I want to fly DXB-BEY one way on Aug 24, here are my options:
- Jazeera, dep 11:40AM: $150US
- Air Arabia, dep 9AM from SHJ: $143US
- ME, dep 8ish: around $297US, or $690US in J
- GF, dep mid morning: $220US in Y, 490US in J
- QR mid day, about $280 in Y, $750US in F -not pref as it arrives late to BEY


Which one would you take? and why?
Does anyone know if the chauffeur drive from DXB to SHJ is realistic (given my flight lands at 5:40AM) to catch Air Arabia's?

I read somewhere, that you could upgrade onboard Jazeera for cheap, has ayone tried it recently?

EK has a promotion now, 7000 miles plus about 3300AED for a return in J; do you think this is worth it- given I won't be needing the return leg which expires in 1 month?

I am open to suggestions! Thanks in advance

BTW, I considered flying to MCT (from which ow in J to BEY on EK is $800US) but getting to MCT is a tricky business. Also I have no issues hopping to KHI or thereabouts as long as the whole trip costs LESS than some of the options, and get to arrive to BEY on the same afternoon.

Save yourself some money and take Al Jazeera, unless you really want luxury. the EK cash + miles promo is not cost/effective, IMO, since you will not be using the return leg.

What about OW with EK itself (assuming you are arriving in DXB on EK)

$375 in Y, and something like 6600AED in J (totally not worth it as I said, since if I jump to MCT and catch EK ow to BEY it will be less than half.

I am more leaning towards J9 too, since it's pretty cheap.

I suggest you start avoiding SHJ. The 2-year road closure will make getting to Sharjah one hell of an experience, and the ticket isn't that cheap anyway. I suggest you buy the comfort of your mind and avoid G9.
No reason to use your miles for the trip unless you need they're expiring and you need to burn them. But paying AED 3,300 when you can pay much less is just too much.
Since you're arriving at 0540, I'd consider either GF or J9. They have good timings (although you'll bear the full brunt of DXB crowding during your layover). I believe you'll be getting the A340 on GF (which has personal IFE in Y) which never fails to be fun.

I'd probably do the GF J option, especially as price doesn't seem to be a driving factor. The Air Arabia advantage would be that it's direct (I assume -- I haven't checked). SHJ is, on a good day, 20 minutes from DXB, but you'll be cutting it close if you're delayed at all (either in the flight or waiting for your EK ride). Jazeera has a comparable product to Air Arabia, but if you're not going to have a direct flight, why not connect in BAH and fly on the better GF product? (The Jazeera Plus option is the first few rows with the middle seat blocked, again an ok product but not as good as GF.) BTW, I have trip reports on both Jazeera and Air Arabia in the TR section. Good luck!

Jazeera will also be nonstop. Thanks for the tip HFF
Were you able to upgrade onboard at all?

I didn't realize Jazeera flew non-stop DXB-BEY. I didn't upgrade when I flew J9 DXB-KWI. Luckily the load was around 50% so I had a whole row to myself on the outbound and return.

Let us know what your final decision is!

This is getting interesting. Air Arabia's fare is now $117.93 all inclusive. This is peanuts and getting to be very tempting hehe.

I will let you know what happens later on
Thanks again.

Although I've only done KWI-BEY, not DXB-BEY, it was on Jazeera - and frankly, I couldn't be more impressed.

Great aircraft with roomy seats, and very attentive, friendly and helpful staff. Quite a shock, considering they were Arab nationals.

Sounds similar to Air Arabia. I had a great flight with them from MCT to SHJ. The seat pitch was at least 34". They even had Bugs Bunny & Mr Bean on the IFE!

Cheers,
Rick

Although Air Arabiia can be very, very tempting (especially if it's non-Eid times when all the working class people fly home) but the downside is SHJ. Bad, slow check-in and immigration experience (the ones at DXB aren't much better but DXB can be one of the most efficient arrival/departure points even at multi-bank times of the day).

Not a soul at immigration when I passed through. Although the E-Gate wouldn't work, it still took less than 2 minutes.

What I found amazing was that from a completely full flight (A320), only 5 people had checked luggage! We though we must be have been at the wrong carousel as there were only a handful of people waiting.

SHJ seemed to be going through a fair bit of construction. The baggage area seemed pretty new.

Cheers,
Rick

I've always had very quick check-ins at SHJ (2 or 3 minutes). Immigration on return has been very hit or miss; a few times upon arrival most of the very young nationals on duty were more interested in chatting than processing the passengers, and the wait time was 15 minutes or more with only a few people in front of me. The "elite" lounge that is available for departures is a depressing rip-off. But generally I've had ok experiences with Air Arabia and SHJ, with morning departures and evening arrivals so I am always going against traffic.

If you take a morning departure be prepared for the taxi driver to hit you up for an extra tip since he'll be sitting in 2 hours of traffic on the way back!

Air Arabia's on board product isn't bad, but the rest of the experience can be hit and miss, and when it's a miss it's bad. Getting to SHJ can be frustrating. But if you've tried it before and you know your peak/off-peak hours, then you'd be fine. I read your trip reports before, HedgeFundFlyer and I hope that the downside of SHJ will be improved soon if they want to compete with DXB.

Well, last minute update; I had to re-schedule my trip into DXB till next week. Blame it on the supervisory panel meeting I have to have on Monday!

I might end up flying Emirates on an award J/Y (only 33,800) plus $49 in tax