Disaster: My Jeddah Airport Transit Experience

Hi Ben,

I recently had another bad experience in Jeddah, this time though, at the relatively new Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport.

On 17 December 2023, I was travelling on a Scoot airlines flight from Singapore to Jeddah transiting there for 4-5 hours ahead of my onward Saudia airline flight from Jeddah to Addis Ababa through the above-mentioned airport. Because Scoot and Saudia have no joint transit agreements in place, I wasn't able to book a point-to-point ticket and had hence to rely on a two-ticket booking instead, whereby I would be in charge of collecting and re-checking in the luggage at Jeddah airport for the second leg of my flight with Saudia.

Initially I thought that was ok, because as a Swiss citizen I could easily get out of the transit area, clear immigration, collect the luggage from the conveyor belt and check it back in for my second flight. However, quite soon, I realized that my citizenship would require me to apply for an e-visa or queue for a visa on arrival, both of which would be costly and lengthy. I had contacted the Saudi embassy in Singapore and Saudia sales desk in advance of my trip and they had advised me to either do the visa on arrival procedures or to ask the international transit desk for assistance to handle the luggage at the terminal and have it checked in for me. Whilst this is an out-of-scope procedure I was told that the transit counter could normally handle that, especially if I had sufficient time and did not have any valuables or dangerous substances in the checked in luggage (both of which didn't apply in my case).

So with that in mind, I pushed all worries aside, packed my belongings and boarded my plane in Singapore. Once I landed in Jeddah, I first approached the transit desk, asked them for their help, to which they replied they could provide me with a boarding card for my onward flight to Addis, but could not handle the luggage's transfer to the next flight. Therefore I was sent to immigration, asked to apply for a visa, clear immigration and exit the international zone.

As I was waiting in the very long queue (maybe 1h+ of waiting time) of visas on arrival, together with many pilgrims and other tourists that had not pre-cleared or had issues with their entry, I asked a customs officer on the side, if there wasn't a smarter way of collecting my luggage and checking it back in without necessarily clearing immigration and having to go in and out of the international zone. He responded that I should ask once again my airline (Saudia), because normally they were the ones in charge of luggage handling and ticketing, and that normally there should not be any problem for the transit desk to handle such a situation and make sure that the luggage was on its way with me to the final destination. That would both save me time and money as I wouldn't have to clear immigration and enter Saudi grounds.

So, optimistic at hearing these sentences, I went back to the international transit zone and asked, once again, the Saudia desk for assistance. There I went straight to the supervisor/manager of the team, which I had discussed my situation with a few minutes earlier, and told him what the customs officer had just told me; that normally there should be a way for Saudia to ensure that my luggage would be safely checked in and on its way to Addis on the same flight I was supposed to board in 4-5 hours with Saudia, through their ground staff. This time, he said that, well...indeed, there was a way to do so, but it was unofficial and that noone could guarantee that the luggage would make it there, as I would not have any baggage tag in hands (they could not pass it on to me at the international transit desk without having me physically doing the check in myself). He said, he also had no control or ways to track the ground staff at the arrivals, so if I have to take full responsibility if anything were to happen to the luggage. Naive, and thinking that in Saudi Arabai we were in a safe and developed country with people of trust, I followed the advice of the customs officer and went ahead, despite the supervisor's warning.

He scanned my prior baggage tag, a copy of my boarding pass with Saudia for my onward flight to Addis and sent me off, saying that he had sent those to the ground staff on Whatsapp and that they would take care of the next steps. He sent me off to the security and transit area for my connecting flight, which I embraced happily at the idea that all had been sorted out and that I would now have plenty of time to relax in the transit zone.

Fast forward, I boarded the airplane to Addis with a Skypriority ticket, had a very smooth airborne journey, arrived there a few hours later on Dec 17, but never found or saw any traces of my luggage ever again. In the meantime, we are now Jan 2, and I still haven't heard of any updates from Saudia airlines. What's worst, all the numbers (in total almost c.10) that I found or were given by the Saudia staff or the airport hotline have led me to erroneous or out-of-service numbers from the airport (KAIA), the ground handling company (SGSS) or the airline company (Saudia).

I have filed a complaint and a search at the port of arrival (ADD) and whilst it has been recorded and both the staff in Addis and Singapore have checked and confirmed multiple times that they had not found any such luggage piece or - in the case of Singapore - confirmed that the luggage piece had well been checked in at the departure point, in Jeddah, I have seen no search, nor any activities and responses. The service of the airline has stopped at the port of arrival and since then it is impossible to contact them, their hotline constantly asking for a reservation number which noone has or doesn't seem to exist. All their contact lines are said to be out of service or wrong numbers. When checking on the world tracing app (World Tracer Aero), it looks like the airline or the ground staff at the airport has not conducted any searches and there are no responses to my prompt for feedback via email or the tracking system.

Separately and desperately, I was told by the airport staff, that I should initiate an investigation through the Civil Authority.

Has anyone had any similar prior experience like that? Have you ever dealt with or heard of that Authority in Saudi Arabia and is it worth the hassle of conducting such an enquiry? Would it make sense for me to transit through Jeddah on my returning flight to Singapore from Europe, just to search in their lost and found department and, if possible, to confront the ground handling / airline staff on this mishap?

In hindsight, I regret not having done the e-visa and simply cleared immigration prior to boarding the second flight. But I was naive, trusted the local staff too much, was negatively influenced by the long waiting queue, bureaucracy and financial costs of an application for visa on arrival, whilst I simply wanted to relax at a coffee or F&B shop in the transit zone. I should have thought farther...

Please avoid making the same mistakes, if ever in this or a similar situation, and make sure that you, and noone else, touches your luggage wherever you are transiting from one flight leg to the next one.

Kind regards,
Samir

I wish I could add our failed experience to your post.

We came on a flight from London Heathrow, transiting via Jeddah to Dhaka. It was delayed by 4 hours.

There where 12 travellers, 4 adults and the rest where children, including 2 toddlers and a baby.

The flight arrived with about 90 mins to the next flight, given the number of delayed travellers, they wouldn't let anyone transit to their on flights. We had to stay in their Aeroflot hotel on the airport.

The staff at the hotel where just racist and rude. To any non white person they snapped and would ignore them. If you where white it was yes sir no sir.

The hotel only had WiFi in reception, so letting people know of delays was limited. The food was barely edible with pulses and rice with a bottle of water. Breakfast was cold dry toast with over boiled eggs. The worst was a fire alarm at 7 am for 40 minutes - technical error.

Our on flight came 6 hours late, was over booked. They changed terminals 3 times.

Never flying Saudia again!

Now you know why the first immigration officer greeted you so warmly. He was having a good laugh at your expense. Never leave the airport without cash. In many "out of the way" countries you need to find special ATMs that are linked up for foreign transactions, and guess where most of those are - airports. The classic for this used to be Japan. Even in Singapore, bank ATMs don't take each other's cards, although most handle foreign now. And you expect ATM's to be refilled promptly ? Next you'll be asking Saudi to get a service oriented culture. Also, driving in Saudi and Arab countries in general is MAD. What you experienced is perfectly normal, The wealthy think nothing of smashing up cars and replacing them, and the resulting driving style trickles down from there. I'm convinced insurance isn't even a thing there. Just stop having expectations of normality from an entitled American perspective. You don't even realize you're doing it, even after reading this. The bottom half of society in Saudi are treated like sh!t and you joined them for a day. In the absence of proper and thorough research which it seems you don't do, assume you are going to an alien planet and work back from that assumption :)

Thanks for sharing. While I doubt I’ll ended up at Jeddah airport in my lifetime, this article is a good reminder to always research terminals thoroughly as you never know what you are going to get. These days I find VIP service at various airports work really well. Sometimes there is zero line at immigration while other times I’m so thankful that I spent the money to skip huge lines. You win some and you loose some. Several of your readers cautioned about Manila airport. I’ll be going there in the coming year or two. I’m already dreading it….Hopefully there is VIP service at that airport that can help me navigate between terminals.

I was there on 20th November and left on 25th this was my first time and I went there to do umrah on 20th I arrived 06.30 and had a smooth run through immigration and customs went to taxi desk for information going to makkah lady was professional and gave me good advise as I was walking out of the terminal one guy approached me and I told him that I want to go Makkah to my hotel he asked for 250 sar and I said 200 he said fine at the same time another guy offered me 150 sar ride and they started arguing each other police man came to me in a second and asked me which of the driver I would like to travel with I said the one who offer me 200 not the one who said 150 I had a smooth ride good driver and great communication as well don't always blame others prepare yourself when travelling anywhere in the world

You admitted to the rookie mistakes, and I agree it is an amusing story -- with important lessons for other travelers (always have some cash, research transit airports, don't accept rides from strangers). My only humble comment is that it doesn't really sound like a "disaster." You made it quickly and easily through immigration. You made it from one terminal to the other and, presumably, caught your onward flight. The experience was an "adventure," but not a "disaster."