Assalamalaikum Brothers & Sisters,
I hope you had a blessed Ramadan. Over the past few days, I’ve been personally speaking with many of our passenger and giving them updates regarding the availability & the cost of the package. I have also not been able to answer a lot of the incoming calls / emails due to the same reason of having conversations with other customers.
I would love to talk with each one of you and explain in detail what is happening and the reasons behind it, but I figured in order to do so would require days perhaps even weeks. To speed things up and to make this process more efficient, I decided to write this short explanation and cover as many topics as I can. PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK WITH OTHERS.
First of all, I would like to remind everyone that due to the extremely low availability, we are going through the applications in a chronological order of confirmed registrants and we are working our way up.
If you are receiving this link, it means that Alhamdolillah based on when you registered with us and paid us a deposit. We are contacting you to confirm your plans and we want you to proceed forward with Hajj plans.
COST OF THE PACKAGE:
Lets just address the most important concern after the availability, the cost of the package was anticipated to go up but none of us could have predicted the drastic amount of increase which had made the total cost almost unaffordable for some of us. Following are some of the reasons for such an increase
TIMINGS OF THIS MESSAGE:
One would argue that what is the point of sending this message out to people at this time being there are so many variables, why not wait another week or 10 days to get proper completed official information.
First of all, I am getting very frequent calls /messages regarding updates because everyone wants to start planning and start working on their schedules / time away from work or family. This would address some of the concerns and people will have some information so they can have conversations within their families and decide if they want to continue with their plans or if they want to hold them for now.
Another very important reason to send this right now is very soon, like within the next few days. Bigger companies that usually takes thousands of hajjis will be informing a lot of their customers (maybe in thousands) that they cannot accommodate them this year due to low availability. At that point, any available package will be gone from the market. I want to try to assess the number I have of people interested in moving forward so I can maybe try/attempt to acquire more visas from other operators.
WILL THE PRICE GO DOWN IN THE COMING YEAR?
Nothing can be predicted but based on the changes in the way Manasik area is being handled, it doesn’t seem that the cost will be coming down anytime soon in that regard. Assuming (and that is a big assumption) that COVID would eventually be part of regular life and there will be no restrictions in the number of visa’s allocated to us in future, I believe there will be some reduction of cost regarding that aspect. In total, if everything gets closer to normal, I think the price might drop by 1 to 2 grands at most. (many of my friends feel otherwise). Even if the cost doesn’t go down, at least we will have an idea from the get-go and maybe re-introduce the economy packages with apartment buildings away from Haram as an additional option.
SPEAKING WITH OTHER AGENCIES:
At the request of some of you and for my own information, I’ve been contacting many other hajj companies to inquire about their packages and details. Most of the companies are in the same predicament and they don’t have a price nor availability. Some of them with decent itinerary and fair costs do not have availability. Some still have availability but not the best fit for me and some others that I’m trying to accommodate. Below is a screenshot of 2 bigger companies that I recently was made aware of and they do have availability
DISCLAIMER: I’m no way affiliated with any of these companies, nor do I recommend them over my package. I also do not have their permission to share this info which is why I am hiding their name and the contact information. if anyone wants to contact them, they can email me privately and I can share the contact info. The only reason I’m sharing is because none of the websites are updated and most of the agencies are not answering calls nor providing any information. By Sharing this information, some of you can get an idea that the change in cost is universal and not just limited to us.
I hope you had a blessed Ramadan. Over the past few days, I’ve been personally speaking with many of our passenger and giving them updates regarding the availability & the cost of the package. I have also not been able to answer a lot of the incoming calls / emails due to the same reason of having conversations with other customers.
I would love to talk with each one of you and explain in detail what is happening and the reasons behind it, but I figured in order to do so would require days perhaps even weeks. To speed things up and to make this process more efficient, I decided to write this short explanation and cover as many topics as I can. PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK WITH OTHERS.
First of all, I would like to remind everyone that due to the extremely low availability, we are going through the applications in a chronological order of confirmed registrants and we are working our way up.
If you are receiving this link, it means that Alhamdolillah based on when you registered with us and paid us a deposit. We are contacting you to confirm your plans and we want you to proceed forward with Hajj plans.
COST OF THE PACKAGE:
Lets just address the most important concern after the availability, the cost of the package was anticipated to go up but none of us could have predicted the drastic amount of increase which had made the total cost almost unaffordable for some of us. Following are some of the reasons for such an increase
- PRIVATE MANASIK AREA: The biggest increase in cost came because the Manasik area which includes Mina, Arafa & Muzdalifa is now being managed by a private equity with many shareholders and this company have increased the cost of their services by multi folds. This area used to be managed by Mo’assasa (a government agency) but now is handed over to a private company. The reason of this increase is being communicated to us as some infrastructure development cost that is apparently needed in that area. We will only know for sure once we are there. The final cost of this change is not officially communicated to us as of yet and may change slightly but we have used a very realistic estimate based on what the locals have informed us and feel very strongly that this will not change or go up more than what is included in the package.
- AIRLINE COST: Another increase in cost is due to airline ticket charges. When we normally create a package, we allocate around $1800 to $2000 for the airline ticket prices. Bigger gateways like New York, Chicago and los Angeles used to be even cheaper and Texas & Florida would be slightly higher. Dallas being the most expensive. This year especially from Dallas area, I’m seeing flight cost during hajj days going into madina and returning from Jeddah as high as $2900 or even 3 grand. Even the cost from some of the major gateways are slightly higher. All the companies I know are still allocating around 2K in their packages for airline ticket and are planning to increase the cost if they cannot find the tickets within that price range. I’m allocating 3000 for the airline ticket and if the cost of the flight comes lower than that, I will adjust the price accordingly. I do not know the exact reason for this change in cost but for the past few months post covid, none of the Turkish Airlines were allowed to take passengers for Umrah & for Hajj. In the absence of one of the biggest carriers along with some flight cuts due to covid might have drawn the prices to go sky rocket. Since President Erdogan was visiting Saudi Arabia last week, we all hope that the relations between the 2 countries will improve and we will be able to see Turkish airlines back in business and the ticket prices to go back to somewhat closer to what we normally are used to. Even if Turkish still stays out of the picture, we can still work on bringing people on domestic airlines to major gateways like Chicago /DC/ New York / Los Angeles or even Houston and be able to find better deal. I just wanted to inform you the reason behind allocating such a high price (worst case scenario)in the package right now . I will be working on flights at a later time for each and every city based on each of your individual preferences and prefer to have those conversations regarding the flights at a later time.
- SLIGHT INCREASE IN DURATION: Due to the very low availability, we don’t have the numbers to do multiple packages. We will cancel our economy package and decided to keep the Non-Shifting Package. This also means that the duration will be slightly longer just so that we can utilize the time near the haram that we are paying for. (the hotel reservations around hajj days are done in blocks at a time)
- LOW AVAILABILITY: Also, due to the extremely low visa availability. In order to accommodate as many people as we can and to avoid apologizing to many people, we went out and started buying visa’s from other agents who had unsold extra visas. Everyone is aware of this shortage of visa’s and let’s just say that we had no negotiating power given the circumstances.
- HAJJ VISA COST: Hajj visa cost was increased to $500 in 2019 from being $350 for few years. This is another variable that we are estimating based on last year. Being COVID, we have no idea if this will also be affected.
- TAXES: VAT & Municipal TAX was introduced couple of years ago for everything that we purchase from a regular convenient store to hotel rooms etc.
TIMINGS OF THIS MESSAGE:
One would argue that what is the point of sending this message out to people at this time being there are so many variables, why not wait another week or 10 days to get proper completed official information.
First of all, I am getting very frequent calls /messages regarding updates because everyone wants to start planning and start working on their schedules / time away from work or family. This would address some of the concerns and people will have some information so they can have conversations within their families and decide if they want to continue with their plans or if they want to hold them for now.
Another very important reason to send this right now is very soon, like within the next few days. Bigger companies that usually takes thousands of hajjis will be informing a lot of their customers (maybe in thousands) that they cannot accommodate them this year due to low availability. At that point, any available package will be gone from the market. I want to try to assess the number I have of people interested in moving forward so I can maybe try/attempt to acquire more visas from other operators.
WILL THE PRICE GO DOWN IN THE COMING YEAR?
Nothing can be predicted but based on the changes in the way Manasik area is being handled, it doesn’t seem that the cost will be coming down anytime soon in that regard. Assuming (and that is a big assumption) that COVID would eventually be part of regular life and there will be no restrictions in the number of visa’s allocated to us in future, I believe there will be some reduction of cost regarding that aspect. In total, if everything gets closer to normal, I think the price might drop by 1 to 2 grands at most. (many of my friends feel otherwise). Even if the cost doesn’t go down, at least we will have an idea from the get-go and maybe re-introduce the economy packages with apartment buildings away from Haram as an additional option.
SPEAKING WITH OTHER AGENCIES:
At the request of some of you and for my own information, I’ve been contacting many other hajj companies to inquire about their packages and details. Most of the companies are in the same predicament and they don’t have a price nor availability. Some of them with decent itinerary and fair costs do not have availability. Some still have availability but not the best fit for me and some others that I’m trying to accommodate. Below is a screenshot of 2 bigger companies that I recently was made aware of and they do have availability
DISCLAIMER: I’m no way affiliated with any of these companies, nor do I recommend them over my package. I also do not have their permission to share this info which is why I am hiding their name and the contact information. if anyone wants to contact them, they can email me privately and I can share the contact info. The only reason I’m sharing is because none of the websites are updated and most of the agencies are not answering calls nor providing any information. By Sharing this information, some of you can get an idea that the change in cost is universal and not just limited to us.
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COVID PROTOCOLS
This one is just a reminder that COVID is not over yet and the Hajj flight will require a Negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival. We will make everyone sign a waiver that if they contract covid right before the travel date and for this reason or any other, if they cannot make it to hajj. We will not be responsible for the loss of funds. Once the visa is issued, there is absolutely NO REFUNDS of any kind. Even if we want to issue a refund, we don’t have anything under our control and no hotel or any vendor for hajj will be issuing a refund on their behalf. We will recommend people to look into travel insurance to cover such a cost. The reason I wanted to bring this info right now is so people can make an informed decision with the realities of the world these days.
PAYMENTS
We need to make payments to the hotels and other vendors as of right now in order to secure our packages and finalize our contracts and get the paperwork in order for visa’s. By Ramadan, each year we are done collecting all the payments and spend the rest of the time preparing for hajj. Because of all the uncertainties, we are running behind and we need to catch up with collecting all the payments. If you are deciding to proceed with the hajj plan, we expect 80% of the payment (recommend 100%) within 72 hours and the rest of the balance in the following 2 weeks. If for some reason you need to adjust the timeline, you can contact us through email privately with an alternate schedule. Just a reminder that until all the balances will be taken care of, the visa application will not be move forward. I understand that it is a Lot of money in a very short time which is why I recommend only to proceed if that is something feasible for you.
DUE DATE
You need to fill out the below form and respond within 48 hours by midnight 5/8/2022 . If you need more time, you can select additional time needed and that will give you an extra 48 hours. As much as we would like to give you more time, we are really confined here, and we also need to inform others about the availability so they also have some time to make a decision likewise. Your lack of a response to below form would result in your spot being lost from the queue.
This one is just a reminder that COVID is not over yet and the Hajj flight will require a Negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival. We will make everyone sign a waiver that if they contract covid right before the travel date and for this reason or any other, if they cannot make it to hajj. We will not be responsible for the loss of funds. Once the visa is issued, there is absolutely NO REFUNDS of any kind. Even if we want to issue a refund, we don’t have anything under our control and no hotel or any vendor for hajj will be issuing a refund on their behalf. We will recommend people to look into travel insurance to cover such a cost. The reason I wanted to bring this info right now is so people can make an informed decision with the realities of the world these days.
PAYMENTS
We need to make payments to the hotels and other vendors as of right now in order to secure our packages and finalize our contracts and get the paperwork in order for visa’s. By Ramadan, each year we are done collecting all the payments and spend the rest of the time preparing for hajj. Because of all the uncertainties, we are running behind and we need to catch up with collecting all the payments. If you are deciding to proceed with the hajj plan, we expect 80% of the payment (recommend 100%) within 72 hours and the rest of the balance in the following 2 weeks. If for some reason you need to adjust the timeline, you can contact us through email privately with an alternate schedule. Just a reminder that until all the balances will be taken care of, the visa application will not be move forward. I understand that it is a Lot of money in a very short time which is why I recommend only to proceed if that is something feasible for you.
DUE DATE
You need to fill out the below form and respond within 48 hours by midnight 5/8/2022 . If you need more time, you can select additional time needed and that will give you an extra 48 hours. As much as we would like to give you more time, we are really confined here, and we also need to inform others about the availability so they also have some time to make a decision likewise. Your lack of a response to below form would result in your spot being lost from the queue.
We only recommend Quad Packages for everyone due to the high cost of triple and double occupancy type (4 people in 1 Room)
ADD 2500 PER PERSON FOR 3 PEOPLE IN 1 ROOM (NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO HIGH COST TO BENEFIT RATIO)
ADD 3500 PER PERSON FOR 2 PEOPLE IN 1 ROOM (NOT RECOMMENDED AGAIN DUE TO VERY HIGH COST TO BENEFIT RATIO)
ADD 3500 PER PERSON FOR 2 PEOPLE IN 1 ROOM (NOT RECOMMENDED AGAIN DUE TO VERY HIGH COST TO BENEFIT RATIO)