I'm genuinely unsure whether I'm being daft here, so bear with me.
I have several long-haul business trips scheduled next year and I've started booking flights where I know the dates. We use a business travel provider so we are limited to the options they give us (company travel policy says we have to use them). The cheapest options either:
- include waiting around a Dubai airport for up to 6 hours in the middle of the night between connecting flights; or
- have short legs on obscure airlines with dubious safety records.
I wouldn't feel safe hanging around in a deserted airport in a country that imprisons women for reporting sexual violence. Dubai/the UAE in general is not somewhere I would ever go on holiday and I would never go myself or ask my female staff to go there for business either. One of my male members of staff is going on a business trip to Dubai, but as he's been there previously on holiday it's not a concern for him.
The flights that avoid tinpot arlines and dodgy connections are more expensive. It's my travel budget and I'm happy to justify that to my line manager, but I wondered what other people's thoughts would be in that situation.