Transiting through Doha on Separate Tickets
 

I booked two separate tickets which will transit through DOH,

1 business class award redemption from SFO -> DOH
1 economy revenue ticket DOH -> JRO.

With COVID, some questions regarding how this will work:

1. Can I grab my checked luggage from the first flight myself at DOH and put it through security for the 2nd flight to JRO? From some quick research, it seems like Qatar is not allowing non-Qatari nationals (I am Canadian) to enter the country due to COVID (no tourist visas). I have never been to DOH airport, if I need to go through immigration to access luggage pick up, then it doesn't seem like I can move my luggage to the next flight.
2. Considering the first ticket is business class, is there any concierge or special service that can possibly handle the luggage for me?
3. Has anyone had any luck asking Qatar to combine tickets booked separately into a single connecting flight ticket so that the luggage would be forwarded to the subsequent flight?

Hello and welcome to FT!

You will have to enter Qatar in order to pick-up your luggage and check-in again for your JRO flight. That is currently not going to work. Your only hope is that the check-in agent at SFO will agree to tag your bag all the way to JRO. No first hand experience with QR at SFO on this, but maybe others will chime in on this.

Others will also have advise if there is a risk that you will not be able to board in SFO because technically you have a ticket to DOH and you are not able to enter Qatar.

There is zero chance that QR will agree to combine separate the tickets (which is different from tagging your bags to final destination on separate tickets).

I agree with SK AAR. You will almost certainly be denied boarding at SFO because you won't meet the requirements to enter Qatar. The rest is academic.

QR is known to check bag through on two separate tickets. They also check you through issuing the two boarding passes.

I let experts with recent experience to discuss if that is still the case

Yes, we need someone with recent first hand experience from SFO (or at least the US) to guide the OP on the likelyhood of the check-in agent at SFO checking the bags to final destination. This will be a precondition for this getting to work for the OP (but will not be a guarantee that it will work/the OP will not be denied boarding due to DOH being final destination in the relevant ticket at SFO)

Perhaps call the QR SFO airport staffs directly. Or just go to SFO and ask them in person.

QR usually through checks baggage two separate tickets but does not offer liability regarding if the passenger makes the connection or not.

I think the OP would be fine.

Earlier during the pandemic, we had many USA-DOH & DOH-MLE separate ticket queries and most of those people have succeeded. I haven't seen anyone being denied boarding on two separate QR tickets with layovers under 24 hours during the pandemic.

If I understand correctly, you are saying they will not deny boarding if there's 2 separate tickets transiting through DOH? I couldn't quite understand what you are saying about the checked luggage. What are the chances they would be willing to tag the luggage at SFO with final destination of JRO?

If both flights are QR then its a non issue

They would tag your baggage to your final destination which is JRO. QR would have no problem with that.

I wouldn't be comfortable assuring someone that through check-in of passengers and bags on separate tickets is fine. It might well have been, could be still. But these are strange times, and QR procedures can be terminated or changed at whim.

Carriers in the revenue boosting phase QR has entered might realise that making a two-ticket journey near-seamless isn't in its interests.


The quid pro quo of saving cash on separate tickets is acceptance of a measure of inconvenience: I'd suggest that should take the form of a comfortably extended connecting interval at Doha to lower the risk of misconnection and allow for the chance that the airline doesn't play ball with through bags. Best of all, hand-baggage only!

All posters can say and learn here is what is the current situation or news about future changes.
In that sense, the information that QR check bags on separate tickets is a confirmed information.

QR is in a particular situation as DOH is primarily used as a transit point. It does not cost them much to interline bags even on different tickets and removing it would be a significant deterrent for some travellers.

QR can be a bit sloppy even where contractual obligations are concerned. Regarding current practice as representing a confirmed and enduring policy might be seen as unwise.

I'm happy to see current practice reported as it is, but it might be better to offer as caveat a degree of caution about the status quo continuing. Far better to act with caution, and accept the inconvenience of a generous connection period when indulging in creative ticketing.

Though, to be honest, with Doha as an uncomfortably expensive ticketed origin or destination, I can't see much opportunity for cost saving through split-ticketing. But where a advantage does exist, a disincentive to take up to two-ticket travel would be to reject through check-in of bags.


Yes, except for the fun and games of cost accountancy the incremental, marginal, costs involved in handling bags should be of little consequence. But we are talking QR, an airline that was willing to lose business-class ticket sales to save the incremental cost of lounge use.

Just a data point:

Checked in with two different QR tickets, QR-1153 DMM to DOH in economy on Sep 18, and QR-1369 DOH to CPT in business on Sep 19. The transit time in Doha is about 8 hours. With the supervisor’s help, the agent printed the two BPs and checked my luggage all the way to CPT. All you need to do is tell them the final destination and show them your tickets.

If I (2) one way AA award tickets flying on QR...HKT to DOH & DOH to JFK. I'm assuming I just show my itinerary on the QR app. Is that correct?

Also would that same methodology work if I transit with a different airline?