Long-haul flights from Montreal to Lahore have always been a terrifying nightmare, not only in terms of travel time but also in terms of the major blow to the wallet, especially since after the pandemic. With fares skyrocketing, I was constantly looking for the cheapest flight back home and Emirates gave me the perfect solution. The new service by Emirates Airlines, called Dubai Connect, allowed me to explore Dubai just by purchasing a plane ticket.
Costing me only CAD 1900 at the time, I bought a return ticket with a total travel time of about 34 hours, but with the added perk of staying in Dubai for free. According to the Emirates website, you are eligible to “book a Dubai Connect service, [if] the connecting flight on your itinerary [is] the best available connection” and has “a connecting stopover time of 10 to 24 hours”*.