Location: SEA/NYC. DL DM charter member, UA 1K, NW Plat ('03-'09), Marriott Plat. Always somewhere, never anywhere...
Posts: 5,844
I'm not sure what the transit rules are in DOH but if you are "entering" the country and going through immigration you will have to pay for the visa. It was $30 or $35 the last time I was there.
Come to think of it I didn't see any "Transfers/Connecting Flights" signs after I got off the QR flight from LHR. We were bussed to the terminal.
-RM
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2011: DL 92%, AS 100%, CO 100%, UA 52%
Visas on arrival cost Qatari Riyals $100, which is about $28. The exchange rate is fixed to USD. You can only pay by credit card - no cash. The arrivals terminal is a completely separate building from transfers and departures. Buses meeting QR flights stop at both arrivals and the departures terminals due to the heavy connecting travel, but terminating flights (ie. BA) only stop at the arrivals terminal. To get from one building to the other, disembark your original bus at arrivals, wait outside the arrivals terminal for a QR flight bus to pull up, and get on and go to the transfers terminal. Should only be a matter of minutes
Visas on arrival cost Qatari Riyals $100, which is about $28. The exchange rate is fixed to USD. You can only pay by credit card - no cash. The arrivals terminal is a completely separate building from transfers and departures. Buses meeting QR flights stop at both arrivals and the departures terminals due to the heavy connecting travel, but terminating flights (ie. BA) only stop at the arrivals terminal. To get from one building to the other, disembark your original bus at arrivals, wait outside the arrivals terminal for a QR flight bus to pull up, and get on and go to the transfers terminal. Should only be a matter of minutes
Interesting. A couple questions:
1. Can you make the same day turn? Arrives 9:50pm and departs 11:45pm.
2. Do they check everyone for a visa or credit card before boarding? Never heard of credit card only.
Same day turns are possible - and can be done without visa, just go direct to the transfers terminal as described above - but it would help to have the return DOH-LHR BP in hand on arrival in DOH. You will need to do the bus rigmarole and hope ground handling isn't too slow. There wouldn't be enough time to clear immigration and check-in again.
They generally don't check for visas for visa on arrival nationalities - 33 countries including the US, Canada and usual European suspects. They don't check for credit cards but it is basically the only way to pay for a visa (visa, mastercard, no amex). There is a locally issued e-payment card but unless you are planning several trips it's not worth getting one. Doha immigration don't want to handle cash. If you do arrive with only cash you'll need to find another passenger willing to help. Last resort is that you are referred to the bank counter where they'll try and convert your cash, but that's likely to be time consuming and a bit of a hassle.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleDude
If travelling before 28 Feb there are likely to be some attractive E-VIPs/SWUG on Coupon Connection for the AA sectors.
true, but only useful if you can find upgrade space on the flights. This close, there may already be a big upgrade request backlog for AA flights in to LHR. I'm sure I'll be wrong on some days, but in general I hope I'm mostly accurate.
true, but only useful if you can find upgrade space on the flights. This close, there may already be a big upgrade request backlog for AA flights in to LHR. I'm sure I'll be wrong on some days, but in general I hope I'm mostly accurate.
I think the day of week and routing via JFK might help. I booked a trip (SEA-PRG) via JFK 10 days ago and my SWU just cleared for next week.
Also to consider will be if you are connecting and time of check-in if the upgrade goes to airport control.
