Well, I'm off to both Karachi and Lahore next week. Karachi is just one night and then some meetings the next day. I'll be in Lahore for 4 days, I think, and should have some time to look around. I just got back from India, so it will be an interesting contrast. I know absolutely nothing about Pakistan, and as mentioned, there's very little even on FT!

Thanks for the contrasting opinions.

Dr. PITUK

Not trying to fan any flames here, but I don't think the Marriott hotel is as safe as described above:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...8MSVF300.shtml

From the article:
Perhaps an outlying data point, but a data point nonetheless.

-C

What I have read on this thread re-re-and re-confirms for me just how distorted a view people in the west have of Pakistan.

I believe that there is a big difference between Karachi and Islamabad - one is the capital of a province whilst the other one is a capital territory ( of a country) and hotel chains are found in major cities

Oceanbound222 interesting post #9.

Here's my short description as I travelled there in Nov 06. It was my first business trip to Karachi.

Armed with the latest travel advisories from the various governments, emerging disease updates from WHO and CDC as well as saying my prayers (I'm not that religious), I headed over to KHI on Emirates Y class which was over an two hours late departing from DXB.

At arrival, I was met by a airport guide who assisted me all the way from Immigration to baggage claim. There a porter was summoned by this guide. After a cursory glance by the customs, there was someone who checked that my pasport had been stamped. Then I was transferred to a Company driver. Coming out of the airport, I was on heightened senses as this was my first time in country. The only thing leaving the airport I saw was 3 soldiers manning a machine gun station. I suspect if anything untoward happens, these guys will shoot first and ask later.

Driving into Karachi was ok but traffic was heavy. Saw lots of nice decorative busses. ^ . I noticed there were lots of people but no one smiled (unlike that in the Far East). Did not notice many women. I was vary at traffic lights. All it takes is a nutter to do something. OK, I am sound paranoid since what I hear from the Western media as well as government travel advisories (US, UK, Oz, Canadian, etc) have not been too positive.

The company put me up at the Sheraton. I asked for a room in a wing furthest away from the main road. (Google Earth did a wonderful job in this respect). Usual security precaution applies : Car crash barrier at entrance, bonnet checks and Xrays at hotel door. This hotel is used by quite a number of cabin crews and I was very relieved to see my favourite airline there. Then I saw this Dalek like female flight attendants all dressed in black and covered top to bottom. Anyone care to guess? Oops I digress.

Visiting a client company, I was greeted with mirror checks underneath the car and a boot check. That night, I had dinner at the Hotel first floor and have to say the curry was delicious. Would have no qualms having dinner outside if I had the chance. BTW, there is Malaysian Embassy in that hotel.

On way back to airport, checking in was atrocious as the PC system acted up. I saw privileged few jumping queues. Then we have to bring our supposed hold bag to another counter to 'check in'. As usual, following immigration formalities, my passport was checked for exit stamps. Note that this checker desk is only about 10 steps after the Immigration control! Prior to departure gate, there was security check. All I can say was that I was very glad to be on my Emirates flight to DXB.

Summing up, I noticed there seems to be lots of job creation- in that there are lots of people doing things but don't really add much value. This was based onmy observations at the airport as well as discussions with the client company representative. The Pakistanis whom I have met there are friendly and warm. These are the guys in the office.

I guess many FTers here are wondering....turn around? I would not do it as it's not one of the nicer airports. Worth visiting? Depending where you visit and keep a low profile but I felt there is always that element of underlying danger. I contrast this with Nigeria where it is very much 'in your face'.

Hope all these helps.

Sounds like India.

Just more meat dishes.

Personally, I have no hesitation about visiting Pakistan which I find to be fascinating in its own right like I do India. (I'll be back there in a few weeks attending a wedding of a friend's son.) My biggest issue is that the airlines whose frequent flyer programs I use heavily don't fly there and that intra-Pakistan I can't credit flights to any of my preferred frequent flyer programs AFAIK.

Where's Pakistan's version of Jet Airways or Kingfisher?

Here: http://www.airblue.com/

Haha - no Kingfisher for Pakistan - maybe a Murree Brewery's Airways in the future though!

The lack of Star, OneWorld and SkyTeam representation on flights to Pakistan is a major problem. Currently, Star is represented by SQ and TG who fly to both Karachi and Lahore. There is talk that Austrian and Swiss will restart operations to Karachi, but nothing concrete yet. No SkyTeam airlines fly to Pakistan and Oneworld is represented by BA to Islamabad. There is talk that BMed will start flying to Lahore but again it's just idle gossip at this point.

Until mid-'06, I had been traveling u.s.to Pakistan about every 6-10 weeks. Initially, I used to fly to LHR on UA then take either PIA or EK to Pakistan. However, since PIA deployed the brand new 777's on their Houston-Pakistan and Chicago-Pakistan flights in '04, I generally just fly PIA all the way. It's a comfy flight - AVOD, lie flat seats, noise cancelling headphones and Empower ports in J. As far as the food goes, my personal feeling is that PIA's food is easily the best in the air anywhere. I don't drink so the lack of alcohol doesn't bother me. I like PIA's inflight service, which is often very good and beats the pants off their ground service, which is generally poor. Because of a general lack of career opportunities in Pakistan, many of the FA's hold Masters degrees. I have even met a PhD in Physics working as a Steward on a PIA flight! This allows for some fairly interesting conversations with the cabin crew. ANother advantage of flying PIA is that they won't pass the buck if there is a weather delay, even when you miss your connection to another carrier. An example of this is last year when returning from Karachi to Houston, the flight was ten hours late due to fog at Islamabad. Many of the passengers were transiting Houston and flying onto Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, LA or SF. When we arrived at Houston at 1 AM, we were met by the ground staff who had already arranged hotel rooms, meal vouchers and had rebooked our onward flights for the next day. I could never imagine UA doing something like that.

PIA's FFP - Awards Plus is not a great program if you want rewards that transfer to other carriers but I mainly use it to obtain free tickets for friends or family traveling to and from Pakistan.

The biggest gripe I have about FF accural to Pakistan is that the ONLY *A option coming from the west is the MCT-KHI 3 x weekly flight.

And... it leaves just early enough that there isn't enough time to connect to LX242 from Zurich (some of the year.) If it just left 20 minutes later or so, I would probably fly YYZ-ZRH-DXB-MCT-KHI on LX/TG rather than YYZ-LHR-DXB-KHI on AC/EK just because I'd earn so many miles all in 1 FFP.

Hmm, I never considered that routing. I wonder if I would earn 100% EQMs on UA by traveling LX and TG on those routes. BTW, which carrier would you take DXB-MCT?

Swiss (LX) flies Dubai-Muscat. Swiss also has the right to seel DXB-MCT, so buying that as a stand-alone ticket is allowed.

MCT-KHI is Thai (TG).

I earn applicable Star Alliance miles on LX flights when crediting to my * Alliance program of choice.

That said, on a Swiss Q-fare I get only 50% mileage credit when crediting to BD's program, but that's better than nothing and it's based on type of fare. With UA, however, you'll get 100% credit the same as you would for any other Star Alliance flight (other than United, United Express, and US Airways).*

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* UA 1k, 1p, and 2p elite members only earn elite bonuses on United, United Express, "Ted" and US Airways; on other Star Alliance carriers (LX, TG, LH, SQ, NH, OZ, LH, OS, etc) no elite bonus.

Another option is FRA-MCT on LH which connect nicely to the TG flights, but it doesn't work out for me due to pricing. [Usually flying LH is almost 2x the price of flying LX.]

This seems to be the main Pakistan thread on FT, so I'll add here .

I stayed at the Sheraton in Karachi. It was OK, though I only spent about 6 hours there because I was so busy!

The trip from KHI-LHE was a HUGE hassle. PIA said that they could do e-tickets - right up until about 18 hours before my departure. They then promised to have them to me by 9am. They actually arrived at 1120, 2+ hours after I left, so I had to cancel them - for a fee (even on the fully flexible C class LHE-CDG).

My TA then bought me a ticket on Airblue. I got to the airport early and asked an agent to check that the ticket was OK since there was a message about an 'exchange fee' that seemed strange. It turns out that I couldn't fly because my TA (whose credit card paid for it) wasn't with me. The check-in agent said that she could add a 'message' to override that. 90 minutes later (and only 40 minutes before the other flight would leave) I got turned down.

I was then forced to buy a last minute ticket on PIA after all!!! For information, I was in business class on a VERY old and tired 747, right up in the nose. The food was OK (I did quite like the kebab), and the service was friendly if a bit haphazard. For such a short flight, on which I slept half the time, it was more than OK, and I'm sure that Y would have been about the same.

Hopefully my e-ticket on EY to get back to the UK won't be broken!!

Finally, I'm staying at the Avari hotel in Lahore. The staff at the airport were great. The hotel is functional, with a very nice pool (25m or so), and friendly staff. I was welcomed last night with a fruit place, a nut cake and a box of cookies! The gym is a bit tired and old, but I still hope that I can squeeze in some time to use it. I have just added an extra meeting for this afternoon, and I hope to have a couple of hours to see SOME of the city.

THanks

Dr. PITUK

Well, it's not called PIA for nothing However, I am surprised to hear of the problems you had with the e-ticket. I have never heard of such a thing happening!

The 747 Classic you flew in (AP-BAT) was knackered ten years ago, so I can only imagine what it's like now!

Ask the Protocol Manager at Avari if you can use the Gymkhana to exercise in. She should be able to get you temporary access to what is an elite private athletic club. The Lahore Gymkhana also has the largest hotel rooms I have ever seen but you can only stay there if a member books a room for you.

Stop by thhe EY City Ticketing Office in Lahore with your ticket and passport in hand and ask them to "reconfirm" your flight out of Pakistan. If they say it is not required, have them stamp your ticket anyway. Believe me, it's good insurance, especially as you appear to have had some bad luck already.

Also, be sure to ask if you are reguired to have photocopies of your passport picture page and ADDITIONAL passport sized pictures for departure. This is a famous on again off again requirement in Pakistan although I never comply with it.

Finally, if you have any devices that use AA or AAA batteries in your handbaggage, you might be asked to discard them when you go through the final security screening on your departure. I usually put mine next to a dead glucometer or a blood pressure monitor in case the klan ask me to discard them. If you tell them you need the batteries for your medical equipment, you will be allowed to carry them aboard. I have often wondered if this battery fetish unique to travel out of Pakistan is purely because the ASF guys need batteries for themselves or if there really was a "credible" threat many years ago involving batteries.

Oh yes, be prepared to have your picture taken upon departure for the american thugs who have infiltrated Pakistan with their filthy, disgusting Pisces system. There are often some american FBI cowardly pigs actually sitting behind closed doors at KHI and LHE scrutinizing the identity of travelers and using the data entered into Pisces to determine who they think is a threat to their country. Thoroughly outrageous but unfortunately a reality for a country reliant on the usa.

It was a bit farcical all the problems! Unfortunately I don't have time to verify my ticket. It shows up with viewmytrip.com, so hopefully I'll be OK.


VERY knackered . The plane does support AVOD, I think, but I never bothered trying.

My colleague today told me that it was pretty incredible. Unfortunately I have very limited spare time. I'm using some of it to see a small part of the city, so I'll probably just do a quick workout and a swim here.

I have spare copies, but no photos. I'll have to wing it.


They asked me this at BLR. I still got through with all my batteries (including laptop, mini-camera and NR headset) except in my dSLR. For some reason that was a problem!

I'm off to the US in a couple of weeks and I just assume that I'll get hassled. They actually used to do this in Canada as well. Agents were camped out next to the gates on Cuba bound flights to catch 'rogue' Americans.