Sunday, September 27, 2009

Back, down, blackballed

Back from Singapore and the next day the virus hit.

The one that my doctor says is sweeping Dubai - if you have it you have my sympathy, it's no fun. If you've escaped it so far I advise you to do whatever you can to avoid it.

I've been down and out for three days but as this afternoon I feel slightly less awful I thought I'd dip my toe gingerly into the blogosphere.

The Singapore Airlines flight back was going on to Cairo and I came across something that I haven't experienced before.

Cairo passengers were told, several times, that they could not leave the aircraft during the transit, including during the cleaning of the aircraft. Blackballed.

We Dubai passengers had to show our boarding passes to security people stationed right at the exit door of the aircraft to prove that we were indeed booked to Dubai and then they let us through.

Does this happen to passengers to/from other destinations or is the heavy hand reserved for Egypt I wonder?

9 comments:

Dave said...

Hey Seabee, thank God you can't catch a (human) virus through the blogosphere. Otherwise I would have to give your site a wide berth.

I travelled ex Colombo to Dubai last week and the flight (Sri Lankan Air) was going onto Kuwait. We too had to show boarding passes as we exited. For those that did not have their boarding pass, such as those that left it onboard, passports were required to be shown and we were (quite literally) ticked off a passenger manifest.

I had never struck this before, either here or in any other land.....

Grumpy Goat said...

We had to produce our boarding cards before being allowed to disembark the Emirates flight at Larnaca. Those travelling on to Malta weren't allowed to get off.

There were delays in disembarking, of course. Most passengers had seemingly packed, lost or eaten their boarding cards once the flight left Dubai. Wouldn't it have been prudent to let us all know before we arrived in Larnaca that this vital document would be required?

moryarti said...

Thats SOP, mainly for security. If a transit passenger's bags are checked in, passenger is not allowed to leave the plane during transit. (except of course, passenger is changing planes or carriers, where their bags will leave with them)..

I also think they are tightening things up a bit further these days, for swineflu and stuff..

welcoem back and get well soon..

Anonymous said...

was is swine flu?

Keef said...

Completely confused. Is this about swine flu? Gripe A (flu A) we call itin Spain. The Spanish invented it, apparently, back in the 1920s.

Seabee said...

As I said, I'd never come across this showing your boarding pass to be allowed off the aircraft before, but from what you're saying it seems to be a new general procedure.

I agree Mr Goat, it would be useful to know a bit in advance. We had everyone, me included, scrabbling about at the last minute for the tiny bit of paper that would let us disembark.

I'll put it carefully in my wallet on future flights.

Catalin said...

This is not really a new procedure. I've had this on quite a few flights (Bahrain to Male via Colombo, Dubai to Casablanca via Libya, Bahrain to Zanzibar via Dar Es Salam etc.)

I think it's just standard practice to prevent mixups with the luggage.

nzm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nzm said...

It's a procedure that's been introduced certainly in the last 2 years. I remember flying that same SIA flight which goes onto Cairo, and Cairo pax disembarked and then got fed into the transit areas in DXB while we Dubai people exited the airport.

I distinctly recall it being this way, as there were staff at the end doors of the air-bridges asking all pax if they were flying onto Cairo and then redirecting them into the transit queues.