Qatar Airways has just unveiled the opening of three new lounges at its hub at Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH), and the lounges are specifically for elite members. More lounge capacity is most definitely a good thing, though I’m still trying to figure out the full implications of this.
Continue reading: Qatar Airways Opens New Doha Elite Lounges
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
That's great news! Will be flying through Doha next month. will check the Gold lounge.
Visited Al Mourjan Business Lounge 1 week ago with my wife and it was completely packed, lines everywhere, I mean really bad. I've visited this lounge more than 20 time before I had never seen anything like this before.
Is any of this actually new? I flew through DOH in February and was rejected at the Al Mourjan lounge as Oneworld Sapphire.
Instead I was sent to the Gold lounge (the one pictured in the article), which was incredibly busy both times I visited in February and June this year.
I thought its been months since these lounges opened though. I checked into the QR Silver Lounge back in January (QR Gold but the Gold lounges weren't open then).
I visited DOH in March and they were allowing Oneworld Emeralds into the Al Mourjan lounge.
Sorry, I don't know why my comment was posted as a reply to yours. There seems to be some issues when posting comments using a mobile device.
IMO, the Al Mourjan lounge is a pretty sub-par lounge anyway. It doesn't match the hype it gets on travel blogs. I'd place it below the CX, QF, JAL and AA Flagship lounges OWEs get access to, but above the BA lounges.
Wrong comparison mate you need to compare It against the Al Safwa First lounge not Al Mourjan
The one pictured is the Silver lounge, they just used the same pics for the Silver lounge which had already been open since a couple months now. The Gold and Platinum one is new but no pics yet
The Al Mourjan lounge is definitely better than AA flagship lounges. The Al Mourjan lounge is bigger, and has a la carte dining (with two restaurants), napping cubicles, a game room, cigar lounge, and it has staff roaming everywhere ready to bring you whatever you would like.
I always ask them for the lemon mint juice and for the packaged dates that they have in the lounge. The restaurant also has a made-to-order sushi bar.
The pictures that QR released and that are in this article are all from the Silver Lounge (that's been open since early this year, I checked it out in early Feb) so we are still waiting to see what Gold and Platinum lounges will look like.
There was a waiting list to get into the restaurant at Al Mourjan around 11:30 a few nights ago. People were not happy. My wait was about 20 minutes.
I am really not against giving a proper lounge to people who pay for Business and First class and a lounge to Elite members travelling in Y.
Since the reopening of the Oryx lounge, Elite members fortunately don't have access to Al Mourjan anymore. This was a temporary arrangement during the pandemic when some lounges were closed.
its sold out summer, everyone is travelling after the height of the pandemic,its peak july, so this makes sense.
Actually they opened silver south lounge in the end of Dec 2021 (I think on 28th or 29th) and as gold I got redirected there (when I tried to get into Al Mourjam again) and it hurt!
I mean Silver south is a mediocre lounge comparing to QA standards. Buffet dining is nothing to write home about and in total it gives impression of a bit of a diner…. Hope new gold and platinum lounges will be better
I'll be transiting thru Doha soon. Do you know which lounge I'll be pointed at please (I'm BA Gold)?
I have stoped going to Qatar airways lounges because of their strict policy of not allowing outside food and drinks, not even a cup of coffee! very ridiculous.
Visited the Silver Lounge South - very disappointing.
It's tighter than the pictures would suggest and is more like a long open corridor with seats across the width, and then a food/drink station at the end, with bathrooms etc. off down an adjoining corridor.
On the first visit, the bathrooms were closed (in entirety) for an hour for cleaning and you needed to go back outside to use the facilities. Food & drink was well stocked, if a little modest in terms of offerings relative to nearly any other lounge.
On the second visit, the place was absolutely packed - there wasn't so much as 2 seats together anywhere to be found, the staff at the entrance were - for whatever reason - clearly not in good mood with anyone, and it would actually be easily more relaxing back out in the airport concourse. It was the most unrelaxing environment you could imagine.
I'd avoid the Silver Lounge South like the plague in future if I could.
Flew in and out of DOH four times in May with layovers as short as 9 hours, and as long as 15.5 hours. But had no clue that any of these new lounges were even open!
I am Platinum with Qatar Airways so I'd start out at Al-Mourjan and after a few hours I would walk over to Al-Safwa.
The only sort of "line" or wait I experienced was when I made the mistake of waiting until after 5am to attempt to get a shower room. They had a waiting list but it was only a half hour wait. During which I walked over to Al-Mourjan only to find they had a longer wait there. Walked back to Safwa and was accomodated immediately.
I flew a few months ago and a few weeks ago, as a gold Qatar airways member and was denied access to almourjan lounge and advised to go to the silver lounge. A big downgrade.
The silver lounges are worse than the loungekey lounges that are available with many visa or MasterCard card such as almaha lounge among others.
A truly jam-packed experience with very little choices of beverages and food.
I'm a Gold Card Privilege member and flew economy, transiting in Doha. Had the misfortune of using this new dreadful lounge. It's such a downgrade and not worth using.
Will be interesting to see if a OWE traveling in J class is better off in the Platinum Lounge of the Al Mourjan Lounge.
Al Mourjan has been crowded long before this summer, there was a line-up for entry even last year.
I'm not against it in principal, but the fact that as an Emerald I get access to actual First Class lounges is a significant part of why I'm loyal to oneworld over Star Alliance or Skyteam, and given the choice between a DOH layover or a NRT/HKG layover, I will never choose DOH for that reason.
Was thinking the same. I'm OW Emerald and will be flying QR J in to DOH come October. Will check out the new Platinum lounge and Al Majourn (seven hour layover).
Since January Qatar Gold and Silver members have been forced into the packed and sometimes unpleasant Silver lounge instead of Al Mourjan. Similarly at Heathrow it’s been the awful Aspire Lounge which routinely has no available seats. They really need to follow the Oneworld rules. Nonetheless this is a good development although I don’t know how much of a difference 85 seats in the gold lounge will actually make in practice. I’ve definitely noticed a deterioration in QR standards, and I’ve missed a lot of connections recently due to very delayed boarding.