indomie

I've never known any airline that's opened their check in more than 4 hours early, and I've flown Qatar Airways out of Houston many times with the time from check in to lounge in the 30-60 minute range. Anyone have any idea what's going on?

The message:
Dear customer, please be informed that your flight QR0714/25AUG23/IAH-DOH will depart as scheduled at 1820H. Kindly report to the check-in counter 04Hrs 30Min prior to departure to avoid any inconvenience. Thank you, Qatar Airways Ground Services.

Schwann

I suspect they're expecting a busy flight, and encouraging people to arrive early so they can, well... queue early. My advice isn't scientific but I am positive you can just turn up at your usual time.

indomie

I would have thought that, too, but when I was rechecking our seats yesterday it looked like economy was barely 1/3 full. To your main suggestion, yes - I have no intention of being there 4.5 hours early (unless someone else knows something I haven't thought of).

This is the first time I booked a Qatar Airways flight through American Airlines because the price was close to half that of booking through Qatar. I wonder if that could be the issue. But.... I'm crediting to Qatar & am Gold with them, so I'd assume they can see that (if that even is the issue).

YYZPolarBear

There may be a security related reason for this. Please update us when you find out.

SilverChris

Agreed. If everybody showed up at T-4.5hrs, there'd just be a massive queue.

The seat map is a poor indicator of the actual load. You'll know for sure once the doors close.

And no, the codeshare has nothing to do with this.

indomie

Well shoot... maybe I'll just go early after all & then go back home after check-in. Got a few days to mull this one over 🤔

zat_dude

From my experience on IAH-DOH, flights regularly depart an hour late, causing a lot of misconnects on arrival. Perhaps they could be trying to address this.

Last time we were ready to push back when the captain came on the PA and explained that one of the passengers had left their phone in the terminal building and they were going to re-attach the jet bridge to have it passed over.

SkyTeam777

Same happened to me in SEA. No reason for it, and I suspect most pax showed up two hours before. It's super disrespectful to travelers to expect them to leave for the airport five hours (or more) before departure if that's there origination or even before if they are connecting. Get more staff if you need it!

indomie

For those that were curious, the early check in was due to an oversold flight and limited check in lanes open. We checked in online but wanted to connect a separate Oneworld booking to this one so we still had to go through the line. Even the business class line (where we were) took over two hours to get through at 3 hours before departure with only two agents. One guy apparently was having issues because he was with one of the BC agents for at least an hour of the time we were in line.

The lady behind us in line was flying Qatar Airways for the first time (and was excited about the Q Suites). She was getting understandably testy & I had to explain that Qatar has a reputation for being terrible on the ground but amazing in the air. But it WAS an embarrassment that they couldn't staff properly to get through check in more timely for their guests.

Unsurprisingly we departed late... when we went through security around 40 minutes before the scheduled departure there were still at least 25-30 people waiting to check in.

Flight itself was (of course) a delight from start to finish.

indomie

Also worth noting (separately) -

If you do happen to have two separate bookings on Oneworld carriers, Qatar can and will check you all the way through. The first agent (business class and, I assume, better trained) said it couldn't be done, ditto the second. The third said the same but then made a call when I insisted politely that it was something do-able. Lo and behold, I was right. She processed everything with a bit of help from my limited experience doing it before.

This meant not having to go through Customs and Immigration, collect bags, and recheck in Singapore. Instead we could go straight to the lounge for a shower, meal, and rest. Also, we had technical difficulties on our flight to Singapore & having the itineraries connected meant we'd more easily have been rebooked had we been really delayed. Thankfully the delay was only an hour and we had a 4 hour layover in Singapore.

SilverChris

Thanks for closing the loop. Last few times I was on an oversold flight they proactively reached out to solicit volunteers. Never received a generic email like this. If I ever get such a message from them I'll take it more seriously

I wouldn't count on that. Being checked through across separate tickets doesn't really give you IRROPS protection. You'd still be at the mercy of the onward carrier.

indomie

Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, I think I would be protected:

Separate Tickets
oneworld Re-accommodation

When customers are holding separate ticket(s) on AA to/from a oneworld carrier in the same PNR, they should be treated as through ticketed customers.

In the event of a disruption on the originating ticket, the carrier responsible for the disruption is required to reroute the customer to their final destination.

(https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/resou...ons-irops.html)

Schwann

Good luck arguing that with QR. Besides, AA has nothing to do with these flights right?

SilverChris

I think the QR segments were AA-marketed. But still, it doesn't sound like the OP's onward ticket was on the same PNR, so it's highly unlikely protection was due.

FlyingScientist

Please note: ...in the same PNR...