Crazy price for Brits in Doha

[Silverlocks]

So, I just came back from Indonesia yesterday and flew through Doha.  For those of you familiar with the airport in Doha there's a concourse next to the food courts that has a giant teddy bear installation in the middle of it.  Just off that concourse is a jeweller, and when I went through it they had some bullion on display - PAMP bars of various sizes and some coins: Brits, Sovereigns, Eagles, Maples, Krugs and suchlike.

As I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight to Gatwick, I asked them how much the Brits were - £1,888 per 1 oz coin.  I'm not sure if they were just taking the piss or whether they had done the conversion from USD wrong way.  Anyway I said I could get them cheaper in London and politely excused myself.

Thoughts?

P.S.  Is it just me or is the food in Doha terribad even by airport food standards?

Edited September 20, 2022 by Silverlocks

[Happypanda88]

You could have asked them for the price in USD and do the conversion into GBP yourself and compare. I suspect the sales person quoted you the wrong price.

I normally fly direct from London to the Far East.  Though I seem to remember stopping at Doha a couple of times many years ago when connecting flights were much cheaper than direct flights.  It was a good money saving option when travelling in the family group. 

I can't really comment on the food at Doha airport, but the price of food in general are more expensive in airports wherever you go. Which is why you should ask for extra portions on the flight if you're still hungry !  😁

[Silverlocks]

2 hours ago, Happypanda88 said:

You could have asked them for the price in USD and do the conversion into GBP yourself and compare. I suspect the sales person quoted you the wrong price.

I normally fly direct from London to the Far East.  Though I seem to remember stopping at Doha a couple of times many years ago when connecting flights were much cheaper than direct flights.  It was a good money saving option when travelling in the family group. 

I can't really comment on the food at Doha airport, but the price of food in general are more expensive in airports wherever you go. Which is why you should ask for extra portions on the flight if you're still hungry !  😁

It would be nice to be able to get direct flights to Jakarta - I can get direct flights to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur but the middle eastern airlines seem to be the most painless approach as it keeps the individual legs relatively painless.  Garuda used to do a direct London-Jakarta flight but don't anymore.

Maybe next time I fly I'll dig a little deeper.  If one can get gold duty-free at a reasonable price it might be worth getting gold bars to take to Indonesia.  At the moment the domestic supplier gets rogered for 11% VAT on gold.  

[LawrenceChard]

8 hours ago, Silverlocks said:

So, I just came back from Indonesia yesterday and flew through Doha.  For those of you familiar with the airport in Doha there's a concourse next to the food courts that has a giant teddy bear installation in the middle of it.  Just off that concourse is a jeweller, and when I went through it they had some bullion on display - PAMP bars of various sizes and some coins: Brits, Sovereigns, Eagles, Maples, Krugs and suchlike.

As I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight to Gatwick, I asked them how much the Brits were - £1,888 per 1 oz coin.  I'm not sure if they were just taking the piss or whether they had done the conversion from USD wrong way.  Anyway I said I could get them cheaper in London and politely excused myself.

Thoughts?

P.S.  Is it just me or is the food in Doha terribad even by airport food standards?

£1,888 per 1 oz coin is very steep for silver Britannias, but I guess you were meaning gold ones, or possibly platinum.

You really need to change your name from Silverlocks to Goldilocks as I previously suggested.

I'm not surprised.

Most airports charge an arm and a leg for anything and everything, including trading concessions.

Yet travellers seem to think everything will be cheap at airports, probably because "duty free" has created an illusion of bargain prices at ports, airports, and on ships and planes. 

Similarly, for many years, there has been the belief that gold is cheap in Dubai, and a few other places in the middle east. This probably arose because a lot of high carat, typically 22ct, gold jewellery were sold in gold souks. Much of this was probably of Indian manufacture, which usually has a low about cost, but with fairly basic styling.

Many of the fake sovereigns, and quintuple sovereigns, we see have probably been through Dubai at some stage in their history. They can be "cheap" because they are fakes, and some are only 21ct gold. In most cases, genuine sovereigns could be bought in the UK at lower prices than in Dubai.

When there is an almost captive market of gullible tourists (Gullibles Travels?), is it surprising that some traders will take advantage of this naivety?

Airports are generally renowned for their fine cuisine, although there may be exceptions such as Geneva.

😎

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, Silverlocks said:

It would be nice to be able to get direct flights to Jakarta - I can get direct flights to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur but the middle eastern airlines seem to be the most painless approach as it keeps the individual legs relatively painless.  Garuda used to do a direct London-Jakarta flight but don't anymore.

Maybe next time I fly I'll dig a little deeper.  If one can get gold duty-free at a reasonable price it might be worth getting gold bars to take to Indonesia.  At the moment the domestic supplier gets rogered for 11% VAT on gold.  

Old joke:

"My wife went to Indonesia"

"Really, Jakarta?"

"No, she flew"

😎

[Silverlocks]

I think this site really needs a dad-joke emoji.

[Stuntman]

On the same joking subject:

My wife just came back from a holiday in the Caribbean.

Jamaica?

No, she went of her own accord.

 

My wife just came back from a holiday in Malawi.

Lilongwe?
No, not far at all actually.  Terrible stutter you've got there.

[Silverlocks]

 

4 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

£1,888 per 1 oz coin is very steep for silver Britannias, but I guess you were meaning gold ones, or possibly platinum.

You really need to change your name from Silverlocks to Goldilocks as I previously suggested.

At a guess, they probably screwed up the F/X rate calculation.  If you go the other way you get to something about the spot price for gold.  It was about 1am local time, so I dare say they didn't have the A team on duty.

 

[LawrenceChard]

15 minutes ago, Silverlocks said:

At a guess, they probably screwed up the F/X rate calculation.  If you go the other way you get to something about the spot price for gold.  It was about 1am local time, so I dare say they didn't have the A team on duty.

 

"At a guess, they probably screwed up the F/X rate calculation."

As opposed to screwing the tourists?

😎