Schwann

A roundabout way to say they now codeshare on routes into 42 of the same countries I think.

Dave Noble

Being an industry leader doesn't imply that it is a giood quality carrier

clearedforlanding

Any examples of itineraries with this new partnership in action? I feel bad for anyone who steps off a QR long haul flight and onto BA expecting the same level of service! But this might be quite a good thing for people who fly "creative" routings. Back when OSL-SIN was a fairly cheap QR route there was a time you could route the return SIN-DOH-LHR-OSL without any premium, for example.

With all this shared loyalty talk. Any possibility of GGL access to Al Safwa?

carrotjuice

Not a pipsqueak. As is the Avios tier bonus for BAEC members flying QR or vice versa.

etiene

Sounds like the real win [for the next twelve months] might be in an expanded portfolio of possible BA Holidays destinations bouncing through DOH. AFAICT the previous codeshare arrangement was only/mainly for destinations BA didn't serve [e.g. HKT, DPS] when it was set up - I'm not even sure if it expanded as BA's destinations in Asia dwindled?

Bunter

Don't the BA holidays deals tend just to be to destinations where you fly on BA metal rather than codeshares?

SGJ

Can be on partner airlines, with or without codeshare. Currently in Phuket via DOH, BA flight numbers throughout, should give 1120 TPs for one trip.

TTmex

I see Qatar are opening a Oneworld lounge in T4 LHR, so I'm guessing their premium lounges (Al Ma) etc will remain business and above only.

nomadabroad

the new T4 lounge has been open for a while now (for OWE/OWS and Silver or higher on QRPC) in addition to the existing premium lounge (business only).

They recently just opened a Silver lounge (only for Silver on QRPC), Gold lounge (OWS or Gold on QRPC)) and Platinum lounge (OWE or Plat on QRPC) in Doha. Al Mourjan remains ticketed business fare only.

A new second Al Mourjan North lounge will soon open which will be almost the same size as the current one doubling the total capacity for business class.

Equally there will be a second set of Platinum/Gold/Silver lounge in the North side (unconfirmed, but as the current lounges are named “Platinum Lounge - South”, highly likely there will be a North counterpart).

Once all of that is open hopefully will see a more balanced lounge traffic especially during peak transfer bank times.

So in total they will have around 9-10 lounges in Doha (depends if there will also be a second Al Safwa on the North side).

TTmex

So any access to AM and premium lounges would need to wait until those extensions are complete, but even then I'm not sure QR will open them to Sapphire and Emeralds. From reading the QR forum ahead of my trip this weekend, it appears AM has been rather busy quite a lot of the time.

nomadabroad

They will never open AM to OWE and OWS if flying in Y unfortunately, the only way in is through business class (non-lite fares). They have gone as far as opening a new separate lounge for OWE (Plat lounge) and OWS (Gold lounge) for this specific reason.

The new AM is desperately needed to cater to specifically to the overflowing business class traffic alone at the moment during peak hours.

lorcancoyle

if the new one is on an upper level just across from the people mover / tram stop it looked pretty complete last week - could see furniture set-up etc. I got my hopes up before I realised it wasn’t open…

nomadabroad

yep it is likely to be this one (or this could be the new Plat/Gold lounge and the new AM is on the other side overlooking the new indoor garden/fountain thing.

lorcancoyle

Looking at a BAH next September to Maldives and it forces me onto dates BA flies, but I can then change flights to use QR - not very intuitive / joined up. Hopefully this helps those sorts of things

frb98mf

Would be nice to see them bring QR's Beyond Business into OnBusiness to match the rollup into Avios.