Dubai layover: what Emirates provides
 

There is a lot of information on what Emirates offers for layovers in Dubai scattered through various threads. I thought it might be useful to capture it in one thread. My experience is with what is provided for F/J passengers.

Criteria for an Emirates paid layover
I was on the first available flight out of Dubai to my onward destination, and had a 22 hour layover in Dubai. I understand that it is key to take the first onward connection. I bought a heavily discounted F ticket in Colombo. I asked for the layover hotel and it was approved. I was given a voucher, and the appropriate information was entered in my booking.

Arrival in Dubai

1. Proceed to Passport Control and clear immigration
2. If your passport is retained by immigration (a non issue for US passport holders), the sponsorship form I had would be a receipt for the passport.
3. Collect your baggage if it has been tagged to Dubai. Clear Customs.
4. First and Business Class passengers should go to the Emirates Chauffeur Desk.
5. Economy passengers should board the Millenium Airport Hotel bus outside the Arrivals Terminal
6. A limo will be provided to Le Meridien

Le Meridien Hotel

1. Emirates has a separate entrance at the hotel to the left of the main entrance. The chauffeur will take you to this entrance.
2. There is a small vestibule, and a desk which is staffed by Emirates employees. They have your arrival and departure information.
3. You will be assigned to a room. Be wary of rooms with one bed if there are two of you traveling; the bed looks barely the width of a standard American double bed. I recommend a double bedded room.
4. You will be given vouchers for each meal that you require. Breakfast is a buffet.

Room
The bed and linens are very comfortable and new. The room itself is a bit worn and small. Still, free is a good thing.

Restaurants

1. The lunch and dinner coupons are good at Yalumba, Long Yin (Chinese), M's Beef Bistro, Casa Mia (Italian) and Sukhothai (Thai).
2. Sukhothai and Casa Mia are in the Village complex of restaurants and bars, at the back end of the property. Yalumba, M's Beef Bistro and Long Yin are off the lobby.
3. Each restaurant has a set menu for Emirates passengers.
4. Sukhothai had a superb menu; I highly recommend it.

Departure

1. The front desk staff will set your limo pickup for 2 hours before your flight time.
2. You get a wake call at a time of your designation; the staff is extremely good at follow up to be sure you are up and about.

I was very impressed with the smooth operation of all of this. Emirates really deserves accolades for the simplicity in and ease of use.

and just to give an update on the situation for economy class passengers i encountered the following:

Booked HAM-DXB-ADD-DXB-HAM (the flight has a 9 hour layover in DXB) - upon requesting the stpc I was told that since this ticket was booked in V (how would I know) this ticket would not be valid for accomodation.

They said that only B?? and true Y class tickets would be honored with a free hotel in Dubai, however if i upgraded using miles I would get the full business class deal with hotel and limo.

Btw was told that the fare difference between V and B??? was only 200 EUR.

This is where most of the controversy lies. Tickets ex some countries only qualify in high buckets, whereas tickets ex other qualify in all classes.

Just to add a little extra. It is also possible to take room service (from a special menu) instead of having to actually visit the restaurants.

How does this work with an A class RTW ex BKK? I'm scheduled for LHR-DXB-MRU, but have not even checked flight times yet.

Of course I'll be picking up an oneworld RTW in MRU and won't be back for nearly a year!

Aren't those BA flights? You'd need to check with BA as to their policy. I've flown my share of OneWorld RTW tickets, and am unaware of any hotels being provided by the carriers on a layover.

I believe (s)he is flying on an EK/UA RTW into MRU via DXB and then flying onwards on oneworld but is asking about the layover in DXB.

FWIW, qualifying for STPC in Dubai ex LHR is quite unlikely because there are so many ex LHR flights - a long layover is unlikely.

Mo We Th Sa
EK 2 LHR 13:45 DXB 00:30 +1 77W 0
EK 701 DXB 02:35 +1 MRU 09:05 +1 773 0

Cheers

Dubai layover
 

Have been in Dubai twice this month with Mrs. asienflieger on the discounted ex CMB C/F-class fare of Emirates. Once Emirates provided the Le Meridien Dubai, second time they provided the Al Sondos Suites by Le Meridien.
This is an all suites hotel in Deira, just opposite the Deira City Centre Mall with lots of shops, Carrefour supermarket, foodcourts,...
Nearby is a big building (headquarter ?) of Emirates with ticketoffices and well stocked Emirates souvenir shop.
The hotel itself has only 1 restaurant. Breakfast and lunch was a buffet. For Dinner you can choose from the menu for a fixed amount. There is a small pool outside, but we didn´t use it because the hotel is surrounded by different building sites with noise and dust.
We prefered this hotel more because of its more convenient location for us to explore Dubai, as it was our first time there out of the airport. The Le Meridien Dubai instead is a place of peace ideal to relax from the flights.

Hi - you're right, he(me) is flying on an UA/EK RTW ex BKK, which I'll break in MRU for a cheap oneworld ticket. Probably head for MRU towards the end of this year. I start the UA/EK ticket in July, but it's already ticketed.

Thanks SanDiego1K.
You are always informative and helpful. ^
May I add more information about restaurant.
Emirates have just added the award winner buffet restaurant in Dubai on 2004 "Yalumba" to the selection.
Located next to the main lobby with plenty of high quality foods. :D

BTW I also love Sukhothai's dinner set. :p

Just had lunch in Sukhothai - completely agree about the menu, the food was excellent.

One small point to add about the rooms - maybe they haven't upgraded them all yet, but I was extremely impressed with the one I got (they have separate rooms for J and F pax, I was in J) - it was brand new inside, with a large flat-screen TV on the wall, DVD player, etc. The only part that wasn't up to that standard was the shower which seemed to be an older design.

Overall the layover process works very well and the staff in the EK section of the hotel are excellent.

I've added that to my initial post. Yalumba is also where breakfast is served.

We were flying F. We saw two rooms, and the curtains and carpets were tired in each of them. Yet the bed linens were obviously new.

My husband was very impressed with the health club at Le Meridien. He said it was the most impressive selection of work out equipment he had seen in a hotel.

Ops! :p
I just wanna say that they have just included the lunch and dinner buffet at Yalumba beside of breakfast.
I did not see this last year, let me guess because it's more expensive than other restaurants' set menu.
And the selection of foods is far better than breakfast, one of the best buffet in Dubai.
It's quite hard now to choose between dinner set at Sukhothai and dinner buffet at Yalumba. :D
Cheers,

One of my sectors on a EK/UA RTW in buisness is the following:

1 EK 928 C 10JUL CAIDXB HK2 1255-2 1730-2 J-C<
2 EK 424 C 11JUL DXBPER HK2 1005-3 0055-4 J-C<

Would I be eligable for a free night's accommodation in Dubai? Who do I contact about this?

Send an e-mail to Emirates in Cairo (you can do this from the Emirates website) with your PNR, requesting they book you a STPC (Stopover paid by Carrier). They replied to me within 24 hours saying that my hotel and transfers had been booked.

I then had to go to the Emirates office in Cairo to pick up the vouchers. It took about 15 minutes in total :)

Cheers,
Rick

We are actually based in Kampala, Uganda. Would we able to get the local emirates office to book this?

You can try. I tried the UK office, but they wouldn't do it, so I had to organise with the Cairo office.

Cheers,
Rick

Thanks for the references, SD1k ^

Just spent 32500 miles upgradin ham-dxb-add segments - and then called EK again and suddenly it was no problem to get free accomodation in dubai :) - 32500 miles = upgrade + hotel + limo = VERY GOOD VALUE IMO

My experience with EK layovers are at the following hotels :

Le Meridien - Nice room, I don't stay long enough to fuss about it so it's OK. The breakfast at Yalumba is the best I have ever tried anywhere! There are a few good restaurants here as well but I never have the time to try them (out all the time)

Al Sondos Suite - Huge with a bed room, living & two, yes .. two baths. Very close to Diera City Center but only one restaurant

Millennium Airport Hotel - Most Y class passengers stay here but if the other Le Meridien hotels are full, they will send their FJ passengers here too. Nothing to shout about.

I believe EK are also sending their J passengers to other hotels as well e.g Fairway and Taj Palace

for economy class...
 

if you are flying to/ from JFK you get access to Marhaba lounge (food but no shower) but only if you don't leave airport (on way home to JFK I went into DXB and seeing that I had immigration stamp they wouldn't let me in)
shower room at hotel (near gate 17) available for about US $8.


buffet in airport at Emirates restauraunt available if your connection is over 4 hours

Millenium hotel for Y passengers is actually a seperate wing, reasonably comfortable but nothing luxurious- expect a bed and hot shower. They give you meal vouchers for the hotel's bufffet which was better than what I expected.

Hotel voucher only if you are taking first available flight (from JFK-DXB-Africa I got voucher, but from Africa- DXB-JFK they wouldn't give it to me because there was a earlier flight to JFK with a two hour connection).

What is the minimum connection time which provides STPC? I have a (just over) 8 hr connection CAI-DXB-ZRH on a RTW ticket, I assume I'll get a hotel in that case?

If the ticket is not issued ex-CAI, then do I talk to the local EK office in the issuing country, or CAI, since that is where I'll be originating that day?

Just did a CMB-DXB-KWI trip and was not given a hotel, yet it was booked in V class, I believe a full fare was only 2,000LKR more oops :(

Depends which class you are travelling. If Y class, then it's 10 hours before you get a hotel. J & F are 8 hours.

Cheers,
Rick

F class, guess there is a hotel for me! ^ :) From earlier in the thread it wasn't 100% clear, this applies to UA/EK RTW tickets, right?

Thanks for the info, Rick.

Is that La Meridien or the "Airport Millennium"?

I've always been (not recently) to the Airport Millennuim, Emirates wing.
The whole section of the hotel on the left was dedicated for Emirates
IIRC. If they have a different hotel now, please correct me.

Never flew on paid J or F, but I've always had a free hotel, shuttle etc
to/from the hotel. I've always refused the meal vouchers since I usually
go out for dinners with my friends instead.

I like their service. They are very good about the wake up calls. I like
their 2 hours policy. you reach the airport just in time.. not too early.

I've used the shuttle only once from the hotel to the airport and they
have been good. It feels slow.. but that might be because I'm used to
driving to/from the airport in DXB.

DXB is always a good stop-over.. and the food is good.

PS: I've always made the reservations(free) for the hotel ahead of time by calling
EK. They'll take your preference (non-smoking, two beds etc) and try to
book accordingly then I pickup my vouchers from the Airport Customer service
desk at the departure airport (JFK usually)

If you fly J & F, you'll get one of the Le Meridien hotels or recently, the Taj Palace. Y class will stay at the Millenium Airport hotel, EK wing. However, if rooms are fully booked at the posh hotels, EK will put their J/F class passengers at Millenium

Thank you! ^

Aren't there sleeping rooms in the Emirates F Lounge?

How are they?
Can you just ask for access at the reception desk of the lounge or do I have to pre-reserve?
How many are there?

---

see http://www.emirates.com/usa/Travelle...assLounges.asp

Facilities at Emirates Lounges
A range of hot and cold food and drinks at all times of the day.
Healthy food options.
Guest bedrooms with en suite shower facilities (First Class only).
Massage chairs.
Designated smoking and non-smoking areas.
TV viewing areas with 42 inch plasma screens.
Free wireless network connection
...The First Class lounge has been designed to an extremely high standard, including fully-equipped bedrooms with televisions, each bedroom includes en suite shower facilities. A selection of Molton Brown toiletries are provided to help you freshen up before or after your flight.

Bump... anyone? :)

i *think* you should, but you should call EK. they should be able to
tell you the details and book a hotel room/preference in advance.

Yeah, I was going to anyway. Just wondering if anyone knew for sure...

Would be good to post the answer on STPC (which stands for Services To be Paid by Carrier, not Stopver).

Charles

Yes, they have sleeping rooms which you ask for when you arrive, first come first served. I believe they allow you to use them up to 8 hours. They are very nice. I think they also have smaller ones in the J lounge, but I haven't been to the newish J lounge to check.

I don't remember how many there are, maybe around 5-6.

Charles

AFAIK J lounge has four (maybe more after refurb) with walkthrough semi-ensuite rooms. The F class lounge (haven't been in ages :p ) had 6 ensuite rooms.

Generally they are impossible to get between 10pm and 2am and 6am and 10am. If you have a long connection, you can usually ask the receptionist to put your name on a list so that you get a room once it has been vacated.

Cheers

I spoke with a CSR based in Bombay tonite who told me that I would not qualify for a hotel room as my booking is a RTW (EK/UA, C Class). It seems other have been able to secure the hotel on RTWs. Should I try the USA office tommorow?

Anyone have their e-mail address? I saw it in a post and forgot where.

Thanks!

I just booked YYZ-DXB-NBO with a 16 hour stop over in DXB. Travel agent tells me it's an E ticket and the accomodations are paid by the carrier (arriving at 6pm and departing at 10:30am the following day)

Can anyone comment whether this is accurate or any additional information that can help?

If the TA is telling the truth (which we don't know - it depends on your fare class only Y W M N qualify IIRC) then he / she should be able to arrange it for you.

Cheers,

Try reading the responses in the thread you started about this.

Cheers,
Rick

Will this fly ...
 

I am flying DAM-DXB-PER.

If I book in J, there is no availability of the first connecting flight - which gives me a nice long stoppover which I can't avoid! (Arrive 1450, Dep 1000, or something like that).

But I really want to fly F - but there are seats on the first connecting flight (0235am - yuck).

So my cunning plan is to book in J first ... and arrange the hotel voucher etc. Then "upgrade to F" a few days later ... and retain the hotel reservations.

Will this work?

Thanks