hoihoihoi

hi there, can anyone confirm if i were to change to different dates before flying the first sector, is the 415 usd change fee applicable? Despite rebooking to other dates that has R class? has anyone tried this before?

xinliz

I have flown the first leg, and tried calling to change the ticket, but they're saying nothing is available in R class. Has anyone else had luck recently?

lcpteck

Anybody tried this yet?

FlytheTail

I haven't tried for this fare, but in every other case I know, if changes are made before any flights have been flown, the price will be the current (new) ticketing price plus the change fee.

ncSam

I'll be arriving at SGN on this fare in a few months, and am looking to fly to HKT. I'm thinking of flying VN to BKK and then PG (Bangkok Airways) from BKK to HKT. Since VN and PG are codeshare partners, I can book the flight with all PG flight numbers. Would booking a PG coded flight on VN metal prevent me from using the transit desk at SGN? I'm assuming it wouldn't, since with codeshare flights one checks in with the operating carrier, but wanted to make sure. I'll have 3+ hours to transit, so that shouldn't be an issue.

NetJets Germany

Quickly sharing my experience from the past 24h:

Positioned from SIN on SQ and managed to check the bags through all the way SIN-SGN-DOH-FRA. The check-in agent in SIN first hesitated slightly, but after I had told her "It worked for me last time" she had no problem getting the feat accomplished.

As a German passport holder, I needed no visa to get into Vietnam, and I was pleasantly surprised that the check-in staff in SIN did not even ask me for a visa once.

Once in SGN, I found the transfer desk empty save for a confused non-QR employee who told me that the QR personnel would only be able to come over an issue me with a BP three hours prior to departure. I felt a bit miffed about it and asked if they could call them and check, but my request fell on deaf ears and I was asked to just "sit here and wait". Luckily I had printed my own BP prior to departure, and the security staff at the transfer security check waived me through without any troubles.

After wandering around for a while I finally found the entrance to the Apricot lounge, which was okay, but nothing to write home (or on FT) about. On the upside, after about an hour someone brought me a brand new set of boarding passes.

The flight SGN-DOH was uneventful (Food was good, A333 seat decent if a bit narrow at the foot end, staff pleasant) and arrived at DOH 40 mins early, turning a 45min tight connection into a leisurely 1h25m instead. Nonetheless, DOH airport not being the smallest, I only spent 15mins at Al Mourjan grabbing a cappuccino before I headed to my onward flight. DOH-FRA QR69 was operated by a 773ER, whose seats I preferred to the narrower A333 seats. The crew were not quite as good as the previous crew though, for they were trying too hard to please. At the same time, 3h into the flight two of the four J class toilets had been taken out of service because they were "clogged". I was not impressed by that. Both QR971 and QR69 were pretty much full in J. Upon arrival at FRA, the German border police were doing preliminary passport checks just at the end of the jet-bridge, other than that the arrival went smoothly.

All in all, a rather pleasant experience which makes me look forward to my return flights in three weeks.

FlytheTail

I recently flew my second one of these, this time arriving into SGN on Vietjet Air (VJ). Not surprisingly, I couldn't check in with QR online, and had an E-visa, anticipating I would need to clear immigration and customs and have to check in with QR at their front counter. However, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try to get my boarding passes at the transfer desk. Surprisingly, the agent did this without hesitation, even after providing him with my VJ boarding pass. I don't know if that was a fluke, because at check-in with VJ, they asked for my visa. Originally I told them I didn't need one because I was only transiting, hoping that I could use the E-visa later. But a colleague confirmed the need for a visa since since VJ didn't provide transfer services with other airlines.

Flight from SGN-DOH was good despite being in the somewhat cramped A333 seat. The J cabin was about 75% full and service was excellent. Onwards flight to JFK was an hour late (had to offload a pax) and the J cabin was full on the A350. The seat was more comfortable/spacious and food was good, but service was a bit disappointing. Still better than most airlines but not to the level of previous QR flights. Probably just a tired or unmotivated flight attendant and not a big deal. Still really enjoyed the experience and look forward to my return.

sony2012

can anyone change the date after flying the first leg? I am trying to have a stopover in Doha for two days. In all days, R class is available (thanks for the current promo) but I cannot change it online and the agents say they see only I class, so there is 3500USD increase in fare....

platbrownguy

Currently in the great void aka the transit area at SGN. Arrived from BKK on VN600 w/ 6 hours in SGN, easily checked bags BKK-SGN-DOH-DFW, but couldn't get QR's OLCI to generate boarding passes, just seat confirmations and instructions to proceed to document check.

Couldn't get through transit security to the departures hall without a real BP for the QR flight. An hour of fairly vigilant discussions with non-QR staff has finally/thankfully gotten our passports and bag tags in the hands of an agent at the QR transfer desk who said to wait just another 15 min.

Hopefully on the way back through next week, we'll have our onward BP (CX to HKG, OLCI should be no problem). The void sucks! Dirty bathrooms, no food, limited seating, unhelpful but clearly amused staff wandering about.

dsquared37

I had thought about doing the exact same position and de-positioning flights but that now appears to not be my strategy. At the moment I'm now pondering the QR flight PNH-SGN to pick up the flight (which guarantees no misconnect) and the continuation at the end to PNH. Has anyone done this? Are there any pitfalls to know about?

platbrownguy

Taking QR in and out from PNH would seem like a pretty good way to go.

All told we spent an hour and 20 minutes doing nothing in the no-man's-land (1:20-2:45 p.m.) before being able to get our boarding passes. Even that seems lucky because the official line is 3 hours pre-departure i.e. 4:25 p.m. The no-man's-land really is a terrible place to wait.

Got BPs and lounge invites. As has been reported, the lounge is the Apricot lounge and the lounge dragon makes sure to let you know that you only get 3 hours of access before you have to buy a voucher. So we're here 2:50 to 5:50 p.m. (about to get kicked out, presumably, it's 5:48 p.m. local). The pho is actually not bad -- little bowls of noodles & beef & herbs are sitting behind a vat of aggressively (reassuringly) boiling broth that you ladle into your bowl. Rest of the food has been sitting around too long. Self serve booze (Gordon's, Captain Morgan, Ballantine's, local wine, various beer) is better than I recall last time I was here.

platbrownguy

Thoughts on my first visit to Al-Mourjan (had previously only been to Al-Safwa at DOH which I thought was very nice).

Overall a very nice looking space, like Al-Safwa. The aesthetics really do add something, makes it feel less airport-like, which is nice on a long layover. No one wants to spend 8 hours in a satellite-terminal admirals club.

Layover was 11:30 p.m. until 8:10 a.m. flight. Hadn't slept much on SGN-DOH, so first thought was sleep (indeed, I almost sprung for the $127 Westin even if it would have meant only 4 hours of sleep, because bed sleep beats lounge sleep). Went to the sleep/shower area behind the "deli" (fyi the signs at the lounge call the deli the "dining resort" -- looks like a dining area with small plants everywhere, a bakery display on the right, and a little bar there... the sleep/shower area was indeed to the right past the bakery counter, through the glass doors that look like you shouldn't enter them, turn right then left -- there's a staffed desk there). Was told sorry, all the rest areas were full for now, but try back at 6 a.m. (!)

Next stop was the business center -- you enter a sitting area where the business center is on your left. You don't actually enter the business center, you just keep moving to the back of the room (i.e., with the business center on your left), and you'll run right into a bunch of loungers in semi-walled-off pods. Many of these are 2 loungers per pod, others are more private. Almost all were full at 11:45 p.m., but we turned right and went all the way to the back and the last set of three individual loungers were all empty. My wife took the farthest-back one (meaning that there was no situation in which anyone would walk by her, which was nice), and I took the next one, and hung my jacket up on the divider between the two loungers. I asked a staff member for blankets and he went into the closet and got two of them for us. No one bothered us, and my wife and I manged 6 and 3 hours of sleep, respectively.

When I woke at 3ish, I was pleased to be able to get a nice pour of Jack Daniel's from the bar, then a grilled cheese sandwich (not bad, needed salt -- it was emmental), then a shower. Even at that hour there was a 5-minute wait for a shower but I finished my JD while waiting. I then caught up on some work, and when wife woke up, we went for breakfast. Of course by that time (6 a.m.), the lounge was again a zoo, but we managed to find a table at the buffet, and the breakfast spread was fairly decent, so all in all not a bad experience. I wouldn't look forward to another 8-hour overnight layover there but if you have to have such a layover it's a perfectly fine place to have it. We're heading back through Doha this Friday (DFW-DOH on Thurs, arriving Friday evening; then DOH-SGN at ~2 a.m. Saturday a.m.) -- but will head out into the city, see the Souq, and perhaps come back in time to have a couple drinks at the lounge but no more than that.

Any tips on a fun, reasonably-priced (~$10-30/person) spot to eat in Doha?

jona970318

Just finished the return of my 2/3 set of these. I'm looking to change my return date after flying the outbound.
Does anyone recall the "All travel must be completed by" date? If anyone has a copy of the fare rules that you can paste here that'd be awesome!

joetraveler99

Has anyone had a problem with these QR flight miles posting to to their AA account? I’ve been waiting 3 weeks now, and done all the requisite follow up with AA, still no miles. I need the EQMs to maintain my EXP.

platbrownguy

My miles for SGN-DOH-DFW posted before we hit the ground in DFW. (as did my wife's status upgrade to Platinum, which happened only based on the DOH-DFW flight -- she'll get Plat Pro with the return trip too ^)