Doha International Airport Reviews 52

I swear my biggest regret is choosing this airline for the first time! I keep checking all the alternatives to reach my destination, but since my flight is on the 30th during peak Easter season, and this joke of an airline is leaving us until the last minute to offer a refund, all the other options have now tripled in price.

I can’t wait to get my refund and never book with this airline again. Kudos to Emirates for immediately offering refunds until the end of the month! This was definitely my first and last time flying with this airline.

This is an extremely incompetent airport that has not been able to run flights in the midst of this crisis to get stranded people out. Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports are clearly far ahead and more competent and worthy of people's money. I will never be coming to Doha or using this airport to transit again. What a total failure.

Their security staff is wired they have this secondary security checkpoint at the gate which is perfectly fine but then when the flight is delayed they don’t have any toilet or water dispenser inside plus even water bought at the airport is not allowed so option is to de-board your flight then board again but then again they do all kind of secondary check & more intensely as if we went outside the airport that’s just absolutely ridiculous! It’s like troubling the passengers for no reason that’s not good for future travel because then customers will try to get a different transfer airport which treats passengers like humans.

Thank you Aiswarya for the great service!

Hamad International Airport: A “World’s Best Airport” That Failed at the Basics

I am a frequent international traveler and have visited more than 50 countries. I rarely complain publicly. But my recent experience at Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha was so frustrating and absurd that it deserves to be shared.

This was my return trip from Europe. As I had never visited Doha before, I deliberately chose Qatar Airways Business Class with a 12-hour layover, hoping to experience what has been repeatedly marketed as the “World’s Best Airport.” I even booked a 4-hour Doha city tour, scheduled for airport pickup at 8:00 a.m.

My flight landed in Doha early in the morning at 6:40am. Allowing 1.5 hours to clear immigration at a major international hub seemed more than reasonable. After landing, I spent about 10 minutes freshening up.

That was when the nightmare began.

There were no clear signs for Immigration. I asked ground staff. One told me to follow Luggage Claim signs—except those signs were scarce, inconsistent, and confusing. I asked at least six different staff members, was sent upstairs, downstairs, and back again.

One staff member told me to follow another passenger he had just directed. While walking together, that passenger told me he had already spent 40 minutes trying to find baggage claim.

Let that sink in.

I have never experienced an international airport where passengers must constantly ask staff just to find Immigration. This is not a minor inconvenience—it is a fundamental failure of airport wayfinding.

When I finally reached Immigration, an officer noticed my Business Class boarding pass and told me to go to a separate Business Class clearance area, forcing me to run across the terminal yet again. By the time I exited the airport, my tour bus had already left.

I took a taxi to try to recover the situation, paid 32 Qatari Riyals, and was told to wait at Gate 4 at 9:25 a.m. While waiting, I emailed the airport’s customer service to file a formal complaint, explaining that poor signage and disorganized guidance caused me to miss the tour and incur extra costs, and I requested reimbursement.

What I received in return was not empathy, not accountability—but bureaucratic indifference.

The airport refused compensation and demanded that I provide personal photos taken after arrival and allow them to trace my movements via airport surveillance footage to “prove” why it took me an hour to exit the airport.

This response was shocking.

Passengers should not be treated as suspects. Demanding personal photos and surveillance tracking to deny responsibility reflects a deep lack of trust, customer respect, and basic human consideration. I refused—my privacy is not negotiable.

I am not a novice traveler. I have passed through countless major airports across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East. Only Doha left me completely stunned—in the worst possible way.

This airport may look impressive, but it is all surface and no substance:
• confusing and insufficient signage
• chaotic passenger flow
• indifferent frontline staff
• customer service hiding behind scripted, official language

How such an airport repeatedly wins “World’s Best Airport” awards is something travelers should seriously question.

This experience has ensured one thing: I will never choose to transit through Doha again.

Travelers deserve better than polished architecture and marketing slogans. We deserve clarity, efficiency, respect, and basic human-centered design—none of which I experienced at Hamad International Airport

Staff refused to let us board a connecting flight because they said we were intoxicated which was not the case. We had to stay over 12 hours for the next flight. No apology. Shocking Customer Service.

So confusing airport(and the security at the xray from transfere was so slow,you should thing they go backword)i was only one and still it took 5 min,more bussy talking about Africa or simlar(never i will use this airport again,if you can even call it that,

This is the most bland, boring, expensive and non-kid friendly airport on the main stage. You do not want a layover any longer than an hour here. It's a dry airport, so no bars, makes airport so lame, soulless and feels like your in the Truman show. NPCs everywhere.
All food and drink is absurdly priced, and no food courts have any high chairs for kids. Not one. There is so many airport ghouls (staff) standing around doing nothing. They outnumber people in transit. Very strange. Always ask for your boarding pass on every single purchase, whether a small bottle of water or fast food. Very weird and annoying. The playgrounds are sculptures and pretty crap for kids to play on, very boring. The speed at which the airport ghouls zip around on electric buggies is nuts, and there's do many ,mainly used by obese people not people with disabilities. Airport lounges are all over priced $75 UDd for basic one.

Transfer Desk staff were absolutely rude and aggressive to our family at the end they completely refused to assist us with accommodation

I lost my apple watch and unfortunately no one returned it, it was horrible experience, I loved your airport but not the honesty of people or staff, but ofcourse where we can find honest people nowadays? Hays! No one can beat japan they have camera and they will help you but customer service on your airport did not help nothing atleast checking cameras, the airport is nice not the people working, I can say lazy. So I will avoid qatar airways for now and will not recommend to friends and family the customer service is horrible.

Terrible service from woman at passport control. Me a 61 years old man to be treated like dirt from a much younger official. She clearly doesn't enjoy her role maybe she should have find another role.

Airport staff are generally very pleasant and helpful. Unfortunately, the officials are quite the opposite. They rarely bother to communicate, often chatting amongst themselves behind the counter without making eye contact. Questions are ignored the first time, and if you ask again, you’re met with a change in expression that feels dismissive. Their attitude comes across as rather arrogant, as though they’re above everyone. Overall, a disappointing experience with the officials, though the airport staff themselves were lovely and always smiling, even if they weren’t local.

Too many airport staffs than passengers, and the staffs occupy toilets that passengers need to use - there are only a few toilet cubicles. Additionally, the border officer ladies are super rude. Its a shame for those who wear hijabs/headscarves, these ladies have no patience and act like a child - rich countries, spoiled brats.

This by far is the nicest airport we've encountered. The amenities available are many from showers, sleep stations, high end shopping, premium jewelry and fine dining. It's clean and gives an air of luxury. Everyone is always friendly and services have never disappointed.

Coming from JFK, had yo take stair and bus to come inside terminal. Did not get a single sign for immigration or arrival direction anywhere. After asking one by one airport stuff, finally found immigration/arrival gate.
I travel many countries and found this one is the slowest, lazy people working at the immigration counter. Rather than serving people with long wait, they seems hanging out.

Clean fantastic very comfortable seats 💺 luxury looks and well disciplined staff Good Restaurants

Dear Qatar Duty Free Customer Service,

I am writing to formally raise a complaint regarding a defective Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra phone that I purchased from Qatar Duty Free on April 20 at 20:23.

Upon returning to Turkey and attempting to use the phone, I discovered that it repeatedly restarts and is unusable. I immediately contacted Samsung Turkey and was informed that due to the international purchase, I would need to return the device to the country of origin for service. They also confirmed that the issue is related to the motherboard.

I then contacted Qatar Duty Free via email, and based on your guidance, I sent my brother to Doha to handle the matter in person. This has cost us significantly, including airfare and four nights of hotel accommodation.

I also reached out to the Samsung authorized service center in Doha. They assured me they were ready to begin repairs as soon as the device was received. On May 19, my brother delivered the phone to your staff at Qatar Duty Free. He was informed that the device would be sent for repair on May 20.

However, as of today (May 21), the phone is still in your possession and has not yet been sent for repair. Despite repeated communication and informing you well in advance that my brother must return to Turkey in a few days, we are now being told that the process may take up to 20 days. This contradicts earlier assurances and causes unnecessary stress and hardship.

This issue has been ongoing for over a month now, and I feel that I am being treated unfairly despite being a paying customer.

I kindly and urgently request:

Immediate action to send the phone for repair today

Or provide a replacement or refund if repair is not possible before my brother’s departure

A formal response and explanation for the delay

If this matter is not resolved promptly, I will have no choice but to escalate it to the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,
[Şule Kılınç]
Phone: [telefon numaranız]
Order Date: April 20, 2025
Device: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

A weird airport. It looks modern and nice. But it’s run so bad. My job has me flying weekly around the world, nowhere is as backwards as here. Passport control has about 30 desks. But no more than 3 or 4 are open at a time, every time I’m queuing for up to an hour to get a passport stamp. Then there’ll be a queue at the bag scanning, it also has 30 desks, but usually only 2 are open. Then trying to leave, you can’t check in early, like back in the 90s, they’ll only let you check in 2 hours before a flight, even though the desk for your airline is open? Not being able to check in would be fine, if there was seats or cafes for customers, but no, there’s hardly any seats and just 1 very small, very poor, cafe. Inside there’s loads of great shops and cafes, surely letting people into departures would mean more money would be spent? I’ve not experienced that anywhere else in many, many, years. They also don’t just check you in, in most airports you just give them your passport. Not here, they want printed out tickets & booking references? Why? No where else still does that. These aren’t the airline people though, many of these desks are manned by airport staff, I can only presume the actual airlines hate that it’s all done so stupidly? This is only a few of the issues, nothing works logically, but these are the two things I find the oddest. So it’s a very nice looking, and laid out, airport. But insanely badly ran and organised. Has no one that runs and organises this airport travelled to other countries and seen how the rest of the world does it so much better?

Extremely rude and disrespectful staff with a terrible attitude towards visitors. The male immigration staff literally shout and direct people in an aggressive and unprofessional manner, making the overall experience to the country very unpleasant.

Went through 6 people checking my passport and flight ticket just to the gate area and I'm not on the plane yet where 2 or three more people will check my passport and ticket again. Is it possible that they have 6-7 people doing the same job over and over again? Is this union inefficiency? It's not about safety that they are so safe checking my passport but rather a great bottle neck of too many people doing the same job at the gate.