(This is a trip report about flying business class, using 135,000 AA miles and paying $43, on Qatar Airlines. We stayed at the St. Regis, using the Citi fourth night free benefit)!

I flew to see my youngest son, who is working in Doha on a contract. Between my husband and myself, we had quite a few American Airlines miles and I knew they were soon to be devalued (they have been since) AND I wanted to try the Citi Prestige card fourth night free benefit.

When I arrived, I went to a dedicated arrivals area, with an arrivals lounge, a lovely restroom, and I was the ONLY person there! Here are some photos of the flight and arrivals lounge.

The St. Regis upgraded us to a one bedroom, 1/2 bath John Jacob Astor suite, 1,000 sq ft, which was selling for $547 (of course I didn’t pay anywhere near that, AND I got one night free). Here are some photos of our suite and the nightly delivery of chocolate (roses one night and a fancy ink pen another night)! They really treated us well!

 

That night we ate at the hotel, a Gordan Ramsey restaurant…Doha has the BEST restaurants in all the fancy hotels, but more on that later! I got up to see the sunrise almost every day and here are some pictures around the property early in the morning, the last one being our view.

We went to the souk for some quick shopping and breakfast, which was about $7 each, with fresh squeezed juice and more than we could eat!

 

Next we ventured out of town to see Sheikh Faisal Al Thani’s museum, about 45 minutes out of Doha. These are items that Sheikh Faisal has collected over the years and we were amazed at how HUGE it was. The displays are rather basic, but the collection of stuff is simply unbelievable!

The last of these photos are the Kempinski Hotel, where we ate that night at Tora Tora.

Next post, more on Doha…