever card and was forced to pay $50USD to get a last minute one because the airport officials refused to let him board the plane without it. We had not planned on flying through Dar and neither did the reps in Cairo inform us that we would face this problem because of this connection flight. We flew MS 841 and then PrecisionAir PW0700 which would get us to JNB by 12:30pm, 5.5 hours later than our original arrival time which was supposed to be 7:05am. Before we left Cairo, we were hastily given a piece of paper entitling us to $75 USD which all of us felt was not a sufficient compensation for our troubles but were told we had no choice. Either we accept it or we get nothing. The representatives told us to show this piece of paper to the representatives at JNB and they would issue us the reimbursement. To add to the problem, I had booked a Kulula connecting flight departing JNB to Capetown and also had hotels booked in Cape Town for the same day. I repeated this information several times to more than one Cairo representative and they all reassured me that they would notify the Egyptair office in JNB and a rep would be there to receive me once I arrived to catch the earliest available connecting flight to CPT. But after arriving at JNB, not only was there no rep to receive me, there was not a single rep within the entire airport. All 5 of us waited at the Egyptair office for a long time and were finally told by other workers in the airport that because it was a Saturday and the airline didn't have a flight until later that evening, no one would be working until the evening around 6pm. I was basically left stranded at the airport without any help at all. I bounced from counter to counter trying to get someone to help me and finally found a helpful rep from Mauritius Airline who happened to have the mobile numbers of the Egyptair reps. He called one of the Egyptair supervisors at JNB, and he said that no one in Cairo had informed him of any passengers who needed connecting flights. He knew of the overbooked flight but was told everyone's final destination was JNB. I was livid when I heard this information. The reps in Cairo simply made me empty promises that my Cape Town connection would be sorted out just to make me get out of their faces. After many phone calls, I was finally placed on a flight departing JNB at 5pm, arriving Cape Town at 7:10pm. This was all possible because I was lucky enough to find the Mauritius Airline rep. If I had not found him, I would have had to wait until 6pm for an Egyptair rep to even be in the building, which would mean I would arrive in Cape Town even later. I waited in the airport from 12:30pm till 5pm for my departing CPT flight, 4.5 hours of waiting. I arrived at my final destination 8 hours after my original arrival time. This was absolutely the WORST airline experience I've ever encountered in my entire history of flying. $75USD is an insult to the stress, frustration and trouble I endured. It is by no means an adequate reimbursement. When I called the New York office to complain, they simply said they don't have a complaints department and asked me to send my complaint to [protected]@egyptair.com. Well, I've been trying to send this email to them for the last few days and I keep getting a failure to deliver notice from their postmaster. What a surprise that even their designated email for complaints fails to work!