[Anonymous]

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

Just in – Changes to the Winter Timetable ex LHR.
All change re equipment type.
A380 being withdrawn on some flight numbers. My trip in Nov has now been changed from A380 to A330….. Thanks QR!!!

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101821/qatar-airways-to-end-a319-all-business-lhr-service

[AMcWhirter]

There are several changes. Qatar Airways reverts to a single daily A380 on the DOH-LHR route instead of a twice daily service.

And the all business class A319 service will no longer operate.

[NTarrant]

That is a shame about the A319, quite fancied a trip on that. It is currently running between DOH and JED during Ramadan. Wonder if it is going to be used on something else.

There are currently four A320’s in Al Maha livery just delivered to QR which will be used on QR services around the Gulf until they start domestic services in Saudi, whenever that may be

[superchris]

Im really not surprised re the A319. Ive toyed with it a couple of times but just felt the onboard product wasn’t up there with the other aircraft.

Plus a pretty poor use of a LHR slot.

[KSHaggag]

In my humble opinion ,QR never needed A380s for its operations ;it is a sheer overcapacity !..the proof is that they are withdrawing it from one of the two daily LHR flights ;taking it away from the CDG route and I believe BKK does not really need a costy A380 with a First Class cabin .BKK was never a First Class route ;there is practically NO DEMAND for First Class on such a route ;moreover they are flying there 4 times a day .
What was the reason for acquiring A380s ???…telling the world we do fly the A380 ???!…or copying EK ???

[GrahamSmith]

Qatar Airways told Business Traveller that reports one of its two daily A380 services will be downgraded to an A330-300 are incorrect.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101821/qatar-airways-to-end-a319-all-business-lhr-service

[KSHaggag]

The QR LHR route is still witnessing a huge overcapacity .This explains the reason why QR is selling on price even in the Premium cabins .

This might look beneficial for the consumer at the first glimpse coz they are paying less to get the service but on the long run it will mean killing the competition and kicking it out of the market .Only then will the prices go up again and the consumer won t be getting any choices ..TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT scenario seems to be high on the cards of some airlines nowadays .We ,consumers,should not be happy with this .

[NTarrant]

I wouldn’t agree that QR are selling on price. I have a number of occasions where they have been much more expensive. Particularly the example for two in business class RUH-MLE, SAR29,000 but Sri Lankan via CMB only SAR8,900.

It is swings and roundabouts really

[KSHaggag]

Hello NTarrant ,

I am talking about the UK market specifically .
In markets like RUH ,the choices are limited so no need for QR there to sell on price ;on such routes there is no real choice so there is no point in discounting .
Moreover I would not compare QR to UL since the size of their respective networks is so different .Add to this ,maybe on that day you checked it was a matter of seat availability and since the QR flights ( especially the leg RUHDOH ) were heavily booked ,the available classes were just the higher ones .14500 SAR is not the lowest price in biz class that QR is selling in RUH …the fare you got was just a higher one ,based on seat /inventory availability on that particular flight on that particular day .

[AMcWhirter]

As KSHaggag says, it all depends on the country of sale.

Certainly in the case of Scandinavia and Amsterdam, QR has some very attractive fares.

[NTarrant]

Hi KSHaggag – Choices are not that limited, particularly to LHR, other than SV and BA direct there are connections with EK, GF, AF, LH, ME and RJ.

In my example that is for next year and it was the same for week before and after. Usually we have found that if QR don’t want to sell from RUH it will show as unavailable although the connecting flight from DOH would be available.

A colleague had to go back to the UK with less than 48 hours notice, BA wanted an eye watering amount, but QR was half the price.

I agree it can depend on the country of sale, I recently went to MNL on CX and the fare was only available in KSA. The point I was making is that you can’t generalise that QR are always positioning on price as they are not always the cheapest and that includes exUK

[KSHaggag]

Availability of seats on the flights says it all .

Out of RUH ,QR has two flights a day to DOH and SV one flight which is still a low capacity given the demand on these routes so fares will mostly be high due to high demand and low capacity offered .

Btw RUH and UK ,u have a glut of seats on offer as you said with a multitude of carriers so the chances are you will get competitive fares .

In Doha ,QR is the most expensive coz it s their home market ,while in Dubai they are by far cheaper than EK coz they need to seduce you to fly with them VIA Doha .

When you find that QR is higher than others in any european market ,then for sure it s because that flight is busy ,or maybe the connecting one onwards from Doha e.g. to BKK,HKG ,SIN,NRT,ICN,etc…is .

[KSHaggag]

Generally ,an indirect flight tends to be cheaper than a direct one .The so called sixth freedom of carriage allows carriers to undercut the direct operators .
From RUH to LHR ,flying via DOHA is a deviation given the geographical position of RUH vs DOH on the way to London .Add to this ,the carrier s market identity in that market .If the home carrier is quite strong ,any foreign carrier will need to be agressive commercially to grab a slice of the cake .
If you are flying from RUH to anywhere ,SV should be the most expensive .

[NTarrant]

SV tend to be more expensive to LHR than BA or via one of the other ME gateways. However on most other routes they are far far cheaper, certainly in business. RUH-DXB is half the price of EK and the same for RUH-BAH as opposed to GF, even though SV only has one flight a day to BAH.

[Author]

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