satnammann

Hi,
I am looking to book flights from Dubai to Doha using air miles as the fares are £350 return.
Any idea when the mileage option will be available?
I also don’t see any options for Qatar on the same route.

IntrepidAfrican2

EK does not fly to DOH presently. Your options are QR or FZ.

satnammann

flydubai who are owned by Emirates?

IntrepidAfrican2

flydubai aren’t owned by Emirates.

satnammann

ok thanks, they are very expensive. I have air miles can I transfer to their air mile program?
are they part of one world or star alliance?

NoY

They have the same owner though - Government of Dubai - & are VERY closely aligned

nnn

Any talk on possibly adding service to DOH for the World Cup in November-December? There are only a few flights a day scheduled to/from UAE and demand is expected to be high during those weeks.

satnammann

that’s exactly why we are going to Dubai.
I am after flights for the semis 13-15 December and then the final on 18 December from Dubai to Doha.
the flights using flydubai are really expensive so was asking whether they use air miles or if there are any cheaper alternatives (direct or non-direct)

thijsseh

Well, you can use Skywards miles for FlyDubai through their partnership. But (assuming there are flights during that period), I suspect that award seats will be difficult or impossible to get. No airline will make award seats available when they can sell them for cash at (possibly inflated) cash prices.
Whatever way (different routes / airlines) you try is, my suspicion is that seats to / from DOH during the World Cup will be (very) expensive. It's referred to as 'supply and demand'.....

nnn

Given recent political issues it's unclear if they will add flights to/from DXB for the WC, but it only makes sense that they should do so. With hotel supply in Doha expected to be so limited, flying people in and out may be the best way to fill those stadiums. But that would probably require more scheduled flights from neighboring countries.

For now, I booked via AUH instead. There are more flights, and they are generally cheaper than DXB. The one-way AUH-DOH is still relatively expensive, but I was able to get award tickets on Etihad (transferring Amex points to Etihad miles). By contrast, the return flight DOH-AUH is relatively cheap at the moment on Etihad (< $150), so we booked that with cash. Still, I would prefer to fly back via DXB to make my connection home on Emirates easier, so will keep watching for cheaper flights via DXB to open up. Maybe Emirates will add the route -- we'll see.

satnammann

my dates are not available at the moment but a return in late November is still 4335 AED

nnn

Right, I'm going in November during the group stage. If you break up the round trip into two one-ways, you may see the AUH-DOH segment costing a lot more than the DOH-AUH segment (which is why I used miles for the AUH-DOH segment and booked DOH-AUH with cash). Again, this is on EY not EK.

satnammann

thanks a lot cheaper booking one-way.