Droundtheworld

I asked when I got to Al Mourjan in DOH if I was able to purchase access to Al Sawfa and they said yes for AED 350.00 (USD 95.00). I immediately left for the Al Sawfa lounge and the host at the escalator asked for boarding pass and I said I would like to pay, she let me up. When I got to desk they asked for ticket and then said it would be AED 250.00 (even better). I had a 6 hour layover and it was great. I was able to try the fantastic Krug Clos Du Mesnil 2003 which was the best champagne I have ever had. They also had Krug and La Grande Dame. Had a great meal and time in the lounge. I found out from the Duty Manager that they started offering this to passengers that were on a full fare business ticket (no upgraded ticket).

Gobber

Very nice that you have experienced THIS first hand without flying in F, I wonder would they allow to purchase entry with Biz Promo (R) not upgrade or it has to be proper bus.class still? In any case, did you tried the rooms/spa's or 6 hrs indulging in drinks and food went too fast? Was Al Sawfa almost empty still or there are more people in now with such purchase allowance?

swingaling

Full fare business class has a very specific meaning, and typically refers to the J fare bucket. Is this offer limited to J fare buckets only? Or any paid business class (non-upgrade) fare such as I, C, D, R fare buckets?

Droundtheworld

I was on one of the ARN-DOH-MEL-DOH-ARN sale fare deals (I believe R or I class). There were 6 of us in the lounge. I did get to try everything out. The staff seemed happy to just have someone in the lounge. The wines were very good as well, a number of US $400 + bottles of red wine one being Chateau Ducru-Beaucalilou Saint-Julien 2008.

Dr. HFH

This is a very important distinction, obviously. @goingplacestogether, can you shed some light on this, please?

wickedkhalsa

how about folks traveling on Award tickets?

clubeurope

Hmmm interesting that they quoted in AED... do you happen to by any chance, mean QAR as opposed to AED of the blockading United Arab Emirates

thanks for the report though!

Crisu69

I am in J R-Class Ticket to BKK next week. I think i will try this out. I have onyl a 4 hour layover but i think this is enough to finish this Krug Clos Du Mesnil Bottle if still available ;-)

Traveller999

I will try it on Saturday around midnight, arriving in Business "I" from BKK. As I just will have approx 2h, I maybe just ask about the possibility to pay for entrance to Al Safwa, but nevertheless I´ll report back about the result. Let´s see ;-)

lost_in_translation

Sounds both good and bad - on the plus side it will be nice to be able to pay for Al Safwa access on routes where F isn't offered, on the negative side it's going to completely change the ambiance in the lounge and is going to kill my desire to pay for F on the BKK and CDG routes, so hopefully QR have considered the impact of that. Everyone on a long haul J ticket rather than those with specific status levels is a lot of (potentially just too many) customers. Pricing also sounds a bit too cheap given what's on offer in Al Safwa, so my fear is this will be the first step in QR gradually reducing the quality of the wine list as they've already done on board.

Traveller999

I see your concerns, but I doubt that (paid access) would be the reason for cutting back on the wine list, as QR did it on board already, as you mention it. If QR would not had restricted the access to Al Safwa for upgrades, maybe we would not have this thread at all.
I personally would appreciate if QR skips the paid access to Al Safwa, but grants access for Platinum Members if travelling in paid buissness or upgraded first. Because THAT are the most loyal customers!
Appearently QR doesn´t honor Platinums anymore, but "hope dies at last" ;-)

swingaling

Ah, ok. So that would be a discounted (or promo) business class fare.

Droundtheworld

Yes, you are absolutely correct. It was QAR, sorry for the mistake. Thanks for pointing it out.

ATCOlad

Abyssin

Surprised with this thread.....seems most of you guys prefer to pay to enter a lounge just to drink than buying a very good champagne or wine and have it at home .....this is just weird for me