Iberia Launching Doha Flights In December 2023

anyone else have trouble finding AA award availability on qatar for a lot of US to DOH flights recently? Might just be demand but a lot tougher than it was a year ago.

Don't forget Oman Air also has flights to DOH as well and will join Oneworld in 2024.

This leaves Cathay and Qantas as the only two OW carriers who have aircraft with the range but don't fly to DOH.

Wonder if we'll see AA flights from CLT and PHX to DOH anytime soon.

all J reward between Doh and Us gone.

yeah it just disappeared a few days ago. hoping it comes back soon

Is it the same case for US to AUH flights on Etihad?

Lots of naysayers about AA's international network (aside from Latin America/Carribean obviously), but oneworld has done an excellent job connecting their hubs.

Fly via DOH often, but only know their Midnight and AM bank of flights. I wonder what a 535pm arrival connects with? The departure is timed well, however.

Many flights to Southeast Asia depart at 7-8 PM

Qantas already has a JV with Emirates and used to fly to Dubai on their way to london but stopped and now its all about emirates connecting on to QF flights

Cathay does (did?) have a DXB flight (which I think also continues onward to... Bahrain?), not sure if that is about O+D traffic from HKG or to capture connecting traffic from Asia.

But then again I guess Cathay is more focused on rebuilding themselves and existing routes rather than starting new routes at the moment. Not sure what will happen to their DXB route if they decide to start DOH in the future..

Alliance hubs are becoming an important feature of the alliances in this era of plane delivery/design delays. The current OW hubs with the most partners are: DFW in the US, LHR in England, DOH in Qatar, NRT/HND in Toyko. Hong Kong was probably up there before covid, but sadly now isn't served by as many OW carriers.

Why would someone fly AA, IB or BA when they can fly QR?

That's what I find every time I check (at least on QR metal). I've seen availability in J on JFK-DOH on AA metal but if I'm flying J from the US to DOH it needs to be on QR.

I would love a CLT-DOH flight but ideally it should be operated by QR.

CX used to fly to DOH. But, this has obviously been axed post-COVID. Ex-Cathay planes fly to DOH (as QR), if that counts 🙂

Ideally it shouldn't be operated at all, seeing as it'd have about 2 O&D pax on it. But then again, that didn't stop them with Atlanta, so who knows.

Do people think at all, before they reflexively parrot this refrain? It could be any number of reasons, from contractual, to use of SWUs, to departure time, etc.

CX cut DOH service well before COVID. The CX flight to Dubai continued onward to Bahrain but this was cut during COVID. Now CX codeshares with GF on DXB-BAH services.

QR isn't nearly as good now as it use to be, particularly in business. I'd consider AA business over QR. My last few doh-jfk flights on QR were in the old 2-2-2 configuration, which is significantly worse than AA's herringbone.

Iberia business class can be very good, particularly on their A350 aircraft. One of my most pleasant flights in recent times was MAD-SJO on IB in C. The F&B was excellent and they have a selection of sherries on board which make a nice change to the normal champagne/red wine offering. On my annual trip down under I will certainly be tempted to take IB to DOH connecting onto QR to SYD.

Makes sense for connectivity from/towards Latam. IB has recently introduced a second bank of Latam flights, arriving between 5 and 6am to Madrid. Obviously, the later bank still sells better, but like this they can attract more traffic on the earlier bank.