I'm still planning our January trip to BKK (from Madrid) and would like to stopover in Doha if possible, as have never visited.

Side by side comparison of stopover vs non stopover shows the cheapest price for the Iberia flight to Doha, and a supplement for the Qatar one (versus booking straight through).

So on top of paying the stopover supplement, I would also have to pay extra to get the Qatar afternoon flight that we prefer. Upgrading to the Ned (new 5 star hotel) is 139E total.

So the 1 night, 2 day stopover would cost over 1000E for us both plus taxis which seems excessive.

Strange because I would have thought that Qatar would be offering incentives to stopover, not making it harder / more expensive.

Trying to organise it myself by just booking single legs (MAD-DOH, DOH-BKK) doesn't work either as the price goes from 3000 each to 6000 each.....!