So even domestic flyers (whether Moroccan residents or foreigners) need to go in and out through immigration?
This sort of situation existed with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flights_7_and_8 when the range of the aircraft used was insufficient to get from the US to SYD, requiring refueling in BNE (and occasionally somewhere else in the Pacific).
You could book a ticket for just BNE to/from SYD, but this would require using the international terminals (all other domestic flights use completely separate from terminals and less stringent security checks, for example no liquid restrictions), and you'd get some sort of pass to go through immigration at both ends, there's probably a trip report about it on here.
As for being savvy, the only way to know is to read other people's experiences before your trip.... and if you don't feel you were scammed, the scammers did a very good job!
Moroccan currency is restricted so not usually accepted once you have passed through immigration, and airport money changers are (almost) always extortionate - that you should have known in advance.
I know airport money exchanges are normally extortionate the problem was there was no official money exchanges in the terminal. When I arrived in Marrakech the official exchanges there have 8.81 dirham per dollar which to me was fair only 3% less than the official exchange rate and actually comparable to if I were to take out of the atm with my Bank of America which charges 3% and $5 per withdrawal. I know you can’t bring the currency outside of Morocco so to me it would make sense they should let me spend it on whatever I want in the airport and not restrict my spending. Allowing me to use euros to purchase liquor but not dirhams is shady. Again as far as not feeling scammed no prices to me were worthy of negotiating hard for to save a few dollars in my opinion. Most expensive thing was a ride for 6 in a taxi across town for 150 dirhams again just not worth negotiating to save a few dollars. As far as reading others experiences I watched dozens of travel videos on Marrakech on YouTube and read several guides. So went in knowing about several of the scams going in.
Last edited by remphish1; Nov 10, 2021 at 9:23 am