Qatar Airways, a good alternative to fly to SA would recommend! No extra charge!

[CAG2011]

Hi All,

I appreciate there have been posts on travelling to SA and what carrier to use, so I thought post a fresh thread.
We have just returned last week from SA we used Qatar Airways, we travelled from Gatwick. I would say Qatar Airways was straight forward we filled in the paperwork they required some weeks before we travelled, check in desk was pretty straight forward, we were there three hours before our flight.
Border Force at Gatwick again polite and straight forward, also the same on our return.
The flight was via Doha both there and back, a little bit of a dog leg I know, but Hamad Airport Doha was a great experience and it has to be said Qatar Airways was a good experience on the flight, both my husband and I did NOT have to pay extra to travel with sporting rifles as we were under the 30kg and size limit with our baggage.
So anyone thinking of travelling to SA I would say give Qatar a try.
Rgds

 

[375win]

Sounds good. Thanks for posting. Did you fly economy or business? What was the seat pitch like? How about the food? Did they serve alcoholic beverages? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Cawdor118]

Sounds good. Thanks for posting. Did you fly economy or business? What was the seat pitch like? How about the food? Did they serve alcoholic beverages? Sorry for all the questions.

100% alcohol aboard! Seats depend on the plane type, but they have one of the newest fleets. Food depends of departure airport, but is usually good enough (much better than BA).

 

[375win]

100% alcohol aboard! Seats depend on the plane type, but they have one of the newest fleets. Food depends of departure airport, but is usually good enough (much better than BA).

Thanks. Recent BA to Athens Club makes you wonder how they get away with it.
Last question, similar price level as SAA? My flight earlier this year was really good value and as I had booked before the new charge, I avoided having to pay it

 

[McKenzie]

Flew to NZ with them last year. The instruction to the travel agent was to find the airline with the most leg room in economy & Qatar was the response; I could actually sit in the seats. Also about the cheapest & flew straight from Edinburgh. Only downside was the 17 1/2 hour leg from Doha to Auckland, which is a very, very long time to sit on a plane.

 

[CAG2011]

Hi 375win,

Don't worry about the questions, the trip was economy similar price at the time to SAA might have been cheaper, much cheaper than BA!!!! We were placed by emergency exits so plenty of leg room, my husband is tall. Food quality was good my husband had pre-ordered and yes the red wine was good, so was the G&T. We used Airbus and Boeing both modern and the flight crew were really focused on customer service. The stop of at Doha helped to break the journey up.
As I say first time we used them would certainly look at Qatar again for SA and other destinations.

Rgds

 

[Coddy]

I used to work in Qatar and flew with them monthly for 6 years, and no issues with Qatar Airways.
The only time they stop selling alcohol is if taking off from, or coming in to land in somewhere like Saudi.

 

[Cawdor118]

Flew to NZ with them last year. The instruction to the travel agent was to find the airline with the most leg room in economy & Qatar was the response; I could actually sit in the seats. Also about the cheapest & flew straight from Edinburgh. Only downside was the 17 1/2 hour leg from Doha to Auckland, which is a very, very long time to sit on a plane.

I have done 16 hours and that was genuinely brutal! I remember looking at the map, i was above India... Only about 1/3 of the globe to go.

 

[McKenzie]

I seem to remember that you couldn't take duty free into Doha, although you can buy it there to take onward.