Questions and Answers

Hello, I currently live in Doha and would like to go to Madrid somewhere in the beginning of January and spend 2 weeks there. The most convenient flights would cost me 693€ with QR in economy, which I have flown in the past. Paying for business would be ≈3650€ (which I am not willing to pay).

However I read Ben’s article about cheap routing through Cairo, and I found out a surprisingly good fare which was Cairo-Doha-Madrid for the outbound, and Madrid-Doha-Cairo in the inbound. The cost of these tickets in [B]business class[/B] was 777€, a small difference with the 693€, which I would certainly be willing to pay.

So here is my dilemma: I would like to book this second ticket with origin in Cairo, but skipping the Cairo-Doha and Doha-Cairo legs. From what I saw in other threads this doesn’t seem to be a problem, however, for this trip I [B]have to [/B]take with me a checked baggage (which from what I have seen it would eliminate my chances of booking this ticket).

But here is my thinking, the layover between the Cairo-Doha and Doha-Madrid flights would be overnight, meaning I would have to go to pick my suitcase there nevertheless and therefore there should not be an inconvenience. Then as I find it to be the rule when taking the Madrid-Doha flight, I am usually asked as to whether Doha is my final destination by the agent when checking my baggage, so is there any way that by booking the cheaper ticket I could still say that Doha is my final destination, without running into many problems?

Is my thinking correct or am I missing something?

Thank you very much

Skipping the CAI-DOH leg is a huge problem. If you do not show up for any of the legs of your itinerary, the subsequent legs will automatically be canceled. So to take advantage of this itinerary you will need to get a one way ticket to CAI to start. On the way back you would have to make sure that the gate agent only checks your bag to DOH. This should be fairly easy given the overnight. Another thing to try is to price a multi destination trip and push out the DOH-CAI leg into the future where you could use it to start a new trip?