golfguy0226

As expected, mine got canceled.
Booked through Cheapoair website

Cheapoair called 5 minutes ago saying Qatar will not honor the ~$159 I paid for the flight. Offered no alternatives.

muffin1313

Ticketed and seats selected. Eagerly waiting a response....

BA Humbug

After making a sandwiching and relaxing I, for one, would like to speculate on how many people went through with this booking.

I suspect not many people went through with it, because:

1. Prejudice/western pre-conceptions of the Algerian/regional security situation as a whole
2. Difficulties of visas on either/both ends for many western countries.
3. Time of availability (most of North America should have been asleep)
4. Perceived difficulty of positioning to Algeria
5. Preclusion of those with an Israeli stamp directly in their passport*

I'm going to guess maybe a few hundred booked, tops.


*However, the last time I was in Oran, I met a jolly old fellow who said "anything is possible at the Algerian border... all you need is the right incentive" and showed me his passport with both an Israeli stamp & Algerian visa some pages later. How (much) he did that (for), I do not know.

bivinco

I booked this nice fare too directly from QR. Hopefully will travel Feb17. I was the only one from German VFT community.

lewende

May anybody traveled to ALG confirm that it is doable for an int'l-int'l itin to go through TWOV? In this case will an MAD-ALG-DOH-HKG itin qualify for TWOV?

tomasdev

Did anyone get their booking confirmed? This was hell of a deal.

Epicura

Did you forget to mix a drink ?

Mine still shows ok on QR MMB for now.

Booked for October, spending 1 night in FOC with long layovers in DOH and HKG (long enough to leave the airport and spend the night). This was the only option I was able to find for travel in October, so I just took this.

I don't think that too many got in, given the expected practical difficulties. Positioning from Europe is not that hard though, seeing RT flights for about 200 EUR (AMS, BRU, DUS)*. Otherwise Avios would indeed be a good option (perhaps IB Avios are even cheaper with some flights on Vueling).

I am not too worried about visa. Transit visa for ALG is 50 EUR for most EU citizens and I don't expect too much difficulties regarding the Chinese visa. Most of us also still have plenty of time to prepare.

A friend already pointed out being a bit worried about having the ALG stamp in your passport, for future travel towards USA etc. Perhaps this could become an issue, but my passport needs renewal anyway by April 2017, to comply with the 6 months validity, so I might just renew it a bit sooner and get rid of the stamp.

Even with the extra costs (positioning and visa), if this would fly, this is indeed a helluva deal. For AA EXP, assuming there will not be any changes towards earnings on QR I flights later this year, I am seeing almost 22k EQM (150%) and over 32k RDM (125% + 100%).

* Just noticed that AF is offering direct RT CDG-ALG for 136 EUR (random dates in October).

NightlinerVIE

According to TIMATIC, that might not even be needed as Algeria allows for TWOV up to 24 hrs. Dont know though if that applies to all nationalities, but EU citizens should be fine.

IAN-UK

How is it much different? Well, it's almost half the price

Voila!

LH4116

Are the bookings made on QR still alive?

Danusa86

So far, yes.

muffin1313

Booked using cheapoair for 2 pax next February.. Hasn't been cancelled yet. Still shows in QR MMB

Slobodansm

Mine is still showing as confirmed. Wonder how many folks booked it. I'm assuming ALG was a deal breaker for most.

Time will tell what will happen with this, I guess :-)

Cheers

mlqsko

Definitely not that many. Something that might be in favour of the ones who did book.

Danusa86

10 days (and counting) and everything still shows up as confirmed. What do you all think?