Who's Flying Qatar This Year?

[wesheltonj]

My wife and I are flying to JNB at the end of May. I contacted Qatar yesterday to see what prior notification was required to fly with firearms. They collected some information; the rifle description/caliber, ammunition quantity/weight, and case dimensions/weight. Upon updating the information in my reservation, they advised that I'm all set but need to present 4457, passport, declaration of surrender of firearm, and approved SAPS gun permit at the ticketing counter. Painless? I'll find out!

Well not exactly, you will need to email them a copy of your 4457, passport and invitation letter in advance. You will again and present those at check in again and the surrender of firearm. The email address is in my Takeri review. And you need to get confirmation from Qatar that your firearm is approved. You cannot rely on the phone reps that it’s approved.

 

[Philip Glass]

I booked the in airport hotel in Doha

I hear it has an indoor pool and a gym. Maybe one day I'll get to check it out.

 

[Philip Glass]

Don’t know how you get these deals. Just called Patrick’s business and the best they could do on Qatar was $8600! Same as on the website. and this is for a September trip.

You have to start early and watch for deals. You can set a google flight alert as well. It can be very specific with the exact dates, cities, and class of service you select. (www.google.com/flights) It does require a google account which I have from YouTube.
This sub $5K deal only lasted a week or so then rotated to another departure city.
For next year I am going to start very early with the google alert. I'll have a group trip to Namibia in May for PG and Zimbabwe again in August For DG. My goal is to fly Qatar direct and skip JNB. Air travel is maddening but when you get a deal like me and my group did this year it is sweet!
Regards,
Philip

 

[IA1865]

Been looking to try a Qsuite myself! Finally, after 15 years and 7 safaris, my wife finally feels comfortable that our kids are old enough for her to join me on a trip to RSA later this year. This will be my 40th birthday and delayed anniversary so I was gladly going to splurge, however, I cannot seem to find anything less than 15K for round trip tickets. Hard to justify when I can get a premium economy for $2500. Planning on building a house this year and will use an Amex for as much as possible in hopes that I will have enough points for years to come and that Qsuite won't be so hard to swallow.

Definitely monitor on points here. I booked on their expanded availability (2x normal rates) with points round trip for 200,000 avios DFW-DOH-JNB. Caught a 25% bonus avio transfer offer so it ended up only costing me 160,000 points. Granted I went in January and spent a lot of time monitoring the website for deals and was flexible on actual safari dates.

 

[JBRC]

Last year we flew Qatar to Windhoek. Long flight through Doha though. Amazing service through out the entire trip. The only issue was we lost an engine over the North Atlantic and had to do an emergency landing in Oslo. This year it is Delta direct into JNB.

 

[Altitude sickness]

How long did that redirect? Add to your trip?

 

[JBRC]

How long did that redirect? Add to your trip?

It added a day to an already long trip. The whole trip home was around 72hrs. Qatar did set us in a nice hotel in Oslo and took care of everything the best they could. Other than getting home a day later I couldn't really complain about how they handled it. It could have been so much worse.