FlyDubai has announced some positive changes to its passenger experience, which will certainly be welcomed by travelers.
Continue reading: FlyDubai Improves Economy, Adds Free Meals & Entertainment On All Fares
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The real thing of beauty at FlyDubai's is their 737 MAX 8 Business Class with actual lie-flat and the 'throne' seats (great review back in 2022, Ben!) Why US-carriers operating the Max on 5+ hour flights won't do this, I'll never understand (if it costs more to operate, then charge more, people will pay more for this over a mere recliner!). Premium passengers should be demanding that product at UA, AA, and DL (I know, Tim, they're supposed to get the max in 2026, but keep getting delayed).
in fairness, FlyDudai's business is generally also priced a lot steeper than U.S. recliner business.
That is why I explicitly included above... "if it costs more to operate, then charge more, people will pay more for this over a mere recliner!"
Let's pretend: SFO-FLL, ~5 hours, redeye, on-average, one-way, Economy $200, 'First' but it's a recliner $600 (3x), verses, lie-flat $1,200 (double)... are you telling me that someone who can afford 'nice things' wouldn't pay an extra $400 for lie-flat on that redeye?
Good point, but I'd argue they wouldn't, load factors definitely wouldn't stay the same. The point of US recliners is kinda that anyone can afford them, as proven by high load factors. It's generally a few hundred bucks extra max. I think lots of 'average' people would occasionally pay $100-$300 extra for added comfort, but $1000 extra is no longer for everyone.
One other idea is to adopt the La Compagnie model, and just offer Business Class, lie-flat, 2-2 configuration, for all seats, no middles. One can dream...
Don't the two airlines operate from separate terminals at DXB? If so, a merger could increase rather than reduce confusion among pax.
The two terminals are connected airside if I remember correctly. Only T1 is difficult to get to for a connection. I've never done it, but given that you can use the Emirates lounges in T3 and then take a flight fro T2 I imagine it's not too difficult to get between them.
Fly Dubai flies out of T3 (same terminal as Emirates) if the flight has lots of connecting passengers. Otherwise it flies out of the « low cost terminal » T2. There’s an airside connection bus between T3 and T2 but as far as I know there’s no connection between T1 and T2.
As for the food, it’s a small snack with only water offered as a drink. All other drinks and snacks are for sale.
There are connections between all terminals in DXB, including T1 and T2 airside FYI.
T1 and T3 are actually closer in distance, T2 is on the other side of the runway, so can take longer to access. There is easy connections by the way between all Terminals. Also, if your flight is originating in DXB, you will not be able to enter T3 if your flight on FZ is departing from T2 - you can only use the EK lounges if your FZ flight is departing from T3 (its only a select few destinations like ZNZ, MBA, CMB and the ones in Western Europe)