Thanks for the info.

We hold passports from countries eligible for UAE's Visa on Arrival.

The Qatari visa is too expensive for a casual one day stay. I am glad to find this out. We would make sure we only transit at DOH and remain at the airport during the layover.

We plan to spend time in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. However DOH would be the airport of arrival at and departure from Middle East because QR is the airline to use (American Airlines award tickets, also want to try QR's A380).

What are your suggestions on the sequence of trip, i.e. DOH-AUH, then DXB-DOH, or vice versa? Does it matter?

One factor also needs to be consider is the arrival time at either AUH or DXB, if we fly in DOH from MIA, arriving at 17:35. Therefore either we arrive AUH or DXB late at night the same day, or have a very long overnight layover at DOH then take the first morning flight out. Need to look at the hotel situation at AUH and DXB to decide. There are a lot more flights DOH-DXB than DOH-AUH.