Oneworld Flyers Rejoice As Qatar Confirms Dublin

Qatar Airways have announced they are going to fly to Dublin on a daily basis from 12 June 2017. There are many people in Ireland who hold oneworld alliance frequent flyer cards, usually as members of the British Airways Executive Club. This news is a pretty big deal as it opens up options that were unavailable previously.

Qatar’s Dublin Schedule

Daily flights will operate between Doha and Dublin and the schedule is below.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (From 12 Jun 2017)
Doha (DOH) to Dublin (DUB) QR19 departs: 01:25 arrives: 07:25
Dublin (DUB) to Doha (DOH) to QR20 departs: 08:50 arrives: 18:05

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday (From 13 Jun 2017)
Doha (DOH) to Dublin (DUB) QR17 departs: 07:20 arrives: 13:20
Dublin (DUB) to Doha (DOH) QR18 departs: 15:25 arrives 00:40+1

Flights will be served on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which features Qatar’s newest cabin product. What does this new service mean for the Irish frequent flyer?

One Stop to Australia and New Zealand

Emirates and Etihad current fly from Dublin to Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively and many people choose these carriers for flights down under. Each carrier serves a number of cities making their one stop services very attractive. Neither carrier is a member of an alliance so a oneworld passenger based in Ireland has no way of earning with their chosen programme.

This will change when Qatar begin flights to Dublin. The airline serves Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide in Australia and services to the capital Canberra have been announced. New Zealand is also served from February when Qatar open flights to Auckland which will be the longest flight in the world.

Overall Thoughts

There is a lot of travel between Ireland and Australia as many young people take a year or two out to go on a working holiday to Australia. Irish family ties are quite strong so family members go out to Australia to visit or people fly back to attend weddings and other family events. People heading to Australia and New Zealand will no longer have to endure two stops in order to earn frequent flyer points in a oneworld programme. It will be interesting to see if all three Middle East carriers survive on the route, but I have high hopes that Qatar will! Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.