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Home  >  EgyptAir • Flight Reviews  >  Review: EgyptAir 787-9 Economy Class
EgyptAirFlight Reviews

Review: EgyptAir 787-9 Economy Class

Matthew Klint Posted onNovember 30, 2021 19 Comments

I slept through most of my journey from Cairo to London and enjoyed a much better meal than I had in business class on my preceding flight. While legroom in EgyptAir economy class onboard the Boeing 787-9 is tight, I still enjoyed a perfectly reasonable flight.

EgyptAir 787-9 Economy Class Review

This ticket was booked using miles as part of my extended journey from Los Angeles to Bangkok.

After a long layover in Cairo, I found the gate for my flight to London as well as a long line. In Cairo, security checks are conducted at the gates for each flight rather than at a central checkpoint.

Even though I was flying economy class, I was able to use the business class security line due to my Star Alliance Gold status.

My visa information was checked at the gate again (after a long ordeal at the transit desk) and once again the EgyptAir staff though I was crazy for traveling to Bangkok with so many stops, but once I showed them my UK transit form, they let me through.

Boarding was supposed to begin one hour prior to departure, but ended up not occurring until 8:45AM, about 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure.

EgyptAir 777
Cairo (CAI) – London (LHR)
Wednesday, November 3
Depart: 09:15AM
Arrive: 12:35PM
Duration: 05hr, 20min
Distance: 2,197 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 32K (Economy Class)

Onboard, a flight attendant looked at my boarding pass and directed me through the galley and to the back.

Seats

Economy class on EgyptAir’s 787 includes 289 seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. Legroom is 31 inches. With no premium economy product, the aircraft includes two large economy class sections, one from row 20 to 36 and one from row 37 to 52 with restrooms between sections.

The seat has an articulating seat pan, so when you recline the seat moves back slightly and the seat cushion moves forward to give you the illusion of greater recline (at the expense of knee room)

While the configuration is standard for a Dreamliner, I must warn you it is tight. What makes it even worse is a retractable footrest at each seat. I’m 6’1″ and have long legs. When the footrest was down, my knees hit the seatback in front of me. When the footrest was up, my shins hit the hard footrest. It is not ideal in any configuration. My footrest also had chewing gum stuck on it…

Power ports are available under each seat (the seat in front of you) and there is one for each passenger rather than three for every two.

Each seatback pocket also has an extra smaller pocket that can handle a mobile phone.

Window tinting is controlled by a button adjacent to your seat. Despite being a morning departure, flight attendants promptly dimmed the windows after takeoff but did not lock them.

Individual air vents were not available and the ventilation system appeared long overdue for a cleaning.

I didn’t have much of a view outside:

Seatbelts include the EgyptAir logo:

The flight was nearly full, with only a few seats left open from my vantage point. I was hoping the middle seat in my section would remain open, but a young man boarded at the last minute and took the seat. Thankfully he was quiet (and read on for how he “saved” the flight for me).

There were not pillows and blankets on every seat, but they were available upon request.

IFE + Wi-Fi

A modern in-flight-entertainment system with HD screens are available behind each seat. The screen size is 14 niches and includes a library of movies, TV shows, music, EgyptAir, and Islamic content. Duty free shopping was also available. I’m told the content is edited (sexual situations are removed, though violence is left in), but did not verify.

Complimentary headphones were distributed.

Wi-Fi is also available for purchase and too expensive to justify due to the data caps:

I simply put the moving map on and slept through most of the flight.

Food + Drink

After takeoff, flight attendants appeared and offered each passenger a packaged slice of cake and bottle of water.

I presumed (wrongly it turned out) that this was the only “meal” on the flight and boy did that make me mad. Despite all the lounge hopping I was hungry and had hoped for a decent meal onboard.

Instead, I went to sleep. But about 90 minutes prior to arrival, my seatmate shook me awake. The flight attendants were back, this time actually distributing meals. Each passenger received a blue plastic box with a salad, dessert, utensils, and condiments inside. Flight attendants also offered a choice between beef or chicken (no further disruption offered). I asked what kind of chicken and the flight attendant told me, “With potatoes.”

I unwrapped my meal and pleased at what I found: the chicken breast was lean and nicely spiced and turned out to be a far better lunch than the fish I had in business class from Washington to Cairo.

Orange juice and water was offered with lunch and coffee or tea afterwards. EgyptAir is a dry airline and offers no alcohol onboard, though you are allowed to bring your own.

EgyptAir is not the only airline that chooses to save the larger meal for prior to arrival, but I wish I had know in advance – it would have saved me some silent grumbling!

Lavatories

Neither of my seat mates got up once during the flight (at least while I was awake)…so I did not either. Thus, no new pictures of the lavatories, though this is what they looked like in business class from my previous flight:

Service

I had three interactions with the crew. Once when I was handed the cake and water bottle, once when I was offered lunch, and once when lunch was collected. Not much to say other than announcements were kept to a minimum onboard.

We arrived on-time in Heathrow Terminal 2 and I was soon back through security and on my way to the Singapore Airlines Lounge.

CONCLUSION

The legroom in EgyptAir economy class is too tight for me to seek out Egypt’s flag carrier on future occasions, but overall the experience was fine, with a nice meal and nap. If not for my seatmate, I would have slept through lunch service, so I’m quite thankful to him for shaking me awake.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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19 Comments

  1. Jerry Reply
    November 30, 2021 at 1:13 pm

    That doesn’t look that fun… Also, CAI Terminal 2 has central security just after immigration.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      November 30, 2021 at 1:27 pm

      I’ve only seen beautiful T3 at Cairo…good to know!

      • Eve Alashri Reply
        December 1, 2021 at 11:54 am

        So in your opinion which airlines provide most comfortable economy class travel from Cairo to UK ?

        • Matthew Klint Reply
          December 1, 2021 at 12:32 pm

          EgyptAir, no doubt.

  2. DavidM Reply
    November 30, 2021 at 3:43 pm

    If you’re 6’1″ and felt cramped regarding legroom, I do not want to imagine how cramped it would be for myself at 6’4″. As for the air vents needing cleaning, it appears from your other pictures that the entire plane could use a deep cleaning….especially the footrest.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      November 30, 2021 at 4:13 pm

      Yes, not recommended for someone who is 6’4″ (well, economy class in general would be tough, even on the best of carriers).

  3. Aaron Reply
    November 30, 2021 at 3:53 pm

    I know they are a dry airline, but were they serving any additional drinks or you only got the water and juice that came with the meal?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      November 30, 2021 at 4:11 pm

      No additional drink options besides the coffee or tea during lunch.

  4. Mohamed Reply
    December 1, 2021 at 7:45 am

    The arrival in Cairo airport is much better than arrival in Dubai it took me nearly one hour walking to get to immigration in dubai but in Cairo in twenty minutes you are out of the airport off the plane you walk down the stairs and the immigration right in front of you the a couple of steps you collecting your luggage then customs then you are out no walking no riding internal train to get to passport area
    Like Zurich and Kuala lumber

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      December 1, 2021 at 9:34 am

      Cairo would have been easy if I had my connecting boarding pass, but I had to pick it up and ran into some issues:

      https://liveandletsfly.com/transit-in-cairo/

  5. James Harper Reply
    December 1, 2021 at 11:09 am

    That looks a very decent meal for economy bearing in mind the competition on BA offers a non-recline seat at 28 inch pitch on the A20N, a small bottle of water and a single biscuit.

    I’d say Egypt Air are the winners on this route.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      December 1, 2021 at 11:15 am

      Agreed.

    • Andrew Stuart Reply
      December 2, 2021 at 7:28 pm

      Have to agree. That looks like a very satisfying meal for Y class. If it were plated up in J class cutlery, it could pass as a Business class meal in that part of the world….

      • Adam Reply
        December 17, 2021 at 2:04 am

        That part of the world? You realize that part of the world has some of the world’s best airlines, like Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish and Ethiopian. All airlines that definitely have much better premium and standard products than any North American airline.

  6. Liza Reply
    January 20, 2022 at 7:24 am

    My daughter ,mother and father whos elderly booked with Egypt airlines on 14th January 2022, was promised when booking flight that they will have stay over in hotel until next flight, which was 18 hours over stay. As on arrival after 8 hour flight with no helpful service, they were told not to leave airport and sit it out for 18 hours until next flight. My elderly parents and mom who has chronic condition had to be uncomfortable throughout the 18 hours and been exhausted from a long trip. The airport was on shutdown and no shops was available to drink or eat something. The people at airport were rude and unhelpful and there was no connections, wifi or charging ports to connect to any one from the outside, and my family phones were flat , my daughter found one person on flight who was friendly enough to let her spot off her phone for a few minutes. My daughter was in tears and I was concerned for the well being of my family. They were told that they would get a meal at a certain time. This was a bad ordeal and treatment was unacceptable. I have learned that after covid qe have to be very specific with which airlines you choose to travel with, as we live in a time were the world don’t care in how they treat people.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      January 20, 2022 at 10:57 am

      I’m sorry for your bad experience. Thanks for sharing it here.

  7. Viviane Gentile Reply
    June 24, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    Having read your report I feel much better about the tickets we just booked on Egyptair. Since you talked about it being tight in the leg area, we booked the first row behind business. Not sure if that is good considering we will probably have to eat on trays. But I would imagine we can stretch our legs more easily. Thanks for the info

    • Tim Cowell Reply
      November 26, 2022 at 10:56 am

      I recently booked LHR – CAI – LHR tickets for myself, wife and daughter. I also paid the extra for bulkhead seats (row 20). I did so because I hate people reclining their seat backs into my face. But it seems from Mathew’s review that it’s far less of a problem on this flight.

  8. Kathleen Edgerton Reply
    March 16, 2023 at 1:47 pm

    My husband ,daughter and I just returned from Cairo to Washington MS 981 class YS 15Mar seat 25 ABC. My main complaint is that we were denied access to the bathrooms between business and economy! My daughter has Celiac disease and was nauseous and needed to use the bathroom and they LOCKED both bathrooms! The flight attendant told me these bathrooms are just for business class?! I call BS on them! My daughter ignored them and went anyway and the flight attendant said to me”just this once you can use this bathroom.” I was an FA for United years ago and never saw intentionally locked bathrooms! UNACCEPTABLE

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