Qatar Airways offers a free stop-over with accommodation in Doha if your shortest connection time between flights is 8 hours or more. Our flight from Clark was supposed to arrive at 23:35 local time, and our flight to Stockholm the next morning was at 07:35, so I contacted Qatar Airways on Facebook Messenger and asked if they were offering us a free stop-over in Doha (I messaged them on the 6th of May.)
- Introduction
- The booking process
- Hong Kong – Clark with Cebu Pacific economy class
- Clark – Doha with Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 business class
- Stopover in Doha with Oryx Rotana review
- Doha – Stockholm with Qatar Airways Airbus A359 business class
- Stockholm – Oslo with SAS business class
- Holiday in Norway with the kids.
- Torp – Copenhagen with Wideroe economy class
- Copenhagen – Doha with Qatar Airways Boeing 777 ‘old’ business class
- Stopover in Doha
- Doha – Angeles Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 business class
- Angels – Hong Kong with Cebu Pacific economy class.
They quickly replied to my message and asked for more details for the booking, and asked me to give them some time while they foreward the request to the concerned department. On the 4th of June I still had not heard anything, so I followed up, and they asked for copies of our passports, and said again that they would get back to me ‘soon’.
On the 10th of June I again followed up with them, and they told me that the request was approved, and I would receive an email soon with the reference letter attached. As the stop was exactly 8 hours, I was hoping we would be accommodated in the transit hotel in the terminal, but when I received the email I was that we were booked at the Oryx Rotana instead, which is outside the airport. It was still a free stay, so I was happy to get it.
Together with the confirmation email there were also instructions on how to get to the hotel (we needed to pick up vouchers at the transfer desk in Doha, before heading through immigration and to a waiting transport to bring us to the hotel.
We arrived in Doha on time, and it took us a while to make the walk to the transfer desk, where we fell in line for 5 minutes before being served by a friendly lady who quickly printed our hotel voucher, and pointed us in the direction of the business class immigration.
Arriving at immigration there was no line, and I handed over our passports to the immigration officer, and he quickly processed one passport, before he asked us how long we would stay. I told him only for the night as we were transiting, to which he got quite upset and asked why I didn’t tell him before, now he had given me the wrong visa stamp in my passport. I had no idea I was supposed to tell him that, and apologized, and he went back to work processing out transit visas, and we were allowed through a few minutes later.
Worth noticing is that our bags were checked in all the way through to Oslo, so it is important to have your overnight things in your hand-carry if you are doing this stop.
After immigration was cleared we found a lady with the Oryx Rotana sign, and she told us to wait for a few minutes, as we were waiting for other transiting passengers as well. About 15 minutes later she asked us to follow her, and we went to the parking area outside, where she called for the transit transportation to come and get us. There were a minibus for the economy class passengers, and me and the kids got our own car as we were in business class.
From the airport to the hotel it was about a 10-15 minutes drive, and we arrived just after 1 am in the morning. As the minibus with the other passengers had arrived before us, we had to fall in line to check in, and there were only 2 counters open. We also had to book our spot for the transport back to the airport in the morning, and the 5:15 and 5:30 spot was already taken, so we had to go on the 5:00 departure time. It took us a good 15-20 minutes before we could head to our rooms due to the line at the check-in, and it was around 01:30 before we could head to bed, for a quick 3:30 nap before we had to check out again.
The room was spacious, and had a huge double bed, so all three of us fit there easily.
Check-out the next morning was quick and efficient, and we were back at the airport around 05:30, and passed quickly through immigration again, before we headed to the lounge for a quick breakfast before heading to the plane.
I am not sure if the stop-over was really worth it as we only got a little more than 3 hours sleep, to do this on a 8 hour stop-over is really pushing it, but considering it was free it does beat sleeping on the floor of the terminal, and it was really good for the kids to be able to lay down in a proper bed and get some rest.
