When we arrive we say goodbye to each other and I drag my luggage for check-in. There it's as always weighed, my passport and my ticket checked and suddenly I'm looked at by officials. I am frightened and think what does he want from me now?
"Sir, you have excess weight. Take this ticket and go to the desk around the corner to pay the fine and then come back."
Crap! This is expensive. So I go around the corner as I was ordered and give the ticket to a man.
"That makes 480 Riyal" says the man after having looked at the ticket and typed something into his computer.
"Really, so much? How many kilos are we talking about?"
"Seven."
Heck, it's the shit textbooks!" Can I remove something from my suitcase to make it easier?"
"No, it's too late!"
"Your tossers!"
"Ha?"
"Nothing. Can I pay by card? "
"No. But over there is an ATM."
"Shit!"
So I stroll to the ATM and withdraw 500 Rial. I pay the fine, get a stamp on the piece of paper and return to the first desk. There I hand in the ticket and receive a boarding card. I look at the boarding card and realise that a) I have only one instead of two and b) Doha is standing on it. What about the connecting flight? I ask for a second boarding card and get the answer that I will get it in Doha. Hmm ... there's something wrong. I do not like this.
I go through a few checks and half an hour later I'm sitting in an almost empty plane. An uneasy feeling accompanies me all the time and tells me that today I will not arrive in Athens. At the same time bothers me that I had to pay for excess weight almost 100 Pounds. My feeling tells me that the tossers will pay for it.
The flight is comfortable and because we are very few passengers, the service is impeccable. We arrive in Doha with a 15 minutes delay. I speed to the gate to Athens. There awaits me an endlessly long queue. Crap! I go on over to the Steward and explain to him my situation with the one boarding card. He tells me to queue up and then go to the lady farther back. She will help me. When it's my turn I go to the said lady. She looks at my passport and my ticket, types something into her computer, shakes his head and says: "Unfortunately there is a problem. Take your passport and ticket and go over there to the helpdesk. "
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Go to the help desk, where you will be helped."
Superb! Not even a response you get.
When I arrive at the help desk I see that there are only three desks and all of them are pretty busy. I turn my head and see three more desks where almost nothing is going on. At the first one there are five people, at the other just two people are being served. I line up behind those two and wait. As they are still not done after five minutes, I go to the front, throw my passport and ticket on the desk's surface and say: "My plane to Athens is leaving in 45 minutes. Will I be on it or not? And if not, why?"
The lady looks at me, takes my documents, types something in her computer and tells me the plane is overbooked and I'll stay here today because there is no other flight until tomorrow morning.
Superb! I imagine as Tom Hanks stranded at the airport.
"Wait a little and I will help you further."
Ten or so minutes later she's done with the two people and devotes her full attention to me. She types something, looks at me and says: "We are sorry sir, but do not worry because the policy of Qatar Air foresees a compensation in such cases."
And suddenly disappear all the storm clouds, the sun comes out, birds begin to sing and a big smile appears slowly on my face while I hear what the lady tells me.
"You are entitled to a free night stay with dinner and breakfast and free transfer. Additionally, you can choose whether you want to have a check over $250 or would you prefer to upgrade to Business Class. The check you can exchange anywhere in the world within a year. Until we have found you a hotel room, you can sit in the Business Lounge and we will come and pick you up when we're done."
I am totally perplexed about the splendid news and consider briefly: The dollar is currently very weak against the Pound and Euro. Who knows whether there are exchange fees and how much they are. If the plane was overbooked today, then the one tomorrow morning is likely to be full as well. Five hours cooped up in the economy class? No, I prefer Business class.
The lady gives me a ticket for the lounge and shows me the way. As I arrive at the lounge, I get an odd look, because I appear in jeans, grey GEOX sneaker and a burgundy-colored hooded sweatshirt from the University of Hull. When I show my ticket for the lounge, the gentlemen are at once extremely friendly. Clothes make the man, isn't it? That's right. Inside, it is like the land of plenty. There is food and drinks and everything is for free. I go through the buffet and eat a little bit of everything and then go over to the sofas and chairs with tables in front and make myself comfortable. I take out my laptop and immerse myself in my e-mails. There are no annoying announcements, so you can easily lose track of time in this peculiar relaxing atmosphere and thus miss your plane. Eventually the lady from the help desk comes and asks me to follow her. I obey and follow her. When we arrive at the help desk, she hands me a ticket for the hotel, the boarding pass for tomorrow morning and tells me how everything will proceed. Since I need my luggage, she phones around a bit and organises it for me. Then she takes me into a hall where already a few other stranded wait and leaves. A few minutes later, a bus comes and picks us up and brings us all to the other side of the airport. There I walk through some check points and straight into an office to clarify that with my luggage. There, I am told that the luggage will be taken to the hotel in the afternoon. Then I go through another check point. In the hall behind it are representatives of many hotels. I go to my representative and show them my ticket. The man says I should wait until a) he organises a taxi and b) a few other passengers come. As I stand in the middle of the hall I notice that the women here are wearing an abaya and a headscarf but have no veil over their face. Fascinating and needs getting used to. Even their abayas come in many colours and are not black only as in Saudi.
Finally, the man comes back and brings a few people with him. Then we walk across the street to a taxi that drives us to the hotel. After five minutes we are there. We get out and go to the reception desk. The hotel is a modern glass palace in an office and hotel area. I feel slightly disappointed. At the reception, an employee is waved and leads me to my room. We go with the elevator to the 12th floor. The man unlocks the door for me and leaves. I step in, and my eyes widen in surprise. Why? Have a look at the photos below! To the right of the entrance there is a toilet. Before me stretches a long and wide space. It contains: A table with mirror. A bar with coffee maker and kettle. A flat screen TV. A living room set. A dining table. Where is the bed? In the other room. I walk into the other room and discover a very large bedroom with a large bathroom, sofa with stunning views. The wardrobes are located along a small corridor. Wow! Thank you Qatar Air!
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My suite
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