We flew economy from Heathrow to Dubai via Doha and back again in May 2004. The airline uses new planes, they were on time, Doha is a small airport (although huge expansion plans have been announced) so it is easy to change flights. The fares were excellent value - booked quite late too. The downside is a flight staff who are willing but not very experienced - a bit of a mixed bag - and in our case, not very good food (although other reviewers found it good). on one of the flights, although the safety film was shown, the crew took absolutely no interest and carried on with other duties. The flights to and from London were very full - perhaps a reflection of the cheap fares. We were left with the impression that they are a newish airline who are trying hard - presumably hoping to emulate Emirates but a long long way from the standards of Emirates. Most irritating was that we were overweight on the way back. I do travel a fair bit so put almost everything in the 3 cases we checked (including a good few documents). We had the misfortune to fall upon a check-in clerk who was quite officious and who decided to charge us. I had to pay £160 for the excess 15 kilos. He made a big deal about giving us the other 10 kilos he said we were jointly overweight (it was actually a bit less). Of course, we were in the wrong but what was annoying is that we carried very little handluggage whereas there was absolutely no check on hand luggage for anyone as far as I could see. Other passangers were carrying very large and heavy stuff on board. There is no doubt that if we had packed differently and decided to carry a large case on board we would have paid nothing. More fool me I suppose but in 25 years of travelling I have never paid excess and I have been over the strict limits many times . We could also have done without the clerks admonishing attitude. Anyway, be warned! They are perhaps trying to make up for the cheap fares or maybe we were just unlucky.
Welcome to Ciao. Airlines are more vigilant on excess nowadays. Maureen
emilyo 09.05.2004 22:27
Bad luck on the extra weight. Welcome to ciao, Em XX.
Looby5 09.05.2004 21:14
Hi, welcome to ciao - Good op, I flew the same route Sept 02 ,one of the first flights I think. I was quite impressed but I've not flown with Emirates who seem to be the best on that stretch. - Louise
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May 9th, 2004
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