I recently flew out of Dubai’s DXB airport – Terminal 1 as I was flying Air India from DXB-MAA. As there are no fast-track gates for business class, I used the meet and greet service available with the IndusInd Avios Credit Card for Departures. Here’s everything you need to know real quick.
Service
Marhaba offers three packages for meet and greet: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The bank provides the Bronze package, which includes fast-track immigration but does not come with a porter.
Additionally, the Bronze package is a shared service, meaning a single executive will handle multiple guests at the same time.
My Experience
I was contacted over WhatsApp a few hours prior to the trip and instructed to report to the Marhaba counter upon entering the airport.
An executive was ready as soon as I reported at the counter. After completing the quick tax refund claim, I was taken to the business class counter where I received my business class boarding pass.
Then, I headed to Marhaba’s dedicated fast-track immigration lane. This is probably the same lane used by staff, as I also saw a pilot just ahead of me. With just one person in the queue, I got through pretty quickly.
Next, I was taken to the fast-track security lane, which wasn’t busy either. The good thing about UAE security is that you don’t need to take your laptop out.
While on the way, the executive informed me that she couldn’t accompany me beyond security and gave me a rough idea of how the rest of the process works.
Basically, I would need to take a train post-security that would take me to the departure gates as Dubai is almost always crowded.
Overall, this saved me well over 30-45 minutes compared to going through the regular line or even the smart gates.
Bottomline
While the international meet and greet service offered through the IndusInd Avios Credit Card was quite basic and not end-to-end, I would use it any day as it saves a lot of time.
Overall, it took me about 10 minutes to go from landside to airside, which is quite a feat for international departures. It was super smooth and ultra-fast.
From my experience, the meet and greet service for DXB departures saves more time over DXB arrivals but arrivals has it’s own advantage.
However, I wonder why Dubai, despite being world-famous for its high-tech infrastructure, has no fast-track gates in Terminal 1 of DXB international airport.
