Hi all, my son is flying to Bali in June and there is 2 options for flights. Arriving at 00:45 with an 8 hour connection to next flight or arriving at 07:55 with a 75 minute connection.

This is the first time he has flown long haul without us and I was hoping you could help with a few questions.

1) If he takes the earlier flight with longer connection, how "open" is the airport between midnight and 9 am the next morning ?

2) If he takes the tighter flight, whats people experience with a 75 minute connection ?

3) Does he still have to clear customs or will they collect them from the flight and take them to the next flight ?

He would rather do the 75 minute one but im a bit nervous so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

How old is your son and how well traveled is he so to say, additionally what cabin will he be traveling in?

1) Very open, DXB never sleeps. The time frame you specified is peak time, I'm talking 300+ arrivals/departures just for Emirates alone. There is a wide range of things to do to spend your time once through transit security and near your gate.
2) If EK will sell you that routing all on one ticket then you should not be worried as if there is a delay or your son fails to meet his connection due to any issue out of his control then EK will place him on the next available flight, my children ( boy and girl) have been flying independently since the age of 15 with EK and have never had any issues on their 30+ trips combined and i have full trust in the staff throughout the Emirates network to ensure their safety and comfort should something go wrong.
3) If he is purely transiting through DXB then it is just a trip to transit security then onward to his departing gate or a trip to his correct departing concourse etc. DXB can get pretty hectic at certain times of the day, but it is civilised hectic and nothing too overwhelming even for the adults!

I would personally go for the 75min connection as long as you and your son are happy with this, you seem to imply you will make use of the unaccompanied minor service (https://www.emirates.com/english/bef...ed-minors.aspx), if so you should not stress one bit. I as a parent who has gone through this many times thus i feel and understand your concerns however rest assured your son will love it, the crew and ground crew will go the extra mile along with the thought of knowing that the UAE and DXB airport is probably one of the best places
for a UM to be transiting through when flying Emirates.

I am sure others will have more to add

Thanks Flame. I should have said actually he is 20 so my concern is not the age just that its the first time he has went independent from us. I did say if there was any problems he would get put on the next but there is only 1 per day so if he misses it then it takes a full day out of his holiday which is a bit of a pain.

Having said that, i think im comfortable from what you have wrote that the 75 minute one would be best.

Thanks again.

Hehe i see, i guess you will just have to risk it for a biscuit. If the flight is delayed, EK will have ground staff awaiting in DXB to whisk passengers off at a expedited manner to their departing gate if they think they will make it with the added assistance. I am sure your son will make it with even sometime to sneak in some fast-food before catching his departing flight.

He should be fine with 75 minutes. Just remind him not to get waylaid in the Duty Free shops or any other interesting area. The connection is fine, but if he does not make it because of his own �tardiness�, he will be offloaded from the connecting flight and probably have to buy a new ticket.

75 mins is fine. As others have said it is peak time, DXB is fully open 24/7, and no one has to clear immigration or customs for transit, unlike US airports.

After he arrives he will see blue and red signs, blue for arrivals to DXB and red for connections. DXB is incredibly well signposted (after all about 9 million pax use the airport every month!). Follow the red signs (and the crowd of People from his flight that'll mostly be going the same way) and he'll arrive at transit security. Remove anything that'll beep in the metal detectors (sometimes shoes beep, sometimes not), go through, collect everything and then look at the bank of screens to find his connecting gate (he might be able to see it before landing on the Airshow channel on the in flight system but good to reconfirm in case of a gate change).

Have him look at a terminal map of DXB before departure so he's got the layout roughly in his head, for EK concourses A, B and C will be relevant, all 3 are used exclusively and in their entirety by EK. He may arrive at a bus gate, the bus will drop him off at transit security at either B or A, while getting off the plane he should look for a person holding a sign with destinations as usually there are two buses, one for A and one for B. The one for A has a list of destinations, if his connection is from A, then DPS will be listed, or else if he saw in the IFE that his gate is an A gate ask which bus is concourse A, else just go to the other bus.

Overall, follow the signs, get to the connecting gate first and foremost, once he's got the actual gate in sight and if he has another 15 mins he can maybe pop into a nearby duty free but I'd not recommend it. It can take 20 mins at a brisk pace to get from transit security to the next gate if it's far, if the next flight is boarding via bus they tend to board it quite early.

With the 75 minute scenario, is this not something that Marhaba could assist with to ease the tension?

S

It is, but a 20yr old first solo trip, let him sweat a bit and learn to navigate. DXB is an easy starting point. He'll be lost in DPS otherwise

I wouldn't normally go for a 75 minute connection as I don't like to be rushed, but I would still prefer to risk it in preference to an 8 hour wait. However, there are 3 direct flights from DXB to MLE daily, with the first two leaving at 02:30 and 04:20 in June. If he takes the flight arriving in DXB at 00:45, he should be able to make either of these with a more civilised transit time.
These may not be showing wherever he is searching if they're more expensive, or if he's using a travel agent with restricted inventory. Try and find them and see if they're suitable.

They give the disadvantage that he may be in MLE too early to check into his accommodation, but any problems there can be minimised too.

Edit. I can't tell my Male from my Bali. See below.

Aside from being too early to check in his situation may be further complicated by the fact that his accommodation will be several thousand miles away as he's trying to get to Bali (DPS)

Oops!!
Male/Bali - they all sound the same to me.
There are still 3 direct flights a day but the timing doesn't look as good as the Male flights for the OP. If we knew the origin of the trip we might be able to offer some alternatives.

I've edited the "Male" post.

Hm, OP indicates they're in the UK in their FT profile, and certainly they'd be somewhere west of DXB if travelling to DPS, but there is no EK flight arriving at 07:55 for 10 June, nor at 00:45. However flights to DPS are at 01:25 which is too early if arriving at 00:45, and then at 07:05 which is presumably the referenced 8-hour connection, and then at 09:10 which is probably the 75 minute connection. If there is no flight arriving after 00:45 and before 07:55 then it's understandable that there are no other options, unless perhaps an earlier flight arriving before midnight, allowing connection to the 01:25 flight.

Also depends on availability, a better connection on OP's dates might be a higher fare.

It's 00:45 and 07:55 which are the arrival times for the GLA flights. Other options could include GLA/EDI/INV/ABZ/NCL through another European city, depending on just where they are in (assuming) Scotland. Brings in another connection risk but just throwing things out there for consideration.

GLA didnt appear as arriving at those times on EF timetable search