Many FlyerTalkers first fly to a distant city before departing on their "real" ticket - because ticket prices from other locations can be far, far cheaper (when talking about premium cabins).

I have had 4 tickets to the US departing from Oslo in the past 12 months, with other re-positioning flights to Italy, Ireland, Norway and Poland coming up in the next few months to take advantage of cheaper fares, too.

You don't always have to fly from your local airport - there are great savings to be had by shopping around @:-)

(I can't remember the last longhaul flight I flew directly from AMS - though my upcoming trip from Ireland will be routing me via AMS on KL for a saving of over half the ticket price that KL charges from AMS :D )

The 500 miles here refers to Qatar's apparent rebooking policy - they are quite lenient and, in the case of major schedule changes, allow you to move the origin of your ticket (for free) to any point within a certain radius of the original origin. Hence, the desire to first pick an origin close enough to where you really are - because in a case like this, you may be allowed to rebook the ticket to depart from your home airport, at the price of the "far" airport, thereby cutting out the unnecessary positioning before/after the "main" ticket.

I was rebooked to a later flight to SIN with a layover at HIA of 7 hours. The flight is next week. I've checked the departure time of the flight FROM DOH to SIN from which I was transferred and this now leaves 50 minutes after the scheduled arrival from OSL so is within MCT of 45 minutes. I'll ring Qatar tomorrow but what are my chances of getting them to transfer me back to my original itinerary at no charge?

Once more a sked change dumps me off a 787 onto a 777 next year. This occurred to all my booked 787 flights this year to/from South Africa too. I far prefer the privacy of J pods on 787s but alas appears I'll never get one again on QR!

Shareholder QR have just announced that due to increased demand the B777 will permanently replace the B787 on the CPT route. See http://www.qatarairways.com/english_...essrelease_cpt for details. Do not fear because the B787 is still to be found on many other QR routes.

So are you flying to CPT or JNB?

To CPT, as remdk just documented, they did that to increase capacity while staying at 1 flight per day.

To JNB, at least in February, there are two flights per day, one is still 787 (the daytime flight southbound, the overnight flight northbound), the other one is 777 (the late night->mid morning flight southbound, the afternoon -> late evening flight northbound).

if you want to fly to CPT on a 787 most of the way, you could pick the 787 flight to JNB and then connect on Comair (or whatever the BA subsidiary is known as this week) to CPT same day.

Appreciate follow-ups from both of you. Doing DOH-CPT in January and had hoped to be able to compare the B787 (I have flown it once on the JNB route before my subsequent flights were changed to B777s) with the A350 that I'll have flown into DOH from JFK a few hours before so it would be fresh in my mind. Checking the seat map for the B777 I did notice J was pretty full, though the back of the plane was pretty empty 2 months out. Usually it's J that fills closer to flight time. As for changing via JNB, prefer the overnight direct to a day flight with a connection...though I do like the BA domestic SLOW lounges at both JNB and CPT.

Oops, double post for some reason.

Bump 2017...
 

I was just about to book some connecting flights for some ex-EU QR flights this Autumn, and wondered if anyone had inside knowledge about whether there was going to be another raft of schedule changes, particularly given the current airspace restrictions?

So far I've only had my October flights move +/- 10-15 minutes each way, but if there's another 2 hour shift like there was last year (see first thread), my connecting flights would be buggered, so does anyone know when they'll be buttoned down?

I'm thinking 2 months is enough notice for QR to settle its schedules, but this is QR we're talking about, so who knows...

SO I just happened to check my trip on Qatar website and there was changes made to my flight leaving Johannesburg and leaving Doha to Dps in 2 weeks time(about +-20 mins)

which I understand why, but they never sent my travel agent notification or neither did they email me, Its the first time I had time changes to my ticket, if I never happened to login to my flight on their website, how else would I have known?

That's something a lot of us dislike but it is the way they handle this. A lot people here use MyFlights (App or desktop versions available) which keeps tracks of your flights and inform you about any changes by email.

I also recommend the myflights website / app. They will notify you as soon anything has been changed on your booking. Even the assigned aircraft. Which comes in handy if on the new aircraft a better seat is available.

OK, so not a schedule change, but plane changes for a bunch of bookings in Oct/Nov, and e.g. A350 has become an A330 out of BRU.

Seat allocations have gone haywire, so check your bookings, kids...

kt74 Thanks for the warning! When there are aircraft changes, often to the identical aircraft types, seats are always reallocated.Please also bare in mind that for a time, from days to weeks, the entire cabin seat map is unavailable.

Thanks for the heads up, looks like I've dodged the A330 bullet.... for now.

Me 2
QR 193/194 A350

QR 195/196 A330

Boston is going 787 for the month of October from A350. I didn't think they had a crew rest?

6 J seats are to be blocked for inflight crew rest.

hi, would appreciate some advice/knowledge here.

I booked:
QR274 and QR836 AMS-BKK via DOH with a 1h55 layover arriving at BKK 13:20

it has been changed to a QR274 and QR832 with a 9h5m layover, arriving BKK 18:50

a) can I do anything about it? its spoiled some otherwise good timings
b) does the change from a350 to a 777-300 mean it'll be Qsuite?

a) Yes, you can change as long as you have at least 2h difference in the departure time. You can change to another departure point/city in a 500 km radius (as long as they have availability in the same class).

b) so far only 1 plane with Q Suite, and flying LHR-DOH. So no Q Suite.

hmm. excuse my ignorance but within 500km of AMS or DOH?
so I could fly from LON instead? would mean I could also change my return to come back to LON?

I had exactly the same retiming issue.

Basically what happened was QR274 was retimed/cancelled (can't remember exact detail) so it was leaving much later from AMS.
This then forced a rescheduling of your onward flight DOH to BKK to be on a later service as you were a misconnect onto QR836.
But then QR274 got reinstated back to a similar late afternoon departure time from AMS. Your reservation for AMS to DOH got put back to this time.
But your DOH to BKK is still on the later retimed flight.

Just call up QR and either give them the details above, or just claim ignorance but ask to be put back on QR836 as you need to be in Bangkok for a meeting at 5pm. Assuming QR don't mess around with the operational plan QR836 is usually the A380, as opposed to QR832 which is usually a 777.

ah ok that all makes sense, I'll give them a call.
QR274 is now taking off 1h30 earlier which would rub salt in the wounds if i cant change back

thanks

I dont know when OP is flying but in October the QR836 is an A340-600. I will have the pleasure at the 14th of October.

I just received a myflights alert a few days ago that QR836 on 30th October has had the A380 subbed for a 777 . Not best pleased as I was booked in First since January and I have already had to reroute via BEY due to the blockade from Egypt .

They tried to rebook me on 1st November when the A380 seems to be back but I had hotels booked that were non refundable and I would have lost 2 days of vacation . I have now changed to QR830 a day earlier (29th) back on an A380 , with only 7 weeks to go I hope there are no more changes !

If you go to QR cargo website you will see that it was QR836 is an A340-600 until 28th of October. After that it seems that no plane has been scheduled (at the time of my writing). QR cargo is precise for about 2 weeks in advance but you might want to follow it as it is easy to see which flight on this route has a specific plane type scheduled for a whole week.
QR830 has a 777 scheduled for the 27th of October before it returns to an A380.

Some schedule changes (last minute changes?) on DOH-MAD-DOH route. QATAM aircraft back to QR149 QR150

http://i66.tinypic.com/143ke2o.jpg

Thanks for the info endet .It looks like I'm not out of the woods yet then as no aircraft listed for QR830 on 29th so far . I didnt check there to be honest . Just what the customer service lady said on the phone, it may have been a different flight number on 1st November. I didnt pursue it as I wanted to fly on 29th . I wouldn't be too bothered about an aircraft change if I wasn't booked in First . Who knows when QR would have contacted pax if they didnt have myflights ?

As far as I remember my schedule changes with BA and QR you would not have been notified at all. If you are lucky your seat allocation will have carried over. If not you would have been assigned a seat at check-in.
A seat reservation is nothing guaranteed and my assumption that this is the reason why you would not be notified.

Owing to the timetable changes for Autumn/Winter, it could well be that QR haven't updated the QRcargo website quite yet.

However, check back in about 2 weeks time and the schedules should have been loaded.

M

Myflights showed a new seat reservation in J on the 777 but to be downgraded from first to business I would hope that QR would notify at some point . Really bad form if they don't. OK mine was a QCredit upgade but the flights are pricing around $8000 USD RT.

This happens every year, and it's happened to a few FTers who have written their experiences.

The two options, tend to be:

1) 75% of the fare refunded (but this takes times to negotiate as I have warned many times).

2) Take the later or earlier A380 flight - which is what most do.

It's very irritating, and most simply turn up to the airport without realising, but these things happen.

M

You called it exactly right, I managed to get put back on to QR836 - even though the first call centre chap said that the flight was no longer scheduled! I suggested that it might be given that it was still showing availability on the the Qatar website. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing he eventually managed to put me on to QR834 which actually means I wait an even shorter time at DOH. I dont mind missing out on the lounge experience given that ive got a 7h layover on the way home (no better options unfortunately)

Great, happy to have shared the info and helped out - that's what the forum is all about. Sounds like your fare bucket might have been sold out on QR836 and the agent you spoke to was not being very flexible - invol schedule changes are not usually limited to fare bucket but any available ticket in the same class. But if QR834 gives you a quicker connection you can be enjoying your time in Bangkok sooner. Have a good trip!

Thanks
 

Info was much appreciated. thanks.

The agent wasn't so much unhelpful as keen to get rid of me I think. His first suggestion that the flight didn't exist took him about 2 seconds to come up with so I don't think he'd looked it up. He also nearly booked me on the correct flight number but A WEEK LATER! until i corrected him I was nearly due for a 7 day layover

agreed that that's what the forum should be about, I've been a lurker for ages and got some
great help e.g. Using myflights, getting cheap J fares ex-AMS etc. Pretty poor from QR that I wasn't notified about leaving AMS 1h30 earlier

The notification of schedule changes is apparently a function of the local QR office where the booking originates from. For my PSA-AKL flights I had no notifications of any schedule changes until a few weeks out and then I had quite a few emails over quite a few different days all telling me the same information. Some others have noted on the forum that they do get timely notifications, so it being tied to the local office kinda makes some logical sense, although it makes no sense from a customer point of view.

I agree that notification of flight changes is something QR could do with improving considerably as it appears the experience is quite variable.

Apart from staggering notifications when there are widespread changes to schedules (so to avoid the customer care teams being besieged with callers) I really fail to understand why notifications can't sensibly be sent out within 24 hours of a schedule change being made.

Okay so I just logged into manage my booking 3 days prior to departure to find all my flights have had schedule changes between 15-35 minutes. No notification some are now departing earlier and some arriving later. Called QR call centre. I asked why I had not been notified of the flight changes to which the agent said the flights had been schedule changed a month ago but admitted I had not been notified and was still on queue and said I would have been notified prior to departure. I find this hard to believe I would have been notified in the next 3 days.... I asked what would have happened if I had arrived close to checkin deadline and missed the flight because of not being notified the agent didn't have an answer to that....Anyway one of the flights is no longer suitable for me due to the fact I now have booked a domestic flight. QR said the schedule change is not significant which I understand if you notify your customers in advance this is acceptable but when you don't notify your customers and they only find out 3 days prior to departure shouldn't their be some leniency? Since my departure point is ARN and I haven't been notified of the schedule change at least 14 days prior to departure doesn't this fall under EU rules for Air Passenger Rights? Booked in business if it makes a difference.

AU25 I don't know what are you rights now but unfortunately QR almost never notifies flights schedule changes. Just use MyFlights app with all your flights to avoid discovering too late that kind of situation. And anyway, never book a tight connection on separate tickets as QR doesn't allow for a free change of flight under a 2 hours flight schedule change.

Thanks! I know its my own fault having tight connection but only booked a few weeks ago thinking the schedule had been finalised. I love QR and think they have one of the best onboard products but its things like not notifying customers of schedule changes that really lets them down. It's not hard can be simply in the form of a schedule change email notifcation. Low cost carriers manage to do it and I know for a fact that there are programs that exist that automate the schedule change email process for airlines. I don't get why QR wouldn't just invest in this if they haven't? Anyways will try my luck with pushing EU passenger air rights since they failed to notify me at least 14 days prior to departure since this is an ex EU departure.

More changes!
 

My original QR149 was scheduled to arrive in madrid at 1pm... after some months... they change to 1.30pm... so i am ok... 2 months from the flight. I book the train from spain to seville at 3pm... giving me enough time to get to atocha... but now.... the schedule has changed to 2pm... which makes it impossible to reach the seville train. I uograded the flights with Qcredits.

Any chance of moving the flight earlier so that i can make it oj the train?

Unfortunately no.
You might get lucky and land ahead of time in MAD, but even without that flight schedule change, your flight might be delayed... I would never book such a short plane to train connection...
My last plane to train connection was in BRU and I had more than 2 hours between them and also bought a cheap spare late train ticket, just in case everything went wrong, but fortunately it didn't 😊