An objective describtion of Doha & QA

[Norwegian]

Is there anyone that can in a objective manner describe the reality of living in Doha, and working for Qatar Airways.
I am not solo but have also a family of 3 kids, and a wife. The kids needs schools.
How is safety, living accom. prices etc./ the expat community
and generally life in Quatar.

I appreciate any advice,

Merry X-mas fm Norway.

[PPRuNe Towers]

If you haven't already done so you'll find our search engine reveals many attempts to dispassionately answer your queries.

Regards
Rob

[Norwegian]

I have seen the threads, but it is hard to belive that its all bad. Are there no xpats flying for QA that can say anything about how they manage to work there. Surely they must also have families that are with them.

By looking into the QA homepage it doesnt look at all that bad.
Er det noen fra Norge som flyr der idag??

Looking for more, still.

regards Norwegian

[nautique]

Stop trying to kid yourself. Believe every word 'cos it's all true.

You should only consider going to QR as an absolute last resort. You will be denegrated, treated with no respect and lose all quality of life. The only upside for moving from the Scandic countries would be the warmth. And that's not enough!

[Hajj Man]

Norwegian,

This subject has been discussed and re-discussed, over and over again.

You need to read the reply that I have given on many post and see for yourself.

Let’s start again:


"I am not solo but have also a family of 3 kids, and a wife. "

This might be good for you. I have many friends here and you will find that the single guys or the guys that have their families in another country have a harder time than those with families here.
You make a place what it is. Your choice on the life.


"The kids needs schools. "

I got to tell you the schools seem to be good here and there are not much complaining in that area at all. Not sure of the prices but Qatar will re-enburse you for 75% of Childs tuition between ages of 4 to 18, I think.............



"How is safety"

Living safety, seems to be good as far as crime goes. An Example would be, You can pull up to the local Shwarma shop and leave your car running with the windows open and it will still be there when you come outside 10 mins later.

Driving on the roads is a completely different story when it comes to safety.................. These people have no idea how to use a round-about, general driving skills are NIL, speeding is a must for the youth in Qatar, Road death I have heard account for 45% of deaths in the country (not sure of this one, rumor) and you will pass at least 2 to 3 car accidents on a 10 minute drive to and from work. If you think I am fabricating these stories just wait to hear from the next guy that agrees with me on this post reply.



"Living accom. prices etc."

You will have to get a villa or larger apt for your family and this will cost you $$$ of which the price of housing keeps going up and Qatar Airways allowances for housing does not cover the cost of a decent living. You will then have to dip into your salary to substitute the housing allowance as it is not enough to cover price of living these days.

Qatar Airways are very QUICK to reduce your overnight meal allowances every 3 months with the "SO CALLED" price of the fluctuating US$ but during the last few months when the dollar has dropped against the Euro, well, so has the amount of money you get for meal allowance at many night stops. The amount of $$ you get does not seem to make any sense as to the rising Euro.

Let’s try to tell them the price of living and housing is increasing at a hell of a rate and see what will happen????........ It falls on deaf ears. In other words, "We Will Decrease Allowances for Night Stops every 3 Months, but we don't want to talk about Housing allowances.



"The expat community"

Many expats are here in Doha from all cultures and countries. You can choose your life style and the group you want to associate with. Your best bet would be to go to your Embassy and let them guide you towards the different women groups for your wife, kids activities for your kids, ages ????? and there is also a book that comes out every 3 months or so called the "MARHABA" ( you can find in the hotels) it has in it, General information and useful telephone numbers, what to see, what to do, what's going on in Doha, Hospitality round ups, where to eat, Banking, shopping areas, sports in Doha, Education schools and all the web addresses for them, a map of Doha, The Banks in Doha and lots of helpful information on Qatar and Doha.



"generally life in Quatar."

Well first of all it is spelt QATAR, but who am I to correct you on spelling?....

A Place is what you make it. and I can say that the country and Airline have a long way to go. Baby footsteps are being taken and it seems that sometimes when you go to work that the headway you made in the last month has been all thrown down the tubes by some of the things you face at work.
You will get to work and find one day your mail box has been moved to a completely different place and "NO PRE WARNING LETTER" was given to you by your immediate boss. Then you will come to work and find out "YOU CANNOT PARK." because they have moved portable buildings into the parking lot and not given you any prior notice so you could of arranged for your wife to drop you to work due to the REDUCTION in car spots for parking.

The comunication gap is a HUGE between employer and employee and it seems that the process of trying to get a simple day to day task completed will take all day to do. I am talking about every thing you go to do in Qatar Airways and Qatar ( electic,telephone,buying a car, getting a driving licence,opening an account in the bank) will require a letter from the HR department and or a signature from some one who is either at lunch, praying, on vacation or left the office for the day already. Nothing is simple here and NOTHING is done to try to make or put a system in place that will simplify the matter. every time you want to buy a ticket for your family for example you need to fill in a form, get it stamped, then take it to another office where it will sit for three days on a desk and then you will return three days later and wait in a line of 20 people to then go up and have the form pulled out of the file and your ticket for your family will be processed while you sit and wait and you can only pay cash for it. Your wait might vary depending on the amount of inner-office staff that come up to the desk and tell the person getting the ticket for you that they need to get some tickets written for new joiners coming to Qatar Airways. You will also fill in a form in the HR department for everything. You will fill in a form to apply for a form to get a visa. The paperwork generated at Qatar Airways is making some printing company very happy.

Don't come here and think you will be able to get things done in a hurry, WILL NOT HAPPEN............

Other than all of that. It’s nice but if you join as a first officer you will not see upgrade for a long time and no telling when that will change. They have MANY MANY F/Os here that are very qualified but there is nothing planned for them to upgrade. They tell them 3 years to upgrade, why?, when they hire direct captains ( they know nothing about some of them) do they put this 3 year restriction on Qualified guys who have been loyal to Qatar some of them for more than 3 years already and still have no upgrade.??? They still walk around with 2 stripes on there jacket. I know airlines that have cabin crew with more stripes than that.

If you join as a cabin crew, those guys/gals have lots of stories about treatment issues, please check previous post about Qatar. I don't want to get into all those issues.

Good Luck.

HM

:ok:

[4HolerPoler]

Thanks Hajj Man - I was hoping we could rely on your level-headed response once again.

:ok:

4HP

[4play]

Norwegian.

How about you go work for the freaks awhile then come back here so we can say... told you so! :} :} :}

[Norwegian]

Thanks alot Hajii man, I will take all of this into consideration.
And surely Quatar is spelled qatar, but looks to me its a minor detail in this picture. Sounds to me that the experience You have is beeing a white slave, id rather be king of Norway.

For anyone else wanting to say"We told You" dont think You will have the pleasure.

Thanks for the help. Really!;)

[AVIACO]

Hajj Man, would you like to have a job presenting the news on the BBC? Once again, another extremely eloquent and formidable response.

[housewife]

Norwegian,

As Im reading your question and see, you are married and have 3kids. As a QR wife Im asking you to think twice before bringing your family here.
You ll be busy flying, but they ll be stucked in country were the greatest thing you can do is go to city center and drink a koffie or make some sports.

But if u decide to come Ill wish you good luck!

[ruby tuesday]

The other thing to remember with family is that they play very little part of life at QR. QR conveniently forget you have a life outside of the airline and any preference you give to your personal life against that of QR is seriously frowned upon.
The mentality tends to be that you work for QR and your family should be in another country so that you can become one of the slaves without them to stop you (or reason with you).

[oryxbollocks]

Once again Hajj Man is spot on the money.

However, he has missed one important point. That is, that at this particular time, Qatar Airways is NOT a career airline. You must take this into consideration when thinking of moving here, particularly if you have a career with your present employer.

QR provides no pension or retirement fund.

QR provides no suitable sick leave. 14 days on full pay and 14 days on half pay, then nothing. And this sick leave is NON cumulative!

There is no provision for compassionate leave unless there's a dead body involved! Meaning your nearest and dearest has to die before they'll allow you the two days leave you're entitled to. Two days to get to South America, comfort your relatives, arrange formalities, etc.? Forget it!

These things could be fixed with the stroke of a pen of course but none of us here are holding our breath.

If you can dismiss all of the above as not applicable to your situation, then I have one final word of advice.

Don't come here as a first officer! You will be in the right seat in excess of 3 years, as promotion comes 3 years after initial check out and that can take months. Additionally, the 'promotion board' only sits twice a year (don't ask, I have no idea why) and that can add to your time on the right. All this time you will be watching unknown direct entry captains trying their hands at the route structure, airplane and company you know so well.

GB