Advice on coming home from Jeddah
Aug 19, 2012, 3:15 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: ORD
Programs: UA GS 4MM
Posts: 583
Advice on coming home from Jeddah
Hi, All, I was hoping to get some advice on an upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia (I first posed this a couple of months ago but now other options are presenting themselves). Plans are to fly CLE-EWR-OSL (all flights on paid C, upgrading to F where possible) to referee a PhD student’s thesis defense, then onto Jeddah via IST on TK for a conference where I’ll be speaking. Hope to get a couple of Red Sea dives in, and then out ASAP once my talks are done (Thanksgiving and all that). In the past, I’ve done LH via FRA or MUC, but that flight leaves at ~3AM and I won’t get back to CLE until the evening. If I can schedule my talks early enough, I’d like to try to get to the UA flights out of either KWI or DOH-DXB. (Anticipating the chorus of “why would you ever fly UA home from the Middle East when there’s QR and EK?”, I’ll fully accept the argument but only say that I’m tantalizingly close enough to 4MM and the promised land of GS for life for me and my wife that the UA metal miles are important for now.) Anyway, here are the UA options:
JED-DOH on QR 1740-1945, then out on UA977 at 2100 to DXB-IAD-CLE
JED-KWI on KU 1640-1840, then out on UA981 at 0110 to IAD-CLE
Unfortunately, the JED-DXB flight times don’t work out to skip the DOH connection.
I’ll only have carry on so no interline xfer issues. A few ?’s:
1) One minor plus for the KWI route is picking up a new country for myself, but I’ve heard the whole country is dry, including, I presume, their airline and any lounge that UA might contract with there. True? Am I looking at a pretty dreary 6.5 hours at KWI? Will UA serve any PBD’s or only once in the air?
2) Is 75 minutes enough time to connect in DOH from QR to UA? I guess I’d only get a glimpse of the Onyx lounge as I run to the plane.
3) Will the QR JED-DOH flight serve alcohol? UA DOH-DXB?
4) Any signs that UA is improving their reliability on these flights.
Thanks in advance for any advice. (Looking at you, ChinaTraderjmr, but I know there are many others with far more experience in this part of the world than I do.)
JED-DOH on QR 1740-1945, then out on UA977 at 2100 to DXB-IAD-CLE
JED-KWI on KU 1640-1840, then out on UA981 at 0110 to IAD-CLE
Unfortunately, the JED-DXB flight times don’t work out to skip the DOH connection.
I’ll only have carry on so no interline xfer issues. A few ?’s:
1) One minor plus for the KWI route is picking up a new country for myself, but I’ve heard the whole country is dry, including, I presume, their airline and any lounge that UA might contract with there. True? Am I looking at a pretty dreary 6.5 hours at KWI? Will UA serve any PBD’s or only once in the air?
2) Is 75 minutes enough time to connect in DOH from QR to UA? I guess I’d only get a glimpse of the Onyx lounge as I run to the plane.
3) Will the QR JED-DOH flight serve alcohol? UA DOH-DXB?
4) Any signs that UA is improving their reliability on these flights.
Thanks in advance for any advice. (Looking at you, ChinaTraderjmr, but I know there are many others with far more experience in this part of the world than I do.)
