Originally Posted by bc2003nj

If this question is completely brainless, feel free to let me know - I have pretty thick skin.

Anyway, I will be flying from Düsseldorf, Germany and connecting in Dubai for approximately ten hours prior to my ongoing flight to Manila, Philippines. I arrive and depart in Terminal 3. The situation is that there is actually an earlier flight from Dubai that gets into Manila; however, I was unable to book it. As such, I would rather just check in my baggage through to Dubai, pick it up there, and re-check versus having it sit in the Manila airport unattended for seven hours. My primary question is whether I would be able to retrieve my baggage and then head back to the transit area without any problems (e.g. needing to leave the airport once in baggage claim, which would require me to get a visitor visa, etc.). I assume I would have to go through immigration/customs upon re-entering, but as long as I don't need to have any advanced preparation in terms of documentation, I'm fine with that. If the answer is my bag will be checked with me on my scheduled flight compared to it being put on the earlier one, then no problem. It's just that coming from the states, many of the airlines tend to put the bags on the next available flight instead of the one you're actually on.

Thanks in advance for the help!!!

Pete