I hope this war ends before Oct / Nov this year.
Had an "interesting" e-mail from Qatar Airways today ...
"Important: Your flight has been cancelled".

Turns out, one leg of the return journey was cancelled by a code-share airline. Lisbon to Madrid run by Iberian airlines under the Qatar banner.
So ... tried to find an alternative online. No luck. All roads led to "Please contact us" at Qatar Airways.
OK ... tried the phone to the Sydney office. Three times, the number failed to connect. Finally got in the call queue but the call-back function failed to work, had to stay on the line. An hour or so later ... gave up.
Tried the online chat on the PC. No luck. Just not working at all.

Tried calling back on the phone a while later ... same story, in the queue again ... another hour later no progress. Gave up.
Last resort ... tried the chat in the Qatar mobile app.
Posted my query for an alternative flight ... waited waited .... no response for ages.
Looked at the app some time after, they had replied asking how can they help?, but the app didn't send an alert, so I didn't respond in time. They closed the chat.

Tried again.
Same story ... took ages to reply and I missed it again!

O.K. Third time lucky ... finally got the chat session in sync - explained that one leg of the homeward trip had been cancelled today, but I saw on the Iberian airlines site that a different flight number, different aircraft but
same date and time flight was showing up. Can you get us on that flight instead?
Nope.Huh?

What if I book direct with Iberia? Can you refund me just that leg of the journey?
Nope. We cannot refund part of the journey, we can only cancel and refund the entire return trip.

O.K. Are there any other options?
Yes, there is a flight on the following day direct from Lisbon to Doha.
Ah! That sounds like a handy alternative.
So, bypass Madrid completely?
Yes.
Good, I would like to accept that change.
From then on, all was smooth as silk, got the new e-tickets with the new flights within a couple of minutes.

Only problem now is: I need to extend our hotel booking in Lisbon by one more day. (We were going to spend 2 days in Lisbon, now need to make it 3)
Sheesh, it was a stressful few hours.
Also, we get back one day after the Victorian State election .... I'm not sure if we can postal vote a month in advance ...
Too bad.
I was going to vote One Nation just for a laugh anyway!

I really hope this holiday goes ahead.
Come on Trump ... give us a break!