Qatar Airways lounge access

I am based in Doha. BA Silver and share my 10/11 return trips a year mainly in Economy, between BA on the DOH/LHR/EDI and QR DOH/EDI routes.

Until last week I have, through my BA Silver, been allowed access to the Qatar Airways Mourjan Business Lounge at HIA which is SUPERB and must go down as one of, if not THE best Lounges in the world.

Presenting myself at Lounge escalators last week as normal with the QR DOH/EDI boarding card and my BA Silver card I was (politely) directed to the “new” Lounge opened that week for BA Silver members.

Accessed the Lounge and it is a DISGRACE. It appeared to be full of ‘yellow tagged’ transit passengers, there were no seats available, the Lounge is far too small, 4 toilets and 2 urinals served what must have been upwards of 300 people, the a/c was not working ( a necessity in outside temps approaching 50C) and the least said about the produce and drinks on offer the best, I made suitable and polite comments to Qatar Airways desk staff who seemed totally disinterested I also contacted Qatar Airways to register my views.

My understanding was that Silver members on 1W get ‘equal’ treatment across the networks. I am not aware of any exclusions to Qatar members when they present at the LHR T5 lounges. My view is that this is an absolute disgrace from the self acclaimed ‘5-star Airline’.

Has anyone else experienced this or have any further information about what Lounges are now available at DOH/HIA??

My understanding was that the FF access to the Al Mourjan was a temporary arrangement until the new lounge opened. I’m back through DOH in August was hoping the new lounge would still be behind schedule…

What’s the new lounge called? I’m guessing QR’s own FFs are being directed there as well? It’s in line with QR’s approach to lounges which makes a clear distinction between premium cabin passengers and FFs (for better or for worse – but certainly more than most carriers).

Are you sure it was a First lounge, first-class-please? Qatar website says the Al Mourjan lounge is for Qatar airways and oneworld First and business class passengers. My colleague and I were told quite categorically that the first lounge hadn’t opened yet. This was last weekend and we went through Doha twice within three days travelling in both business and first.

NTarrant, it was the First class lounge for status card holders. I was travelling QR Y class (DOH-BAH).

No idea when the Al-Safwa lounge for QR F passengers will open. Now they have the A380 with flagship First class, you would of thought they would of got the lounge open instead of all using Al Mourjan.

It was “confirmed” to open the end of April…

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101438/qatar-airways-first-class-lounge-to-open-in-april

I am a CX Diamond Card holder. Last weekend I passed through Doha travelling on QR. I tried to enter what was called a First Class lounge but the man at the bottom of the escalator said it was for those travelling in Y and I should use the nearby escalator to the Business lounge as it was much better. Sorry, I’ve no idea what either were called, but there was no access to a First Class lounge for me!

Another question then for the Forum. As I have obviously mentioned, in my opinion, the ‘new’ Lounge is a disgrace. Is there anything to prevent me (and others) as BA Silver/Gold – flying with QR – accessing the allocated BA Lounge which is far preferable to what I experienced a couple of weeks ago in the QR ‘new’ Lounge? On the return sectors I can do this at both LHR and EDI BA Lounges even although I am flying QR………………To answer a previous post on the morning I was in the ‘new’ lounge i did not see any Qatar Airways equivalent tags in terms of them using the Lounge only yellow transit tags (those of you not familiar with DOH and possibly being due to DOH still being in the dark ages, there is a simple colour code of yellow and blue tags for transit or arriving pax) this is what prompted me to ask was this actually a transit lounge only as that what it looked (and smelled) like.

A colleague who travelled with QR from Heathrow says his OW emerald card and Y boarding pass saw him directed to the Skyteam lounge in T4, which he said was very good, with decent hot catering.