Duty Free Not So Free as of May 1
 

The latest from the "Tower of joy and good tidings" is that from May 1 the duty free allowance for crew will be zero for crew. The good news is that there is no change for passengers :rolleyes:.

From what I see, the duty will be 50% on bottles with a receipt provided, so that AED 100 bottle of wine will now cost you AED 150. I'm not sure what the penalty will be if you "happen to lose the receipt", but I'd venture a guess and say it will be ridiculous.

Yes I am really feeling like a valued professional at EK! And they wonder why no one wants to join any more?

I thought this issue had gone away.....

Mr Outlaw

Can you please tell us where this info has come from as there's nothing on the portal.

Harry

Seriously, they have these forums, they see how the peasants are revolting and yet they penny pinch to squeeze the lemon of its last drops of juice.

They tried to say it was the customs authority last time and that backfired on them. Why do they have to keep pushing and pushing, they do nothing except create bad feeling and add another straw to the donkeys back.

I hope this is just another bad rumour....enough metaphors for today ������

When you have wanna be cabin crew line up from as early as 0300 during the open day at HQ, it’s no wonder the leaders feel they are firmly in the driving seat again!

http://https://lovindubai.com/lifest...ruitment-queue

If this does come back again, we ALL need to take 5 min of our time and drop an email. To whomever someone here thinks is best, and we need to find out why:
Why is this "rule" not applicable to our neighboring crew friends down the road, especially since this a "UAE rule".
Why this only applies to EK crew in Dubai, since no other inbound aircrew was affected.

As usual, it will most likely do nothing, but I would like to hear the truth rather than all the BS lies that were tossed at us last time this happened.

Not a pilot, so maybe someone can explain to a passenger why pilots should get cheap booze?

How about because I am an adult and as such I should be able to bring back a bottle of wine from my layover if I want to? Just like you can in every other country, just like the passengers can. It is one of the few perks of this job we have left that are fast disappearing

Cheap booze!?! What it means is that if we buy a nice bottle of wine in a wine shop in Italy we have to pay a extra cost in Dubai on arrival. As a passenger you are exempt. At the moment we have the same entitlement as passengers and pilots happen to be people who enjoy a glass of alcohol on their days off just like passengers.

You guys work for an airline, you get perks from your employers in the form of free/subsidized travel for yourselves, family and friends. This is perhaps the most valuable perk any expat can have.


As for the booze, perhaps I am mistaken. I assumed that you were referring to an entitlement to buy alcohol at duty-free prices onboard or in the airport shop.


But you seem to be talking about picking up an nice Chianti in Tuscany and bringing it back to the UAE. If that is the case then you should of course have the same entitlement as everyone else (but no more!).

Free/subsidized travel is not free or subsidized. It's inclusive of the T & C's of joining.

halas

And that's *if* you get the leave you asked for to use the "free/subsidised" travel.

Also it ain't free. We pay for it big time, more than any non-flyer could possibly understand. Especially in this company

The thought of a day trip for 'shopping' to Bahrain on Gulf Air has become more appealing. The icing on the cake is the complimentary lounge access at both ends with ones NBD credit card for a libation or two. :E

Why is this issue raising its ugly head again? I thought with all the bad press, complaints, unfairness, and total upheaval & fiasco of the customs guys/gals in EGHQ, that we had put this ridiculous restriction behind us?

I haven’t heard anything on it? Therefore as far as I’m concerned it’s business as usual. I’ll be bringing in my “duty free” because that’s what it is - “free from duty!”

Emirates cannot dictate Customs Policy to us - that policy must come from the UAE government itself. If this change is coming from UAE Customs, it must be implemented for All Crew members of all Air Carriers, - not just Emirates!

Let’s hope this is just a bad rumor!

nice try, the company and/or customs can restrict as they please....at GF we had restrictions in Bahrain on duty free alcohol to one bottle a month for quite a long time, as the local boy cabin crew were running their own liquor store with the duty free they were bringing in, and got caught...hence the restriction...but it was GF only, other airlines had same allowances as the pax

I don't believe that there can be a State tax that is specific to EK crew. Somebody somewhere is trying to be a little too clever. Has anyone ever sought details of the legal basis for this charge (and who, precisely, is levying the charge?)

Probably because you are resident in Dubai. Don't ask me for the logic, but I have seen that given as a reason to impose limitations on crew importing booze to their home base.

Legal basis - Lol

There are two separate issues here it seems to me:


Firstly there is whether or not anyone should be allowed to bring alcohol on a plane to Dubai. The Government of Dubai is entitled to permit this or not as it chooses (Qatar doesn't permit it for example, even though alcohol is available in Qatar). That law should apply to everyone equally, passengers and crew. However the airline is entitled to apply separate rules to its employees - when you are flying you are at work and responsible for the passengers and equipment of your employer. The airline could say that it does not want employees bringing any alcohol (or a limited amount of alcohol) on to its planes and it would be perfectly within its rights to do so - most workplaces the world over do not allow employees to bring alcohol on to the premises.


The second issue is the application of a charge/duty by airlines on alcohol brought into Dubai by airline personnel. Here the airline has no rights whatsoever. Duties are a tax levied by Governments only, and not by corporate entities. The taxes paid by airline staff resident in Dubai should be the same as those paid by any other resident of Dubai.