Originally Posted by
thegreatmrsj
I found the process pretty grim, arriving at 1230am. At the business lounge I clearly woke the receptionist up. He initially said" you not here this is business class." Anyway having already shown my onward BP I had to find my BP into Doha to prove I was indeed travelling in J
He then waived his hand to go over there, this was to immigration after which the agent who did not speak English indicated I had to go through doors....into a vast empty baggage carousel area no one there. Wandered around, eventually found door out, again no one.
In due course I was directed to a car park and found the Rotana desk. Problem was there were a large number of guests who I think were there because of a cancellation, they were certainly from their yellow tags all economy. No priority was given to any business customers.
Buses were then full, eventually got to the hotel just before 2.30 but as a single female traveller this was not an experience I will wish to repeat. I think I will go with other carriers for my Beijing flights now we have this stupid layover time on our ex EDI flights since the new schedules came in.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience.
I had one of these stopovers last week, arriving about the same time of day. It was also very quiet in the airport, but after exiting the baggage hall I just went to the business class arrivals lounge. They got me a drink and called over to the rotana desk. Two people came over from there to get me, one guy organising the paperwork and heading off to check me in and get my room key, and another lady seemingly just to chat with me whilst this was going on. They then put me in a bmw to the hotel, where I went straight up to my room. Couldn't have been organised better.
Granted it's not obvious what you need to do, but the arrivals lounge is a great place to head for and then let them sort it out.
I hope it works better for you if you do go that way again.