T8191

Pictures all fixed ... enjoy!
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INTRODUCTION

Excuse us for flying with one of the ME3. I can’t quite remember exactly why I chose to take the scenic route! I think it was because I couldn’t find redemption flights on LON-CPT, using the BA/Amex 2-4-1 companion voucher, as I was a bit late in looking. Anyway:

[1] Qatar (QR) seemed a bit cheaper than BA;

[2] It would make an interesting change; and

[3] Conveniently [essentially?] the extra Tier points would renew our BAEC Gold (oneworld Emerald) status!

History. Anyway, before I go on, and in case you’re interested, here are the TRs from our last 3 trips to South Africa. They probably have a bit more ‘local’ detail than this one will have, but you can probably see we quickly became addicted to the area!!

* 2016 = BA in Club World to the Western Cape
* 2017 = Eating South Africa
* 2018 = BA to The Western Cape - 3 Towns in 2 Weeks

Financials. I include these details to give readers an idea of what they would have to pay if replicating, in whole of part, a trip like this. I would also note that cheaper accommodation does, of course, exist! Sadly, as we (OK, I) hadn’t snagged a 2-4-1, which would have made the trip in Business about £500 each, I spent MONEY. I know, it’s not really a done thing around here, but we really needed our annual 2-week fix of SA. So to the costs …

* Accommodations (all B&B) = c. £2,500, essentially repeating last year’s trip.
* s/h Flights - BA, JER-UK (and return of course) in Club Europe = £447 (I am an idiot and didn’t abate that using our mega-pile of Avios!).
* l/h Flights - QR, LGW-DOH-CPT in Business = £4754 Once I’d added in the JER-LGW tickets, QR and BA came out about the same cost!
* Ground Transfers - our usual driver taking us from/to CPT and between the 3 towns on the itinerary = c. £120.

So about £8k for a cowabunga 2-week holiday - repeating the 2018 experience? We were content, if slightly wounded in the budget department. OTOH, that will be 640 BAEC Tier Points, please … renewing our BAEC Gold status for another year, somewhere between DOH and LGW on the way home, and with 9 months to spare to find something [help!] to do with a 2-4-1 voucher!

Preparations. Having started booking aeroplane things on 4 Jan 19 [just 2 weeks after we had got home from the last one! ], by 6 Jan 19 we had everything we needed sewn up …BA and QR flights, 3 Hotels (Hermanus 4 nights, Franschhoek 4 nights and Stellenbosch 5 nights) and our regular Cape taxi driver to convey us A>B>C>D>A. And … breathe slowly and relaaaaaaax.

Subsequent poking around the QR website, whilst selecting the best possible seats, gave us a bit more flight details on what I’d paid over £5k for. But stuff [i.e. QR airframes and indeed our seats] kept quietly changing in the background to the point where daily checks on QR were needed!

18 Nov - BA hop, A319, JER-LGW, Business [OK, Club Europe ]
18 Nov - QR LGW-DOH, B787-8, Business.
19 Nov - QR DOH-CPT, A350-1000 A350-900, Business. Goodbye, Q-Suites!
2 Dec - QR CPT-DOH, A350-1000, Business. Oh, Q-Suites? Really? Thank you! ^
3 Dec - QR DOH-LGW, B787-8 B777 Business.
3 Dec - BA hop, A319, LGW-JER, Business.

We know the midnight transfers at DOH are going to be a ‘bit’ inconvenient, but we can cope … we’re young 70-somethings! OTOH, i eventually realised what a long journey this was. 8,020 miles!



OK, it’s faster than legging it to Hawaii [3 days to get there, 36 hours to get home … Aloha again, to OGG with BA & AA in the good seats. ... but it seems we leave the house in JER at around 0730 and get to our first SA hotel about 1600 the following day! Close to 20 hours in the air and another 3 or more at airports. That’s the curse of ‘creative routing’ … I suspect we will have a VERY early night when we arrive! However, if it wasn’t for Flyertalk, we wouldn’t be doing this stuff anyway, and we wouldn’t be BAEC Gold, and we could have gone to Eastbourne instead [No chance!!].

After all that dribbling on the keyboard, I guess I’d better get on with the Trip.

18 Nov 19
JER-LGW, BA2771, 0920-1020,
A319, CE seats 1A/C

A perfectly normal x-Channel hop for us, with the added bonus of NOT being on the 0705 Red-Eye for a change. A new sign outside the Lounge shows why it gets crowded, with multiple users having access.



The flight itself was unremarkable, apart from the clear evidence of a new catering contract (confirmed by the CC) offering just a half-rasher of bacon with breakfast!



As BA no longer interlines bags with OW partners, we were faced with the new experience of collecting our 2 cases at the Gatwick South Terminal and making our way to the North Terminal to drop them off with QR. I decided to time the process in more detail than usual - rather prolonged, perhaps?:

1030 - Doors Open
1036 - at Domestic Reclaim
1052 - first bags emerged
1056 - our bags delivered
1100 - reached South Arrivals
1112 - reached North Terminal.



We found the QR desks, in the far left corner where BA First used to be, and deposited our cases. Our Boarding Passes were issued, at which point we noticed that our seats on BOTH sectors (LGW-DOH-CPT) had been changed from 2 single window seats to a middle pair. Whaaaat? A short period of DYKWIA followed, during which the Supervisor rattled her keyboard and restored us to our previously booked locations. No explanation or indeed apology was received.

After a stress-relieving cigarette or two outside, we joined the rest of society and proceeded through the invariably efficient Premium Gatwick Security. On emerging unscathed, we renewed our acquaintance with the North Terminal after a gap of nearly 3 years … and what a horrible experience! World Duty Free greets you as you emerge from Security, forcing everyone to follow a winding [and congested] route through the shops before finally, after several minutes, allowing you to emerge in the Departures area! With that obstacle overcome, we made our way over to the left where the airline Lounges are located. QR uses the Aspire Lounge, which was far from aspirational and charges £4.50 for a glass of Prosecco! Fortunately we only had a short wait before our Gate was declared … yes, Gate 573, at the very furthest end of the Terminal! Off we trudged!

18 Nov 19
LGW-DOH, QR328, 1405-2345,
B787, Business seats 1A/2A

Nice aircraft ...



Nice seat!



After enjoying a generous glass of fizzy PDB and a refreshing towel [“Hot or cold, Sir?”] pushback was punctual, at 1403. Looking around my little cocoon, I was impressed by the number of handy storage spaces and the large IFE screen … and the large pull-out dining table. Which inevitably leads me to mention the food! Annoyingly, Apple’s latest upgrade means that my scanner no longer works, so I can’t scan the menu! But this was my ‘late lunch’ …

PDB and Towel on its little tray.



Nice big table with accessories, including the cute little battery candle. All laid individually by the CC - very tasteful process.



Amuse Bouche



Soup [could have been a bit hotter]



Confit Duck Breast



Cheese Board and Port, of course.



Loved the little battery-candle … Lady T was gifted one by her CC. All very pleasant, and served by charming cabin crew.

After that I explored the mysteries of the IFE, noting a helpful indicator on the Moving Map of the direction to Mecca/Makkah and a cautionary note for Islamic passengers.



I watched a film before settling down for a couple of hours sleep, to be woken gently 1 hour out from DOH where we landed at 2350 in a new Time Zone [3h ahead of UK]. We disembarked to find ourselves at a remote stand somewhere in the darkness of the massive Hamad International Airport.



A strange airport in the dark is quite challenging, but on descending the steps from the aircraft we found a mini-bus waiting for us … quite luxurious and exclusively for the use of the 20 or so Business passengers. How VERY nice! It, and we, then progressed around various roadways partly jammed with other buses, before being delivered to doorways to a HUGE building, where we ascended via escalators to an upper floor and were directed [politely] to Transit Security screening, That process was quick and efficient, and we were now in the middle of … an enormous multi-level airside “somewhere”! There seemed to be dozens of airport staffers everywhere, helping people get to the right place, and a quick question had us headed for the Al Mourjan Lounge [up another long escalator]. We had less than an hour to kill, so we headed for one of the smoking lounges to restore our nicotine levels to something resembling normal … it must have been 9 hours or more since the last one at Gatwick!

This lounge is enormous! It’s bigger than a lot of airport terminals, such as JER or SAV! And extremely glossy, of course! However, the Smoking Lounge did the trick, as we braced ourselves for the next (12-hour) leg to CPT. Navigating our way to Gate E4 just needed us to find our way OUT of the Lounge!

Time for a cigarette in the Smoking Lounge!



The rest of the Lounge is vast!









Where's the Exit?! How do we get out of here? And where do we go now? Oh, yes, Gate E4 ...





Somewhere up there we ended up on a little indoor train to take us to the next part of the Terminal[s]!



19 Nov 19
DOH-CPT, QR1369, 0205-1125,
A350-900, Business seats 6A/7A

Yes, as noted at the outset, no Q-suites for us on this leg after an airframe swap.

However, silky-smooth boarding from the vastness of the 2-storey gate holding area and with a dedicated airbridge to Door 1L for Business pax … which was retracted once we were all aboard. How cool is that! And, of course, one just has to play with the external cameras on the A350!





Once again, excellent CC. Our seats were served by different crew … Lady T in 7A served from a rear galley, and me in 6A served [last] from the front!! Given the hour, I think I just had a bowl of soup and the cheese plate, washed down with a glass of port to help me sleep. Which I did for most of the flight! An edible breakfast of “Red Onion and Cheddar Omelette with Chicken and Smoked turkey Sausage” refuelled me adequately … although the sausage was really rather bland.




And finally, at 1110 [local] we were at CPT again! On chocks at 1117, and by 1125 were were in a packed Immigration Hall with the queue stretching all the way back to the bottom of the escalators! Groan! We escaped across the Border 35 minutes later, where our bags were performing perpetual circuits of the baggage belt. And so into Arrivals, where out trusty regular driver Adriaan was waiting for us. A quick ‘kerbside’ ciggie on the way to the car park, and at 1220 we were on the road to … Hermanus.