I am no stranger to traveling, or to using budget airlines. I have stood for hours in caged waiting rooms to be herded like cattle on to a bare-bones flight knowing that I will see a loved one at the end. I can put up with quite a bit of discomfort in the name of travel. And this time I was even more unwilling to spend money on a trip we were forced to make in order for Ben to renew his visa.
We settled on Fly Dubai, known for its low cost and frequent flights. As expected, the flights leave at inconvenient times to little used airports, but we figured it would do for a short 48 hour trip out of the country. The very name of the airline is puzzling, suggesting that Dubai is a country, and it is not. It is similar to having a Miami Airlines, or Fly Houston... puzzling.
We received an email asking us to check in online and print our boarding passes, "in order to speed up the process at the airport". I should have seen what was to come when I tried to print these boarding passes at our local electronic shop. The shopkeeper acted as if he had never done this before and had to call for help.
This morning brought in some heavy fog. Arriving at the airport we joined the passengers of four other flights to go through security and customs. The customs officials stamped us out of the country, then asked for our boarding passes. When we produced our print-outs they looked puzzled, as if they had never seen one before. They called over a few more officials and claimed that these were not boarding passes. We had to return to the check-in and get boarding passes... but we had already been stamped out of the country. We waited while they figured this dilemma out. Someone would have to go back to check -in for us.
Most of the signs were in Arabic, although we could recognize the symbols of the coffee cup and the mosque. We finally found one monitor with flight information in a corner and learned that our flight was delayed one and half hours, we assumed because of bad weather. No other information. So we followed the coffee cup sign and settled down to wait. I was reminded of my time traveling between Rio and London and how the Brazilian Airline would deal with delays. They never came out and said how long the delay would be, "just another few minutes," would be the announcement. This could go on for hours, and finally the pilot himself would come out and commiserate with us and let us know how sorry he was.
Fly Dubai gave us no announcements. Travelers started to group and complain. When an attendant happened to pass through the waiting room he was immediately accosted and answers were demanded. One man found his flight had actually left, and another woman found out that her flight wouldn't be leaving for anther two hours. Things got ugly and more crew had to be called in. I followed the coffee cup once again.
Glancing up at the monitor I saw that our flight, along with two others, were now described as BOARDING, but no gate number was given. I grabbed Jon and Ben and we hurried toward where we thought the gate might possibly be. Other passengers were also congregating, crowding the glass doors that looked out onto the runway, and a possible plane. A set of doors opened and the crowd surged forward. The monitors were now flashing LAST CALL and still no gate information was available.
The next two events were completely new to me in terms of air-travel. First, since no one knew where they were supposed to be boarding, the flight crew was having to turn people away at the gate, telling them that they were not on this particular flight. This led to more confusion, and bad feeling. When it was our turn to board, we were told that we were on this flight, but our boarding passes had not been stamped by customs, and we would need to go back to customs in order to get them stamped. What?? I panicked for a minute, then realized that customs was not that far away, and this was doable. I fought my way back through the on coming passengers only to arrive at customs without Ben. This is not the first time we have lost Ben in the rush to catch a flight. Lets just say he identifies with the boy in the "Home Alone" movies. So now we rush back to find Ben in the crowd.
Needless to say, we made it on to the flight and found the Fly Dubai plane to be clean and comfortable. As we settled into our seats, Ben looked at his choices on the screen in the seat back before him. I heard him sigh. The start-up screen gave him two options:
Over 16 or Under 16
As he is 16, he didn't know how to respond. I told him that is how I felt about our experience with the unhelpful, and often frustrating, communication from the airline.
I have higher expectations for the city. We will find out tomorrow. I am already impressed with their duty free selection and public transport.
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