Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 102/w39

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 39, Edition 102

Here’s your latest edition of Dubai news, deals & tips, every Friday, in 10 mins or less.

👩‍🌾 Miracle Garden to reopen

🏊‍♂️ Zero Gravity to move

🍻 1 AED Guinness

🚗 Careem Quik

🏨 Family-friendly hotels

🛬 Skywards 25th Anniversary/Silver Jubilee giveaways

💡 Why Fare Basis is the key to flight deals

💸 U By Emaar

🎫 Marriott Bonvoy Moments

PS. You can always email me here also.

Please note: some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, and will be denoted with an asterisk (*). This is a link to a partner site that may pay me a commission - at no further cost to you - and if so, helps to support me & this newsletter. For more info, please see Disclosure and Policies

DUBAI NEWS

Dubai Miracle Garden Confirms Opening Date for Season 14

Dubai Miracle Garden will reopen for Season 14 on Monday 29 September.

Just like with Global Village and other attractions, be wary of ‘copycat’ sites and only purchase tickets via official sales channels (such as the link below). Sadly, it appears that residents can no longer get discounted tickets via Emirates ID.

As yet, there are no announcements about Dubai Garden Glow reopening, perhaps because it may be moving to another location?

🔗 Dubai Miracle Garden

Check out these ‘Shaheen’ drones helping to extinguish a fire in a residential building in Al Barsha.

Dubai Butterfly Carnival will return on Saturday 08 and Sunday 09 November.

Get your Sambas on, and go and Samba!

A recent Emirates flights from San Francisco (SFO) was delayed for three hours whilst passengers deplaned due to confusion over recent announcements on H1-B visa fees.

In other visa news, although there is no official announcement, there apparently may be visa (work and tourism) suspensions coming for up to nine countries, namely :-

1. Afghanistan

2. Libya

3. Yemen

4. Somalia

5. Lebanon

6. Bangladesh

7. Cameroon

8. Sudan

9. Uganda

Note that there is nothing official announced on this, and it is apparently aimed at suspending new visa issuance. Existing visa holders should not be impacted.

It’s not the first time something like this happened, and the issue often boils down to lack of official announcements and thus, reliance of hearsay, blogs or social media tittle-tattle.

If you could be affected at all, please seek appropriate advice from official channels in the first instance.

MSC Cruises consider Dubai as the ‘linchpin’ of their Winter cruise plans, and their most popular deployment base in-region.

Football Escapes returns to Jumeirah Beach Hotel this October, with football (soccer?) camps including England stars such as Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Michael Dawson.

🔗 Football Escapes Dubai

FOOD AND DRINK

Zero Gravity to Move?

Zero Gravity, one of Dubai’s best beach clubs, has announced it will move to a new location around December 2025, though details of the new location have yet to be announced.

🔗 Zero Gravity

One of the OGs of the Dubai beach club scene, back even before ‘day passes’ and beach clubs became as abundant as they are today, was Blue Marlin Ibiza UAE.

It’s a little way out of Dubai heading towards Abu Dhabi, at Ghantoot, and it was always known as a celeb hangout as it was a bit ‘away from the crowds’. Whilst it closed down a few years back, the venue is about to reopen as Cala399 in November.

🔗 Cala 399 (Coming Soon)

Fibber Magee’s Downtown (i.e. the original outlet off Sheikh Zayed Road) are offering 1 AED pints of Guinness this Sunday, from noon until 1600 to celebrate Arthur’s Day.

If you like a tipple or a deal, Fibbers is still one of the best spots in Dubai to partake. It recently won Best Pub at Time Out’s recent Nightlife awards.

Have a look at their promos and menus here.

If you’re a fan of beachfront restaurants, be sure to check when these beauties are reopening for the winter season, as there are some fab ones (inc. French Riviera Beach, Tamoka, Cala Vista) listed.

KNOW MORE ABOUT DUBAI

Time Out’s ‘10 underrated spots’ article picked Shindagha Museum, which was covered a few weeks back in ‘Get Cultured’.

Looks like others agree too, as it’s been awarded a 2025 Traveller’s Choice award from Trip Advisor 🏆

🔗 Al Shindagha Museum

Dubai thrives on convenience and innovation, as this recent feature on food delivery apps showed.

It’s worth mentioning that it’s not just food delivery, but things like shopping, groceries and electronics are also available via services like Careem Quik. The ‘USP’ of Careem Quik is just as its name implies, in that items are aimed to be delivered within 15 minutes via Careem.

Careem Quik is for Careem Plus customers, so you will need to subscribe.

Careem Plus offers member-only prices, free deliveries, DineOut ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free’ meals and 10% cashback on 10 rides.

Top Tip - if you’re ever contemplating using an app-based service such as Uber, Bolt or Careem, always look out for the promotions, as they often will offer a trial for their premium services. These are often advantageous because they may offer discounts, benefits or other incentives, so they can work out even on a short stay. Just remember to set a reminder to cancel when you no longer need to use it

🔗 Careem Quik

🔗 Careem Plus

ONE BIG DUBAI TIP

Flight Deals Are All About Fare Basis, Baby

You guys know me by now, and how often I may say the same things about finding deals, shopping around, comparing ‘like for like’ - and this week’s Top Tip is a great example of why.

I regularly hear people say they’ve got a great deal for a flight, but when I ask at what fare basis, all I hear back is crickets - i.e. not much info.

Because, the hard truth is, unless you know the fare basis you’re booking at, you can’t know if you’ve got a great deal, or not.

What Is Fare Basis?

Fare Basis, sometimes know as ‘fare bucket’, ‘fare conditions’ or ‘fare class’ is what specifies the conditions for the ticket you hold. Even if someone else has a similar seat to you in the same cabin, they may be on a different fare basis.

Generally speaking, fare basis will denote things like :-

• baggage allowance

• Whether it’s refundable or non-refundable

• earning rates for points, miles and status,

• fees and charges e.g. seat allocation

• sales channel (i.e. whether it can be purchased directly by the public, or only via an agent or specific sales channel)

Another way to look at it is, in the last decade or so, more and more airlines are offering ‘unbundled’ fare basis, and these are often more limited. Business Class is where it’s most noticeable, as an unbundled fare basis may not allow access to lounges, chauffeur service or other perks.

In America for instance, ‘basic’ economy is another example of an ‘undbundled’ fare basis, as things that one may expect e.g. overhead bin access may not be included on these fares.

Why Does Fare Basis Matter Though?

Easy answer - it may not, but it depends on your needs.

Just as with hotels, it’s easy to see how people may just view it as ‘just a room’, but rate conditions even on the same room category can bring a range of different benefits.

In essence, fare basis matters for two reasons :-

1. comparability

2. suitability

For comparability, this means when you are shopping around and comparing prices. It’s not enough to compare just on the cost and cabin/class, because you may be comparing two different fare bases. Bear in mind, not all OTAs like Google Flights, Expedia, Skyscanner etc. will show you the granularity of fare basis, but rather just the cabin.

A great example of this is when airlines publish promotions, or blogs say they’ve found a super-low price. It may not be the price that’s dropped, but rather the fare basis, and if you’re comparing your expectations with a higher fare basis then it could prove costly if you’ve then to pay more for baggage, seat allocations and the like.

Take this example, for instance - seems a great deal from London to Dubai on Virgin Atlantic, £398 return right?

But … that fare is Economy Light, and it’s “Hand Luggage Only”. You can only select a standard seat at check-in, or pay a fee beforehand. If you need to check bags, it’s an extra cost - and the total cost to pay not be cheaper than a higher fare basis.

For suitability, whilst you may think your only ‘buying need’ is a seat on the plane, it may pay to think more expansively. For instance :-

• if you’re in a loyalty programme, different fare bases earn points/miles/status at different rates/percentages.

• If you feel you may need to make changes such as dates, different fare bases may restrict this or have far higher charges.

For instance, say I was looking to travel on flights where I know I’m not going to change dates, and want to get there as cheap as possible, and I’m not interested in points/miles, then I would look at cheaper fare basis.

If however, I’m chasing status, or looking to earn more points/miles, or likely to change my flight plans, I’d look for higher fare basis that would allow changes and higher earning rates.

As an aside, you will often find if you are on a more flexible, more expensive fare basis, you will likely be looked at more favourably for operational upgrades by the crew. This is particularly relevant to Emirates, and anything you may be looking for even things like paid upgrades, you’ll always have a better chance with a ‘higher’ fare basis.

In fact, some fare basis on Emirates are restricted so you will not be able to bid for upgrades, or upgrade with Skywards miles.

Why Emirates Can Be a Like a Low Cost Carrier (LCC)

LCCs like RyanAir are renowned for ‘nickel and diming’ every aspect of a flight, and trying to eke out every possible amount of ancillary revenue, such as seat charges, extra bag charges, priority boarding, excess baggage and so on.

One airline that shall remain nameless for instance, makes over 40% of its revenue from ‘ancillary revenue’, i.e. amounts other than the actual fare cost.

In recent years, Emirates has really pushed things like seat allocation as chargeable, so if you’re on a cheaper fare basis and you want to reserve a seat in advance, you may need to pay an uplift.

In terms of fare bases on Emirates, broadly speaking Flex and Flex Plus are both ‘flexible’ fares, i.e. they have more in-built value on things like seat selection, changes, baggage etc. Also, the higher the fare basis, the smaller amount it will cost you to upgrade (in cash or miles).

Take this flight, one way MAN-DXB on 15 October, in Economy there are two fare basis available - Flex at £523.16 and Flex Plus at £825.16.

So, if I wanted to find cheaper flights than these, then I need to look for a lower fare basis - and this is where your sales channel matters.

If you are looking to book direct yourself, say through Google Flights or Emirates website, you need to look for “Saver” fare basis. This will be more limited than Flexible, but also cheaper.

If you want to go cheaper still, then this is where travel agents help, because they can sometimes sell fare basis that the general public could not buy directly from Emirates, such as “Special”. However, as Special is lower - both in terms of cost and benefits - you may find you have to compromise on things like baggage, seat costs etc.

Also, and this is the biggie - and why Emirates can be like a LCC - is if you need to change anything at all, be it name, flight or dates, the cost often outweighs any savings you made. It can sometimes even be cheaper to write the cost off as a ‘sunk cost’ and just book another ticket, rather than pay the change fees.

Change fees will often bring in a fee for a date change, and the cost differential of the second fare. If the flight you are changing to is cheaper, you are unlikely to be refunded the difference, but if it’s more expensive, you’ll certainly be charged the upcost!

Conclusion

I realise this may be a lot to take on, and it’s not always easy to find out the fare basis of a flight. Ideally, you could use something like ITA Matrix (I’ll cover this in a future edition) and get the fare basis (which is often just a letter eg J, P etc.).

This is a screenshot showing the fare basis for the flight listed earlier is “K”. As an aside, ITA Matrix is far better for flight searches because it breaks down all the add-ons such as Air Passenger Duty (APD) and Carrier-imposed Surcharge (YQ). In the example below, the fare is £330 and there’s £203.16 in add-ons 🫢

This is why, like anything, it comes back to those mantras I often trot out - you have to know what’s available, what you’re booking, and what you need.

It also pays to think about the “what ifs” too, such as if you may be likely to need to change, but also don’t forget to compare “all-in” costs too.

That is, it could be false economy to get a super-low fare basis and then the on-costs (i.e. seat allocation, baggage or other add-ons) add up to more than a higher fare basis may have cost you.

Like getting one of those ‘super cheap’ Dubai hotels that are outlying ‘in the sticks’, then spending twice what you ‘saved’ on the hotel on taxis!

HOTEL NEWS

The most family-friendly hotels in Dubai, according to the Michelin Guide.

It’s a bit surprising to see BVlgari Resort Dubai in there, even though it has two kids clubs, I still think it’s a resort that’s more aligned to couples looking for a sedate stay.

It’s been a busy summer of recruitment at JA Hotels & Resorts.

Back in June, Rene D. Egle was announced as Cluster Manager for JA Beach Hotel, JA Palm Tree Court, and JA Lake View Hotel.

This week, those three Jebel Ali beach properties also announced :-

• Russell Dillon - Cluster Director of Sales

• Stuart King - Director of Food and Beverage

• Lara Abou Harb - Cluster Director of Revenue

Chris Wayne-Wills is the new Cluster General Manager of JA Ocean View Hotel and JA The Manor Hotel.

Grand Millenium Business Bay has reopened, or rebranded, managed by First Group Hospitality.

EMIRATES

Emirates Skywards Silver Jubilee

From 25 September, Emirates are celebrating their Silver Jubilee (25 year anniversary) with 25 days of giveaways.

Prizes include :-

• 25 Million Miles raffle draw

• Bonus Miles

• Skywards Bonuses

• Free ice cream, quizzes and activities at DXB airport

🔗 Emirates Skywards: Silver Jubilee

Emirates Cancels Boeing 777X Business Class Plans

Emirates have cancelled their plans for new Business Class seats on Boeing 777X due to likely delivery delays.

Whilst originally planned for 2020, the latest update suggested it would be at least 2027 before delivery could be taken, by which time Emirates felt the cabin may not quite be the planned ‘gamechanger’ anymore due to other airlines updating their own products in the interim. Losses are reported to be in the region of €20-30 million.

Did you know Emirates have invested more than a billion dollars into its wine programme?

Listen to this podcast episode where Oliver Dixon, who looks after Emirates’ wine collection, tells all.

LOYALTY PROGRAMMES

Don’t Sleep on U By Emaar

Whilst I’m a big fan of loyalty programmes, I tend to focus more on the international ones for no other reason than they’re often more valuable.

However, that doesn’t mean the local programmes should be overlooked, as they can still offer value and benefits.

For instance, U by Emaar is the loyalty programme from Emaar, the developer behind Downtown (including Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa, Dubai Fountain) and hotel brands such as Address, Rove and Vida.

It’s free to join, and it can work well for both earning on spend and availing of offers and benefits. For instance, I recently mentioned their Stay and Play promotion , which can offer free tickets, or how about a free dessert at Armani/Caffe?. They regularly offer discounts and promotions on dining, such as Brunchismo Friday Brunch at Farina, by way of Buy Get One Free.

This is the table of benefits, for those looking towards going up the membership tiers.

As with any loyalty programme, it’s primarily about researching all that it may offer and then leveraging that to your benefit.

In Dubai, the choice can be overwhelming at times, but it’s also helpful to know if you can receive a benefit by not going too far out of your way - e.g. a free dessert whilst you’re pottering around Dubai Mall, or Member Only Stay Offers at their hotels.

🔗 U By Emaar

🔗 U By Emaar app (App Store - iPhone)

ABU DHABI

Marriott Bonvoy in Strategic Partnership With Etihad Arena

Marriott Bonvoy have entered into a partnership with Etihad Arena to become the venue’s “official hotel partner”.

Whilst sometimes these announcements can sound like marketing waffle, they actually can be quite interesting - and beneficial.

Usually, these partnerships are a way to offer cobrands and packages, which sometimes may lead to savings on hotels and tickets or other incentives. For instance, Marriott sometimes offer rate conditions including partners that offer benefits in-venues, or conversely, ticket packages for an event can include a hotel at a preferential rate.

However, another benefit that’s not as obvious at first glance, is that Marriott has an events platform where members can bid for special tickets, events, activations and other exclusives.

This is what the article means when it references Marriott Bonvoy Moments, and if you check the Abu Dhabi page there, you can see some of the offers such as Enrique Iglesias and a stay at St Regis Abu Dhabi, currently with a bid of 88,620 points.

🔗 Marriott Bonvoy Moments: Abu Dhabi