ACVBear

Hi all - i know i'm a bit early here but looking to head to Qatar for World Cup 2022 end of November and just wondering if anyone had UAL advice/Star advice on best routings? As of now I get options through FRA for like 5x the cost of other airlines (starting from IAH or LAX) - was surprised at a lack of IAH-DOH options.

WineCountryUA

UA does nor serve DOH, so you will have to use a partner to get to DOH. This far out UA trends to hold high prices longer than most.

Key questions:
What cabin?

Have you looked booking directly on LH or TK sites?

ACVBear

Yeah i am maybe foolishly holding out hope for the WC people increase frequency - and it's frankly early but i was looking at Y (and finding $7.5k with LH) - so I am checking LH, TK, and actually AC seems to be okay but requires an extra stop

dcsnowwake

I’m flying to Abu Dhabi first for F1. Staying somewhere else and flying in and out after matches since no places to stay.

using *A miles to get there then just booking partners using cash.

nnn

We'll actually be flying out of AUH (to DOH) during the F1 race on the 20th. I couldn't drum up interest with Mrs. nnn to attend the race itself. Not a big deal, though, as none of us knows basically anything about auto racing.

Hotels in Doha will be made available. They are just not up yet. You can actually get a hotel in Doha now, but you have to book a hospitality match ticket (at inflated prices, yes). I wanted to lock in our accommodations, so I bought a hospitality match ticket (Team USA Group match #1) and that opened up the right to book up to a 7-night stay in Doha. The hotels are overpriced as well, but that is to be expected as accommodations in Doha are shaping up to be the bottleneck for this WC. (Now just waiting for ticket sales to open up.)

Couldn't find a good option in J to use my UA miles to DOH. Didn't want to make two stops. So I transferred a boatload of Amex points to EK and booked n/s SFO-DXB-SFO in J for the fam.

dcsnowwake

sign up through Sammers supporters group, we will be able to get tickets through US soccer without paying blackmail fee.

If Doha opens up and isn’t $1k/night I’ll stay but planning on staying elsewhere as is a lot of other supporters.

riphamilton

for those less familiar, more US nationals have bought tickets for each of the past three world cups (apart from the host countries) than any other nationality.

there's probably enough demand for a few special widebody flights by UA, but US-DOH is already well covered by QR and other existing links via EU connections that can be upgauged.

dcsnowwake

Doubt they would increase flights for this. I have attended 3 of last 4, they never increased for those, and thats not Qatar where most will not be able to have a place to stay, nor most supporters could afford. All the others were price sensative for the normal US Supporter. This will be the least attended from the US world cup in ages and by far the most expensive.

Luckily lots of flights from other *A partners to get in and out.
Now if only EgyptAir would serve alcohol!

nnn

Unless you're using *A miles on MS or whatever to come and go, the flights in and out of DOH could end up costing more than just staying in Doha. Those will be high-demand flights, I suspect, unless the the airlines of that region dramatically increase capacity. It's not clear if the political issues between Qatar and UAE etc. will pose obstacles in increasing capacity (there were no flights to/from UAE until recently).

Meanwhile, the cheapest hotels in Doha are in the $500-600/night range through FIFA/Match Hospitality, at least for the first week of the group stage. So far you can only book them if you buy a hospitality ticket. Probably also easier to knock out more games by staying locally.

EgyptAir is the least of our worries ... that will be a problem in Qatar too.

lightwalker

I am also struggling with these blackmail prices. The question is: will the hotel prices be any cheaper as soon as bookings open up for the public?

bhomburg

Doha/Qatar only has about 30,000 hotel rooms altogether, with a few thousand more slated to come online this year.
There'll be much more demand than supply for duration of the tournament, and I would not count on prices going down

lightwalker

Yeah, so I am really wondering whether we should go at all. Paying extreme prices for a an overcrowded city/beach to watch one group game.

Interesting article about it here: https://skift.com/2021/11/18/qatar-i...-of-world-cup/

Then fitting to that another nice snippet from here: https://www.dohanews.co/will-qatar-h...orld-cup-fans/

bhomburg

I would look at staying in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi or Dubai and fly in for the games.
The blockade is history, things have gone back to normal. QR is flying DOH-DXB with 777s these days...

Duck1981

Missed opportunity.

I was living in Doha and thought it's a great opportunity to show my wife Qatar and visit one or two games but flying in from Dubai with a toddler just for a game? Naaa.

Of course I expected higher prices (compared to the normally super low rates in QA for a good hotel) but what is quoted here seems to be a rip off.

IAN-UK

I don't think Bahrein has any services to Doha currently and Abu Dhabi offers only a couple of flights each day. Dubai has more, Qatar and AirDubai are operating - but tickets are pricey. If you are intent on this strategy, maybe Sharjah would be worth looking at with cheaper flights by Air Arabia.

Of course things might change before kick-off. But I wouldn't count on UAE working towards making a success out of Qatar's bid for sporting glory: the blockade dissolved, but things aren't exactly sweetness and light between the two states.