I wish I had not posted two reviews on Feb 11th when the new reviews list was not working!
I wish I had not posted two reviews on Feb 11th when the new reviews list was not working!
Member since:27.06.2008
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In recent years I have twice opted to start my holiday with Qatar Airways flights. The first time was a few years ago when I travelled to Nepal and much more recently I visited Tanzania. A few years of regular business travel has left me with the expensive affliction of being unable to tolerate economy class for much over four hours and so the reason I chose Qatar on both occasions was because the business class fares were the most affordable. Indeed I have noticed that Qatar is often very competitively priced in this class, which is slightly surprising considering they are one of a very small number of five star airlines. Most of my observations will be about business class and my most recent trip, although I do recall enough about the earlier to trip to conclude the experiences were fairly consistent.
Pre flight
My recent flights were from Heathrow T3, I arrived far too early as usual and had to wait landside for about an hour for check in to open. I had not factored this into my timings as I have travelled with BA a lot lately and become accustomed to the desks being open more or less round the clock. As there are not many Qatar flights in a day there is understandably no need to man a desk the whole time. When we finally were able to check in we received very friendly and efficient service. There is no Qatar lounge at Heathrow at the moment although we were told that
they will move to T4 shortly and will have their own lounge there. We were provided with a pass to the Cathay Pacific lounge on this trip, on my previous trip I was invited to the Virgin Atlantic lounge. Cathay's lounge was adequate but not as good as the Virgin lounge or the BA lounges which I have visited many times. I found it was smaller and did not have much food or drink on offer.
An hour before our departure time, I checked the board in the lounge and noticed that our flight was shown as closing. We made a mad dash to the gate and indeed found that everyone else was on board and the flight was indeed closing. It is apparently Qatar's policy to get everyone on board as soon as possible in order to ensure a swift getaway. Not a totally bad idea, but it does mean sitting on the plane for at least an hour before departure. Mind you that can happen anyway at Heathrow.
In flight and in Transit
We were offered beverages soon after boarding and decided to start our trip with some champagne. A full bottle was brought over on a silver tray and was poured in front of us, which we thought was a nice touch, BA just go round the cabin with a tray full of glasses. We were also handed our menus for dinner, the wine list, toiletries bag and a grey sweatshirt top each. Whilst we were still on the ground the flight attendant came round and asked us what we would like for our "post take off drink" and also took dinner orders.
Once airborne, the in-flight service started promptly, some canapés to start with, including caviar on one leg. For dinner there were two starters to choose from and four main courses, I cannot remember exactly what these were but it did include a red meat, white meat, fish and a vegetarian option. On my return flight my first option starter and main were both unavailable which was a bit disappointing. For my breakfast time flights there were also a couple of options. Food is served one course at a time and I found everything very palatable although I wouldn't go overboard and say it was restaurant standard. The wine on the other hand was truly superb, one of the best wines I have ever tasted and I have tracked down and ordered a case of the stuff since I got home!
The in-flight entertainment system was excellent. The seatback TV screens must have been 15 inches, definitely the largest screen I have seen on a plane by a long way. Viewing is on demand too and there were plenty of films and TV programs to choose from. We also enjoyed playing some of the available games for a while like "Who wants to be a Millionaire" and Tetris. I understand that the same entertainment system is available in economy class.
My flight departed Heathrow at 8.30pm, so I wanted to get some sleep on this flight. The seat was very comfortable for sitting in and as it reclines it slides forward rather than landing in the lap of the person behind, but it does not convert to a fully flat bed. In fact it reclines to about 160 degrees, which sounds great but I did find myself slipping down to the bottom as I tried to sleep which does not make for a restful night. Of course it was far more comfortable than economy, but there are better business class seats around. If BA were the same price, I would choose them over Qatar on account of the far more comfortable business class seat.
I believe that most flights from London will involve a change at Doha, both my trips did and on the way home I had an eight hour wait. I did not see the main terminal as business and first class passengers are taken to the newly built "Premium Terminal". On the positive side the terminal had plenty of seating (which it needed as it got Very busy) and there was plenty of food and drink available. On the downside, the chairs were all small upright armchairs and as I had an eight hour wait from 7pm until 3am, I would have liked to have been able to get some rest and a couple of reclining armchairs or even a sofa would have been welcome. I was also disappointed that the spa was only for first class customers as that would have helped kill some time. Incidentally, I did enquire about taking a slightly later flight and booking a hotel room rather than hang around an airport terminal but this would have increased each ticket by £1,000.
The second leg of my journey, from Doha to Tanzania was slightly shorter than London to Doha, but not much. I was therefore expecting the same type of aircraft only to be disappointed. In fact the business class was fairly similar to a European business class, i.e. wider seats but not much else. No entertainment system on this plane either, the TV screens were at intervals in the aisle rather than seat back although in business class we were offered very small individual DVD players, but I am sure this would not have been extended to economy class.
If I am honest, I did wonder exactly why Qatar provide such a drastically lower standard of business class on the African route versus the similar length European route. There were less business seats on my second flight but they were all taken and so who knows if they would also fill a larger business class section.
Summary
Overall I was pleased with Qatar and would definitely fly with them again. In particular I would mention that the service was exemplary from start to finish and the business class fares are extremely competitive, I spend a lot of time researching trips and possible trips and can say this with some authority.
On the downside, there was a big inconsistency with the standard of business class depending on the particular route and I would be mindful of this and try to find out what craft is being used were I to book another flight with them. I also think the Premium Terminal, of which Qatar is so proud, is not terribly comfortable for long stopovers and to only make the spa available to the far fewer first class passengers seemed a bit mean.
Flight prices vary such a lot, but in case anyone is interested, I paid £1,200 for the business class to Nepal and £1,600 to Tanzania.
Pictures of Qatar Airways - QTR
Qatar Premium Terminal lounge
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caligulase19 15.06.2005 (15.06.2005)
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Review of Qatar Airways - QTR
Feb 11th, 2009
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