A319 gone from LHR?
 

Just had a Myflights notifcation for an upcoming QR booking. My LHR to DOH sector has changed to a 788, and a quick skim shows the same for other dates during the winter timetable. Is this permanent? A shame if so as I enjoyed that service.

One of the A319s is used for the Omra purposes to JED this Ramadan season. So, these 788 could be subs.

Qatarairways.com are selling both economy and business class on the QR15 and QR16 from late October 15 onwards with a 787 operating these flights.

A few random date searches suggest this continues daily well into 2016.

That is very strange! I hope that QR clarifies this issue.

seems like a complete no brainer to me...as much as the A319 was different, it was a complete waste of valuable LHR capacity. For the sake of emissions, I hope LHR have imposed a strict policy on this whatever the value of the blank cheque.

I think there were about 20 people on my flight.

Someone from this forum (Sixth Freedom possibly?) was part of the decision making process into launching an all Business Class flight to Doha - so sure we'll get some insight.

However, pie in the sky thoughts - the timings meant it was directly at people looking to get a full working day in Doha (or very nearby states/countries) and there were minimal longhaul connections to the outbound flights.

Which meant that ultimately the 20-40% connecting traffic which may have helped it survive quite simply didn't exist. Not sure that adding a 787 to the route helps - looking at 08:45 onwards departure bank from Doha (flight arrives 07:35) you have Dubai, Tunis, Jeddah, Bahrain, and then nothing until 12:00 (Dubai again). Are these onward destinations (and of course Doha) sufficient to sustain this time slot departure from Heathrow with a 787?

Suggest a later timed BKK departure maybe required...

From memory the only flight that EK operates that doesn't have any connection with the Europe inbound banks is a solitary Jakarta flight - but that is always full of local workers.

I was indeed.

If QR continue with the all premium service, I would not be surprised if they decided to try it out on some other routes, especially now we have seen the aircraft being deployed to Jeddah. Beirut would probably be a good candidate, or maybe Paris.

I connected with the BKK service but is the connection too short now?

I get the full day in Doha argument but there is no justification for a plane with max capacity 40 people leaving an airport which is already massively oversubscribed!

Oh - my bad. The 319 does connect with the BKK flight (but little else) but the 788 takes 20 minutes longer - and no connection (14 hours for next BKK flight). Who would have thought the 319 would be quicker than the 787 :confused:

Anyway, fundamentally agree with what you say (but appreciate it's theirs to do as they see fit) they should flog the slot to Garuda, then i'm happy!

Well at the end of the day LHR can impose an environmental policy on a carrier. If they want a 3rd runway they're gonna have to play hard ball - no matter how many notes are flashed at them. At 6ft 3 I'm not the biggest fan of squeezing people into an aluminium tube with a max capacity of 20 is taking the proverbial! They should have laughed at them when this config was proposed.

Hmm...

For all your indignation at the A319 all J service, it didn't stop you flying on it, did it?

:p

Agreed - double standards!

As I've suggested, I'm not going to pass up the offer of a business only jet but equally couldn't justifiably protest if the airport did the right thing and imposed a restriction on this type of config ;)) especially as a 'double standards' resident of West London. I could equally complain at the massive state subsidy my flight had incurred for the privilege of a substantially reduced ticket.

That said, I would struggle to chose that aircraft again given the cramped feel and noise factor.

I've been bumped off the 319 onto the 787 LHR-DOH as well - mine appears to be 5 mins quicker though, now arrives at 0735 not 0740.

Annoyingly our seats have been moved so no longer together, and I can't seem to change these in "manage my booking" - is this a known bug on the Qatar website?

It should work, just not the way you would expect :)

There is a button "Modify" on MMB somewhere. Click there, and you can choose your seats.

So there is (hidden due to ageing IE browser at work I think)! Thank you!
^