At last! After months of waiting, we're finally going home for a month-long vacation. It will be an exciting one because we will celebrate the new year with our family. All bags are packed, now we're on our way to the airport.
Once we arrived, my sister in law parked her car in the short stay parking area.
Tip #1
Trolleys are provided at convenient locations across the airport, free of charge.
We arrived few hours earlier so we had plenty of time to check-in our baggage. There were 4 of us and we had a baggage allowance each. So, we need to know if our bags weigh the exact required amount.
Tip #2
Bring some coins with you as there are kiosks in the Dubai International Airport for weighing baggages for 2AED.
Tip #3
Baggage wrapping - Available at the check-in areas of Terminal 1 and 3. It’s a good idea to weigh your bags before you have them wrapped, thus avoiding unnecessary delays at the check-in counter. The price is: AED 25 per item at Terminal 1, 2 and DWC AED 30 per item at Terminal 3
In the check-in area, the airport staff was a bit stressed out as there were 4 of us to be check-in and there were lots of baggages. So what she did, she checked-in our baggage under the name of my sister in law since she is the 1st one on the list.
Everything went smoothly. In the Immigration area, we were given 2 options:
*To use the Smart Gates using our Emirates ID
*Do the conventional way (showing the passport to the Immigration staff)
All of us wanted to go through the smart gates but unfortunately, my sister in law forgot her Emirates ID. So she went through the conventional way and the 3 of us used the smart gates. We were checking from time to time if she also near the immigration desk but our focus was driven to my husband who had some trouble in using the smart gates (he tried few times).
By the time he was finished, we looked at the Immigration desk expecting that my sister in law is already done. We were puzzled when we saw that there was no sign of her in plain sight near the Immigration area.
Lesson #1
If travelling in groups, better to pass by the Immigration or scans together so that nobody will be left behind.
We had 2 theories in mind:
*she already finished the Immigration and went ahead without us
OR
*she might have been called by an Immigration staff
Sad to say but my assumption was correct. After more than 30 minutes of worrying and searching, we got a call from her that she is currently in the Immigration area and the staff told her that there was an unknown police report filed against her.
We can't do anything at that moment but just to pray. And I was being positive that she will be able to make it on time. Our flight got a little bit delayed and we intentionally waited to be the last ones to board the plane. We informed the staff that our relative is still on hold in the Immigration (hoping that they would do something). The staff checked the computer and saw that she was already off loaded so, she rushed us to get in the plane as we were the last ones boarding.
We were definitely not happy about what happened but it came to our mind about the status of our baggage (since it's all under her name). So my other sister in law hurriedly went back to the same staff to inquire regarding the baggage. Unfortunately, all our baggages were off loaded also because it was all checked in under my sister in law's name(the one that was off loaded)
Lesson #2
No matter what happens, never let the airline staff to check in your baggages under only one name.
We arrived at NAIA safely but worried about my sister in law's status in the airport. We got in touch with her through the internet and she was still in the airport trying to sort out the issue.
After about 4 hours, we were boarding the plane for our domestic flight. The weather was not good so our plane returned back to Manila even if we were few minutes from landing. We know everything happens for a reason. When we returned back to NAIA, we tried to rebook our tickets at the Cebu Pacific office but due to a large crowd we were unable to. Only to receive an SMS few minutes after that the airlines already rebooked us for the next morning flight.
While waiting in the pre departure area, we were able to help my sister in law. She was able to clear her name from the Police dept and the Immigration and we were able to rebook her ticket thanks to the helpful Cebu Pacific staff. If you're curious about our baggages, it will also be with my sister in law due to the internal agreement from her and the airport personnel.
I got a chance to have a bonding time with my sister as she have a flight few hours before our rescheduled flight.
So finally, we were able to fly back to Roxas City safely in the next morning. And the sister in law arrived a day after via Iloilo.
Happy New Year to all!
Godbless