Emirates - Dubai Connect

Here is something all travelers would find useful. I have been a Skywards member for about four years now and I never knew about this. Recently, for my trip to India, we booked my return trip flights  from Emirates.com. It wasn't the best option because it had a nine hour stopover in Dubai on my way back but I was more interested in getting a cheaper ticket. All other tickets were crazy expensive and my trip was a last minute decision. 

I have traveled by Emirates several times before when I was studying in England but I never actually bothered booking it on their website and this is probably why I didn't know about their Dubai Connect program. Emirates will provide free transit visa for 96 hours, a complimentary hotel room with a free meal IF you have a stopover in Dubai for more than eight hours (and less than 24 hours) and have paid more than $1,100 for your trip. 

If you book on their website, it will mention it on the itinerary whether you are eligible for the complimentary visa and hotel or not and it will give you an option to book for the room as soon as you purchase the ticket (you have to make sure you book a room otherwise you might not get one when you get to Dubai). If you didn't book from the website then call your travel agent and make sure they hook you up. 

I experienced it this time. I had an 8 hours and 45 minutes long halt in Dubai before my flight to New York. So here it is; I'll explain everything step by step and hope this will help anyone who gets stuck for this long in Dubai.

1. New Delhi:

My origin destination was New Delhi. From there, I had a flight to Dubai (8.75 hours stopover) and then a flight to New York. During check-in at Delhi Airport, I was given STPC (Stopover Paid by Carrier) vouchers for the Dubai Connect program along with all my other boarding passes. They give you a bunch of vouchers which all look the same but you need to make sure you keep all of them.

2. Dubai

Once you get off at Dubai airport, follow the signs for arrival. Once you reach the arrivals level, proceed to the semi-circular Customer service desk in the middle of the hall where they will look through the vouchers and your passport and validate everything. 

Then they will ask you to go to the bank on the right of the immigration hall (which looks like a small booth for currency exchange). On a good day, there shouldn't be much of a line. I only had to wait about five minutes. Give all your vouchers to them and they will affix a UAE revenue stamp behind one of the vouchers (no charge to you) and hand it back. 

From here, turn back and proceed on the right; there will be huge lines for immigration. If you're lucky, you won't have to wait much. I waited less than ten minutes for this. Here they will scan your eyes (mandatory for all Indian citizens) and stamp you with a transit visa. If you're a gold card holder, you can use the fast track lane but it doesn't necessarily have to be the fastest option. I'm not sure how it works for non-Indians but this is how I did it. 

Once you get done with immigration, keep walking your way out. If you have an economy class ticket, you'll need to get to Exit 1 and I'm not sure about first/business class passengers. Before getting out, you'll need to clear customs. This is pretty simple; just put your handbags through the scanner and you're done. You don't need to worry about your luggage because it would be checked in all the way to New York (or wherever your final destination is).

At Exit 1, you'll find a desk for Copthorne Hotel (Airport hotel) where they will ask you to wait until the shuttle arrives. Once the shuttle is there, they'll board everyone onto the bus. It is a 5-10 minutes drive from the airport. This bus leaves from Exit 1 to the hotel every ten minutes so don't worry if you miss it once; it'll come around. You'll be surprised how many people know about this Dubai Connect thing. The bus that I got on was super crowded.

Once you reach the hotel, you'll check in, they don't charge you anything or ask for your credit card. They will just see the vouchers and give you the room keys. They will also mention the time they will give you a wake-up call and what time your check-out is. The wake up call will be 2.5 hours before your next flight and the pick-up is two hours before the flight. This should give you enough time to do some duty-free shopping before boarding.

If you reach the hotel sometime during the day then there is a mall close to the hotel where you can go and hangout if you don't feel like resting. I reached pretty late at night and my eyes were drooping when I got to the hotel.

This is the kind of room you get.

The room isn't anything great but comfortable enough to get some sleep and shower. There is no mini-bar or free wi-fi and internet charges are super expensive so don't even bother. The TV has very limited channels so that is pointless, too. There are two bottles of mineral water with glasses. The bathroom has clean towels, two sachets of shampoo, two shower caps and two bars of soap. There isn't any hairdryer and I was way too tired to call room service, so I never bothered to check if I could have one. The bed doesn't have any bed bugs. Trust me, that's the first thing I checked for. I slept quite comfortably.

If you have an early flight, remember that complimentary breakfast is at 5:30 AM. My pick-up was at 5:30 AM because my flight was at 8:30 AM so I didn't get time to eat at the hotel. But I had enough time to eat breakfast at the airport. 

None of this entire process is confusing if you have read everything that I just wrote and will be able to figure it out fast enough. You'll be surprised how easy it all is. Just make sure your handbags don't have any of the items that are illegal in the UAE and you're good to go. 

Hope this information will be helpful!

Best of luck!

x

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