Yep, let the screaming and note-taking begin: it’s TARsday today. In the previews last week, it’s obvious that everyone will scurry way down in Egypt land, because the pyramids and Sphinx shots are kind of hard to miss.

I don’t know if they’ll stop off somewhere first, as in pick up a route clue at some intermediate point like Frankfurt, but I decided to copy from schedules from a few typical dates in late January or February to try to make sense of the inevitable airport scramble. I’ve stashed them in the extended entry for easier readablity.

I have no idea who is out tonight: we’re due for a non-elimination leg for the first half of the season, but that might not be for another 2 episodes. However, there are a couple of teams who’ve barely managed to avoid elimination simply because better, nicer teams weren’t aggressive enough booking flights. As mentioned on the TWOP TAR boards, you have to take that Extra Step and keep working for a better flight once you get your team (and also sound and camera guy) confirmed.

The first screen for a Sunday night departure, depending on when people got in. Just in case someone got in really late at night – they would leave in the early afternoon.

1KL 1396 J7 C7 Z4 LEDAMS 450P 550P 737 HS/OS 0 MQJ DCA /E
S7 B7 M0 H0 Q0 K0 L0 T0 V0
2KL 553 J7 C7 Z4 CAI 725P 1255A‡1 767 H 0 DCA /E
S7 B7 M0 H0 Q0 K0 L0 T0 V0
3LH 3221 C9 D9 Z9 LEDFRA 625A 725A 32S R 0 DCA
Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S0
4LH 582 F8 A8 C9 CAI 1000A 255P 333 M 0 DCA /E
D9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W0 S0
5LH 3217 C9 D9 Z6 LEDFRA 235P 335P 32S R 0 DCA
Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9
6MS 786 C4 Y4 B4 CAI 440P 900P 320 0 XW AT
Q4 M0 H0 K0

This next one is assuming anyone that got in by about 5pm would leave at 5am the next morning.


1LH 3221 C9 D9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 LEDFRA 625A 725A 32S R 0 DCA
H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9
2LH 582 F8 A8 C9 D9 Z9 Y9 CAI 1000A 255P 333 M 0 DCA /E
B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9
3LH 3217 C9 D9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 LEDFRA 235P 335P 32S R 0 DCA
H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9
4MS 786 C4 Y4 B0 Q0 M0 H0 CAI 440P 900P AB6 0 XW AT
K0
5FV 153 C4 D4 Y4 M4 K4 V4*LEDSVO 455P 600P TU5 0 AT
T4 Q4 G4 H4 L4 X4 W4 B4
6SU 341 C4 Y4 S0 M4 K0 V0 CAI 845P 1230A‡1 320 D 0 XMQJ DC
T0 Q0 G0


There always seems to be an early morning LH flight via Frankfurt that gets in at 255pm, early enough to perform some tasks during daylight and get to the Pit Stop by 5pm or 6pm or 7pm. There don’t seem to be many other good options on other carriers; this might be yet another week of the Sucky Flight Gets You Eliminated for a trailing team. It might be that they’ll perform some more tasks in Russia, forcing them to wait until some late night flights depart for overnight flights arriving in the wee hours. Of course, this is assuming they’ll go direct to Cairo from St Petersburg, as above. It might be another fakeout where they have to get on a train or bus and go somewhere else first.

There are some possible life-saver options that involve multi-airline travel: however given this season’s less than savvy travelers, I doubt many of them will work that hard to find a wacky schedule via Prague, Vienna, or Rome. Also, doubt they’re really geographically minded, so they might well be suckered into backtracking to make a connection and losing time unawares.

Gee, I don’t have a lot of respect for their airport skillz, do I?