New Route - Dammam
Mar 19, 2019, 8:45 pm
#31
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: NYC
Programs: BA (Gold), GF (Gold), EY (Silver), EK; Hilton (Diamond)
Posts: 83
Can't imagine a DMM nightstop would be much fun for crew
Mar 20, 2019, 3:23 am
#35
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
As Lefly says, a direct flight is a flight that takes you from A to B, with or without intermediate stops on the way.
A non-stop flight is a flight that takes you from A to B, without intermediate stops on the way.
All non-stop flights are direct.
Some direct flights are not non-stop.
Some airlines have got into the practice of calling some journeys "direct" because they have the same flight number between A and B, notwithstanding that there is an intermediate stop [b]and[/u] you have to change aircraft there. Regulators have so far neglected to do anything about this. This is unfortunate, because if your "direct" flight involves A to C on aircraft 1 and then C to B on aircraft 2, and the A-C flight is late, aircraft 2 can depart from C before aircraft 1 has arrived at C. On a true direct flight, this ought not to be possible.
Mar 20, 2019, 3:33 am
#36
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 5,596
Madinah MED was the only nighstop worse than DMM that I can think of.
Mar 20, 2019, 4:02 am
#37
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Madrid
Programs: BA GfL
Posts: 157
Many years ago, while living and working in Dubai, I used to visit our operations in Al Khobar (one of the tri-cities) about once per month.
Being a rookie I initially flew from Dubai to the old Dhahran airport and experienced the delights of the queues at immigration and customs. If you landed around the same time as the ‘guest worker’ flights of 747s from Pakistan, India or the Philippines, the time to clear formalities could be monstrous. I don’t think I ever cleared the process in under two hours.
My colleagues then advised me of the Bahrain causeway route and typically I could do touchdown in Bahrain to arriving at our base or my hotel in Al Khobar in 1-1/2 hours. Of course it was important to avoid this at Saudi weekends, with many going to and from Bahrain for R&R.
Given that the BA flight will spend an hour in Bahrain, then 45 minutes to Dammam, the ‘causewayers’ could already be in the hotel while the flyers are just joining the immigration queues. And if you’re going to Al Khobar then you have some 60km of road travel. I just don’t see where this flight arrangement makes that much sense. But anyway, horses for courses.
But thanks to BA for announcing this, so I could reminisce a bit. I recall that four of us had been in Al Khobar for the week and crossed the causeway to Bahrain airport. Once we got to the cafeteria/bar airside, we ordered EIGHT beers. The guy on the cash register noted “Ah, just in from Saudi Sirs?!”
Being a rookie I initially flew from Dubai to the old Dhahran airport and experienced the delights of the queues at immigration and customs. If you landed around the same time as the ‘guest worker’ flights of 747s from Pakistan, India or the Philippines, the time to clear formalities could be monstrous. I don’t think I ever cleared the process in under two hours.
My colleagues then advised me of the Bahrain causeway route and typically I could do touchdown in Bahrain to arriving at our base or my hotel in Al Khobar in 1-1/2 hours. Of course it was important to avoid this at Saudi weekends, with many going to and from Bahrain for R&R.
Given that the BA flight will spend an hour in Bahrain, then 45 minutes to Dammam, the ‘causewayers’ could already be in the hotel while the flyers are just joining the immigration queues. And if you’re going to Al Khobar then you have some 60km of road travel. I just don’t see where this flight arrangement makes that much sense. But anyway, horses for courses.
But thanks to BA for announcing this, so I could reminisce a bit. I recall that four of us had been in Al Khobar for the week and crossed the causeway to Bahrain airport. Once we got to the cafeteria/bar airside, we ordered EIGHT beers. The guy on the cash register noted “Ah, just in from Saudi Sirs?!”
Mar 20, 2019, 6:00 am
#38
Join Date: Mar 2019
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum Ambassador
Posts: 26
As someone who lives in Saudi and does the DMM-BAH run all the time for BA flights, I must say this is a great move from BA. Hope this route can become non-stop one day.
It’s always painful to cross the causeway during weekends or holidays. You can spend 2-3 hours just on the bridge. And bear in mind it takes at least one hour to reach the airport if traffic is good in Bahrain. Good luck to cross the causeway to catch a flight from Bahrain especially during Eid holidays. I usually leave my place 5 hours before the flight to avoid any unexpected delay at causeway.
Saudi airports are doing their best to improve their service. Immigration is super fast and luggage shows up right away. Used DMM airport several times and really pleased for their improvements although I usually cross the causeway and fly out of Bahrain due to other reasons. Typically, I only spend about 20 mins from leaving the aircraft to collecting luggage. But BAH seems to slow down these days. Luggage shows up after ages although with priority tag... This really makes me to rethink flying out of BAH. But I had to suck it up as QR is blocked here. RJ and UL do serve DMM, but won’t fly with them again as personal preference. So my only choices with OW are BA and CX. But both of them don’t fly to DMM.
So BA’s move to DMM would be a great improvement for my future travel.
It’s always painful to cross the causeway during weekends or holidays. You can spend 2-3 hours just on the bridge. And bear in mind it takes at least one hour to reach the airport if traffic is good in Bahrain. Good luck to cross the causeway to catch a flight from Bahrain especially during Eid holidays. I usually leave my place 5 hours before the flight to avoid any unexpected delay at causeway.
Saudi airports are doing their best to improve their service. Immigration is super fast and luggage shows up right away. Used DMM airport several times and really pleased for their improvements although I usually cross the causeway and fly out of Bahrain due to other reasons. Typically, I only spend about 20 mins from leaving the aircraft to collecting luggage. But BAH seems to slow down these days. Luggage shows up after ages although with priority tag... This really makes me to rethink flying out of BAH. But I had to suck it up as QR is blocked here. RJ and UL do serve DMM, but won’t fly with them again as personal preference. So my only choices with OW are BA and CX. But both of them don’t fly to DMM.
So BA’s move to DMM would be a great improvement for my future travel.
Mar 24, 2019, 11:30 am
#39
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Magic Kingdom
Programs: AA Exp, Radisson VIP, Expedia OneKey Platinum, Hilton Gold, Bonvoy Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Amex Plati
Posts: 435
Any word on what will become of the bus/limo transfer that BA has traditionally run to and from Khobar to meet the BAH flights?
Nov 12, 2019, 10:25 am
#40
formerly mattking2000
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: DXB
Programs: BA|AC|AZ|SPG|H|FPC
Posts: 1,187
It appears they don't have fifth freedom/pick-up rights on BAH-DMM, just made a call to the booking line and they informed me that it was just a fueling stop 
Perhaps one day!
Perhaps one day!
Nov 12, 2019, 12:22 pm
#41
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Accor Live Limitless Gold, Hilton Honours Gold, Avis Preferred Plus
Posts: 1,806
I had been looking for this earlier this year, hoping it was like the old DOH-BAH flight which I loved and was incidentally my first ever flight on BA.