Would you fly through Doha this weekend?

[burneraccount15]

We are due to attend SIL's wedding in Thailand next week. We're booked via Doha on Sunday. Qatar Airways are offering anyone booked up to 30th June (Monday) the option of a full refund. We could rebook with another carrier though it will cost a bit extra due to it being last minute.

Normally I wouldn't be so worried but as it's a special occasion I am worried about delays/diversions/ cancellations as it may take a while for Qatar Airways to recover from recent delays and closures.

YABU- It will be fine and you'll make your connection
YANBU- Anything could happen in the region, rebook now for certainty.

Personally I would

I’m usually on the more gung ho side about things like this, but with a wedding at stake on top of everything else going on in the Middle East I’m not sure I’d risk it. If anything goes wrong it could go badly wrong. Would your travel insurance even cover an act of war? I’d take the money and rebook.

If the flight is still going there's nothing to worry about. If any government had a slight suspicion of it being unsafe, the airspace would be closed immediately.

I'm flying next week and will be cracking on with it. I'm not an expert but I think cruising altitude is well above the usual range of surface to surface missiles excluding intercontinental ballistic types.

I’d first check if the rest of the wedding party have more confidence in their route, and then balance up cost vs what I can afford / what this wedding and holiday means to me.

Can Qatar offer you reroute via their codeshare (OneWorld) partners? If you can afford the annual leave and are eager to be there can you move your flights forward to give you more chance of getting there?

I’d contact the carrier to ask what their options are to reroute through alternative airspace.

I should note in response to the replies above (and thank you for your replies)

My issue isn't safety, it's getting there, on time, and making our scheduled events and bookings. Airlines are rerouting their flight paths all the time in the region as the situation develops, this is causing some flights to be longer and having a knock on effect on making connections.

A large portion of the wedding party live in Thailand, my husband is Thai. Sorry that probably would have been helpful information at the start.

Qatar Airways are currently taking hours upon hours to get in contact with, they're not rebooking people on partner airlines who have flights in the future they're currently dealing with the thousands of people they have stranded all over the world (and barely dealing with some of them if the reddit threads are anything to go by).

The hub was only closed for 5 hours but there are major knock ons and disruption expected for a while.

The last thing I want is sudden cancellation and having a last minute scramble to get a new flight if QA are still not assisting with rebooking on partner airlines / missing connection and then missing the wedding.

The wedding does mean quite a lot to us, especially DH, so I'm considering it might just be worth paying to rebook for his peace of mind.

thanks for your added info @burneraccount15

would rebook then. You’ll prob just fret til it’s time to go; I know I would.

I do hope you get to the wedding without too much hassle and all have a wonderful family celebration

Yes I'm beginning to think so, and the longer I wait the more expensive alternatives will be I expect. Thank you, I'm sure all this stress will be forgotten once we've joined the festivities 🥰 It looks like we can maybe do some slightly longer routes but probably more stable with the likes of FinnAir/KLM/Cathay Pacific so I think I am going to just bite the bullet and do so.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts 🙂

Friend had same scenario and has re rebooked via Thai Airlines.

Thank you! Have just done the exact same it's worked out about 400 pounds more expensive for the two of us and baby but I consider it money well spent to be sure.

From a possibly flight delay perspective I would probably rebook if the timing to the wedding is tight.

It’s a clever move on the airline’s part as it shows them as considerate but also frees up spaces for displaced passengers and potentially avoids having to rebook more passengers if there are further issues.