I am on the list of the German ministry of foreign affairs and I get that there are some single special flights now and then - but here you can only wait, if and when they contact you. May be next year :).
I am ripening up to the flight and looking for options - so there is no ready plan as for yet. To my current knowledge, depending on the number of people and also on the chosen path (either the whole way through to Mascat or only till the border and then another taxi on the other side) it can cost from 500€ upwards per car. And as for the moment I am trying to find an opportunity for this weekend. So if somebody sees this message and is interested, please let me know.
Wow, this is really a great offer, although money is not the only issue, but it definitely makes things easier. I will send you a DM.
Btw, writing into this forum was not my first call - it was actually part of playing my resourcefulness. Like what else, what else what else can I do, who else I can ask…
There were 3 airlines who dropped me by now: Lufthansa, Turkish airlines and the British Airlines. They are pretty much saying there are no availability and we don’t know when they will come up. Try again later or get a refund and try to buy a ticket (not with them - they are all not flying anymore) for cash.
My planned end of the sit was the 6th and the original flight would be on the 7th in the morning from Dubai where I wanted to go to a hotel for the last night). So I am already overstaying on my sit by 6 days.
I think most of them have pulled out now so it will be limited options. Some friends got back to the UK on Monday they were on a cruise which got in a week ago to Dubai. They couldn’t leave the ship and repatriation flights were at 40 minutes notice so you have to be in the right place and be picked up and taken straight to the airport. There was also a £500 cost. When they hadn’t got on a flight by Saturday they paid for their own £1050 each, not covered by travel insurance due to war. The same flights 2 days later were £3000 each. They were escorted out of Dubai by 2 fighter jets which left once they were over Egypt and took a very long route home taking 10 hours instead of 6.5. They said the constant alerts and debris falling on the ship were terrifying. Very scary times
Nope. It all went down on 28 February.
@caipiroshka how are you doing ? Still stuck? Let us know when you get out.
HI all, I managed to escape and just came back home last night. Thanks a lot to everyone for your kind support! I meant a lot to me!
I’m glad you made it.
Ah that’s great news, out of curiosity did you finally get a flight or a more convoluted solution?
Thanks so much for letting us know @caipiroshka - I’ve been thinking about you and hoping that you got home soon. You must feel so glad to be home.
Thanks, yes, I finally caught a flight, which was not cancelled like 3 others, which felt a bit safer and which was bearable in price (still pricey though).
Glad you made it out.
Many travelers are still stranded or have had their travel plans messed up.
So glad to hear!
This is the saga of someone I worked with who got home last Monday from Dubai. They got into port on a cruise the day war started and were due to fly back to UK 1st March. Couldn’t leave the ship and had a week of alarms and debris falling. You had to be on 40 minutes standby for a repatriation flight which cost £500. ( Not free). When they hadn’t got one in a week they paid £1050 each for a flight. Escorted out by 2 fighter jets which left once they were over Egypt, took a long route home 10 hours instead of 6.5. Insurance won’t cover flights and by the Tuesday the flights had gone up to £3000 each!
It sounds like a friend of mine had a lucky escape from Abu Dhabi. She went on a golfing holiday package and the company looked after them really well.
They ended up overstaying by 10 days but everything was paid for by the company. They had a personal escort to the airport and two fighter jets escorted their take off. The flight landed at Heathrow rather than Manchester but they were so grateful to be home.
Egypt! It’s quite far away - may be 2h flight or longer over the whole Saudi Arabia. We were not escorted by fighter jets, but I was following our route closely and also only relieved after we passed Egypt. Israel is very close by there, which is getting a lot of bombing like any minute.
For longer time it felt for me that I am safer staying at my sit place until it didn’t and I decided to make a move… but I was extremely lucky not to be in a hotel or on a ship, but in a stable concrete building, although overlooking the Golf by all front windows.