This discussion came about following my post above #692 which suggested that at one national long haul travel specialist in Bristol Qatar from CWL was not given as an option to passengers from Bristol booking to Australia who had no idea of the route's existence.
Whilst I fully take your point completely, part of my point was that it may have been far more lucrative for that agent to sell EY from LHR. They may have been fully aware of QR from CWL, just used poetic licence to avoid it. Of course all this information has come second hand and the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. If however BRS agents are deliberately not selling the QR CWL - DOH service (and beyond) then that stinks
 
Whilst I fully take your point completely, part of my point was that it may have been far more lucrative for that agent to sell EY from LHR. They may have been fully aware of QR from CWL, just used poetic licence to avoid it. Of course all this information has come second hand and the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. If however BRS agents are deliberately not selling the QR CWL - DOH service (and beyond) then that stinks

It was one of the branches of the Flight Centre in Bristol. As I'm sure you know, this is an Australian company with numerous branches in the UK, and other outlets around the world.

Other than being incentivised to sell seats from elsewhere I can't think why any travel agent would deliberately not sell seats from CWL with Qatar.

My wife and I travel to Oz each year to visit family there. This year we booked through the same Flight Centre branch ourselves. We found the staff extremely helpful and they found us an excellent deal - with Emirates from LHR. In previous years we used Trailfinders and their best deals were always with Emirates from Gatwick which we used half a dozen times. We discussed the Qatar service from CWL when at the Flight Centre and there was certainly no attempt to put us off. In the end timings and the overall deal (including internal flights and hotels) were the main reasons we opted for LHR.
 
Still sounds like no attempt was even made by F.C to suggest CWL as an alternative. Not everyone, whether in the industry or not, or even an enthusiast, knows every route but you would expect an agency of this standing to offer a little more. That said we don't know all the ins and outs of the whole conversation but something doesn't quite ring true in all of this - just not sure exactly where that lies. I do though wish QR success with this route and it is very much in its early days
 
I wouldn't be surprised if as a travel agent they have their prefered airlines and Etihad is one so they'll always look at them. I know other travel agents like Travel House, Regal Travel and Thomas Cook and Virgin Holidays are offering holidays using Qatar from CWL. Whether it's just their South Wales branches and their South West branches aren't offering CWL i don't know. A post on WAF does say that forward bookings are better than expected which is great and I'm sure CWL will continue to engage with the travel agents to get them to offer CWL packages.
 
This discussion came about following my post above #692 which suggested that at one national long haul travel specialist in Bristol Qatar from CWL was not given as an option to passengers from Bristol booking to Australia who had no idea of the route's existence.
While I admit a lot of people do still use travel agents, they aren't always the best option.
For example I was in an STA travel branch recently (in Birmingham) and they were completely unaware of many of Qatar's newer routes including Cardiff, as well as Phuket and Canberra, two rather large markets.
I normally find all my flights through Google flights, then separately, with cookies cleared, go to the airlines own website to book, occasionally I look on Skyscanner to see other options but 99% of the time it's google.
Doing it this way I have saved hundreds of £ on trips over the last few years, albeit this isn't always a feasible option for everyone.
 
My wife and I have been using Trailfinders and now Flight Centre for nearly ten years for our VFR trips to Australia - we go most years. We've found the savings that can be made are extremely significant - noticeably cheaper than booking online direct with an airline - especially if you are looking for a package as well.

The Bristol branch of Trailfinders and the particular Bristol branch of Flight Centre that we used offered a range of options each time, and Trailfinders invariably came up with Emirates for the best deal, usually from LGW although we used BHX once. We always assumed that they had access to better offers with Emirates than with any other airline. In recent times the offers have not been as good, hence we tried the Flight Centre this year and their offer to us was very satisfactory to put it mildly. It's with Emirates from LHR but we also discussed Emirates from LGW and BHX and Qatar from LHR, BHX and CWL and Etihad from LHR with the Flight Centre in some detail. In our case (unlike our grandson) the lowest price was not necessarily the best option for us.

In our experience, the staff at these long haul travel specialists have a first rate knowledge of the various options, unlike say in somewhere such as some of the TUI shops where in the past I've found I knew more about the local flight options than some of the staff.

Bristol is surrounded by airports: LHR, BHX and CWL being the three that offer ME flights so the choice is always wide. CWL wasn't mentioned to our grandson: neither was BHX for that matter; nor the hub at AMS via the local airport at BRS.

LHR, BHX and CWL are all relatively easy to reach from the Bristol area by private or public transport, so offering someone LHR instead of CWL or BHX is a perfectly reasonable suggestion if it's the best deal (in this case the best deal being the lowest fare on a major airline) and the customer is satisfied.

I would not have recommended the Flight Centre to my grandson if I thought he was going to be had over. Knowing the fare he paid he wasn’t.

I can see no evidence whatever that the Fight Centre is deliberately not offering the CWL Qatar option for West Country passengers. I can’t speak for Trailfinders because the CWL-DOH route was not in existence when I last used that agency but I would be extremely sceptical about their doing so. What would be the purpose?
 
According to the QR website, there are only 6 economy seats available for CWL-DOH on Mon 18th July. That's great to see 226 already booked on a flight with a few weeks remaining.

Also QR is up to 6x weekly for Mar - May as it stands with only no Mon flight available. It was initially released at 5x weekly with no Thu either although this is now bookable.
 
Just as a heads up following on from Liam’s post here ...

The QR service is doing well. Very well on some days, not so well on others. That’s the nature of the service, but on the whole it’s in line with, if not exceeding expectations.

Potentially some good news to come too in the coming Summer seasons (Don’t read into it too much yet) !
 
Both good news! As for Summer seasons i'm guessing you mean the next couple of years rather than just next summer?
 
Just as a heads up following on from Liam’s post here ...

The QR service is doing well. Very well on some days, not so well on others. That’s the nature of the service, but on the whole it’s in line with, if not exceeding expectations.

Potentially some good news to come too in the coming Summer seasons (Don’t read into it too much yet) !

Great to hear the update regarding Qatar.

Regarding the route news, I know that in one of the latest press releases it mentioned more promising developments to follow. Will look forward to seeing the press release.
 
Good news indeed.

I won’t speculate too much for obvious reasons but there is more to come guys - Apologies too for not posting on here so much these days, life has taken a hectic upturn for various reasons.

Will aim to provide updates as and when i can or just pop me a message.
 
I see the Tory Assembly Leader is questioning the assistance which has been given to Qatar Airlines. The Doha connection is a lifeline for Wales in terms of tourism and business, both of which should make your average Tory happy. It just seems RT Davies is yet again proving that he is nothing more than obstructive. Had this deal been concluded by a Tory led Assembly then it would not have been an issue.
 
I see the Tory Assembly Leader is questioning the assistance which has been given to Qatar Airlines. The Doha connection is a lifeline for Wales in terms of tourism and business, both of which should make your average Tory happy. It just seems RT Davies is yet again proving that he is nothing more than obstructive. Had this deal been concluded by a Tory led Assembly then it would not have been an issue.
:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL: Yet he's said in the past that the Welsh government should be giving the airport backing under private owners to attract routes like Qatar! Looks like he's changed his mind now they managed to pull in a 5 star airline.:ROFLMAO:
 
I see the Tory Assembly Leader is questioning the assistance which has been given to Qatar Airlines. The Doha connection is a lifeline for Wales in terms of tourism and business, both of which should make your average Tory happy. It just seems RT Davies is yet again proving that he is nothing more than obstructive. Had this deal been concluded by a Tory led Assembly then it would not have been an issue.

I do know Mr Davies, he lives in the next village over from the one I used too. Perhaps i'll ask him when i see him next haha!
 
Unfortunately no matter what the airport does it'll always be a political football.
 
The BBC put in a freedom of information request about the Welsh Governments marketing deal with Qatar. The request was denied on the premise that it was commercially sensitive. Both Andrew RT Davies and Rhun ap Iorweth want the details of the deal released so they can be assured that the deal Wales is getting is good.
The Welsh government has said that releasing it would likely create an expectation from other companies that they would be entitled to something similar and this bit is slightly interesting though it doesn't refer to airlines just companies
"The release of this information... would place into the public domain highly sensitive and current commercial information which is still being relied upon by the Welsh government in negotiating similar deals with other companies," it said.
"The economy of Wales is interlinked with the success of this deal and its significance and subsequent success cannot be underestimated in this regard."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44467495
 

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