KHI-DOH:
The start of this trip was with the customs officer asking me to open my suitcase inspite of my having told him I was carrying gifts and personal belongings and was a lawyer. Once I dropped the name of a heavyweight in customs known to me, he soon changed his stance and asked me to carry on.
Checkin was smooth and fast, immigration a snails pace. There were quite a few flights leaving such as GF 320 to BAH, SV 777 to JED, EY 763 to AUH, Air China 767 to BJS, PIA 310 to DXB, PIA 743 to DEL, 74M to LHR and QR 320 to DOH. I was surprised to see PIA sending a 743 to DEL especially when there were hardly any pax.
I caught sight of a white (actually PIA beige) 747-200 with GE engines parked at a distance away with Air Universal titles on the fuselage and the PIA flag on the tail. There was no green stripe dividing the beige and white, it was all beige and the engines were grey. This is probably AP-BIC, operated by both AU and PK. Another 742 in all AU colors was standing next to it and was soon joined by another 742 of Orient Thai which arrived.
Our flight boarded on time and was slightly delayed as they had to offload one suitcase. As soon as we took off, I had an excellent view of Khi and actually managed to spot my neighbourhood and the street where my house is and followed the route all the way till the seaview area. Quite a sight.
We were served by very friendly, polite and helpful crew and received an excellent breakfast. J class was full and was very pleasant all the way till the person behind me decided to start farting for all he was worth. I had to sit there with my handkerchief over my nose till we landed at DOH. DOh airport was not very crowded and we parked b/w and Iran Asseman ATR72 and Iran Air 727-200. I also saw the QR DC-10 freighter (not in their colors) and a QR A310-300. I didn't know they still had A313's.
Anyhow there is major renovation work going on here and my flight to LHR is in about one and a half hours from now. Will continue the DOH-LHR segment on this thread.
KHI-DOH-LHR on QR J class
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KHI-DOH-LHR on QR J class
Moin Abbasi
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I recently came back from PK too, I have lots of photos, but I will post them later as I am busy. Anyway to the point, I was scheduled to return from PK on the 4th, but I decided that I wanted to stay a few more days, so I changed it to the 7th instead. The 4th's ticket was from ISB-MAN-JFK on a 772 on J class, I had to switch it to LHE-MAN-JFK on J class, since it was the only flight available till the 11th. I had to call a few relatives in PIA, like my mother's cousin, who is the Islamabad distrcit manager, he didn't help so much so my uncle an ex Col in the army called one of his friends, the vice army chief of staff he glady helped me and got me a seat on the flight, I am very grateful to him, but even for him it took some time. b
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DOH-LHR:
We were called for boarding 15 mins before departure time. As I reached the boarding gate, what I had a hunch about happening did. The gate agent tore up my J class boarding pass and handed me one for F class seat 3K. The second time they've upgraded me from J to F. We were driven to the A333 in a BMW and upon boarding I was escorted to my seat and offered a wide range of drinks but settled for juice. Departure was delayed for half an hour due to late connecting pax. Before takeoff, a stewardess came to take orders for post-takeoff drinks.
We ended up leaving about 45 mins behind schedule. There was abit of turbulence as we make our way to 36K feet above the clouds which when the royal tretment really started. The menu was brought in a leather bound file and stewardess came to take the order for lunch. There was a choice of 4 starters of which she came along with 3 of them minus the soup. I requested only salad but she came along with a pot of caviar, miniature pancakes, a whole bread basket, mushroom crepes and an arabic mezze and salad buffet selction and laid everything down on my tray. I had to finish all this. Then she brought the main course which i selected as a chicken in Indian spices with rice and another bowl of extra rice. For desserst I chose a dry fruit cake with custard sauce which I could not finish as I was stuffed. I skipped the afternoon tea selection of reception sandwiches, quiches and pastries as I was too full and laid the bed out flat and covered myself with a blanket and was out.
Woke up about 40 mins before landing and she came along with a full pot of tea and chocolates which I enjoyed and soon we were on our way down. We had to circle around twice before we were cleared to land and we were finally down at 5.30pm. We were handed a fast track immigration pass and as I got there as fast as I could, was the first one in line and got my luggage and was out of the arrivals area from the time I got off the plane in 15 mins.
Now the fact that my genius of a sister told the cab company that I was arriving on Qatar Airways from KHI not Doha ended up with them not turning up and me calling them up again which had me waiting in the arrivals hall for 45 mins. Not that I minded it but I ended up at my sisters place 2 hours after I landed.
All in all a superb experience and airline. They deserve the 5 stars they get. The amenity kit contained all items from Bulgari which my mom wasted no time in getting off me.
An interesting sight was an Air Sahara 763 standing there and a Korean Air 772, but no sign of PIA anywhere. I thought they left LHR on Fridays at 9pm.
Anyway, it was an amazing experience and hopefully I should be getting my QR Privilege Club silver card after this trip as my miles have accrued enough for me to qualify for the silver card.
We were called for boarding 15 mins before departure time. As I reached the boarding gate, what I had a hunch about happening did. The gate agent tore up my J class boarding pass and handed me one for F class seat 3K. The second time they've upgraded me from J to F. We were driven to the A333 in a BMW and upon boarding I was escorted to my seat and offered a wide range of drinks but settled for juice. Departure was delayed for half an hour due to late connecting pax. Before takeoff, a stewardess came to take orders for post-takeoff drinks.
We ended up leaving about 45 mins behind schedule. There was abit of turbulence as we make our way to 36K feet above the clouds which when the royal tretment really started. The menu was brought in a leather bound file and stewardess came to take the order for lunch. There was a choice of 4 starters of which she came along with 3 of them minus the soup. I requested only salad but she came along with a pot of caviar, miniature pancakes, a whole bread basket, mushroom crepes and an arabic mezze and salad buffet selction and laid everything down on my tray. I had to finish all this. Then she brought the main course which i selected as a chicken in Indian spices with rice and another bowl of extra rice. For desserst I chose a dry fruit cake with custard sauce which I could not finish as I was stuffed. I skipped the afternoon tea selection of reception sandwiches, quiches and pastries as I was too full and laid the bed out flat and covered myself with a blanket and was out.
Woke up about 40 mins before landing and she came along with a full pot of tea and chocolates which I enjoyed and soon we were on our way down. We had to circle around twice before we were cleared to land and we were finally down at 5.30pm. We were handed a fast track immigration pass and as I got there as fast as I could, was the first one in line and got my luggage and was out of the arrivals area from the time I got off the plane in 15 mins.
Now the fact that my genius of a sister told the cab company that I was arriving on Qatar Airways from KHI not Doha ended up with them not turning up and me calling them up again which had me waiting in the arrivals hall for 45 mins. Not that I minded it but I ended up at my sisters place 2 hours after I landed.
All in all a superb experience and airline. They deserve the 5 stars they get. The amenity kit contained all items from Bulgari which my mom wasted no time in getting off me.
An interesting sight was an Air Sahara 763 standing there and a Korean Air 772, but no sign of PIA anywhere. I thought they left LHR on Fridays at 9pm.
Anyway, it was an amazing experience and hopefully I should be getting my QR Privilege Club silver card after this trip as my miles have accrued enough for me to qualify for the silver card.
Moin Abbasi