Abu Dhabi airport transit zone. Our reviews for Etihad Airways

Today, most Middle Eastern airlines sell tickets to their customers at very attractive prices. But a considerable number of passengers are interested in issues related to the transfer. Of particular interest to travelers is the transfer to Abu Dhabi.

To avoid trouble, Russians should know when they need transit visa for a transplant in the United United Arab Emirates.

The third case is the most interesting. So, if a traveler purchased tickets from more than one company, he runs the risk of stumbling into a sharp pitfall. The fact is that the alliance of tickets is excluded. The traveler's luggage will not be transported to the final destination. In order to pick up their belongings, the traveler will have to leave the “safe” zone.

How to get permission

A person looking closely at usually pursues goals such as:

• visiting friends;
• visiting relatives;
• transit trip;
• tourist rendezvous.

If a Russian plans to take a short walk around the city or this beautiful country, then he needs permission from certain authorities.

Permission can be issued, which is located in Moscow. You can also request a permit by contacting "your" travel company. Help Russian tourist maybe both a "native" and an Arab organization.

If a Russian plans to make an independent rendezvous, then he needs to enlist the support of only the local EC. In this case, you can buy air tickets only through one company. The employees of the EC must inform the traveler about this nuance.

Applying for a transit visa in Abu Dhabi

A transit visa can be issued in the same company that carries out the traveler's flight.

Applications can be made online or in person. In the second case, the traveler undertakes to visit the office of the airline.

Important to consider

A transit visa is issued for a period of four days. Its validity period is 14 days. This period includes the date of issue of the visa document. To avoid trouble, you should draw up a visa document shortly before traveling.

Consideration of the package of documents is usually carried out within three days.

Upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, the traveler is required to present a printed proof of their visa. You also need to provide your passport and original visa document.

The approximate cost of a transit visa document today is $70.

What documents are required

To obtain a transit visa, you must include in your package of documents:

1. Passport (you need to provide both the original and a high-quality photocopy).
2. One high-quality photo taken in accordance with the requirements of the Schengen countries.
3. A correctly completed application form (to be completed in English).
4. Certificate from the official place of employment.
5. Certificate confirming the fact of solvency.
6. Letter from the person acting as a sponsor (relevant for persons over 60 and under 20 years old).
7. Photocopies of air tickets in both directions.
8. Booking a hotel room.

If the request is made online, then all documents must be sent electronically. To do this, you must first high quality scans. Photograph and scans must meet all requirements.

An extract from a bank account can act as a certificate confirming the fact of solvency. Sometimes it is enough and an extract from bank card.

Obtaining a transit visa to Dubai

The procedure for obtaining a transit visa is a fairly quick and simple process. It will also not be difficult to arrange. The details of the execution of this document depend on the airport at which the transfer is planned.

In total, there are two ways to quickly issue: independently and with the help of Emirates airline employees.

Benefits of VC services

The main disadvantage of cooperation with visa centers is the undemocratic cost of their services. But one thing cannot be taken away from specialists: they work quickly and very professionally.

The main advantage of cooperation with a local VC is time saving. You can apply for a transit visa in person or online. In this case, the package of documents is considered no more than three days.

If the issue is resolved positively, then a few days later the traveler can download a transit visa in his virtual office.

It is important to consider that Friday and Saturday are days off in the Arab Republic.

Airline help

A request for a transit visa can be made on the airline's website. This step is relevant only after purchasing tickets. A request for the issuance of this document through the airline must be submitted 3-4 days before the proposed rendezvous.

If the issue is resolved positively, then permission will be sent to the traveler's email. It must be printed and attached to the main package of documents. The main documents include air tickets and a foreign passport.

But if the traveler has not yet traveled abroad during the current five-year period, he will have to provide a certificate from the official place of employment. A bank statement will also work.

Relevance of the visa document

The validity of a transit visa, which allows the traveler to stay in the UAE, is over 96 hours. It can be issued for a period of 60 days. During this time, the traveler undertakes to use it.

This type of visa document is relevant only at the airport. The traveler must depart and arrive only at this airport. You can move freely around the airport.

What you need to know about Abu Dhabi Airport

Russian travelers note that Abu Dhabi Airport looks more like a small state. In many ways, it is similar to Singapore Airport.

This is a fairly comfortable place to wait for your flight. One of the undoubted advantages here is the possibility of obtaining a special voucher. However, this is only true when the transplant takes more than four hours.

Tatyana Solomatina

Long layover in Abu Dhabi: why didn’t you manage to save money?

Hello dear readers! I am with you again and today I want to raise two questions: “In what cases do cheap curved tickets go sideways to us? Does a long layover in Abu Dhabi really save money on the road?”

I did not intend to come to the UAE. But the circumstances were such that I managed to visit this state quite by accident. The fact is that when I was going to Sri Lanka, I bought a cheap flight with a long wait for a connecting flight at the airport in Abu Dhabi. But then I did not expect at all that in the end, such savings would result in me a much larger amount than a direct flight.

In this story, I will write why crooked tickets with a long wait for the second plane in the UAE can be more expensive than direct flights, talk about the features of transit through Abu Dhabi and show all the pros and cons of this with my own example. I hope my experience will help you choose the right decision when planning your holiday.

Expenses

In the end, the second option won, and this is what I got for two:

1. Tickets - 50,000 rubles
2. Transit visas - 11,000 rubles
3. Individual tour of Abu Dhabi 6 hours - $ 300
4. Lunch on the roof of a skyscraper - $ 70

Total: 61,000 rubles and $ 370 (the dollar already cost 60 then)

And at the same time, the visas were one-time, we still spent 12 hours on the return flight in the transit zone. And direct tickets, which I thoughtlessly refused, would have cost 74,000 rubles for two. Did you save well?

• When buying a ticket with a long transfer in a third country, study the information on staying in this place in advance and calculate all the options. Perhaps such a flight will be much more expensive than direct flights, as happened in my case.
• If you decide to transfer to Abu Dhabi, you can safely choose a 1-hour connection. Despite the fact that our plane was delayed for 40 minutes, such transit passengers Mourners with signs were waiting at the gangway. They were the first to be released from the plane, their next flight was specially delayed, waiting for our arrival. Such a well-functioning system really surprised me. I sadly looked after them, thinking that I would have been in their place if I had made the right decision.
• If you still have a long connection and you want to see the city, try to choose a flight so that it arrives early in the morning. Then you will be in time for group tours, they are much cheaper than individual. But it is also advisable to order them in advance.
• To still stay in a transit hotel, you need to book places well in advance of the trip.
• If you decide not to spend money, pass the time in the transit zone, then try to find a place in a cafe where there are comfortable soft sofas. Order a couple of coffees and you won't have to spend many hours on the hard benches in the waiting room. This is how we spent 12 hours on the way back. No one touched us and did not ask to make room. The cafe was in a nook, it was quiet and peaceful there.
• There are smoking areas in the transit hall, so as not to lose your place in the cafe, it is better to leave in turn. The same applies to visiting toilets and shops.

findings

So is it possible to save money by buying a cheap flight with a long layover in the UAE?

Of course, you can save money, but only if you are mentally prepared for a difficult wait and do not spend money on a more comfortable stay there. If this prospect does not appeal to you, then you need to clearly understand that long stay in this country will lead to big expenses that will negate all your desire to save money on the flight. In this case, it is better to accept and buy tickets for a direct flight, of course, if you do not plan to visit another country at the same time.

“In my case, there was only one big plus. A wonderful tour, which was conducted by a wonderful guide Mikhail Rakushin https://vk.com/id192986287, allowed me to form a definite opinion about this country and spend unforgettable hours in the chic emirate of Abu Dhabi. I am not a fan of Muslim countries and I definitely would not go to the UAE purposefully. You can read more about my impressions.

General information I wrote about the UAE in an article.

Once again, I say goodbye to you.

Tatyana Solomatina

We have not yet flown with these companies, and if we heard a lot of good things about Etihad, and from people who can be trusted, then Air Berlin was something like a “dark horse” for us. It seems like we knew something about him, and it seems not bad, but how it really is - we imagined it very vaguely. The only thing we were sure of was that they were Germans, and the Germans were order and discipline.

Well, in this article we will briefly talk about the flight with the Etihad airline and our reviews about it. And also about how the long docking in Abu Dhabi went, and how we entertained ourselves and occupied ourselves at this airport for 19 hours.

Flight and aircraft reviews

The salons are spacious and comfortable, the distances between the seats are slightly increased, you can easily stretch your legs. The seats themselves are very comfortable and recline well.

Service quality. The food is quite tasty and quite satisfying. We expected it to be a little worse. From drinks - as usual: water, tea, coffee, many juices, alcohol (wine, whiskey, vodka, liquors, etc.). And the service kit looked like this: a nice handbag - a cosmetic bag with a zipper, in which there were napkins, earplugs, a high-quality eye patch, a toothbrush and toothpaste. In the toilet of the plane, there was a cream and a moisturizing facial spray. The video collection of the aircraft had as many as 11 films in Russian. We liked flying Etihads, even very much, and in our rating of airlines they came close to Emirates.

Long layover in Abu Dhabi

Less shops less territory but you can walk if you want.

Of course, it was possible to go out into the city by issuing a visa in advance (do not forget to book a hotel to obtain it). But we did not do this, although we originally planned to take a walk around Abu Dhabi. Walking in Indonesia...

And so, upon arrival, we first went to the Etihad counter (you should look for it in the round room on the second floor) to find out what free services are available to us at this dock.

It turned out that only coupons for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Having received them, we went to have breakfast, although before that we had already tasted a wonderful breakfast on board the Etihads. We thought the food tasted better than Emirates. But back to the airport. You can redeem coupons in two places - in a cafe - pizzeria

and at McDonald's. They are also located on the second floor of the round hall. In the cafe for breakfast there was only a croissant and coffee. But McDonald's fed, if not healthy, then very satisfying - potatoes, chickens, a hamburger and coffee

We had lunch and dinner at the cafe. During the day and in the evening the food was good. The pizzeria menu looked like this

We flew to Vietnam with Eitihad Airways. This is not the first time we have traveled with this company, but we chose it not because we already knew, but for more banal reasons - the cheapest way was to fly from Krasnodar to Ho Chi Minh with Etihad Airways

If we were flying from Moscow, there would be more choice and I think the route would be much cheaper. But the very direction Krasnodar-Moscow and back is terribly expensive. And in recent years it has become more and more expensive. Resorts Krasnodar Territory, What did you want…

The price for tickets for three Krasnodar-Ho Chi Minh City and back is 69,000 rubles. Not really super budget. But acceptable.

But the path itself, to put it mildly, is not very comfortable. If in Moscow the transfer is only more than two hours, just the time to stretch our legs, then in Abu Dhabi we had to spend about 12 hours there and about 8 hours back. And both times the transit was at night.

I remember we somehow flew through Beijing to Thailand, so we still managed to wander around Beijing and in Chinese cafe overeat while the plane to Bangkok was waiting.

What to do in Abu Dhabi at night? In addition, a transit visa is required to enter the city. It costs money, specifically $68 per person. We decided that a night in Abu Dhabi was not worth that kind of money and planned an overnight stay at the airport.

By the way, if you are flying by the Emirates or Eitihat, you have a chance to get a room at the airport hotel absolutely free of charge. Three conditions are needed for a free overnight stay at a hotel in Abu Dhabi:

• hotel availability,
• inclusion of your destination in a special list to whom you can give toll-free numbers at all
• and luck.

The fact is that on the Etihad Airways website it is completely unambiguously made clear that economy class passengers should not count on any privileges in the form of a hotel, even if the transfer is very long.

But however there are many cases when the numbers were given. Again, it all depends on direction and luck. If you are flying to the Seychelles, it is quite possible to get a number. But if you are heading to Bangkok in economy class, in any case, you will not be provided with a hotel, even if the connection is a day.

To find out this question, you need to call the Moscow office of Etihad Airways no earlier than a month before departure and no later than five days. Explain the situation and wait for the verdict.

We somehow hoped that we would be lucky, but alas and ah - no, no luck. The direction Moscow - Ho Chi Minh City is new for the Eitihads and everything is still not clear with them. If you are reading this and heading to Vietnam, I think you should already try to get a free place to stay, maybe you will be more lucky.

Free food at Abu Dhabi Airport

But at the Abu Dhabi airport you can dine and dine for free. If you have more than 4 hours of transit, go to the Transit construction site at the airport, show boarding passes and you are given vouchers for free meals at the airport cafe. You can eat at establishments such as McDonald's, King Burger, Pizzeria. We were given coupons for lunch and breakfast.

These food stamps are issued at Abu Dhabi Airport

Three portions of food for free vouchers turned out like this

Portions are large, one liter Cola is worth something, plus a bunch of potatoes and a burger.
About vouchers and free food also nothing is said on the official website. I was told about the vouchers by a nice girl who works in the Moscow office of the Eitihad airline.

Blankets are also given out at the transit counter.

Here you can get food stamps and blankets

It is best to sit at Abu Dhabi Airport on reclining seats. These are available in every airport terminal. I think it's better to walk and look than to add up not to understand how uncomfortable the seats are. If the sunbeds are occupied at one end, there are free ones at the other.

And you can sit right on the floor. Even more comfortable than chairs

You can also take a shower at the airport. Oh well, after a long flight. The shower is clean and there are paper towels. We had our own towels and slates. (Well, yes, we trudged to Vietnam with our flip flops))

Conclusion:
It is quite possible to survive a long connection at the Abu Dhabi airport. There is a shower, there is free food, there are sunbeds with blankets. It remains only to take a little whiskey sleeping pills - and the next flight will come very soon.