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I’m flying from the Seychelles to Doha in the evening (arriving 11pm) and onwards to London at 9am in the morning. I’m flying on QR metal and flight codes, although I made the booking through BA using Avios. Seychelles-Doha had to be in Economy, but Doha-London is Business. Because of that, I had to book each leg as a separate ticket/PNR.
1. I’ve been able in the past to get my luggage checked through to the final destination by the check-in staff manually linking both PNRs. I assume that is still definitely no problem?
2. As for how to spend the night between 11pm-9am, my initial thought was to buy access to the Al Safwa lounge. With the peak time we’re arriving and how crowded the Al Mourjan lounges get, I’m not confident we can any of the quiet rooms there. However, I have seen other travel sites state “that in order to buy access to the Al Safwa First Lounge, your ticket must be issued by Qatar Airways; unfortunately this means that award tickets issued through partner frequent flyer programs wouldn’t be eligible for this”. What does this mean in the context of my QR tickets booked through BA for Doha-London in Business – am I eligible to buy Al Safwa access or not?
3. My alternative is to go sleep in a nice hotel nearby, and I’ve made a (refundable) booking at the Waldorf Astoria West Bay, 20 mins from the airport. Assuming my luggage is checked through per question 1, am I ok turning up to the airport around 8am for a 9am flight? I will obviously be going through Business security etc which is very quiet in my experience.
4. I know if I was transferring I’d have access to the Business transfer area as my second leg is in Business, but if I exit and re-enter can I use the Business exit for passport and customs checks to the left of the main arrivals area? Or because my first leg is in Economy, would I be turned away?
5. Do you have any better suggestions for how to spend the night than either Al Safwa or a nice hotel in town? FYI the Oryx airport hotel is a no-go as it was 2-3x the price of the WA.
QR has always checked bags to other airlines for me so I’d be confident 1. will be no problem
2. – I’ve seen that mentioned and I can believe it’s true & no one has any ability to make any exceptions at Qatar Airways so I’d assume no access to Al Safwa and plan to go to a hotel personally
3. 1hr is ok, as you say, departing from Doha is always speedy.
I believe 4. will be no as you’ve arrived in economy. But I don’t think it’s a big deal, immigration is usually dead too
I think a hotel is by far the best solution. https://www.discoverqatar.qa/stopover/ is worth checking for some bargain rates and personally given the timings, i’d be looking to get a hotel as close to the terminal as possible, even if that means trading down in quality a little bit. You’re only there to sleep, won’t be using any F&B facilities etc.
I think a hotel is by far the best solution. https://www.discoverqatar.qa/stopover/ is worth checking for some bargain rates and personally given the timings, i’d be looking to get a hotel as close to the terminal as possible, even if that means trading down in quality a little bit. You’re only there to sleep, won’t be using any F&B facilities etc.
Thanks – funny you mention Discover Qatar, in the past I’ve had free or more recently £20 5* hotel stopovers. Not so when I checked yesterday, the prices I got on hotels I like were higher than booking the same room externally!
I ended up choosing the Waldorf as I should have time to make use of breakfast from 6:30 (free with Hilton status) and go for a very quick dip in the pool which opens at 7 before checking out at 7:30.
QR has always checked bags to other airlines for me so I’d be confident 1. will be no problem
2. – I’ve seen that mentioned and I can believe it’s true & no one has any ability to make any exceptions at Qatar Airways so I’d assume no access to Al Safwa and plan to go to a hotel personally
3. 1hr is ok, as you say, departing from Doha is always speedy.
I believe 4. will be no as you’ve arrived in economy. But I don’t think it’s a big deal, immigration is usually dead too
Amazing, thanks for the considered responses. I’ll still give #4 a try – I have seen the main immigration lines move very slowly around midnight because of all the flights coming in, but not the end of the world either way.
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