Flying with "Foreign" Airlines

Thai i should say again is a very moody airlines…… but most of the time there flights are good.

Thanks very much for all your help guys.

My parents were fascinated on Monday on their return journey, at the number of military aircraft parked up at Doha!

We’re going to ring Kuoni tomorrow and see what airlines are available to us. Another airline coming up is of course, Thai! Thailand’s own and it’s on a 747, something I’ve yet to experience!

But we’ll soon see – will let you know the outcome though 😀

Thanks again!

QatarA330,

Nice feedback, but I do not see how a wartime footing cannot increase the risk of an accident. Put it this way, what do the insurers say?

Can’t believe I never saw them in CDG…

About MAD that would be great if it happens as there are not many regular arabic visitors apart from Royal Jordanian.

Do you work for Qatar airline?

Just curious, how does the BMW transfer system work?
I mean do they have that many cars or do they just “race” from one plane to the other taking 2 or 3 pax at a time?

Yago

Kabir,

Yes I am the same person from Airwise.

Yagoceron,

The actually do fly 3x weekly into CDG with the A330-200. The route is going 4x weekly from the begining of April.

“ANd now that I’m in Madrid I think it’s gonna be impossible.”

Don’t worry about this, QR will start flying to Madrid either late 2003 or in 2004.

I have seen and used the BMW transfer service. There are no jetways in the current airport (the new one will have them) and so people transfer on Bus but F-class passengers use a BMW 7-series, I am not sure but I think it is also used for J-class passengers on some occasions.

Thanks Qatar330,

Well don’t know where to start…

Think they would hire a Spanish flight dispatcher in Doha?

More seriously (glups) have you seen their BMW transfer service in action.

Qatar’s is one of my favourite c/s but unfortunately they do not fly to CDG so I never got to see them. ANd now that I’m in Madrid I think it’s gonna be impossible.

Hope to do that trip to Male one day using Qatar airline.

Yago

my question us not on QR…but are you the same person from Airwise?

mongu,

“I am thinking that DOH might be host to the USAF and apart from the risk of “friendly fire” with that lot, I believe QA also have a contingency to leave DOH and relocate to Sharjah, which could potentially stuff up your plans regardless of how smooth the airline will claim it is.”

DOH is host to USAF logistics aircraft and the QEAF and has been for a very long time without any problems whatsoever, military aircraft use a different ramp and most operations are concentrated at dawn or overnight.

The latest press release from the airline confirmed that they will continue operating and so will the airport. They will use special air routings also. If the worst comes operations will be moved to Sharjah but that is highly unlikely and the option will only be taken up if the airspace above Qatar is closed for a considerable amount of time.

T5,

Nice to hear that your parents had an enjoyable experience with QR. I am biased but unless price is your only criteria I would reccomend you take up QR instead. Also if the war in iraq hurts bookings severely expect ticket prices to go as low as £300 maybe even £250 which is why I reccomend you wait a couple of weeks before booking.

yago,

If you have any questions or would like any info on QR don’t hesitate to ask.

On the Qatar airways theme, are they a good idea at the moment?

I am thinking that DOH might be host to the USAF and apart from the risk of “friendly fire” with that lot, I believe QA also have a contingency to leave DOH and relocate to Sharjah, which could potentially stuff up your plans regardless of how smooth the airline will claim it is.

I would go ahead with Aeroflot……cheap and now you can also say reliable…although it depends on your luck if a person gets a good flight(they dont have anything above good) or a pathetic one(60% you’ll get this).

Suprisingly, Qatar are not too expensive. Their flights via Doha to Bangkok are a considerable amount cheaper than direct flights with British Airways. BA want about £700 for a return flight whereas we’ve had quotes from Qatar for just under £400!

We’re sorting arrangements out now and Aeroflot is coming up VERY VERY cheap. Is it wise to choose Aeroflot? The flight goes from LHR to Moscow and then on to Bangkok.

I’ve flown to North America, Mexico, Morocco and India quite a few times (as well as in Europe) with companies such as Lufthansa, AIr France, KLM, etc… and they always give all the info in English.

In long haul flights, you always get the entertainment at least in the company’s language and in English.

Love to hear about Qatar Airways.
As soon as I’ve saved enough, I’m going to Male with them and I hope to save enough to use their BMW transfer service at Doha.

Yago

I did Emirates from UK to HKG via DXB last year – excellent A330/777 combination and in flight pa’s in english, arabic and thai.(flight from DXB to HKG was via BKK – 03.15am departure from DXB – ugh)

Have also done internal flights in Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and some english was spoken.

I’ve flown with Air France from CDG to YYZ, so that dosen’t really count, being an english speaking country, so the only flight I’ve been on that hasn’t involved one of:

UK Airport
British or American crew
English or American speaking destination

was on Crossair from BRU to BSL a year or two ago. Safety demo was in English (can’t quite remember what else, though, although I speak both French and German, anyway).

IFE, well, it was an hour’s flight on a Saab (340 outbound, 2000 inbound), so, come on, you didn’t really expect any, did you… 😉

Actually, no, I’ve also flown Air France ZRH to CDG and back, and they only made announcements in French and English. So there you go.

Only thing about Lufthansa is the Sauerkraut in the food… 😉 😀 😛

Mostly all airlines do in both languages….english and the native language of the flights origin. Eg. if a flight from Germany comes to India they will announce in all german, English and Hindi.

I’ve only done a couple of “foreign” flights and both were short enough not to warrant entertainment. What I will say though is all safety announcements, cabin announcements etc, Flight deck announcements etc… were repeated in English as well as the native languages.

Most of the time this kind of airline has PTV.
Therefore the movie program is both in Geramn and english.

Anyway you can find this kind of information on their website.