Doha stopover using AS miles
 

I've been looking into my next Europe trip, and after seeing only sky high J redemption on the tried and true partners, I got a wild hair and decided to search the feasibility of Doha stopovers on QR. I know they have a premium J product (despite many FTers complaining about Q Suites).

I see on QR's website, they market the QR Stopover pretty openly. https://www.qatarairways.com/en-us/o...-stopover.html, and seem to offer quality lodging to incorporate into the stopover. Does anyone know if these lodging packages are offered if the stopover is booked outside of QR's website? If not, it's not a deal breaker. Has anyone done a Doha stopover and found the experience worth it. My idea is ANC-SEA-DOH with 3-day stopover, and then DOH-Europe. SEA-DOH J is on the Triple 7. DOH to most European cities seems to be operated by a 787. Searching with the Multi-City tool, I've been seeing J awards available for 255K miles, which is a lot... but for the experience I might be willing to part with the miles since I have so many!

Not worth it if you have to pay. On AS awards hotels are usually 2-3x the price of what you can find yourself. Doha super full of cheap luxury hotels and easy to do in 2-3 days on your own.

There isn't really much to do in Doha anyways so I'd recommend going for 48 hours maximum. You can always organize your own desert safari adventure independently and have the tour drop you off at the National Museum of Qatar. Then afterwards explore the Old Souk and the Gold Souk and you'll have seen most of Qatar by then.

I’ve done this in reverse on a trip home from Europe, albeit for 140k Alaska miles. Not sure if Q suites is worth more than that, but it certainly is a nice flight experience.

2 days is probably all you need in Doha. Highly recommend the Sharq Village, Ritz Carlton — incredible hotel and service, and was fairly inexpensive.

Yes can book flights booked outside QR website. The layover special is booked on www.discoverqatar.qa

Did exactly that.
 

Less than a week back from trip using AS miles and the stopover in Doha. Discover Doha site will ask about what type hotel you want and send email with offers. I didn't like the price for transportation if you opted for it.

Someone said not much in Doha and I agree. Every taxi driver will offer to take you to all major sites in a matter of hours if that is all the time you have.

I spent one night and saw what I wanted.

hmmmm, as of now I arrive at 5pm on a Friday and depart 8:30am on Monday. Perhaps that’s one too many days. Then again, I wouldn’t mind vegging out at a 5 star hotel / beach club for a day and then exploring the other day.

I'm trying to do a day-and-a-half stopover in DOH with Qatan on an Alaska award ticket. The seats show availability on the AS website, and they price correctly, but when I enter in my payment information, they tell me the seats aren't actually available. I've called Alaska, and they tell me that sometimes the award inventory is "phantom," and sometimes it gets fixed. Has anyone dealt with the problem of non-bookable Qatar award seats showing up on the Alaska website?

QR is currently not bookable via cash or award. I've spent 2 days and more than a few hours dealing with Reservations and Mileage plan. I would call, ....., ask for the international desk to investigate. They need more pressure to fix the issue.

Oh dear. I asked today if a supervisor could help me and the agent told me that SHE was the supervisor! Any idea who to ask for? Over the years, I've had a few partner airline award problems and it seems like most airlines have something like a "partner liaison desk" to handle problems (which seem inevitable when dealing with partner airlines). Not sure how to reach them at Alaska.

I'd note if you care about accruing points and nights with your selected hotel group, you likely won't earn anything through the stopover program.

I found the cost savings was insuffucient to give up control of my booking, so I opted to skip it and the associated hassle and booked direct. I'm sure others would disagree with this approach.

We took advantage of the DOH stopover program in February. 5:00 am arrival from PER, 1:00 am next morning departure to CPT. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency by Doha International Airport (not DOH) . The best benefit is the 24 hour check-in. Shuttle to/from the airport was included. The fee for 2 was $46.

Hotel rates in Doha are resonable, but we would have had to book 2 nights to guarantee an early check-in for the 20-hour layover. The stopover program worked well for us and we will take advantage of it again in December.

James

Any progress on this? Booking QR still seems impossible.

Nope. Still unable to book a ticket. Prices and Fare Buckets keep changing so obviously the systems are talking, but ticketing still won't confirm.