Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 18, Edition 131

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

📈 Flight pricing - why YQ matters, and how to breakdown costs
❌ RIP Pruvo 😢
🛬 Emirates increases schedule
🛢️ UAE to leave Opec
🌴 Palm Jebel Ali
‼️ UAE travel ban - Iran, Lebanon & Iraq

Note - As the regional situation trundles on, and with the UAE being on the FCDO ‘advise against travel’ list, I’ll widen the scope of these newsletters to include general travel tips and information, as I’m aware some of you may be looking for alternatives to Dubai, especially for Summer and this year.

PS. You can always email me here also.

PPS. If this newsletter and its tips are helpful and of value to you, please consider buying me a drink or donating to my Tip Jar.

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Perhaps the biggest news this week from the UAE is the announcement of leaving Opec and Opec+.

The UAE joined OPEC in 1967 through Abu Dhabi, and remained a member after the formation of the federation in 1971. The state news agency WAM has said the move “follows a review of production facility and capacity …. while continuing the support global energy stability”.

In terms of oil export by Opec countries, UAE is third with 2.88 million barrels per day, compared to Iraq in second with 3.26 and Saudi Arabia 6.43. The UAE is fourth in terms of oil production, with 3.12 million barrels per day.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out over time, and what the reasons may have been, but it’s likely to impact Opec’s influence over oil prices.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has announced a travel ban on UAE nationals travelling to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq.

They have also called for UAE nationals in those three countries to “expedite their immediate return to the UAE”.

Dubai is currently developing Palm Jebel Ali, a virtual copycat of Palm Jumeirah although 50% bigger, and further south down by Jebel Ali.

Whilst it’s been a bit on-off in terms of progress (work first started in 2002), Nakheel recently awarded contracts worth more than 3.5 billion AED ($950 million) to build 544 villas. Homes are expected to be ready from 2028.

There will be hotels eventually - potentially 80! - but for now all the action appears to be the off-plan property developers.

Fun fact - Dubai has just 72km (45 miles) of natural shoreline, and the Palm Jebel Ali will add another 90 kms of coastline.

🔗 Palm Jebel Ali

I know we live in an attention- and time-short world, but every now and again it’s worth ‘digging into the detail’, and this week’s tip is as good example of that if you’re looking at flights.

All too often you may hear people say oh, flight prices are going up (or down), when it’s not altogether accurate.

Of course, the end price you pay may change, but in some cases it’s not the fare that’s going up - it’s the taxes and charges.

To help break this down, because it’s well worth knowing and taking the time to understand this, for every flight there is a ‘fare basis’ or ‘fare bucket’ or ‘fair code’ or ‘fare type’, along with numerous add-ons depending on the carrier and the departure airport.

When pricing flights up, it helps to be able to see the full breakdown of costs, and not all websites or apps will do that.

The website I use to do this is ITA Matrix, and it’s far more powerful than Google Flights, SkyScanner and similar sites/apps. There is a bit of a learning curve to get it working to its full potential, but it still works well for simple searches. There also is an extension called ITA Matrix Powertools that adds even more functionality.

I use it for three main reasons :-

🔗 ITA Matrix Airfare Search
🔗 ITA Matrix Powertools extension
🔗 ITA Matrix Guide

So as a worked example, I priced up a one-way flight from Manchester (MAN) to Dubai (DXB) on Wed 20 May in Economy.

Looking at the screenshot about 4 lines down from the top, you can see the fare basis - i.e. K. This alone is one of the main steps to comparing flight prices on a carrier, as some airlines may have ten or so fare types even in the same class (i.e. Economy).

Some may be non-refundable, some flexible (i.e. refundable), some different earning rates for points/miles, some may be restricted (i.e. agent only or employee rates) - the list goes on.

Similarly, if you book an Emirates flight from a travel agent, they may be able to offer you a non-public fare type which may or may not be restricted. For the same reason, it’s often why agents may offer a cheaper flight than what you may find searching for yourself.

It’s also helpful to know the fare type code because more airlines are ‘unbundling’ these days, such as ‘basic’ Business Class or Basic Economy, so whilst you’re sat in the same class, you may have restrictions such as no lounge access or a reduced baggage allowance. It can often work out cheaper overaill going for a higher fare type if you value the benefits, and it can save fees (e.g. seat allocation, changes etc.).

Looking about halfway down the screenshot, under ‘Fare’, it gives a bit more information on the ‘booking code’ and fare type, K, and the cost - £353.00.

So given the total cost of £571.33, the ‘fare’ is £353.00. In other words, the fare is just under 62% of the overall cost, or 38% of the total cost is add-ons!

Below the fare type, there are breakdowns of all the add-ons, such as :-

The big takeaway here to understand is this - you could have two flight legs, say one from UK-DXB and another DXB-MAN in exactly the same fare type, but with different add-ons each way. In the above example, two are imposed because the flight departs UK, one is imposed by the carrier, and another by the UAE.

Flying from the United Kingdom, apart from Inverness, brings in Air Passenger Duty which is often one of the more expensive add-ons, and it’s usually increased for premium classes also.

This is why ITA Matrix is great for comparison - because sometimes, it’s the add-ons that are increasing prices, and you can then make smarter decisions such as if one carrier adds surcharges when another doesn’t, or a country or airport adds higher add-ons than another.

However, the one to really focus in is YQ - which has moved from being a strict fuel surcharge to a general one. Even if you’re not paying cash for a flight, and using points or miles for a redemption, you will likely still face add-ons - and they can vary wildly between carriers. Virgin Atlantic, for instance, adds on quite a lot to redemption flights.

In the screenshot below, even using Virgin Points for redemptions, there are ‘taxes, fees and charges’ of £208 for Economy, £438 for Premium Economy and £590 for Upper Class.

The chances are, with the jet fuel scenario, it’s the YQ that will increase. Emirates, for example, brought in increases of 7%+ to their YQ on flights booked since 23 April. What’s more, airlines don’t always announce their surcharges. Travel agents may get advised by a circular from the carrier, or the more open carriers may issue a press release, but this is why ITA Matrix is always worth checking.

Emirates issued a travel update on 29 April. It wasn’t an extension of their refund/rebook waiver (currently up to 31 May), but rather a reminder that they are still operating a reduced schedule even though they are adding key regional destinations such as Beirut, Oman and Kuwait back.

According to tracking sites such as Flight Radar 24, Emirates is currently operating around 75/80% of its pre-conflict schedule.

🔗 Emirates Travel Updates
🔗 Emirates Flight Schedules

Following on from last week’s article on the impact of jet fuel (pricing and supply), several airlines have issued updates :-

Notice these are primarily Low Cost Carriers (LCCs), and this goes back to last week’s explanation of ‘hedging’’. Jet2 for instance has ‘hedged’ 87% of its summer fuel requirement, thus has cost certainty.

Even if an airline hedges, it doesn’t mean it won’t raise prices. British Airways, for instance, hedges but has warned of higher prices.

Virgin Atlantic have already raised fares, as their CEO has warned the aviation sector “cannot absorb” jetfuel costs at their current levels.

Sad news alert …. one of my favourite ways to save money on hotels, Pruvo, is closing down to the general public.

I’m not sure when this will happen, but I understand they’re moving towards using their service for ‘business to business’ (B2B) rather than general customers (B2C).

It’s a shame because Pruvo was a terrific way to track price drops on existing hotel bookings, and whilst other services have tried something similar, they faded away.

Perhaps the best method to gauge pricing over time these days is Google Maps/Travel, as it now tracks pricing and price history in a similar way Google Flights does for air travel. I’ll cover this in greater detail another time, perhaps by doing a video on the YouTube channel.

The big thing to bear in mind when looking at Google pricing for hotels is that it’s a price range, based on many different sales channels, and each may offer pros and cons. For example, some of the lower pricing you may see is from less reputable sites, that often won’t offer instant confirmation or live pricing.

Additionally, you need to be able to compare ‘like for like’, especially on rate conditions. Whilst prices may indicate the same room category, the rate conditions could vary in terms of benefits, cancellation, payment terms etc.

As a very rough guide, look for the ‘big boys’ in the OTA world such as Hotels or Booking or Agoda, but also the official site for the hotel/chain/loyalty programme. Often these are around the same price, which indicates that’s more likely the ‘gettable rate’.