Long haul via Middle East anyone nervous?

[Northerndownunder]

Travelling with 2 DC, DH and MIL this week and our flight changes in Doha. Read lots on the news this week about major airlines avoiding Iran airspace as well as lots of airlines cancelling flights to Tel Aviv. Our airline is one of the major Middle Eastern ones and not yet avoiding Iranian airspace.

I'm having a last minute panic, DH is flippant and has made jokes about it🤔

Anyone else travelling via the Middle East and nervous or having second thoughts?

Keeping a watch in this. Also flying via Doha I'm a couple weeks from weeks.

We have a matter of days! Spent thousands on the flights but it all seems like things are bubbling over. I am really unsure what to do.

What are your thoughts right now?

I can totally understand your concern, things in the Middle East are looking incredibly tense and an attack by Iran seems to be almost inevitable. To be honest though your most serious risk is that your flights will be cancelled at short notice. Airlines are incredibly cautious and accidents are extremely rare.

What is it that is making you worry?

I don’t fly via the Middle East for other reasons, but I don’t think you need to be overly worried from a safety point of view. Airlines are responding to the situation and Iran itself has closed parts of its airspace when needed. If it needs to avoid Israel, Jordan and Iran your flight will just re-route in and out of Doha through other countries. They aren’t the only route in and out. The flight might be longer than advertised but it’s unlikely to be cancelled entirely and these big airlines (presumably Qatar?) have very good safety records. Qatar has never had a fatal accident or a crash resulting in a hull loss.

If you’re really worried and want to change the flight then it is a OneWorld airline so you could always look into the cost of changing your itinerary to a flight with another airline in the alliance. There will probably be a change fee plus you’ll need to pay any difference in fare.

Where is your final destination?

I would be but I would never go that route anyway.

You have nothing to worry about. Qatar is a long way from Israel.

If anything happens with Iran flights will just route away from Iranian airspace. It may add a few minutes to your flights but that's about it.

If you’re really worried and want to change the flight then it is a OneWorld airline so you could always look into the cost of changing your itinerary to a flight with another airline in the alliance. There will probably be a change fee plus you’ll need to pay any difference in fare.

@Takoneko this is a good suggestion I may look into. What's the best way to do this? Would that be through One World Alliance not the airline direct?

If there was an issue, the airline would deal with it appropriately. You will be absolutely fine, OP, and I like the fact that your husband is making jokes about it - he's right.

You should be able to do it via Qatar Airways. I booked a flight with JAL last month and when I was selecting my flight BA, Qatar, Finnair etc flights all appeared in the list. I’ve never booked with Qatar but I would imagine it’s similar. Last year we booked with Finnair and took a mixture of Finnair and JAL flights.

Honestly, and I write as a nervous flier, don’t worry about it. The airline will sort it and you don’t need to. No captain is going to fly anywhere unsafe, and if they have to reroute you they will. You do your job of being a passenger and let them do the job of running an airline safely.

Presumably you are flying with Qatar if you are going via Doha? You will 100% be absolutely fine. I was crew for Emirates during 911 and the Iraq war, the airlines are very savvy with what is going on and believe it or not, you are probably the safest you can be on a Middle Eastern airline. They will change route if needs be and they won't fly anywhere they deem unsafe.

The paperwork would be a nightmare if they got a plane shot down! 😉

The reality is there are so few air corridors open they have to route somewhere.

Have you looked at your flights on Flightradar or similar - look at previous flights on playback to see what route they take - you will see they make adjustments.

I'm just back from Asia via Helskini. I look at my flight history i can see they have stopped flying over Iran and they fly over Afghanistan (so did I on my flight) - which is probably been decided as a better bet than Iran but still not great ( according to this site is red so not ideal) https://ops.group/blog/category/safe-airspace/.
Before you go down costing alternative with other airlines look at their routes as they might still have the same concerns.