In April 2017, Qatar Airways announced that they’d add flights to a dozen destinations in 2017 to 2018. Qatar Airways often makes claims about launching flights that end up not being true. For example, by 2018 they’re supposed to launch routes to Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Santiago, though there has been no news on any of those routes actually happening.
However, one of the destinations that Qatar Airways announced at the time was Mykonos, and that is in fact happening. Qatar Airways will offer 4x weekly flights between Doha and Mykonos as of May 30, 2018. The flight will operate with the following schedule, per @airlineroute:
QR311 Doha to Mykonos departing 7:05AM arriving 12:00PM [Wed]
QR311 Doha to Mykonos 8:05AM arriving 1:00PM [Thu, Sat, Sun]
QR312 Mykonos to Doha departing 1:00PM arriving 5:40PM [Wed]
QR312 Mykonos to Doha departing 2:00PM arriving 6:40PM [Thu, Sat, Sun]
The flight will cover a distance of ~1,750 miles in each direction (that’s the direct distance at least, though due to the blockade Qatar will probably be flying quite a bit more), and is blocked at 4hr55min westbound and 4hr40min eastbound.
Qatar Airways will use an Airbus A320 for the route. Some of Qatar’s A320s feature fully flat beds in business class, while others just feature spacious recliner seats.
Qatar Airways A320 flat bed business class
Qatar Airways A320 recliner seat business class
I figured this route was specifically worth mentioning given what a popular vacation destination Mykonos is. While several European airlines fly direct to Mykonos, the catch is that most of them just have the typical intra-Europe business class product, featuring economy with a blocked middle seat. That’s not especially comfortable, especially given that some of the flights can be 3-4 hours.
So Qatar Airways may very well be the most comfortable way to get to Mykonos in the future.
If you’re looking to redeem miles, Qatar Airways seems to have two business class award seats available on many dates.
The catch is that if you’re redeeming American AAdvantage miles, you won’t be able to book a single award from North America or Europe to Mykonos via Doha, since that violates American’s routing rules. However, if you’re redeeming miles from Asia or Australia you could indeed use this flight as part of the same award, like flying Singapore to Doha to Mykonos, or Sydney to Doha to Mykonos, for example.
Qatar Airways is also known for their consistently excellent business class fares, so maybe we’ll see some great Qatar Airways business class fares from the US to Mykonos via Doha.
not many options to greece with decent connection times exist these days since singapore airlines in their own rights pulled out of athens in their own right.qatar virtually own the market these days and the plus side is not having to backtrack to athens to leave the country.
Lucky won't go there because there's no lounge.
why is westbank shown on the map as its own country when it isn't internationally recognized even by the UN which primarily ONLY focuses on legitimizing the state of Israel, and they wont recognize it as a country themselves
If anyone has been to Mykonos recently, they would know very well that the majority of their summer tourists come from Australia. Italians being a second close year round while Chinese visit in the winter months. Same with Santorini. Thankfully, due to the high prices, teenage Brits tend to stay on the likes of Rhodes, Kos and Zante.
So Qatar’s new addition makes perfect sense on their network for passengers coming from the East,...
If anyone has been to Mykonos recently, they would know very well that the majority of their summer tourists come from Australia. Italians being a second close year round while Chinese visit in the winter months. Same with Santorini. Thankfully, due to the high prices, teenage Brits tend to stay on the likes of Rhodes, Kos and Zante.
So Qatar’s new addition makes perfect sense on their network for passengers coming from the East, especially China and Australia.
I do love how people who have never visited a place have so many opinions about it, when in fact, they haven’t got a clue.
I believe that QR has lots of flight that just stands around (68 flights a day) since the ban UAE, Egypt etc., so they need to be exercised a bit, an sure that lots of people from the middle east region is happy to visit Mykonos, and same for Pattaya.
Mykonos is incredibly popular with Australians, seasonal route a few times a week actually makes complete sense to me. This is great
Except Mykonos can be a challenging airport to fly to, with a number of traps for the unaware.
Coupled with the fact that Qatar employs all the outcast pilots that couldn't get into a proper airline - and the A320 has the least experienced on the most fatiguing roster patterns - it's not a flight I'll be jumping on.
Ignorance is bliss
@Maria Callas
How so?
For people coming from Asia, India or Australia like myself it is a much better way to get to Mykonos via Doha and onto Mykonos in a product that is far superior than the usual options of flying to a European hub like London, Amsterdam or Frankfurt and then backtracking to Mykonos in the poor European business class offerings of nearly all the European carriers. It would appear to make good use of some of...
For people coming from Asia, India or Australia like myself it is a much better way to get to Mykonos via Doha and onto Mykonos in a product that is far superior than the usual options of flying to a European hub like London, Amsterdam or Frankfurt and then backtracking to Mykonos in the poor European business class offerings of nearly all the European carriers. It would appear to make good use of some of the smaller planes that are not being used with the ban on local flights from Doha. I just wonder if they will drop the flights without much notice if the ban is lifted?
Ah, my bad. I forgot QR is currently banned by Saudi. I stand corrected.
@Wp @Teddy
Let's not forget the ever growing umra pax.
What @Ryan said +3
@Wp QR flying to Medan might attract people from most of Sumatera Provinces (Aceh, Sumatera Utara, Riau, etc) since it might be cheaper and faster to get to Europe than going to Jakarta / Bali first and no need to enter Immigration check if they use QR via SIN or KL. Last but not the least, we know that Medan area has many big business just like in Java. Surabaya is really close to DPS...
@Wp QR flying to Medan might attract people from most of Sumatera Provinces (Aceh, Sumatera Utara, Riau, etc) since it might be cheaper and faster to get to Europe than going to Jakarta / Bali first and no need to enter Immigration check if they use QR via SIN or KL. Last but not the least, we know that Medan area has many big business just like in Java. Surabaya is really close to DPS if their peoppe prefer to fly with Qatar (and there's already Cathay, Air China serve this airport)
@CS
I'm hearing the next route is Medan-Kualanamu, Indonesia. I have a very hard time imagining the route being viable, as Medan is an entirely unassuming city whose defining trait is great food and not much else. If QR was flying to a third city in Indonesia, I had always assumed it would be flying to Surabaya first, but apparently not.
No thanks, Mykonos is like the Cancun of Greece, not my style.
@Juno, straight Arab is an oxymoron.
Seems like this has been same issue that Qatar's flight to Athens has for people chasing status with BA. Only 40 tier points rather than 140. Nearly all other Europe to Asia routes almost give you silver/sapphire status
Mykonos makes a lot more sense than a lot of other destinations QR has added recently. Yes, there is some typical Mediterranean island behaviour by, erm, certain visitors but it also attracts a quite premium crowd also.
BA, for example, has no problem selling Eurobusiness seats on this route for £600 return as the cheapest possible price from LHR (for comparison, Istanbul which is slightly further away you can often pick up for about £200...
Mykonos makes a lot more sense than a lot of other destinations QR has added recently. Yes, there is some typical Mediterranean island behaviour by, erm, certain visitors but it also attracts a quite premium crowd also.
BA, for example, has no problem selling Eurobusiness seats on this route for £600 return as the cheapest possible price from LHR (for comparison, Istanbul which is slightly further away you can often pick up for about £200 return). QR's flight will do fine attracting all the Far Eastern and Australian visitors.
@Herom Australia is most likely the main target market for this route, given that there is a huge Greek immigrant population. Melbourne for example has the biggest concentration of Greek speakers outside of Greece.
I'll also agree with what Ryan said. Unless you're flying from Asia, it really isn't worth it to fly to Mykonos via Doha if you're arriving from the US or even Europe.
Lots of Arabs (straight and gay) like to vacation and party in Mykonos in the summer. I do wonder, though, without passengers being fed from the UAE and parts of Saudi, if Qatar can sustain this route.
As @Ryan said.
I don't understand your comparison to using QR to get to Greece compared to European carriers. Why would I fly 7-8 extra hours on my way to a vacation to switch planes in Doha? Id rather be in European Business Class for 3-4 hours than any seat for 8 hours, especially when vacation is concerned. I cannot think of one scenario where getting to Mykonos would be done on QR coming form the US. Coming...
I don't understand your comparison to using QR to get to Greece compared to European carriers. Why would I fly 7-8 extra hours on my way to a vacation to switch planes in Doha? Id rather be in European Business Class for 3-4 hours than any seat for 8 hours, especially when vacation is concerned. I cannot think of one scenario where getting to Mykonos would be done on QR coming form the US. Coming form Asia its a no brainer since Doha is on the way and LH/LX/BA hubs would be 8 hours of flying out of the way.
Also if using miles, you would have to book an extra award to go through Doha regardless of the Oneworld program used.
Qatar is the new Air Berlin.
From a former "5 Star" luxury airline to cost cuts and cuts to now being a holiday airline. They fly to Pattaya(!), Phuket, Mykonos, Bali. What'll be next? Palma? Punta del Este?
Ironic routes recently announced by Qatar: Las Vegas (gambling), Pattaya (sex tourism), and now Mykonos (LGBT destination)
JFK to DOH to Mykonos. Sounds logical.
And I'm seeing Al Baker being interviewed: What human rights issues? We're flying to Mykonos!!! We're the most, Allah forgives, gay friendly airline outta here.
I appreciate a new route of course (even if it's no use for me personally), still find it hilarious Qatar flying to Mykonos.
What is the market for this flight? Are tehre many tourists from Asia, Australia going to Mykonos?
Good news. Their business class is consistently great. Decent menu, drinks and young smiling cabin crew. Latam (10% owned by qatar) crew is also good looking but they don't fly to Greece.
Qatar airways and Mykonos lol I guess they aren’t fully aware it’s a top LGBT destination and add to that all the teenage Brits who go there for booze and other things