Qatar Airways daily Canberra flights commence 12 February 2018

[kermatu]

You'll have to have a ticket to or from DOH

And wouldn't appear time for any F lounge access, so I'm not likely to bite. SQ remains the better option for me ex-CBR.

 

[Mattg]

Well these flights are now well and truly up & running.

Has anyone noticed that there is now a 2h, 40m layover in SYD on the DOH-SYD-CBR leg? Surely a stop of that length defeats the whole point of flying QR to CBR, as opposed to flying someone else to SYD and then connecting to QantasLink (or just taking a bus)? I wonder why they've ditched the 1 hour stop in Sydney?

 

[kevrosmith]

Well these flights are now well and truly up & running.

Has anyone noticed that there is now a 2h, 40m layover in SYD on the DOH-SYD-CBR leg? Surely a stop of that length defeats the whole point of flying QR to CBR, as opposed to flying someone else to SYD and then connecting to QantasLink (or just taking a bus)? I wonder why they've ditched the 1 hour stop in Sydney?

QR didn't do this so they had a flight into CBR... it was another way for them to get another flight into SYD. Airlines that operate triangulation routes via a non-major airport get a free slot into the major airports. I don't think they'd be concerned about the stopover time.

 

[kermatu]

I think Mattg meant from the CBR-bound passenger viewpoint there'd be less incentive. But presumably there'd now be some F lounge time!

I wonder how many people actually go on to CBR?

 

[harvyk]

I think Mattg meant from the CBR-bound passenger viewpoint there'd be less incentive. But presumably there'd now be some F lounge time!

I wonder how many people actually go on to CBR?

Whilst I've never done the flight myself, I have been at CBR airport whilst boarding was happening. A back of the napkin estimate based on a sample size of one, I would guess there was probably around 100 to 150 in the group. Considering you can't fly QR for any other purpose than to get to / via DOH, all of them would have been traveling long haul. Probably not worth a non-stop CBR-DOH flight.

 

[clifford]

I think Mattg meant from the CBR-bound passenger viewpoint there'd be less incentive. But presumably there'd now be some F lounge time!

I wonder how many people actually go on to CBR?

Well, despite what I've said about the hard product previously, I've actually booked ARN-CBR-ARN in business class, with the first flight next month.

Couldn't resist it at AUD 2,300 all-in, especially as I have a house in Canberra. That was my incentive, so a couple of hours in SYD is no problem (and an hour in the F lounge wouldn't be a problem either).