gav0106

Hi Chiro1979

It comes down to your fare type. I had same, but I was on cheap business ticket so no hotel.
I used HIA transit hotel due to not being able to get visa for wife, it was good enough for the time, you can see review here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ot-happen.html

If Qatar do book you hotel it will be the Oryx Rotanta. If they dont, you can book through them, they have set number of hotels, and they sort all visa etc for you

Cheers

Gav

Chiro1979

Thanks for your reply. I am going to be booking the lowest business class fare, so I guess that means no hotel. I'm still debating between TK and QR. Or possibly the non-stop on AC, to try their new J on the 787. The in flight product in that trip report looks great, the ground service not so much. Although the same can be said of TK. Well at least I still have plenty of time to decide! Thanks again!!

phillychuck

Greetings from another PHL based FT. I have a late March trip, PHL-DOH-HYD, with a 13 hour layover in DOH. Since I booked J but via a USAir code share, I was not eligible. But I simply booked into the airport hotel (which has various hourly rate packages) for the layover.

Chiro1979

Greetings fellow PHLian!! Thanks, I will look into that as well. I'm not leaving till early 2016 so I have a lot of time to plan I advance. I'm usually *A loyal, but now that US is Oneworld and I am PHL based, I have decided to start working on a Oneworld stash of miles too. Have heard great things about QR, but their schedule to India from PHL kind of blows! I did a trip to BKK last year that had 10 hours each way in IST, but I didn't mind that as I spent that time exploring Istanbul and spending a few hours in the TK lounge. I haven't seen much in my research of Doha that would be of interest to explore during a long layover (although I'm open to suggestions!). I don't travel for work, just for fun, so I don't travel a ton, nowhere near as much as most on here, so that gives me plenty of time to research and plan ahead! I do appreciate your help to this QR and Oneworld newbie!

tboons

I received a voucher for I fare. I fare is the promo business cat so you should be eligible?

zehbra

Just a little service update: On my most recent STPC confirmation (hotel reservation) it states:

Last time this wasn't the case (it just said amount of monetary value depends on transit time).

arabiamark

For my 15-hour transit last month the only monetary value on my voucher was the 175 riyal meal allowance.

chokdee

I have a flight booked for next month leaving BKK for CPH a Saturday. All evening flights showed that a delay of plus 8 hours at DOH was involved. The next available plane to CPH was at 08:20 in the morning. Now I have noticed that there is an early morning flight departing BKK at 02:40 on the Sunday.

I guess that also excludes me or is the ''possible connection time'' rule based on the day your flight leaves? I thought that leaving on a Saturday was the most effective means to reach CPH by Sunday lunch time which I will achieve but now it would appear I'm out of luck with the free STPC because I overlooked the early hours flight on Sunday morning.

I have flown many of the other Middle East airlines before and never experienced anything like this. Just turned up at the transfer desk on arrival where a voucher has always been given.

Next time I book with Qatar I will tread very carefully if a long stopover is involved ....seems like Qatar have too many ways to catch the unsuspecting traveller out!

chokdee

A quick update. QR have given me a STPC hotel. I am travelling Biz class I.
It seems that because there were no short connections on my departure date I was entitled to a paid stay. The early hours morning flight of the next day which would have involved a short connection did not impact on their decision

tboons

Same for my I fare too via call centre. But I had a different experience with Singapore office on economy N fare as they said the early morning flight would matter. So let's see. Maybe try calling the call centre as the Singapore officers are really crap

zehbra

Quick update on a recent Oryx Rotana STPC compared to one from last August:

Better:
- Transit accomodation desk-lady escorted me to Al-Maha lounge and handed me over to an agent there to take my papers (before: had to find my own way and stand around looking a bit out of place until someone took my papers)
- Room at Rotana was much bigger than the one last time, and actually had all amenities already in the room (and L'Occitane too. Last time I remember some rotana-branded stuff only) (before: no toothbrushes/shaving kit or anything the like, just a note asking guests to request it if needed) - this is especially appreciated given I arrived very tired sometime around 1 am and really didn't want to call/wait for someone to bring me these things.

Worse:
After being handed over to an Al-Maha representative, things got a bit tedious: In the Al-Maha lounge I waited a good 15 to 20 Minutes without my passport in hand (that's ok, but not having my passport and not seing who's handling it always makes me a bit nervous)
Then I was escorted out with a group of people who were all going to the Oryx, where, in the arrivals hall, no Oryx driver was to be seen. So we were escorted to the Business Arrivals lounge to wait 15-20 minutes.
After 20 minutes we were escorted to the Oryx Rotana desk to, again, hand over our passports so the guy could check us in there, and give us our room keys before even getting to the hotel.
In theory a great idea, but the process took a good 30+ minutes for all the guests in the group.
Then we were finally brought to the Shuttle bus (which was filled to the brim), to arrive at the Oryx Rotana almost 2 hours after stepping up to the transit accomodation desk.

Now, for me it was fine none the less since I had a layover of almost 13 hours, so plenty of time to catch some sleep. Others, however, who were just around the 8 hour-mark I guess, were, understandably, slightly pissed about the duration of this process.

To note: this started around 11pm on a saturday night, so when the airport is probably at it's busiest for arriving transit passengers

Cheetah_SA

Just to add a recent data point as of last Saturday. Our experience was very much as has been described - in particular:

- Data filled in and proper vouchers issued at Transit desk
- Accompanied to Al Maha lounge and agent vanished with passports and vouchers to organise visas
- Accompanied by Al Maha agent to arrivals hall (directly adjacent to the Al Maha lounge)
- Introduced to Oryx Rotana reps who took passports and vouchers to check us in
- No car immediately available so taken to arrivals lounge to wait for 5 - 10 minutes
- Fetched by driver and rep with our room key cards from lounge and walked across the road and to the car park with one other passenger
- Driven to Oryx Rotana in an Audi sedan and straight to the room (which is nothing spectacular but serves the purpose)

From leaving the aircraft to walking out of the arrivals terminal was exactly one hour. Add another 15 minutes to get to the car and drive to the hotel and this is square with the 75 minutes mentioned elsewhere. This was at 6am on Saturday when there were no queues anywhere so I guess this is as good as it gets time wise.

On departure the front desk told us to just rock up when we were ready to depart. We waited less than five minutes for the same Audi to drive us back to the airport.

As our layover was 19 hours this was definitely a very satisfactory solution. We slept a bit and had some food (our vouchers were for 175 QAR each). Then we drew money from an ATM in the hotel lobby and took a cab to the Museum of Islamic Art. I was astounded by the wonderful architecture (by I.M. Pei)! I've driven past it before but had no idea how extraordinary the place is up close and especially inside. Highly recommended - and it's free!

crombiestone

Just to post my experience of STPC in Economy N class .

Arrival in Doha was smooth; no queue at the transit hotel desk and I was swiftly allocated my hotel "The Grand Regal" There seemed to be a wide variety of different hotels for Economy passengers as we all discussed "what did you get ?" on the trek to immigration .

After being handed the voucher I was basically on my own . I was vaguely pointed to immigration which I went through with no issues .

Then I was landside with no idea what to do . I went to the the customer information desk and she barked at some guy who pointed to a seat and said "wait here" . From then passengers were grouped up and shipped out to cars or shuttle buses .

There were about 8 others assigned to my hotel so check-in was a bit slow but nothing bad . The room was generally fine ,clean and quiet .Only real complaint was the shower drain was really sharp and could have cut my foot .

Now to the F&B allowance. On a 19 hour stopover I was given 100 Riyal which was supposed to cover breakfast and lunch ..... No chance ! So I skipped breakfast , had a lie in and pondered my room service lunch . When I rang to order I was curtly told Qatar passengers must use the restaurant buffet . Talk about feeling like a second class citizen !

Anyway as I'm not a fan of hotel buffets , I insisted on room service to which they agreed though my precious riyals were not allowed to purchase an $8 bottle of beer . The food wasn't so good either .

Transfer back to the airport was fine and swift maybe a bit too swift .

All in all it wasn't a bad experience but my ticket wasn't cheap either .As if the STPC was already banked for in the price . Id much rather have a short transfer to be honest ........

gallagher

just to add a further data point.....
i was told today by Qatar Airwyas in London that if any of their schedules on your routing allow a <8hr connection then you do not get a complimentray transit hotel.
i.e. I have a 8 hour 20 minute conection CPH-DOH-BKK.
However as there is another CPH-DOH-BKK connection that is <8hrs (leaving CPH on the other QR flight and connecting to a differnt BKK flight) so this means I don't get the complimentary hotel

baggyred

I have an award J booking (class U i think)on QR in a few months with a 9 hr layover at Doha.

Whilst there are shorter connections on different days - on that day the shortest is 9 hours

Given though it is an award ticket - i assume I won't have access?