Qatar Airways and floods in Thailand
 

I have a flight to Bangkok on Qatar Airways in 2 weeks and I was wondering if Qatar was allowing people to change their flights given the current situation in Thailand. I was planning on flying into Bangkok in early November, travelling throughout Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and then coming back to Bangkok for a few days in early December before flying home. With the flood threats in Bangkok for the next few days/weeks, I was thinking of flying into Kuala Lumpur or Singapore instead and leave Bangkok for the end of my trip since hopefully things will be better in December.

Anyway any advice would be greatly appreciated. I wouldn't worry that much normally but I'm taking my parents with me for their first trip to Asia and I'd like things to go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks!

Was in a situation similar to this with the Iceland Volcano

and civil unrest in Ecuador.. Carriers usually do allow

changes at no charge usually Qatar is ver good might contact

them directly. Insuremytrip.com comp travel insurance prior

to departure has saved me thousands...

Usually costs me $1-2/da Patriot or Amex global travel shield.

Good luck!

On the flip side some inferior carriers will trigger the

"Act of God" Clause and deny changes or charge big change fee

So I would first bind some good travel insurance if not done

already just to be safe. Happy Travels!

Have you called them?

Qatar have codeshares with Malaysian Airlines so you might be able to change to go through their hub in KL. They were great.

I called them and right now they don't consider the situation in Bangkok to be that serious. If I want to change my ticket, I would have to pay the changing fee + the price different (which is insanely expensive). My travel insurance wouldn't refund me either since the government of Canada hasn't issued any serious travel warnings for Thailand. Anyway, the flooding would be seen as an act of God so it wouldn't be guaranteed that they would refund me. Hmm I guess it's still too early to make a decision anyway. I'll wait until next week to see what happens.

Unfortunately, an airline is going to look at it entirely in terms of whether or not its flights can get in and out. So far, that answer is yes. From what I read, the airport has not been affected. They're not going to care what difficulties their passengers face once on the ground. I think that's what you're up against here. :(

There was some confusion about Thailand's main airport closing, which it has not, only the old, smaller, "second" airport, Don Muang. Please note:

BANGKOK’S SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT OPEN AND OPERATING NORMALLY, DON MUEANG AIRPORT CLOSED
Issued at Bangkok at 19:30 (GMT+7) on 26 October 2011

Bangkok is served by two airports. Suvarnabhumi Airport, the main gateway to Thailand with 120 international and domestic airlines, remains open. It is operating normally and handling around 76 flights per hour including all scheduled international arrivals and departures.

Suvarnabhumi Airport is also the main connector for international visitor arrivals to transfer to and from domestic flights serving tourist destinations throughout Thailand such as Phuket, Chiang Mai and Surat Thani. All domestic flights are also operating as per usual.

Don Mueang Airport, the old international airport located about 30 km northeast of Suvarnabhumi Airport, is closed until November 1 st due to flooding . The two domestic airlines operating from Don Mueang, which are Nok Air and Orient Thai Airlines, have temporarily switched their operations to Suvarnabhumi Airport .

And see www.thailandtourismupdate.com for more news and the latest updates.