in a single day holds a lesson for travellers. As a result of the downpour, Dubai Airport, one of the world’s busiest airline hubs, was closed.
Flights in and out were either disrupted or diverted and some passengers were left stranded for several days. Denise Southwell of North Sydney was one of those affected. After circling Dubai Airport for three hours her aircraft was diverted to Dubai World Central Airport, 40 kilometres away, where passengers spent another three hours waiting for disembarkation.Eventually she was bussed to a hotel, where she spent another two days before boarding her onward flight to Spain.
If you have a tour booking, a cruise, an event to get to, don’t time your arrival for the day it begins. Flight delays are common, baggage can get delayed and a day or two in hand gives you the flexibility to cope with these situations. Tour operators are not always helpful, however. Dr Joseph Ting of Brisbane planned to arrive in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek a day before his epic 22-day Stans tour began. Since he was flying in from Delhi, and to a relatively remote location, this seemed a prudent move, but his UK-based adventure tour operator wouldn’t play ball. His request for a transfer from the airport to the hotel where his group would be staying met with a blank refusal.
The cost of a taxi between airport and city hotels is about $10. Using the fig leaf of eco consciousness as an excuse for failing to provide a meet-and-greet transfer from Bishkek’s Manas Airport is mean-spirited and uncaring, especially when it involves a traveller arriving alone in an unfamiliar city.is a Sydney-based writer and photographer who has been writing travel articles since 1982.