My Flight to the Philippines with Qatar Airways

For those who have been following me on Twitter and Facebook, you would have known that I was scheduled to fly back to the Philippines for a short emergency leave. I found out that Qatar Airways made several changes to the Philippine Flight schedules and dependent on the day your are leaving Qatar. For my flight yesterday (Tuesday), I got the 3 PM flight out of Doha.

Booking was made on the Qatar Airways website and check-in was done online. This was great as one doesn’t have to queue at the check-in counters but can already check-in the bags at the Fast Check-in counters. The difference? Since you’re already checked-in online, the crew doesn’t have to check you in, which may take a considerable time. And if you are the third or last in the queue, it would take you ages before you get your turn. With the online check-in, you can print your Boarding pass or even send it to your phone! If you can’t print it, just tell the crew and they’ll print it for you. Saves you a lot of hassles, trust me. Also, you can pick your seats when you book or check-in online.Qatar Airways have changed the planes to the newer 77W Boeing planes. For a detailed view of the 77W Seat Map, you can scoot to SeatGuru or click this link to to a direct link of the Seat Map.The seat configuration for business is 2-2-2 while for economy, it’s 3-3-3. Perfect if a family of 3 travels together.

I was pleasantly surprised that the airport was empty and not the usual almost-full capacity. It took me less than 10 minutes to go through Check-in and immigration. A first! At the Immigration counter, though my company sent me the Exit Visa and had it printed, there was no actual need to show it as the Permit should show up on their system.

We boarded early but in-flight entertainment got started only after take-off. The good thing about these new planes is you get your own Entertainment system and can pick any movie or TV show for you to keep you sane while waiting for touch down. Food was generally ok and loved the chocolate mousse for dessert. I wasn’t able to sleep so a couple of Friends episodes, Bruce Willis in Surrogates, Big Bang Theory with Kelly Cuoco and a love story in The Time Traveler’s Wife, we got an announcement that we  are an hour early of the expected arrival! The flight that takes a usual 9:15 hours became an 8 hour flight! By 4:15 A.M., I was already waiting for my luggage to come out of the carousel.

The flight was uneventful and wasn’t plagued with air pockets so that was good. It’s currently …wait, I’m not sure if it’s 1120 PM or 4:20AM. Honestly. I’m not sure if I already changed the time on the laptop and I don’t have a watch. Anyway, I don’t feel sleepy yet as my body rhythm is messed up. Hopefully, I’ll get adjusted tomorrow. I’ll also update you guys on why I’m back in the Philippines. Till then…