[Anonymous]

[ExecPlatAA]

DFW-DOH-BOM R/T on QR 777 (LR and ER) in business with family over the holidays. Superb!

I flew Cathay in First from LAX-HKG R/T just a few days earlier and felt that this experience was on par with CX First and in some areas even better – and that says a lot as CX is world class.

In my 15 years of top tier business travel, this business class experience stood out as the best. Right from the pre departure drinks service to the excellent restaurant style (and quality) meals, to the amenities on board (excellent Ferragamo and Armani kits, mattress pads, duvets, pyjamas, superb chamapgnes – Billecart and Tattinger Rose) to the crew and the world class new loungs at Hamad – this was an experience!

The Business/First lounge at Hamad is huge (not Emirates huge) but manageable. The shower amenities (L’Occitane) and the restaurants in the lounge are excellent (yes Krug is still being served in the business restaurant). The bus transfer (once) was in a bus with 8 lounge style sofa seats. I simply cannot imagine what they can do to improve/one-up this experience (come to think of it, how can they better this experience in Qatar First?).

Well done – I do complain and am disappointed when things don’t go right, especially in premium travel, and felt that I must share this experience when an airline gets it right. A good way to start the new year!

[LucaForna]

I agree with you ExecPlatAA, I was highly impressed as well. I usually travel BA CW but Qatar Business certainly felt more like flying BA First. I recently flew VCE-DOH-BKK and everything was amazing. Well done Qatar!

[norvagabond]

I felt exactly the same after my flight from Oslo.

The CC onboard the 787 were a bit correct at the start of the journey but after a while we where chatting like old friends.

The cabin was almost empty 5/22. The cabin, the food,the seat and the AVOD was all up there.

I think this was one of my best flight ever. In comparison to BA First, I maybe felt a little more pampered and I do really like the service on BA but all in all they are pretty similar and if you consider the price then QR wins easily.

The new lounge in Doha was great. Of course one cannot expect Krug to be there so much longer, but anyway, the food and wines were among the best I have experienced in a lounge.

Then my flight to BKK was ready to board and this was another story. Full night flight with a bit of a chaotic start. The FA having our side was so chatty with the guys behind us that we did not get any greeting, champagne/juice/towels before 10mins had passed. Then when taking meal orders she was so behind that she had to stop halfway because of take off. So it took a while for our meal service to start which should not be the case on a short night flight. The whole meal service was chaotic, my brother next to me got his meal i didn’t. When another FA was putting down the food we had empty wine glasses and she just left. So all in all it felt like nobody was taking care of us. No one asked for breakfast even if almost the whole cabin was awake. I had to ask and it seemed like a hassle.

So I feel when QR is good they are really up there but have had some not so good also.

[ExecPlatAA]

Glad LucaForna and Norvagabond had a similar experience, except for the BKK flight. Consistency is elusive and the airlines that deliver high standards consistently do indeed becone legends (SQ?). I hope Qatar monitors this forum and appreciates the good feedback and works on consistency. Its like when you discover a great new restaurant and get excited, tell everyone about it and over time come to find out that they have slipped in quality. I hope QR does not go that way. I, for one, would be happy to pay a premium for this service and hope they can keep this up (and have no repeats of the BKK flight experienced by Norvagabond).

[norvagabond]

This is so true ExecPlatAA, I have been running a restaurant for some years and you need someone there all the time to make sure quality is maintained. When that is said I have read some posts at Flyertalk and feel that if you start with yourself being nice then you will probably not experience so often, bad service. But of course sometimes its nothing you can do. I am really looking forward to trying out the A380 on my way home.

[ExecPlatAA]

Enjoy your trip back home norvagabond! Fingers crossed for a wonderful, memorable (yet uneventful) flight!

[openfly]

@LucaForna….you cannot compare QR Business to BA First….QR Business is infinitely better!!! 🙂

[LuganoPirate]

Have to agree with you Openfly. The seat is more comfortable and the food infinitely better.

The only downside to QR is the midnight shuffle at Doha.

[esselle]

I am a big fan of the QR J hard product on the 777 but less so on the 330, even in its newest format.

The service is typically of a high standard, although it can get a bit flustered if it goes out of sequence, and the food and drink normally outstanding.

Together with their often highly competitive tariffs, they can be the ones to beat, and, whilst I agree with the comment from LP regarding the midnight shuffle, HIA is now a nicer place to experience it than DXB in my view.

[openfly]

@Esselle Wait till you try their Dreamliner Business class. Personally for me that product is stunning…nobody matches it. Even to the small touches such as 30 fresh red roses in the Business cabin…yes, I counted them. Somewhat better than three dead daisies several days old with brown tinged petals that used to be white, in F on Britains Best!! They were so old and droopy I managed to knot them!!! :-))

[rferguson]

Have a flight booked in Feb for DOH – FRA on the A350 in J. Very much looking forward to checking it out as well as the lounges in DOH.

[MrDarwin]

I have pretty much only good things to say about my experiences on QR. They seem to have invested heavily in their product development. They announced last week that they are installing double beds in business class on 10 of their a380s which will apparently be sold at ‘business class fares’.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/qatar-air-plans-double-beds-in-business-class-to-top-gulf-rivals.html

rferguson, this harps back to your ME3 sustainability thread. Seems this is QR’s response to Etihad’s new hard product, and they seem hell bent on keeping up with the Jones’ (or whoever their ME equivalent may be). Whatever the case, it seems for the moment that the customers are the ones benefiting most from this intense competition. I’m keen to hear your views after your trip in Feb!

[TiredOldHack]

Double beds in biz. That’d be interesting. With privacy screens, one hopes….

I liked Qatar’s biz product on the A380 and B777 to and from Doha to Colombo last year, but there was a dish missing from the menu and the IFE on both aircraft was chronic.

[Str8Talking]

Flew ZRH-DOH-CMB this week on a 787/777-300ER. Overall it was great and the service well intended but still needs some polishing up. I thought I would feel “downgraded” going from the new 787 product to the 777 but I felt the latter was well maintained and even the IFE didn’t feel dated! Definitely one of my best flying experiences! Transfer in Doha was seamless and took minutes. The only issue was at the gate for the flight to Colombo – as there is such a small business class cabin, the Fast Track lane is only loosely enforced and as a passenger you have to make yourself known. Upon boarding the ground staff had to fight off the economy passengers in order to allow business class passengers on first. A separate lane would have made it more pleasant but it seems a plane with 300 economy passengers and 8 in business doesn’t warrant it!

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