flydubai REVIEW: the low-cost airline flying between Penang and Dubai

The direct connection from Penang to Dubai with flydubai might look tempting, but does it make sense to fly such a long distance with this low-cost airline? Read on for our flydubai review.

On the face of it, a direct connection from Penang to Dubai should be a good thing. Dubai International Airport is one of the best connected in the world, offering onward flights to almost every major city on the map. If you’re heading to Europe, the Middle East or Africa from Penang, the seven hour flight to Dubai might appeal as an alternative to hopping down to Kuala Lumpur and making your onward connection from there.

But, how does flydubai perform and does the convenience of travelling directly from Penang Airport outweigh the undoubted problems of using this budget airline, especially if you’re only transiting through Dubai?

Booking and before you depart

flydubai is sometimes referred to as the budget or low-cost airline of Emirates but, although they have close ties and share a partnership agreement, they are separate companies and airlines. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’re just flying a slightly reduced version of Emirates. flydubai are a low-cost airline and they make no attempt to hide this.

When making your booking, you can either book directly on the flydubai website, or use a site like Skyscanner and book via a third-party.

If you’re flying onwards from Dubai on an Emirates flight, it gets slightly complicated when managing your booking online. You’re given an Emirates booking number for the entire journey, and a separate flydubai booking number. This means that when you visit the Emirates site, you can manage the Emirates leg here (e.g. to select seats and choose meals), but the flydubai leg needs to be managed on the flydubai site. It’s a bit messy, and is the first indication that your trip isn’t going to be seamless.

The flydubai website is functional if a little clunky. There’s no webchat if you need assistance, although they do offer telephone numbers and an email address. Keep in mind that you’ll only see your flydubai flight here (e.g. Penang to Dubai), so don’t be alarmed that there’s no mention of your onward connection.

If you’ve booked the cheapest fare (and don’t have the Emirates frequent flyer status), you have to pay to choose seats on your Emirates leg but not on the flydubai leg. However, we found that once you’d chosen your seat on the flydubai leg, you couldn’t change it again. So make sure you pick the seat you want before pressing confirm, although they can be changed during online check-in.

Online check-in

If the first leg of your journey is with flydubai (i.e. when leaving from Penang), you can check-in online for the Penang-Dubai leg but not for your onward flight from Dubai(!). This feels like another hassle and might add a slight layer of stress to your pre-journey.

Online check-in opens 48 hours before your flydubai flight, but there’s a catch. If you want to select seats for free for your onward Emirates leg, you need to wait until 48 hours before your Emirates flight departs before their free seat selection opens up. So, you might prefer to delay checking in until 48 hours before your Emirates flight so you can select your seats for free. Of course, you can pay to select seats on the Emirates leg in advance and save some stress.

Once you’ve checked-in for your flight, you won’t be issued any boarding passes yet. Instead, you’ll need to proceed to the flydubai desk at Penang Airport to drop off any bags, have your documents checked and finally be issued your boarding pass for both of your flights.

Maybe it’s just us, but the whole process felt quite over-complicated and prone to confusion. The good news is that if your first flight is with Emirates (e.g. when you’re flying back to Penang), you can check in for both flights 48 hours beforehand and be issued with both sets of boarding passes.

The Penang-Dubai flydubai flight

Once you’ve battled the check-in process, you’re finally ready to board your flydubai flight. The airline tacks on a leg to/from Langkawi, so your plane will have made the short flight across the Malacca Straits before arriving in Penang.

There’s no escaping the fact that you’re flying a low-cost airline, although flydubai operate the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on this route, which are modern and feel pleasant when you first board. Leg-room and seat pitch is limited, so you do feel as if you’re crammed into the cabin, not ideal when you have a seven hour overnight flight ahead of you.

Onboard flydubai economy

You get a couple of non-budget airline features onboard, including USB charging points and a free meal (drinks not included other than a small cup of water and coffee/tea). Aside from this, the whole experience is almost identical to an AirAsia or Firefly flight, so make sure you calibrate your expectations.

At the front of the plane, there are a dozen business class seats, with the rest of the cabin set aside for economy class. One unwelcome effect of this separation is that the toilets at the front of the plane are inaccessible to economy passengers, so all 150+ of you need to battle over two toilets. The cabin crew look as unimpressed with the whole setup as you do and tend to leave the seatbelt signs on throughout the calm flight to avoid any interactions with the passengers.

The inflight entertainment looked comprehensive, but none of it is free of charge, other than some promotional videos and an information screen showing your location and some stats about the flight. The basic package costs around £5 or RM25, otherwise it’s best to bring your own entertainment.

The free meal is fine, although not up to the same standard as you’d get on Emirates or Malaysia Airlines, for example. It’s served around one hour after take-off, just before they dim the lights for the remainder of the flight.

Connecting flights and the bus

Due to depart at 9.55pm, the flight often leaves late and usually arrives in Dubai after the scheduled arrival time of approximately 1.00am. This is a very important thing to note if you’re planning to make a tight connection in Dubai, especially as we need to talk about The Bus.

Dubai has one of the most expensive and well-organised airports in the world but, for reasons which aren’t immediately apparent, flydubai manage to turn this impressive hub into something more akin to a 1980’s regional airport.

After touching down, the flydubai plane doesn’t really slow down much as it leaves the runway and begins a tortuous five-minute taxi journey past gleaming Emirates aircraft, terminal buildings and maintenance hangers, before finally grinding to a halt at the extremity of the airport. Everything is eerily quiet, with only a few other planes suffering this banishment from the airport proper. And then The Bus arrives.

Instead of arriving to the main terminal buildings and entering the terminal via a walkway (a courtesy every other airline is offered), the flydubai team have instead saved a few dollars and arranged a shuttle bus to take you the 20 minutes (no, that’s not a typo) journey back to the terminal. It’s pretty much the last thing you want after a seven hour budget flight. With only around ten seats onboard for the 80 passengers, it’s not a comfortable ride, although it does give you the chance to see parts of the airport non-budget passengers miss, such as the outer ring-road, waste disposal area and maintenance sheds.

From a logistical point of view, the combination of delayed arrival times and shuttle buses mean you should be very cautious about selecting a journey which has a connection time of less than three hours in Dubai. Anything less than this means you’ll either miss your connection, or face a mad scramble through the terminal to make your flight.

Back in Penang and final thoughts

The flight back to Penang is similar, including the twenty-minute mystery bus ride around Dubai airport to get back to the plane. As it leaves Dubai around 2.40am local time, it’s largely treated as a night-flight, with a basic meal offered a few hours into the flight.

In so many ways, this feels like a missed opportunity for Penang and flydubai. They’re obviously keen to embrace the low-cost airline model, but some of the cost-savings feel petty and only serve to suck the life out of the experience. We’re sure there are valid logistical reasons for the shuttle bus at Dubai airport but it also leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

If you’re flying westwards from Penang towards Europe and Africa, the options used to be limited to a connection in KL, Bangkok or Singapore. While it’s nice to have the option of flying directly to Dubai, the flydubai experience is so frustrating that most of the benefits are lost.

However, if your expectations are suitably low, it is handy to fly directly to Dubai and take advantage of the onward connections and far superior onboard experience with Emirates. But, if you have similar options via KL or Singapore, we’d suggest giving them serious consideration and save the low-cost airlines for shorter journeys.