Originally Posted by
C17PSGR
Chinese airlines certainly put pressure on pricing from US to Asia.
But other than those of us on FT, very few people are going to fly from the US to Singapore/China/Thailand/Hong Kong/Vietnam/etc. through Doha. We may like it because of QR's service and the miles but it adds several hours.
Asia "starts" way west and includes places like Turkey and India.
There are many routes from the US that are shorter/quicker via Dubai/Doha/Abu Dhabi. Moreover the ME3 have the advantage of offering more 1-stop routings, something many average passengers still care about (preferably non-stop or 1 stop if the former is not possible). Moreover, price is undoubtedly dictating many customer's choices and flying a couple hours more seems acceptable if the price is significantly lower.