Does Emirates offer free stopovers in Dubai for Australia flights?

Emirates doesn’t officially offer free Dubai stopovers on flights from Europe to Australia. However, flight tickets that include a two day Dubai stopover can work out cheaper than those that just connect via Dubai Airport.

Flying Emirates to Australia

One of the most popular airlines for flying to Australia is Emirates. The Dubai-based airline offers flights to Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney from multiple European airports.

Which UK airports does Emirates fly from?

In the UK alone, Emirates flies from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow.

Things to do in Dubai on a stopover

Dubai is also a good spot for breaking the journey from Europe to Australia. On a Dubai stopover, you can enjoy an enormous water park, go on desert dune-bashing tours, head to the observatory at the top of the world’s tallest building and glamorous yacht cruises. For a big range of Dubai experiences and activities, head here. To pick out your ideal Dubai accommodation, step this way.

Free stopovers in Dubai?

But does Emirates offer free stopovers in Dubai, or does it cost significantly more to spend a few nights in Dubai before heading on to Australia?

Well, yes and no. Emirates does offer a free hotel room if your connection time is between eight and 26 hours under the Emirates Connect Dubai scheme. However, this only applies if there is no possible quicker connection. For almost every flight from Europe to Australia, there is a quicker connection, so you may as well forget about that.

How much does a stopover in Dubai cost?

However, building room for a Dubai stopover into your flight ticket can be really cheap. In fact, in some instances, a Dubai stopover can end up being essentially free or even cheaper than going straight through to Australia.

For a dummy booking, we looked at the price of a return flight from London Gatwick to Brisbane in low season – November. Emirates quoted £1,311 for an economy class return.

Then we used the multi-city booking tool to add two days in Dubai on the way to Brisbane. The cheapest option here cost £1,309.

Booking a two day Dubai stopover on the way to Australia ended up slightly cheaper than booking the quickest connecting flight to Brisbane.

Obviously, this Dubai stopover on the way to Australia doesn’t include the cost of a hotel room. But it’s still a pretty good deal if you want to see Dubai and find the prospect of flying to Australia without a stop daunting.