Still in Doha...

It is Friday at noon, and I was supposed to be in Osaka now. Instead, I am still sitting in my flat overlooking West Bay in Doha.

I went to the airport last night to go to Dubai. Well, as it turns out, the flight was delayed at least 45 minutes. So, with Dubai being an hour ahead of Doha, I wouldn't arrive until at least 2 am. This means I wouldn't make my connection to Kansai.

So, thus far, I've lost a day of my holiday.

Emirates, bless them, takes care of their business class passengers pretty well. Probably before I had even gotten up to the counter, I had already been rebooked on the next flight to Kansai, which leaves tonight, so I was sure to have a seat. Also, a hotel had already been booked in Dubai on my behalf.

However, as at that point I was frustrated and it was getting late, I said please can I just go home and fly tomorrow afternoon? That way I can sleep in my own bed, get a good rest, and try it again tomorrow. It was no problem whatsoever. I'm flying the late afternoon flight now today.

It would have probably been at least 3.30 am in Dubai by the time I got taken to my hotel and gotten checked in, as I would have had to go through immigration (with visa formalities, as obviously I didn't have a visa for the Emirates-- although I'm guessing Emirates also has a Al Maha service like Qatar Airways, where they do it for you), get my bag, go through baggage screening again, and so on and so forth. With staying in Doha instead, I got back home by 10.15 pm, had a drink, watched the rest of a movie I had started, and also got a good night's rest. The only thing was I had to nip over to Carrefour this morning to get a small bit of food for brunch, since I had eaten everything in anticipation of being gone.

Emirates also, on my behalf, immediately contacted ANA and rebooked my domestic flight in Japan so I would have the same flight, but one day later. Emirates and ANA have no alliance affiliation, by the way. Now I can even see my ANA flight on my Emirates itinerary online.

The very helpful, but very stressed, Emirates employee (she was the only one behind the counter who worked directly for Emirates-- the rest are airport personnel who work the check-in counters) also took the contact information for my two hotels in Japan, as well as the rent-a-car company. She said a memo would be sent to the Emirates office in Japan, and someone there would phone the places and rebook my car and hotels on my behalf as soon as possible. It was almost 10 pm here (4 am there), so places there couldn't be contacted until business day started. Also, too, it was good of them to rearrange things for me-- while I can do okay in Japanese, the phone is more difficult. Also, as I'm not always the most fluent, having someone from the airline who can speak better than I can would make things go a lot more smoothly.

We shall see how the rest of the trip goes, but so far Emirates did everything they could to help me. Business class, although it does cost more, *does* come with a lot more services as needed. Had I been in Economy, I would have probably been put on my own, and been forced to cancel my trip as I couldn't get everything rearranged in time. The security and stress-free travel rearrangement this way, alone, is worth the extra money.