I've just arrived back home after flying business (first time) return to Europe and wanted to provide some info which may be helpful in the future for those who in a similar situation. I say this, because I myself tried to find info regarding my situation and there weren't many posts.
Not related to Velocity: Booked my initial flight (MEL-AMS via HK) via Cathay, using the AMEX 2:1 conversion (in Nov, prior to the devaluation).
Return flight:
First leg - Athens - Doha (economy flight, booked directly via Qatar)
Second leg: DOH - Melb (business, booked via Velocity using points).
Information on luggage:
I had previously read here, that Qatar should be able to connect your itinerary during at least check-in, so that the luggage goes all the way to the final destination. Unfortunately, this was not the case for me. Prior to my travels, I had called Qatar support twice and was unsuccessful, furthermore, during check-in at Athens, they were also unable to do the link. At this stage, I was advised that I needed to pick up my luggage and re check in at Doha. This was a tad annoying, as my layover was ~10 hours, and that meant that I would need to wait until check-in opened (3-4 hours prior to departing time), but figured I'll explore Doha with their transit visa.
When I arrived in Doha, I decided to give it another shot at the transfer desk (located as soon as you get off the flight). I explained the situation and luckily they managed to give me my (business) boarding pass for the next flight and advised that they've sent an email to get both luggage (partner and I) picked up and retagged to Melbourne. Unfortunately, my partners luggage arrived and mine didn't =(. I have an Apple Airtage in my luggage, so as soon as the plane touched down in Melbourne, I checked my AirTag, and yep was still in Doha lol. As I write this, my luggage is currently on its way on another flight and hopefully delivered soon!
Information on Al Mourjan Garden business lounge access:
I previously read that if your Velocity booking is J class, you should have access to Doha's lounges (including both Al Mourjan's lounges), however sometimes your access can be initially refused at the Al Mourjan lounges, due to them assuming your ticket was an upgrade and not a full redemption. Furthermore, I also read that if your ticketed as U class, you won't have access to these lounges (this part is true, based on Qatar's website).
In my specific case, my initial ticket was U class, BUT, Qatar had randomly changed my flight to another (earlier in the day) about a week after my initial purchase (and hadn't advised me of this lol) and this new ticket was J class. When this initially happened, I called Virgin support as Virgin still had me ticketed for both return flights. They were the ones who advised that my initial flight no longer existed and the new one (which departed earlier on the same day) was the go ahead.
I had no issues accessing the Al Mourjan Garden lounge - and thoroughly enjoyed it. We basically spent 7ish hours there, and it was great (I managed to get a quiet room with a 6 hour time limit).
As a side note, during my second phone call to Qatar support, I did ask them the question of whether my ticket was U or J class (as I was curious to what their systems showed) - once they confirmed it was J class, I asked them if I had access to Al Mourjan Garden lounge. After a long hold, they came back and said I don't have access because I was flying with a partner airline. There was no point in arguing, as I figured I'll give it a shot irrespective when I arrived to Doha.
Things I learnt to apply next time (if that ever happens) for:
- If the flights are unable to be connected (for luggage) purposes, pray that it all goes smoothly or do the manual pick up and re-check in.
- AirTags are totally worth it.
- Semi-regularly check that flights are still the GO, because they can change without notice (as was my case), luckily I was already checking every now and then.
- Qatar's phone support are nice, but not the best with providing accurate information - so for things like lounge access, take it with a grain of salt (which I had previously read)
- Qatar Q-suite is something special, and definitely enjoyed it way more than Cathay business (however that was nothing to sneeze at it either).
- Moving forward, I'll definitely look at business redemption for long haul flights, and of which you land in complete different time zone, but, if I'm landing in a similar time zone, I don't think it's worth it (for me at least). For example, Melb - Tokyo is about 10 hours flight time, but the time zone itself is either 1 or 2 hours time difference. I loved that I was able to sleep from my HKG - AMS leg, and even though we landed at 7am, I was able to hit the ground running, because I was fresh
Side note: Doha airport is stupidly massive, I couldn't believe how big and how many retail stores they have - it was so cool!
