YuropFlyer

Hi guys (and gals) from the EY forum

Upcoming flight to AUH, with the bus booked to Dubai (Etihad Mall) - actually, been thinking of staying in Abu Dhabi (and maybe later going myself to Dubai)

Is it mandatory to take the Bus to & from Dubai? I've booked it as "EY flight numbers", but is there actually a check, or is it even checked-through (ie, what about luggage etc.) ?

I know that in Europe, where some airlines have train-connections, it's sometimes checked (LH) and sometimes free-what-you-do (LX), so I wonder how the system with EY works?

nldogbert

Hi,

No, you don't need to take it. It will not have any effect to your real flights segments. It is just there that you get priority on that particular service when you turn up to use it.
Bags are only tagged to AUH - you have to pick them up at baggage claim after your flight.

I have skipped it a few times before with no issues. In fact I think they would be happy if you skip it as from what I have heard, it is always packed and lots of people without this booked would gladly take up your space.

Cheers!

YuropFlyer

Thanks a lot for that fast answer. Rental cars are cheaper in AUH, and in Dubai I would have to get from that mall to somewhere to get a car first, so renting is straight out from AUH will make things so much easier. After all, fuel is still dirt-cheap in the UAE..

Follow-up question: Is there a good Arrival Duty free in AUH? I'm used to the one in DXB which has plenty of choices (and afaik, no limits on beer)

Jiukouer

very limited choices in arrival duty free in AUH

stargold

Yes they have the Arrival Duty Free, although nothing as large as the one at DXB T1 arrival.

But if you know someone in DXB who has an alcohol license, it is probably no more expensive (if not cheaper) to just buy the booze in town.

YuropFlyer

Thanks for your feedback. Guess some beers in AUH it is then. At least transport by rental won't be a problem this way.. I found DXB's duty free arrival prices really decent, with a can of Heineken (when bought in 24 packs) around 80 (US)$ cents.. if AUH isn't much more, thats imho cheaper than what I can get in the city even with a licence.. not planing on drinking too much anyway, just some beers to chill at the pool / private beach.

jubbing

Someone told me that if you fly F, you have a special F bus? Or is that not the case, it's the same bus with just reserved seat?

YuropFlyer

As C and F pax, you get complimentary chauffeur service through the whole UAE!

stargold

... but not if you're on an award ticket where the connection at AUH is less than 24h...?

If you are not eligible for chauffeur during the <24h stop at AUH, I think it should be possible to just get on the bus showing the boarding pass stub/e-ticket even if it is for F or J.

However, note that the bus goes to the Etihad Travel Mall which is in the middle of no-where particularly interesting, and requires another taxi to reach where you actually want to go.

meFIRST

As long as you didn't book Z class

meFIRST

The Etihad Travel Mall is not in the middle of nowhere. Its on SZR at the edge of Internet city. You need a car / taxi to move around dubai anyway, unless the only place you want to go to is the mall / financial centers.

B747-437B

Or use the Metro - Noor Bank station is right outside the Etihad Travel Mall.

YuropFlyer

As I did my travel now, a few points to add:

-Indeed, the bus wasn't mandatory to take. CI Agent in ZRH made a weird face when the baggage tag printed GVA-AUH-XMB, but her system probably only showed ZRH-GVA-AUH

-Lovely flight with Etihad Regional from ZRH to GVA - almost empty. Plenty of snacks and a bottle of water - MUCH more than LX is offering on that route. A shame the plane was quite empty.

-A330 from GVA to AUH was empty (and quite modern with good IFE) as well - full row for myself, which made for a great nights sleep. Crew also friendly.

That was my positive experience.. after arrival in AUH, things got to be.. less good

Bus arrival, not that bad as the whole A330 fitted in one Cobus 3000.

HUGE queue at immigration, took me more than one hour, very chaotic as well. And border officer stamped my Multi-Visa page for China despite me asking friendly to stamp on another page - thank you VERY MUCH - never had such thing happening at any other airport.

Had to search for the luggage, as all belts had 2-3 flights showing, HUGE mess in the baggage section. GVA wasn't showing on the board where all luggage was circling still (ie, they didn't removed the "old" luggage and put it next to the belt)

So, in short, flights fine, arrival at AUH just one big mess.

Return was .. interesting .. as well.

Arrived 1.5 hours prior to departure, only to meet a LONG queue. After hardly moving at all after 10min, I told them that my CI deadline is in 20min - got moved to the front after that. Was positively surprised at first (realized later it was absolutely needed already) so got to immigration 75min before departure - to hit the next super-long queue. 30min in, I was at the security checkpoint, which fortunately was very fast. I didn't really had much time to spare.. navigating fast through MASSES to my bus gate (downstairs) I reached the bus departure area a bit more than 30min to departure - just to find 4 longhauls boarding at the same time from an area that would have been busy from just one longhaul.. major confusion all around, another boarding pass check resulted in the guy using such wet ink on his stamp that my passport (as he put the boarding pass back into it) now has a lovely big unerasable inky souvenir in it: On the "only for government added information" page..

Well, got into the bus 20min prior to departure, noticing the flight was 100% booked and no less than 4 downgrades were issued (with EY spamming me several times before the flight about upgrade options.. ) - then followed by a bus tour of AUH of at least 20min (unfortunately NOT kidding here) in a full bus.. finally reached the aircraft, a fancy new 777, nice seats for Economy class, but an extremely grumpy crew. Left slightly late (no surprise here..) - load discussions when the crew handed out the "meal bag" from several "special meal" orderer, which apparently were handed out the regular bags.. also, just water/juice/coffee and no other drinks (of course I knew I could get different things from the galley later) - their stocks of drinks were extremely low too. It wasn't like they didn't want to give me a second Heineken, they just run out of it (Fosters is equally bad I noticed ) as they must have stocked just VERY little amounts of it. Crew also showed clearly "an attitude" - from I felt, they really had a grumpy day and were showing it..

So, all in all, really nice "hardware" onboard, and if the crew is good (and maybe not 100% load) it can be a great product onboard altogether, but AUH is _one_ dump of an airport. I can't think of a worse airport to actually fly to/from in the civilized part of the world, and I've seen quite some..

Will I fly EY again? Yes, as I booked that special for more than once But will I book EY again? Probably, but taking into account the place that AUH is. In premium classes, it's probably much better, but for Y: Strong beware. And be there early enough. 1 hour before departure is simply not enough..