Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and UAE cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.

[defurax]

I just received notification that my QR DOH-CMB flight next month will now take 25 minutes longer. I can imagine why.

The schedule change actually works OK for me though. The flight now departs 50 minutes earlier, so I now arrive in Sri Lanka at 1.45am instead of 2.10am.

I also received a notification for DOH-CMB on QR, but not CMB-DOH as it is a QR codeshare operated by UL so allowed to fly over the UAE...

 

[Radio8tiv]

My flights SYD-DOH-MAD are in November so hopefully it will be resolved by then, if not I'm not worried as I have a 20hr transit in Doha and a 4hr in Madrid going to XRY.

I am more worried about the possibilities of extending the electronics ban

 

[burmans]

I just received notification that my QR DOH-CMB flight next month will now take 25 minutes longer. I can imagine why.

I had notification of my SIN - DOH flight leaving 30 minutes earlier. Given I am coming from SYD on a different PNR potentially of concern but I do still have a 4 hour layover so unless serious delays should work better.

 

[Batesy]

I've got the same flight booked (Athens-DOH-SIN) in October but QA and QS are still showing the original departure and flight duration, strange. Currently I have 1hr 40min in Doha if the flight has changed to these new times then I only have 1hr 10min transit. Very tight. I'd be very interested how your transit goes, if you could please give an update after you've flown. Where did you find the info of the changed flight time? Thanks.

Update is absolutely no issues with our QR flights ATH-DOH-SIN and transit in DOH was easy.
What an amazing J lounge and an airline that makes QF business class look like a LCC. The QR Hard and soft product both on an A330 and the new A359 outstanding.
I know as I has old QF skybed MK1 on my last leg with QF from SIN-SYD yesterday and it was just no comparison in both hard and soft product.

 

[burmans]

What an amazing J lounge and an airline that makes QF business class look like a LCC. The QR Hard and soft product both on an A330 and the new A359 outstanding.
I know as I has old QF skybed MK1 on my last leg with QF from SIN-SYD yesterday and it was just no comparison in both hard and soft product.

Excellent news, so looking forward to trying this out!

 

[Mattyana2003]

Thanks so much for the update. Did your Athens flight end up leaving earlier? How long was your transit in Doha?

 

[Batesy]

Thanks so much for the update. Did your Athens flight end up leaving earlier? How long was your transit in Doha?

The flight from ATH was meant to leave 10 minutes earlier than originally scheduled but it ended up being late departure but on time arrival into DOH.
I had 1:50 hours transit and found time for a shave, shower and a feed in the amazing J lounge.

 

[jenib]

Feedback on my trip to Belgrade
Outbound - left via ADL - QF lounge is outside security so not great. A350 J ADL-DOH was great. Arrived about 25 minutes late and they rushed me through security and the airport direct to next flight. Quickest transit ever for me - 35 mins from disembarking to taking off so no lounge time. DOH -> BEG older A321 - only had overhead entertainment.
Return - BEG -> DOH - Business lounge ok but crowded. You go through security right at the gate (one for each gate) Newer A321 with individual entertainment systems. On arrival at DOH, people were being offered rides on carts through the airport, 30 mins in Al Mourjan lounge then A380 J DOH -> MEL - great service and product.

 

[Pushka]

Catching the flight to Stockholm in an hour that was supposed to be on Qatar out of Dubai.

 

[alieninperth]

I'm not sure how to comment on this so I'll just leave it here.

Saudi Arabia has 'clear link' to UK extremism, report says - BBC News

 

[hossein_au]

I'm not sure how to comment on this so I'll just leave it here.

Saudi Arabia has 'clear link' to UK extremism, report says - BBC News

Tell that to people who stopped flying QR because they 'are deemed to support terrorism'! Not that I am saying they are not guilty; I'm just saying it's been a clever marketing plot on the part of Saudis to use the label of terrorism in their blatant arm-twisting of Qataris, knowing ignorance is abound...

 

[alieninperth]

I don't disagree. There is a lot of intermingled 'messiness', for want of a better word, in that part of the world. Neither side is squeeky clean.

BTW I heard on the radio this morning that the largest military base in the region is in Qatar. It is the staging post for the AUS military operations in the area.

 

[Himeno]

BTW I heard on the radio this morning that the largest military base in the region is in Qatar. It is the staging post for the AUS military operations in the area.

Al Udeid Air Base is a US base in Qatar, the largest US base in the middle east, with over 11,000 personal and 100 combat aircraft from US and coalition nations.
Other western allied forces in the area are based at Al Minhad Air Base south of Dubai.

 

[burmans]

Al Udeid Air Base is a US base in Qatar, the largest US base in the middle east, with over 11,000 personal and 100 combat aircraft from US and coalition nations.
Other western allied forces in the area are based at Al Minhad Air Base south of Dubai.

Well funnily enough when you look at the list of "demands" support for terrorism seems to be falling down the list. Top three now seem to be

1. Support for al Jazeera (IMO a force for relatively free journalism in the area and should be encouraged)
2. Support for the Muslim Brotherhood (while I'm no particular fan don't see them as significantly worse/better than other organisation in the area - they certainly are no ISIS in terms of the real baddies)
3. Support for Iran (similarly not a strong fan of the political leadership but as an outsider am really not so convinced that Iran are the bad guys in the Middle East, and more personally know a number of Iranians and think they are generally lovely people so not really in agreement with the desire to demonise Iranians)

From these three none are particularly convincing and frankly I think the claim of support for terrorism is a ploy to get buy-in from a politically naïve American president.

 

[RooFlyer]

Well funnily enough when you look at the list of "demands" support for terrorism seems to be falling down the list. Top three now seem to be

1. Support for al Jazeera (IMO a force for relatively free journalism in the area and should be encouraged)
<snip>.

Interesting point made on the ABC yesterday. The Al Jazeera you and I see is not the one seen in the Middle East, in Arabic, and this is the one the Saudis etc are focussing on. The 'local' AJ is not at all like the 'news network' we see but is distinctly partisan in support for various sub-types of religions and critical of those which are dominant in Saudi Arabia for instance, and therefore is a de facto attack on the Saudi, UAE royal families.

 

[burmans]

Interesting point made on the ABC yesterday. The Al Jazeera you and I see is not the one seen in the Middle East, in Arabic, and this is the one the Saudis etc are focussing on. The 'local' AJ is not at all like the 'news network' we see but is distinctly partisan in support for various sub-types of religions and critical of those which are dominant in Saudi Arabia for instance, and therefore is a de facto attack on the Saudi, UAE royal families.

Sure I get that Al Jazeera may be critical of the Saudi and UAE royal families and may be (or at least is perceived to be) partisan to causes not liked by these ruling parties. And I get that being fairly authoritarian regimes they would want to restrict them.

What I don't get so easily is how fast some many people in the Western world are so easily prepared to throw away their hard gained principles and freedoms (liberalism, free press, freedom of speech etc.) when some of these authoritarian regimes throw in the word terrorism when this argument clearly isn't really about that. Being specific, sure Donald Trump I get, since clearly he personally does not believe in those principles. But the rest of us, well how quickly we forget, it was only a short time ago we all thought the Arab Spring was such a good thing!

 

[RooFlyer]

Agree every point

 

[hossein_au]

From these three none are particularly convincing and frankly I think the claim of support for terrorism is a ploy to get buy-in from a politically naïve American president.

Yep, bull's eye!

 

[drron]

The support for Iran is a major stumbling block as it is a Shia state,the rest Sunni and this is at the heart of virtually all ME problems.
I am surprised it has taken this long to get DT into the argument here.One of the theories out there is in fact it is all the work of the Donald as he wants to sell more LNG to the Chinese and the Qataris are going to be the largest exporter of LNG as they develop,along with the Iranians,the largest gas field in the world.The Saudis get more weapons and DT isolates the Qataris.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Speaking of the LNG theory, The Australian Dollar is One Winner of Qatar Dispute and Arab Gulf's Banning over Qatar Might Help Australia's LNG Exports (written at the beginning of the episode).

This week Qatar signals LNG price war for market share in Asia - Reuters:-

Qatar's plan to boost liquefied natural gas (LNG) output by 30 percent is the opening shot in a price war for customers in Asia pitting the Gulf state against competitors from the United States, Russia and Australia.

Qatar, facing regional isolation in a diplomatic dispute with its Gulf neighbors, took energy markets by surprise on Tuesday when it said it would raise its LNG production to 100 million tonnes per year - equivalent to a third of current global supplies - within the next five to seven years.

Qatar's move will add gas to an already oversupplied market in a thinly disguised challenge to other exporters who are also raising their output.

With low production costs and infrastructure already in place, Qatar is well placed to come out on top, analysts say. Flooding the market with more LNG will help defend its place as the world's top exporter, a position challenged by Australia.

Australia has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in a bid to overtake Qatar as the world's top LNG exporter by 2019, a challenge Qatar is now rising to.