Qatar Airways postpones Chiang Mai Dec 2016 launch

[rheinwiese]

Qatar Airways in this week’s schedule update has postponed planned Chiang Mai service launch, previously scheduled to begin from 16DEC16. The oneWorld member previously planned to extend Doha – Yangon route to Chiang Mai, using Airbus A330-200 aircraft 5 times a week. Current schedule filing shows Qatar will continue to operate Doha – Yangon sector 5 times a week, an overall increase from 3 weekly.

QR918 DOH0230 – 1200RGN 332 x14
QR919 RGN1840 – 2215DOH 332 x14

At time this post goes to press, the airline has not filed new launch date for Chiang Mai service.

 

routesonline.com

[Thailand]

Oops!

[stament]

Thanks forvthe update

[toenail]

Beware, I think Qatar Airways is expanding too quickly. On July 10th, the airline did not have a plane flying into Bangkok at 2am in the morning so all 200 passengers ( my estimate) were all unexpectedly to fly on Emirate Air to Dubai, then to our next destination on Emirate Air. Don't get me wrong, I like the planes & service on Emirate Air but the "no-show" of the Qatar flight & then re-is during me a new ticket meant different arrival & departure times; also I lost my aisle seats & instead was stuck like a sardine in the middle of my 12+ hour flight to Chicago. Since American Airlines was not on the same computer "set-up" as Emirate Air ( not partners), I had to recheck my luggage & book a new flight on American Airlines since I missed my flight. When I called to check on my returning flight on Qatar Airlines, the office in Bankok had me & all the other passengers that were forced to fly on another airline as a "no show". No apology - plus no one seemed to have a record of Qatar Airlines not " functioning" on July 10th. Next time, I will fly with Delta to the States. The problem solving would have been handled differently.

[stament]

Interesting... thanks for the warning.

 

Bkk airways have been very poor for me lately after I praised them. My last two flights have both been delayed one of which caused me to miss a connection. I will be flying Thai Airways domestically going fwd as will a couple of other passengers I spoke to about Bkk Airways. A shame as the lounge is a nice bonus.

[Bangkok Barry]

6 hours ago, toenail said:

Beware, I think Qatar Airways is expanding too quickly. On July 10th, the airline did not have a plane flying into Bangkok at 2am in the morning so all 200 passengers ( my estimate) were all unexpectedly to fly on Emirate Air to Dubai, then to our next destination on Emirate Air. Don't get me wrong, I like the planes & service on Emirate Air but the "no-show" of the Qatar flight & then re-is during me a new ticket meant different arrival & departure times; also I lost my aisle seats & instead was stuck like a sardine in the middle of my 12+ hour flight to Chicago. Since American Airlines was not on the same computer "set-up" as Emirate Air ( not partners), I had to recheck my luggage & book a new flight on American Airlines since I missed my flight. When I called to check on my returning flight on Qatar Airlines, the office in Bankok had me & all the other passengers that were forced to fly on another airline as a "no show". No apology - plus no one seemed to have a record of Qatar Airlines not " functioning" on July 10th. Next time, I will fly with Delta to the States. The problem solving would have been handled differently.

 

All airlines have to cancel flights for technical (mechanical) reasons. I once had a United flight to the US cancelled. Doesn't mean the airline had over-expanded and had run out of planes. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to find any frequent flier who hasn't had a flight cancelled due to non-availability of aircraft due to a mechanical problem.

[Baerboxer]

48 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

All airlines have to cancel flights for technical (mechanical) reasons. I once had a United flight to the US cancelled. Doesn't mean the airline had over-expanded and had run out of planes. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to find any frequent flier who hasn't had a flight cancelled due to non-availability of aircraft due to a mechanical problem.

 

Agree these things happen. But it's how the resultant issues are then handled. I've had problems with Qatar Air, when flying first class, with plane cancellations and then broken promises. KLM are also crap when this happens. Others seem to have better customer service and follow through for such instances.

[Ricardo]

Disappointing news, although its not yet a done-deal, just a warning-flag.

 

Hope they get their act together, as I've got a "Booking status Confirmed"  CNX-DOH-LHR  return-trip with them for May, the CNX-DOH-CNX flights are now showing on 'Manage My Trip' as  "Flight status  not confirmed". 

 

Hopefully, if they do decide to delay the start of the route past my own (or other peoples') travel-dates, they will then reschedule me with their friends PG down to BKK & then on their own flights BKK-DOH-BKK  at no extra cost ? !  And get round to telling me about it, and the changed flights/times, at some point.

 

I've got a confirmed-booking, I've paid-in-full on my credit-card, I would regard a change like this as their operational-decision/expense.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Ricardo

[arithai12]

 

On 8/5/2016 at 10:08 AM, toenail said:

Beware, I think Qatar Airways is expanding too quickly. On July 10th, the airline did not have a plane flying into Bangkok at 2am in the morning so all 200 passengers ( my estimate) were all unexpectedly to fly on Emirate Air to Dubai, then to our next destination on Emirate Air. Don't get me wrong, I like the planes & service on Emirate Air but the "no-show" of the Qatar flight & then re-is during me a new ticket meant different arrival & departure times; also I lost my aisle seats & instead was stuck like a sardine in the middle of my 12+ hour flight to Chicago. Since American Airlines was not on the same computer "set-up" as Emirate Air ( not partners), I had to recheck my luggage & book a new flight on American Airlines since I missed my flight. When I called to check on my returning flight on Qatar Airlines, the office in Bankok had me & all the other passengers that were forced to fly on another airline as a "no show". No apology - plus no one seemed to have a record of Qatar Airlines not " functioning" on July 10th. Next time, I will fly with Delta to the States. The problem solving would have been handled differently.

17 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

All airlines have to cancel flights for technical (mechanical) reasons. I once had a United flight to the US cancelled. Doesn't mean the airline had over-expanded and had run out of planes. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to find any frequent flier who hasn't had a flight cancelled due to non-availability of aircraft due to a mechanical problem.

Yes cancellations and rebooking can happen, but the last part of what Toenail reported is simply unacceptable.

[Ricardo]

On  flyertalk.com, it's been suggested that there may be a problem with congested parking-stands & gates at CNX, I must admit it seems unlikely, but who knows ?

 

Or perhaps the increase, from 3-weekly to 5-weekly, was a stretch for the new route ?

[STUDMEYER]

Too bad about teh CNX DOH route.  That would save me a lot of headache going to the ME.

 

Also just read this the other day:  EMIRATES TO ACQUIRE CONTROLLING STAKE IN QATAR AIR

Quote

 

Sources close to the Emirates have said, in confidential meetings, that Emirates Airlines has been in talks to take a controlling stake in Qatar Airways to better compete against Etihad as the industry seeks to improve scale in the midst of a restrictive M&A policy within the region.

Qatar Airways has been increasing the company’s stakes in various names (agreed to acquire 49% stake in Italy’s Meridiana, has 10% stake in LATAM, and recently upped the IAG stake to 20%) and Emirates Airlines will soon announce their move to acquire a controlling stake in Qatar Airways.

 

 

And the airline switching planes thing - That has happened to me before on Qatar and Etihad.  Random airplane shows up with different crew from an unrelated airline.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by STUDMEYER

[IMA_FARANG]

Yes, I saw on Bloomberg business news a staement that Qatar Airlines was "rethinking" it's need for their projected delivery of more A380 aircraft due to "lower than expected  pasenger load on certain selected routes"..

A nice "politivally correct" way of saying, somebody s-- -wed up.

 

[Ricardo]

Waited in vain for a week, with no contact from the airline to tell me that they weren't going to operate the new route, then phoned Qatar's Bangkok-office.

 

They were happy to rebook me, efficiently and at no extra charge, on PG to Suvarnabhumi and then Qatar Airways to Doha instead of CNX-DOH direct.

 

One minor gripe, this puts me on a cramped 3-4-3 seating B777-300 from BKK to DOH, rather than the comfortable 2-4-2 seating A330 which I'd been looking-forward-to on CNX-DOH direct.

 

I hope that they will still start this new route eventually, I would definitely prefer it to traveling via BKK, it offers a better check-in/Immigration-experience at CNX instead of BKK, and is also shorter and quicker.   The frustration of seeing CNX on the moving-map, knowing that one still has 3-4 hours before actually reaching there, will continue to niggle !

 

And if I've got to travel via BKK anyway, then I'll look at other cheaper options for BKK-LHR, whereas with Qatar CNX-DOH-LHR I'd have been more-likely to choose to fly QR, at a fair (ie similar to BKK-LHR) price.

[trainman34014]

Great shame.  It really is time for one of the big boys to try CNX -Europe even if only once or twice a week.

[Chicog]

On 8/7/2016 at 2:05 PM, STUDMEYER said:

Too bad about teh CNX DOH route.  That would save me a lot of headache going to the ME.

 

Also just read this the other day:  EMIRATES TO ACQUIRE CONTROLLING STAKE IN QATAR AIR

 

And the airline switching planes thing - That has happened to me before on Qatar and Etihad.  Random airplane shows up with different crew from an unrelated airline.

 

 

 

Not a chance the Al Thanis would hand their flagship carrier to the UAE.

 

Whoever wrote that is a complete idiot.

 

 

[Ricardo]

2 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

Great shame.  It really is time for one of the big boys to try CNX -Europe even if only once or twice a week.

 

But not direct obviously, via one of the Middle-East hubs makes much more commercial sense, and then onward to Europe/Africa,America so as to maximise the feed from/into someone's network.

 

Sooner or later, someone has to notice that Chiang Mai is a very-highly-rated tourist-destination, and then get their pricing/frequency right ! 

Edited August 9, 2016 by Ricardo

[Chicog]

Bear in  that Qatar wasn't going to be nonstop direct anyway.

 

 

[pgrahmm]

They're probably waiting for the Hard Rock Cafe to open to garner the additional income of the flood of people planning their trips around seeing it ........

[Ricardo]

Qatar Airways are currently advertising BKK-LHR return from B24,795, whereas CNX-LHR return (via BKK) is a whopping B37,350.

 

I wonder whether their Marketing-Department realise, that we all know that the extra CNX-BKK-CNX on Bangkok Air shouldn't cost more than an extra B3k or so ?  So they're asking B10k too much ?

 

This is the sort of ham-fisted pricing/cock-up, which IMO helped blow their attempt to launch the new route in the first place, not to mention the one-hour stopover in Rangoon both ways !

 

And it does little for helping them market any future second-try !

 

Let's hope someone like Emirates notices the opportunity, and has a go, sometime soon ?

 

 

[Chicog]

1 hour ago, Ricardo said:

Qatar Airways are currently advertising BKK-LHR return from B24,795, whereas CNX-LHR return (via BKK) is a whopping B37,350.

 

I wonder whether their Marketing-Department realise, that we all know that the extra CNX-BKK-CNX on Bangkok Air shouldn't cost more than an extra B3k or so ?  So they're asking B10k too much ?

 

This is the sort of ham-fisted pricing/cock-up, which IMO helped blow their attempt to launch the new route in the first place, not to mention the one-hour stopover in Rangoon both ways !

 

And it does little for helping them market any future second-try !

 

Let's hope someone like Emirates notices the opportunity, and has a go, sometime soon ?

 

 

 

 

I'm just wondering if you checked Emirates prices for those two flights before you posted this....

 

 

[Ricardo]

1 hour ago, Chicog said:

 

I'm just wondering if you checked Emirates prices for those two flights before you posted this....

 

 

 

They don't yet operate CNX-DXB-LHR, do they ? And therefore don't offer CNX on their booking-engine.

 

My point was, Qatar are mis-pricing the extra CNX-BKK-CNX legs, grossly overpricing them, and anybody foolish enough to actually book at this price would later be kicking themselves  ...  which doesn't make for happy punters or a good reputation.

[Chicog]

4 hours ago, Ricardo said:

 

They don't yet operate CNX-DXB-LHR, do they ? And therefore don't offer CNX on their booking-engine.

 

My point was, Qatar are mis-pricing the extra CNX-BKK-CNX legs, grossly overpricing them, and anybody foolish enough to actually book at this price would later be kicking themselves  ...  which doesn't make for happy punters or a good reputation.

 

Both of them fly LHR-Gulf via BKK and use a partner airline. Qatar don't fly to CNX.

If you think Qatar's mark up is too much, take a look at Emirates before you start praising them.

 

And yes, CNX is on Emirates booking site.

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Chicog

[arithai12]

2 hours ago, Chicog said:

 

Both of them fly LHR-Gulf via BKK and use a partner airline. Qatar don't fly to CNX.

If you think Qatar's mark up is too much, take a look at Emirates before you start praising them.

 

And yes, CNX is on Emirates booking site.

 

Yes, it's a shame that Emirates doesn't allow more flexible booking options on the CNX-BKK leg,

although I rather suspect it's PG policy not EK.

However, by recent experience: you can book a separate CNX-BKK on Thai Airways (and they have

some quite competitive pricing lately), and you will be able to check-in at international departures

in CNX and they will send the luggage to your final Emirates destination. And Emirates will

do the same for the return trip.

 

At the TG counter, they will want to see the full details of your EK onward flight, so bring a print out.

 

Careful: it works only for TG-operated flights. If you buy a ticket issued by TG for a flight

operated by Thai Smile, it won't work.

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by arithai12
added information

[rogeroc]

I agree that the extra leg from BKK to CNX is grossly overpriced by most carriers if booking a Europe to CNX flight.

 

Vietjet now operate BKK to CNX at very competitive prices as well.

[balo]

Yes I just fly Air Asia to BKK and get the cheapest flight to Europe from there. For me it's Norwegian Air  , can't beat their prices if you book early . 

 

[Ricardo]

8 hours ago, Chicog said:

 

And yes, CNX is on Emirates booking site.

 

 

Sorry, it wouldn't accept 'CNX', when I did look yesterday. But does now  ...  go figure.

 

But I still think adding B13k, for CNX-BKK-CNX, is way over the top, and deserved a heads-up.

 

I priced a return with Etihad for January 10-days-ago, they only added B3k-ish, which I'd regard as reasonable.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Ricardo

[Chicog]

8 hours ago, Ricardo said:

 

Sorry, it wouldn't accept 'CNX', when I did look yesterday. But does now  ...  go figure.

 

But I still think adding B13k, for CNX-BKK-CNX, is way over the top, and deserved a heads-up.

 

I priced a return with Etihad for January 10-days-ago, they only added B3k-ish, which I'd regard as reasonable.

 

Now you've seen it on Emirates, have you seen their mark up!

[Chicog]

13 hours ago, arithai12 said:

Yes, it's a shame that Emirates doesn't allow more flexible booking options on the CNX-BKK leg,

although I rather suspect it's PG policy not EK.

However, by recent experience: you can book a separate CNX-BKK on Thai Airways (and they have

some quite competitive pricing lately), and you will be able to check-in at international departures

in CNX and they will send the luggage to your final Emirates destination. And Emirates will

do the same for the return trip.

 

At the TG counter, they will want to see the full details of your EK onward flight, so bring a print out.

 

Careful: it works only for TG-operated flights. If you buy a ticket issued by TG for a flight

operated by Thai Smile, it won't work.

 

That's a bit pants isn't it.

Fortunately, inbound I'm normally craving a cig when I land so I don't mind clearing CIQ in Bangkok.

And outbound I normally have a stopover in the Big Mango.

I usually just buy the BKK flights on Qatar and do the BKK/CNX separately.

[Ricardo]

3 hours ago, Chicog said:

 

Now you've seen it on Emirates, have you seen their mark up!

 

Yes B7k-B8k, on the dates I was looking for, which is still excessive but not as bad as Qatar's markup of B13k.

 

I'd still regard anything much more than B3k-B4k as being too much, like you I currently vote with my feet/wallet, and book separate tickets despite the inconvenience of having to accept a longer connection.

[CNXBKKMAN]

Qatar Airways are charging more because there are not many long haul international operators into CNX. They figure the customer (or some of them) will be willing to pay premium for cutting out Bangkok part of the journey. They did the same thing when they started flying into Phuket about 8 years ago. They were the first big gulf carrier into HKT. They fly to Goa and charge a premium, because it cuts out the Bombay transfer/ domestic flight and many people will think that's worth it.

       As soon as more competition shows up like Emirates and Etihad have into Phuket they can't get away with, the airfare becomes more reasonable or even cheaper than Bangkok. It's not just Qatar airways who does this , all airlines will do it if they are in a similar market situation.