Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Oryx Lounge in DOH

Hi

I have heard that since the QR Premium Terminal has opened, the Oryx Lounge at DOH has moved up into the old location of the QR Lounges.

Have they improved the offering in the Oryx as a result? Specifically, is it still 'dry'? What are the options if you are flying out in J or F on BA?

I was there a couple of weeks ago (flying J on GF). The facilities were nice, but food and beverage were mediocre -- only chips, nuts, dates, etc., and no alcohol.

It is not the old QR lounges; those are still operating for Gold and Silver QR in economy. The new Oryx lounge is new construction in a terminal addition on the upper floor. The facilities are a huge improvement. I have not tried the food and beverage offerings.

Charles

Hi

I have heard that since the QR Premium Terminal has opened, the Oryx Lounge at DOH has moved up into the old location of the QR Lounges.

As another poster has said, the QR lounges are still there for Gold/Silver pax flying QR Y. The new Oryx lounge is upstairs just opposite Costa coffee.


Have they improved the offering in the Oryx as a result? Specifically, is it still 'dry'? What are the options if you are flying out in J or F on BA?

Aesthetically, the new lounge is a huge improvement over the old one. For a start it has windows! :eek: It's much, much bigger and brighter. It probably helps that the new lounge smells of fresh paint and not stale smoke (there's a separate smoking room tucked in one corner now. The lounge seems to cope with the sunday night rush much better than the old one did.

It's still a dry lounge, and TBH the food selection is worse than when the lounge was downstairs. Both in terms of variety/quantity of food and the fact that there's one small food bar for a lounge that's three/four times the size of the old one.

No idea what's on offer for BA pax as I was on QR LGW-DOH-HYD and used priority pass to get in.

Cheers

Steve

I am not a frequent traveler, however, I did visit the Oryx lounge in DOH o/a 9 Aug 2008. I don't utilize many airport lounges, however, I have been to a couple NW, DL, and AA through AMEX Plat. This was my first time traveling via DOH and utilized the PP benefit from my Sak's WEMC as the Oryx was the only PP lounged listed for DOH.

Having little to compare it to in general and this being my first visit, I thought the lounge was decent. The food was okay, nothing special, but compared to only nuts at the AA lounge at DCA or RDU it was much better. Some decent finger food sandwhiches, at least in my opinion. I was pleased, however, that they were serving alcohol. Complimentary were a couple beers (IIRC), a white wine, a red wine, and some scotch (JW Red, I believe). It was comfortable to kill a couple hours, but being military, I may have low standards. It was much better than my previous "accomodations," that's for sure.

I will say, after providing my PP card and signing the receipt, the gentleman next to me moved and revealed a sign stating complimentarly access with AMEX cards (I believe Gold thru Cent). I had already signed my PP receipt (I think I consumed $24 worth of alcohol, so it was money well spent), so I didn't attempt to utilize my US issued Plat, but I assumed it was for Middle East issued AMEX cards, but didn't know if they would differentiate. Anyone else have recent experience?

The point about AMEX cards, it is for middle east issued only.
I once asked the receptionist at the Cedar lounge in BEY whether they'd accept Australian issued AMEX Plat and/or Gold.

The first thing she said was if they were issued in the middle east, no problems, but otherwise it wont work. I am reluctant to try it out in the future, not that my cards actually show 'Engineers Australia' :P because they do. So yeah.