Escort between flights Dubai

[nutwood]

I have a daughter (15) travelling to Munich from Melbourne with Emirates. As it's panned out, she's travelling alone. She's a capable girl and reasonably comfortable with this but, as a parent, I'm concerned about the transition between flights at Dubai. Neither of us have ever been through Dubai so it's a blank page. I'm wondering how hard/expensive it is to arrange someone to meet her and ensure she finds her way to the next flight?
This is a totally unknown area for me but I presume there must be some sort of service out there for this situation?

 

[kpc]

Dubai is a big airport and takes time and awareness to transit esp. between terminals. I would be contacting the airline for assistance as she I think would be classified as an unaccompanied minor.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

yes, Emirates classifies unaccompanied minors as passengers up to and including 15 years, and services include escorts through the airport and a dedicated unaccompnied minor lounge. Full details here: Unaccompanied minors | Travel information | Before you fly | Emirates Australia

 

[nutwood]

Ah-ha, thank you. I probably should have thought of contacting the airline myself. We didn't really want to go down the full "unaccompanied" path but it looks as though they are quite flexible in the services provided.
It's an annoying trip as she was originally part of a group but circumstances have resulted in her travelling alone. Despite this, we've still had to use the group's travel agent, rather than booking ourselves. I would have preferred to book Qantas. Not that I have anything against Emirates, but I have lots of points and status with Qantas and could have given her a more pleasant trip.

 

[Denali]

I'm on my phone so didn't google but is Pearl Assist available in Dubai? We've used them before and would use again.

Edit. Some pricing incs lounge

 

[Quickstatus]

Doing the unaccompained minor thing requires a tiket with ONE airline

Just make sure that her ticket is all on the one booking reference and the one airline without any codeshares. I actually think that in this case QF is not necessarily the best airline for this circumstance.

If there are any delays having a ticket all with the one airline (without any codesharing) means the airline is responsible for through carriage. QF would have to codeshare to MUC.

Ive had a teenager who had to travel by herself OS and making connections by herself from age 14. They are actually quite resilient and resourceful.
I make sure she has a printed letter from both parents and also the organisation which she is travelling with to show inquisitive immigration that she is travelling legitimately. Miss QS was asked once by immigration Canada whether she was running away from home - all the way from AU! Kids these days!!!. They dont runaway to the bus stop, but to the other end of the world

 

[CaptJCool]

When my then nearly 14 yo was travelling “cattle class” by himself, while Dad was in J (business conference), the two things I remember was

1. Question re seating next to a stranger (opposite or same gender, say) which was asked at check-in
2. Different classes, different airline buses (so I went and found him and we took the economy bus...)

Let alone the challenge of lounge access.
There was of course no issues in us swapping seats for the Dubai to Europe short sector.....

On the way home, the couple from Europe were flying into Adelaide also so I had briefed them on what was going to happen. When I went back with some J class cognac for the gentleman, a sullen teenager was unresponsive...just couldn’t understand why....LOL

As for group travel agents, what I observed was the way travel insurance operates is the higher priced flex ticket means cancellations are covered more by the airline than the insurer. In the case of my kids school trip, the group paid around $600 more per tic which I suspect means the agents commission is boosted anyway and withstands any insurance claims as the airline refunds more of the higher base fare. Go figure. The positive out of this was exchange rates shifted so the staff concerned covered 10 days of meals which were otherwise expected to be paid by the students.....