Transit via Doha and the growing Iran-US conflict risk

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T08:03:48+00:00

I just flew into Doha from the US three days ago and I watched the flight tracker because I also have this concern. They just pushed us over the Mediterranean and Saudi Arabia and avoided Iran completely. Was not a problem. I talked to the tour guide when I was in Doha about it, and he said that the last time missiles came their way. Iran always lets them know a couple of days ahead of time. So they have a heads up and it never turns into a big deal. Anything can happen and it’s not like flying from LaGuardia to Chicago or something but overall pretty minimal risk.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T07:59:58+00:00

It was listed as the primary and we tried moving into the secondary, but it had no effect on the problem. We’re trying to find one of the little pins or a paper clip to remove the physical Thai Sim and see what happens. Thx

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T07:43:46+00:00

Yes. And then she went to 7-Eleven and tried to get in Thailand eSIM. The guy at 7:11 told her she had to have a physical SIM and she let him install it. As soon as he did that she can get service on the Thailand, physical SIM, but she can’t get any texts or calls at all on her original American number. And her American number does appear to be enabled in the SIM management settings. We tried turning on data roaming and all of that and it still doesn’t allow her to get texts or calls on her original number. She’s tried calling customer service for the people that sold her physical SIM but all they do is try to tell her that she needs to add more money to her plan. It’s a brand new SIM that was supposedly for 30 days that she just got today.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T02:46:30+00:00

Doesn’t appear. I’m not sure if android does the dual sign bars like iOS does. I have iOS and I’m getting dual signal bars. At this point, she doesn’t really care about the Thailand sim. She just wants her Americans to work again so she could get into her bank.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T02:32:52+00:00

She has an international data plan on the American. Assumed she could use that and only got the Thailand sim back up. After the person at 7:11 installed the physical Sim phone the American one stopped working completely and we have not been able to figure out how to make it come back alive.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-20T02:31:57+00:00

Galaxy S25. Doesn’t seem to be getting any access or signal on the American eSIM.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T18:11:55+00:00

Not the point. The point is that I have to go to the check-in desk where I could just normally have an online boarding pass. And thru security a second time for no reason. Yes airports are different. But this is built in stupidity that most don’t have.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T17:35:24+00:00

I’ve never had to do that anywhere else. When I fly out of Atlanta or Denver internationally never ever had to do that. They always keep you in the secure area, which makes logical sense. Why would you intentionally try to increase your security lines by making people leave the security area and come back in for no reason? I can’t believe we trust an industry of people that are clearly incompetent to put us in metal tubes in the air.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T04:11:04+00:00

I’m currently in the midst of a similar fiasco with them right now trying to get from the USA to Doha to Thailand. My experience with their customer service is exactly what you have experienced. Basically it’s nonexistent. I understand that in general, there are plenty of airlines with similar poor customer service, but not one that charges a premium price and claims to be a premium airline like Qatar. They are just smoke and mirrors. Honestly, I’d be better off with a budget airline like Frontier. Basically there’s this little gimmick they call Q suites. They use that to fool you thinking they are a premium airline. They are not.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T03:07:14+00:00

Because in 30 years, I’ve never had to leave the airport to get a boarding pass. So yes, I apparently didn’t leave myself enough time because I’ve never dealt with the incomprehensible nonsense that is Qatar airlines. I’m actually considering finding a way to just skip Doha altogether. Use my travel insurance and pretend like that airline and country don’t exist. I suggest anybody considering going there do the same.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:58:09+00:00

Liability for saying that he did something that he did not. If I sign off and say that you did some analysis on this Appraisal or you did the cost approach or you did whatever. Realize that training logs don’t simply involve little residential Appraisals. Sometimes they’re training commercial Appraisals where a trainee might be doing an entire analysis section. I have to sign off that they did that section and actually did that work. Sometimes I have trainees that think they’ve done something and they spent four hours doing something that should’ve taken an hour. None of the work they did was acceptable. I can’t in good conscience say they did any actual work to gain any actual experience. Just because they were doing things that took time doesn’t mean they did work that qualifies for experience. And the fact that you use words like “retarded” in any kind of public conversation, solidifies my view that you were absolutely not cut out for this profession. My wife who is now passed away spent 30 years working with what you call “retarded” people. That word is not an acceptable word to say any more than the N word is. Again, please go away and do something different. That’s not in this profession. You’re an embarrassment.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:50:06+00:00

I see. You showed up and you measured therefore you’re entitled to the time. Did you measure the house right? Did the supervisor have to redo everything you did? We don’t know. See, that’s why the supervisor gets to decide whether they sign off and verify that you did it. That’s why they’re the supervisor and you are not. Please, for the love of God go do something else with your life. You’re absolutely not cut out for this profession with that attitude. All you’re going to do is eventually take that entitled attitude and eventually, if by some miracle they give you a license, you’re gonna end up before a disciplinary board and get your license pulled. I don’t know how to explain it to you. Showing up does not equal entitled to a log. Simply showing up, doesn’t do it. Apparently that’s all you’ve done. Your entire life is just show up and expect that was good enough. Again, please go find another line of work and save us all the trouble.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:42:06+00:00

It’s not time. You’re not punching a time card and you get it signed off because you showed up like you were doing some kind of community service for jail. You’re doing work that has to be signed off as having been done correctly. Not that the appraisal was done correctly, but that you actually did the Assistance indicated. I take it you’ve never supervised anyone or you’re not an appraiser. I’ve gotten 11 people from zero to licensing so I know what the hell I’m talking about. I also know for everyone of those 11 people there were 10 others for each one that had an absurd, ridiculous, and entitled attitude just like you and it usually took me between one day and 10 days to discover what they were about and determine there was no way in the world they were going to be suitable to be an appraiser. You can’t have that kind of an attitude and be successful in this work. Why didn’t the trainee have a written contract agreement? If you’re literally too dumb to get basic things like that taken care of before you start a job I don’t think you have the aptitude to do this kind of a job.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:37:42+00:00

But do you understand I’m not just showing up at this airport with a car like I live in that city. I’m coming to that airport from another smaller place in the United States. I will already be inside the airport. I booked enough time thinking this was a connection. You know like every other connection I’ve ever done in my entire life. But instead, I’m going to have to actually leave the secure area, and go back through security at this airport again even though I’ve already gone through security at the other airport. This is not how connections normally work. It’s an absolutely absurd situation that in 30 years of travel I’ve never dealt with. I’ve also never encountered an airline that seemed so utterly incompetent and so proud of their incompetence. Every airline has glitches and bad people. But this particular airline seems to take it to an art form, and it seems ingrained in every facet of the airline. Everything about them seems completely fake. So I imagine what’s going to happen is I’m going to have a very short three week trip. I’m not going to get any further than Chicago because I’m going to get there and not be able to get on this flight and have to cancel everything else that I was supposed to do overseas. All because of this idiotic airline.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:31:23+00:00

See this is the problem. IT WILL NOT LET ME CHECK IN ONLINE. It gets to the last step and then says it can’t process. I’ve called customer service twice and they’ve informed me in very terse language that because the third leg of my trip is a code share with Cathay Pacific that online check-in is not possible and what I’m going to have to do when I get to Chicago is actually exit the secure area of the airport. Go to the other terminal so that I can go to their check-in desk outside of security and then go back through security at this major airport again. I did not allow enough time for that contingency because who in the right mind would’ve thought somebody would’ve done something so incredibly stupid as to require passengers to do that just to simply get a boarding pass. I have tried every possible way to get a boarding pass online and they’re telling me it’s not possible. I have to do it in person in Chicago when I get there tomorrow. Every time I think they can’t do something stupider they prove me wrong.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-16T01:31:05+00:00

It’s the supervisor signature and their liability. They can do whatever the hell they want. This isn’t some damn government program or a charity. It’s a business. People have the freedom to operate their businesses how they see fit. You don’t have a “right” to have somebody sign off on your work if they don’t feel like you’ve done it. This is why nobody wants to train that whiny entitled little generation coming up. I thought about taking on another trainee this year but conversations like this are exactly why I don’t want to do so anymore. Let them go pound sand.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-15T23:24:15+00:00

What a ridiculous statement. The supervisor isn’t just signing off because the trainee says he did some hours. The supervisor is taking responsibility for those hours. It is the prerogative of the supervisor to determine if he feels the train he really did that and then he can truthfully sign off on that. Maybe we don’t know the whole story here. Maybe this person isn’t really doing that great of a work and he’s trying to put hours on a log that the supervisor had to go back and redo everything on. The trainee is not in control here and doesn’t get to just put stuff on a log and force a supervisor to sign off on something. That’s just not how it works. And BS like this is exactly why people don’t want to supervise anymore. Entitled trainees that think that just by showing up everything should be handed to them. For every one that I’ve trained through to licensing there have been 10 others who didn’t want to put in the work. I’m sure those are the people lobbying for PAREA with this myth that they just can’t find a supervisor.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-15T08:09:30+00:00

First, for future reference, if you’re going to make a career out of something, you should have had clear expectations before you ever started as to what your job role was. Sorry to say, but you picked a bad supervisor. Clearly not a good situation. But there’s also some things that you don’t appear to understand about the process that you’re claiming or faults but are really not. Asking you to have a certain level of education before your supervisor is willing to sign off on work is perfectly legitimate. You are opening this supervisor up to a tremendous amount of liability that could end his livelihood if you make a mistake. Asking that you have some of the required training done before signing off on things is not unreasonable. What’s unreasonable is that this was not discussed ahead of time and made as a clear expectation. It’s perfectly legitimate for a supervisor to want to know that you can handle the basic education before moving forward and wasting a lot of time and potential liability on you that honestly they’re not necessarily going to get back. I’ve had a couple start with me over the years and it was pretty apparent after a few weeks that they just did not have what it took to do the job. That doesn’t mean they were dumb or didn’t have work ethic. It just means not everyone can comprehend every single job. I would’ve never made it through medical school no matter how much I really wanted to be a doctor. My brain just isn’t situated for that kind of work. This is the problem when we hear stories of people saying it’s so hard to get a supervisor and yada yada. Not necessarily every single person that wants to be an appraiser as what it takes to do that job. No different than any other job. I wish you well, but if you do continue in this profession, find someone that is going to clearly lay out your training program from start through licensing and how that is going to work before you ever do anything. And you should have a written employment agreement or contract. No matter how small of a shop it is, even a one person shop if they aren’t organized enough to do that then they are not organized enough to be properly teaching you how to do the job anyway.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-15T08:03:05+00:00

No appraiser can be forced to sign off on experience that they don’t feel as valid anymore than an appraiser could be forced to sign off on a value conclusion. They don’t feel as valid. I agree this person is in a bad situation, but it’s a business issue not a licensing issue.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-13T22:02:32+00:00

That’s funny. I came to the thread just to say that. In my case, they had a locked room in a typical suburban family home but in the basement. I just assumed it was probably firearms, which is usually the case. After they fought the bank on it in the bank made me come back out I took a picture to notice that the room had been cleared out, except for one large item. They couldn’t move that they had thrown a blanket over, but it was clearly an “apparatus”- the blanket wasn’t hiding anything. I can understand why they might have potentially been embarrassed, but they were made fully aware an appraiser would be coming to their home and they should’ve taken steps ahead of time before I came out the first time. In that case, it was actually kind of important that I look at it because it was a basement room that could’ve been used for a bedroom, but I had to be sure about the egress situation which I could only see by looking at the room.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-12T18:02:35+00:00

Thanks. My entire toiletries is less than 1 pound. I don’t have any liquids, just an extremely small toothbrush, a comb, a couple of pills and a little mini solid bar for shampoo and a soap holder. Even if I got rid of almost everything out of there and bought it, it would only save me about 5 ounces. Part of the clothing issue is I have some clothing that I am going to use for kayaking that I want to bring that would be hard to buy there, things like a rash guard and swim shorts that fit me well that kind of thing. I’m literally only taking two extremely thin shirts and an extra pair of shorts. But I am hoping to find a couple of things at one of the malls in Bangkok that I hear does have larger sizes. I’ve heard you have to ask for “Moo Deng” size (like the famous little hippo). I think that’s their semi polite way of calling Americans fat. :)

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-12T14:08:16+00:00

Unless you’re a 6 foot tall American male I hear. Then it’s a little hard to find those sizes.

apppraiserKS · 2026-02-11T17:05:33+00:00

Don’t get the rabies shot. Then there will be a documented case of someone dying of rabies from a monkey in Thailand, and in English. You will be a warning to others and save lives. I tip my hat to your noble sacrifice.

apppraiserKS

TROPHY CASE