JC880

First time poster on FlyerTalk, would appreciate your advise on Minimum Connection Time when flying on different bookings

I am flying Doha to Shanghai (QR870) at 01:05 on 3rd JAN. Ticket is part of a multi city booking in Y.

I am planning to be in Oman the days before, and considering taking flight QR1137 from Muscat to Doha which leaves late evening on 2nd JAN and arrives at 00:10 on 3rd JAN. I will most likely use Qmiles to buy this (award) ticket.

This would leave me with a 55 minutes connection in Doha. This is more than than the 45 min MCT, but given that that my flights are on two different bookings are there any other potential problems (e.g. would QR help me find another route to Shanghai if I missed the connection)?

Appreciate your advice and recommendations!

Other info:
- I have QRPC platinum (travelling with my gf she has gold)
- We have luggage, but it is no issue if this would arrive later.
- Earlier flight from MCT would result in 6 hours transfer time in Doha
- It is possible to buy the MCT-DOH-PVG with exactly the same flights on the QR webs

SullyofDoha

I have had varying experiences trying to get checked baggage on two different QR tickets, so beware! Also, why, if you are in Muscat, would you start you QR flight from DOH? For sure it will cost you a pretty penny more than if you start your itinerary from Muscat. Also, in addition to the cost savings, your ticket is protected in case something goes wrong and you miss your connecting flight!

JC880

Thanks for comment on checked baggage.

I called QR to check if there could be any issues checking through luggage on two separate QR tickets. It can indeed be problems. The customer services rep sent a message to the ground staff at departure airport to inform them, after this it should be no problems checking through luggage. Also decided for flight with longer connection time.

The reason for not starting in Muscat is that I have a week in Doha between the first and the second leg of a multi-city booking. The regional tickets are booked with Qmiles, so from a cost perspective it works out very well.

Matt4

JC880 If I were you, I would also use Qmiles to book the earlier MCT-DOH just in case they change the departure time of your onward DOH-PVG (a more than 10 minutes change is really common with QR and that would put you under MCT of 45mn in DOH) and cancel it a few days before, if there's not change in the DOH-PVG flight.
To avoid cancellations fees, each passenger have to use his own Qmiles to book it, and don't forget to cancel it at least 3 hours before the departure time using the website, which usually does nothing more than sending an email that would be processed many days after (so call QR after making the cancellation and make sure they received it from the website and won't charge you the phone cancellation fee or void your Qmiles because they processed it after the 3 hours before flight time limit).

JC880

Thanks Matt4 - that's a really smart piece of advice. Would be a complete waste of money having to buying a one way ticket if there was a timetable change and no more award ticket availability.