[Tallinnman]

TIS – did you or your colleague have a passenger in the seat next to you on the 787 flight as its very interesting to hear your comments on seat comfort. I’ve found this aircraft to be miserable.

[TominScotland]

Tallinnman – yes, I eventually had the window seat with a father and son next to me. I say ‘eventually’ because there was some shuffling around of seats. My colleague did have a free seat next to him. As I said, I was fine and never felt constrained although obviously, I have travelled in greater luxury!!

[NTarrant]

@Alex_Fly – I have used QR a few times over the last few years between RUH and LHR, generally they do tend to be a bit more in business than direct with BA (SV tend to be more than BA but have such varying flight schedules I don’t bother looking). I have just booked a trip back to the UK for next weekend, but I found a cheaper fare with KLM from DMM even when adding the RUH-DMM fare it’s still cheaper. What I have found with QR is that some of their cheapest fares have a long, in excess of 15 hours transfer in Doha.

I have used QR inter Gulf and to Sudan and Eritrea on their 321’s the service on these was very good. I like QR but I wouldn’t say they are 5 star.

[FDOS_UK]

Nigel

Have you tried one of the Gulf Air 320s with the long haul interior, yet?

I rather liked those, inboth Y and C.

[NTarrant]

FDOS – yes I have, it’s rather strange being in long haul style seat on a two class 320. But quite comfortable none the less, not done Y on GF.

I go to Bahrain quite often, but from here GF are eye wateringly expensive, particularly in business. So unless it’s for business, I tend to always use SV as they can be half the price. Alternatively fly to DMM and get a limo over the causeway or take the bus.

[FDOS_UK]

GF are a strange airline, very expensive in the region, but tend to be very reasonable ex London.

How is the causeway, these days? The last time I was in KSA, they were telling me the security was tighter after a couple of incidents.

DMM to BAH was a flight I used to love – the only one I know where they serve the F&B on the ground, pre-flight, as the plane never gets about 6,000 feet and everyone is strapped inall the way!

[NTarrant]

Yes GF are quite good to other destinations as well such as India and Pakistan.

The causeway can either be very good or painfully slow, I have done it mostly by bus. Security is not too bad, but they do go through the bus and luggage coming into KSA rigorously if there are Pakistanis on board after it was found some bring drugs in. Of course weekends are exceptionally busy with people going to Bahrain for the weekend for beer and bacon!

I have always fancied doing the DMM-BAH flight but as it is GF it is expensive

[TominScotland]

My return flights MNL-DOH-EDI were fairly much as the outbound. The third party lounge at MNL is grim but quiet which was good as we had to spend quite a long time there – Manila traffic is so unpredictable that a very, very early arrival at the airport was advised. We stopped off at Resorts World for a bite to eat, dropped a colleague at T3 (just across the road) and then took over an hour to T1!! Resisted the temptation to buy multi packs of Spam in Duty Free!!

The 777-300 to DOH was almost full but no up-grade this time. legroom is good and seats comfortable for Economy. Service lacked warmth but was reasonably efficient. Arrival into DOH was on time.

The Lounge was marginally better served this time, with breakfast options. I also availed of the one operating shower, getting in ahead of a long queue.

On the 787 back to EDI, I had a block of 3 seats to myself and this made things great for sleep and some work. Seat width is fine, even with 3-3-3 although I can see the potential for ‘arm rest wars’. Service was similar ……. It is a pity that smiles are not included in crew training for Economy!!

BTW, has anyone used Clark as an alternative to Manila? I am told that the traffic nightmares to where I need to go (Quezon City) are greatly diminished by using that gateway.

[rferguson]

Just flew four sectors on QR. Having previously been quite uncomplimentary of their service in the past I actually found things seem to have improved a little. Yes there were evidence of some cost cuts. But staff seemed more relaxed and proactive to me than in the past.

I think for the fares they generally charge and what they offer they still represent almost unbeatable value for money.

This was from the QR part of my OW trip report:

I flew a mix of 787 (CPH-DOH-CPH), 777-200 (DOH-NRT) and A330 (PVG-DOH). All flights had fully flat beds (thankfully the A330 was a retrofitted one) although the seats on the three different aircraft types were completely different. The 787 had the newest business product with 1-2-1 configuration and the 777/330 a standard 2-2-2 configuration. The A330 product felt very tight. The seat seemed almost identical to the new AA Business Class seats found on the narrowbody A321 that flies transcon in the U.S. I believe QR also uses an almost identical seat on its own narrowbody all J A319.

The 777 cabin very very roomy and open. Although it’s QR’s oldest ‘fully flat’ product it was definitely my favourite. The only issue – the possibility of a seatmate if travelling solo (with a very small privacy divider) and a lack of stowage options.

The 787 – mixed feelings. As great as it is having direct aisle access with the newest product I felt actual personal space less than the 777 and I dislike the closed-ness of the area in front of you. The seat is kind of similar to the CX/AA 1-2-1 design but instead of the TV screenand table being stowed away on Qatar it is fixed in front of you. The 787 seat also has a very low seatback and there is no privacy at all from the aisle. It is quite an ‘exposing’ design. I’m a huge fan of the CX seat which is similar but in so many ways superior. I really disliked the ‘touchphone – like’ IFE controller too. It was really sensitive and difficult to use. There was Wifi and OnAir on the 787. I didn’t use the Wifi but I did send and receive some texts with OnAir. If I was travelling as a twosome i’d prefer the older conventional style seats. Fortunately for me on the pair of seats I was in from DOH-NRT the adjacent seat remained empty.

There were some identifiable cost cuts. The washbags have shrunk. The leatherbound menu’s gone. And no ‘amuse bouche’ anymore. Still, as a business class product it offers phenomenal value.

Service and food were great on all flighs. The crew seem happier and more relaxed than they have when i’ve flown them in the past. They were a bit more engaging than i’ve experienced previously with one proudly telling me their ‘despot’ Cabin Services manager has been replaced with a nicer person.

I’m still not so sure about the nature of ‘a la carte’ dining. I can see it working well when you are on an aircraft with no seat mate. But when you are sat next to a stranger it’s quite an annoyance. On the PVG-DOH sector (night flight 9.5hrs) my plan was to have a quick starter after take off and then sleep to DOH. My seat mate had different ideas. She decided she’d order the full deal half way through the flight. It was disturbing.

Onboard all in all QR is superb – but inconsistent. In both hard and soft product.

The Al Mourjan lounge is a beautiful facility but really struggles at peak times. It seems that the groundwork is there but some little things aren’t thought through. An example – the showers. I went to put my name down for a shower and was told the wait would be around 30 minutes. But there is no procedure to notify you when your slot opens up. Instead of giving you a fixed time to return (or even better a ‘bleeper’ or such) they ask you to loiter around the area for half an hour until your name is called.

The lounge design is really well thought out – there is ample seating space even during the peak time as well as two distinct dining areas. There are also little stations dotted around with good coffee machines and croissants etc. But at three separate stations there were no cups available for the coffee which rendered them useless. Likewise the main dining area – a good buffet spread at breakfast but with no egg dishes. Zero. But if you asked a waiter you could order them although there were no menus presented. I can imagine given the volume of people in the lounge the staff don’t want to be ‘pro active’ in offering eggs. So include some in the buffet!!

When in the lounge in a peak period you can see why QR decided to exclude non J elites from entering. Saying that when I left the lounge was absolutely deserted. Perhaps they could be flexible in admittance during non peak times.

[JohnHarper]

I don’t usually respond to survey requests but having had one from QR yesterday I decided to. It related to my last flight which was a LHR-DOH sector operated by a 787.

I worked through the various questions which scored the airline from 1-5 and at the end I found I had rated it as a solid four star performer. Some things were fives – the lounge at LHR and some were threes but in the main it came out as a four star performance which I think it probably right.

Much as Al-Baker hypes it that’s all it is, the culture of service of the true five star carriers like SQ is just not embedded in the same way for instance several times during the flight I was disturbed in row 1 by noise from the galley, not the noise of service being prepared but of crew gossip, unthinkable on SQ or CX. I also think that QR does not offer F on sufficient routes and it’s now restricted to the A380 as the A330s are refitted.

Of course if QR are a solid four star performer then some of the current four star offerings need a downgrade. I’ll refrain from suggesting any airline at the moment for that downgrade.

[FDOS_UK]

From a relatively limited exposure to QR, I’d say 4* sounds about right.

Not great, but very solid and I could live with using them frequently.

[esselle]

I’ve flown a lot on QR and always found it to be a solid J product. I agree the A330 seating is old hat, and even the “new” horizontal J seats on the 330 is a bit ordinary, but really have never had reason to be unhappy.

Regional “First” uniformly good, and 777/380/787 J class, even if differing products, always a nice experience. HIA lounges are fine, as is T4, (although MAN offer is a shocker) and the fares, when compared against BA, normally very compelling.

Service can be a bit robotic at times, but over the years I have no experience of a carrier that always gets it right.

[SimonS1]

I travelled to SAfrica with Qatar last year (albeit in Y) and it was a mistake.

Their schedules aren’t as convenient as EK who are now up to 4x a day to Johannesburg, the 787 wasn’t that comfortable and the crewing a bit amateur. I had a coffee which almost made me gag – the steward had made it in the tea pot.

I did read at one stage that QR were going to restart Gatwick flights but it hasn’t materialised yet.

[Gin&Tonic]

I am a regular in QR business, and in terms of value for money I still believe they are amongst the best despite some obvious savings being evident, although I do hate with a passion the business lounge at Doha compared to the old dedicated business terminal.

Has anyone else noticed with the QR website (and others) that when you return to a fare enquiry maybe a day or two later, even though the same class of travel and fare type is still available the price is much higher than when first visited, I recently checked Man-Kul-Man in business, 24 hours later the price had increased over GBP 800 per passenger and didn’t show limited seats available for the fare type I required. Have had similar experience with other airline websites but QR is among the worse for this.

EK fare hadn’t changed so on this occasion they get my pennies. I assume this is all down to cookies and IP addresses.

[NTarrant]

I remember reading something about this some years ago G&T and it was about EasyJet. Apparently they recognise your IP address and the fare becomes higher when you look again which is to give you the feeling that the price has already increased since you last looked. Thereby enticing you to book now rather than leave it.

[Author]

Posts