My review of Qatar Airways impressive A380 business class

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This is my review of Business Class on a Qatar Airways A380, from London to Doha.

As I explained yesterday, I travelled down to the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah last week as the guest of Qatar Airways.

At the start of February, Qatar Airways started direct flights between Doha and Ras al-Khaimah. Ras al-Khaimah is a popular weekend destination for people living in the Emirates, both for its beaches and for its mountains. It is also developing as a holiday destination in its own right with resorts which are quieter and cheaper than those in Dubai.

The Doha to Ras al-Khaimah service is currently restricted to four flights per week. These are well timed to connect with Qatar services from Europe, however, and my connection time in Doha to / from London was under 2 hours on both the outbound and return.

At other times, it is a sub-1 hour drive to Dubai International or Al Maktoum airports in Dubai.

Introduction

Today I am reviewing the Business Class service on the Qatar Airways A380. The 9am A380 flight from London connected directly with the evening flight to Ras al-Khaimah.

I have covered other Qatar aircraft and flight classes in earlier reviews:

Qatar A380 First Class (the only long-haul aircraft with First)
Qatar Boeing 787 Business Class
Qatar Boeing 777 Business Class
Qatar short-haul First Class

The Qatar Airways schedule out of London seems to have ‘settled down’ in the last 12 months. This means that you have a pretty good chance of actually flying on the aircraft type booked!

Boarding the Qatar Airways A380

I discussed the Qatar Airways Premium Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 4 in my review yesterday. It is a short 30-second walk from the lounge down to the Qatar gate.

Business Class seating on the Qatar Airways A380

The new Boeing 787-8 and A380 aircraft contain the very latest version of the Qatar Airways business class seating. It is very, very good if you are a solo traveller, as the layout is 1-2-1.

This is how the Boeing 787-8 cabin looks using a professional photographer and studio lighting:

and this is what the A380 version looks like in ‘real life’:

and

I had a solo window seat. As you can see, the seat is far closer to British Airways First Class than British Airways Club World. You certainly have less personal space than BA First but it is light years ahead of the offering in Club World if you are travelling on your own.

The flat area by the window is big enough to hold your newspapers, books, magazines and, erm, pre-flight Drappier rose champagne:

The 1-2-1 layout is similar to that used by Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand and various others.

The trade-off for the additional privacy and space is that your feet disappear under the seat in front and that the seats do not face forward – you are angled in a herringbone pattern. Neither of these were, in any way, inconvenient – especially if you are in a window seat as you will be facing the window.

The only thing I did not like is that the TV is fixed in position. It does not fold away. Even if you don’t plan to watch it (and I rarely do) you are forced to look directly at it for the whole flight:

The screen in the picture above shows the clever new safety video featuring FC Barcelona which you can see on YouTube here.

Toiletries

The toiletry bag was Armani-branded. It contains a very small (10ml?) Armani EDT as well as a large 75ml aftershave balm as the usual mix of non-Armani socks etc.

Toothbrushes, razors etc are available in the toilets.

Food and drink

Qatar’s food and drink is generally of very high quality – I generally rank it above Emirates and Etihad in Business Class, although the Etihad onboard chef gives it the edge in First.

Despite the 9am departure time, Qatar decided to serve an early lunch instead of a late breakfast which was, in my view, the right thing to do.

The menu was:

Pea and mint soup

Classic arabic mezze

Smoked mackerel with green bean salad (see below)

Braised lamb shank with dried fruit couscous

Marinated chicken breast with puy lentils (see below)

Paneer with mussalam sauce

Cheese plate

Cherry and almond frangipan tart (see below)

Gourmet ice cream

or Seasonal fresh fruits

Lighter options (savoury pastries, steak sandwich) were also on offer.

The best was actually the dessert, as usual, but the rest of the meal was equally well cooked. The chicken dish is a little ‘brown’ but that how lentil dishes usually end up!

I stuck to the Drappier rose throughout the flight. The other champagne is Billecart-Salmon Brut. Wine options included a Rully Premier Cru Gresigny chardonnay and a Babich Sauvignon Blanc amongst others. Dessert options were an Arthur Metz Gewurzraminer and a Dow’s 10 year old port.

There is also the A380 bar towards the back of the aircraft. This is a ‘proper’ bar unlike the small ‘table’ found on the Boeing 787 fleet.

Having now flown the A380 twice, I have to say that I prefer the bar to the Emirates and the Etihad versions, although the EK one has a classier feel. What makes the Qatar bar preferable – to me – is the curving seat layout:

…. which gives you more privacy. Emirates and Etihad make you sit in a semi-circle or full circle respectively.

This is a photo I took on my previous Qatar Airways flight:

I was surprised how quiet the bar was during a day flight when you would have expected people to be keen to use it.

In a major blow, there was no Krug available on my flight! It was in the bar when I flew A380 First Class before Christmas. This may have been a one-off, however, because you had the odd situation where there was Krug in the bar but First Class passengers couldn’t get it at their seats.

I try to avoid commenting on the crew in my reviews because you can never tell if what you had is average, better or worse than the norm. However, the Qatar crew were excellent and I never felt, as I do with Emirates at times, that I may get the wrong thing due to the lack of English skills. The only thing I found odd is that multiple crew members insisted on putting my knife and fork the wrong way round, eg fork to the right!

In Flight Entertainment

I covered the Oryx IFE system in my Qatar 777 business class review last year. Due to the relatively short flight time to the Middle East I rarely use the IFE systems. I didn’t try the wi-fi either this time – I was glad of a break from my email!

The IFE did have the new Star Wars film available which impressed me.

Arrival

I had heard some bad stories about transfer times at Hamad Airport because of the security screening, albeit that there is a ‘cut in’ line for premium passengers.

On my outbound flight we avoided screening. We were let out directly into the main terminal which meant that I was in the Qatar business class lounge within 5 minutes.

I am guessing that ex-UK flights are deemed secure enough not to require additional arrival screening. By contrast, when I flew back into Doha from Ras al-Khaimah (where they don’t bother asking for liquids or laptops to be taken out) I exited into secondary screening – but was through in a couple of minutes.

I’d missed the bear and it was good to see it again!

Conclusion

I have done five long-haul flights with Qatar Airways over the last 18 months. All have been very impressive, even the Boeing 777 ones with the older seating.

The airline was an excellent addition to the oneworld alliance when it joined. If you get the opportunity to try them for a cash flight or an Avios redemption (and availability is generally pretty good) then you should. The lounges, seating, food, drink and IFE in Business Class are well ahead of anything that British Airways has to offer.

The downside, of course, is that a flight on Qatar Airways will involve a change of plane in Doha which breaks up your journey. If you live in London that may be a concern. If you live in the regions (Qatar Airways flies from Manchester, Edinburgh and – from the end of March – Birmingham) flying from your local airport to the Middle East and changing is probably less painful than changing planes at Heathrow.

If you want to find out more about the Qatar A380 service, there is a special page on the Qatar Airways website here.

In the next article I will talk about my onward trip to Ras al-Khaimah.

Category

Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Carlos says:

9 Mar9 March 05:55

Nice Review,

Do you have an article explaining redemptions options on Qatar Airlines with Avios?
- Callum says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 06:05
  
  What do you need to know about Qatar redemption options that won’t be answered by looking at a route map or making a dummy booking?
  - DV says:
    
    9 Mar9 March 08:42
    
    Another less than helpful response.
    - Tom H says:
      
      9 Mar9 March 10:15
      
      Blimey Callum, always helpful
      - Calton says:
        
        9 Mar9 March 14:46
        
        Why haven’t you two helped them and told them what they wanted to know about Qatar redemptions then?
      - Antonio says:
        
        9 Mar9 March 23:00
        
        Indeed, Calton, why haven’t you.
        
        Carlos, the information you’re looking for can be found here:
        https://headforpoints.com/2015/08/17/beginners-guide-to-redeeming-avios/
        
        And there’s some historical information here:
        https://headforpoints.com/2013/10/03/qatar-redemptions-now-viewable-but-not-bookable-on-ba-com/
      - Callum says:
        
        10 Mar10 March 01:34
        
        (Callum and Calton are the same person by the way – for some reason my phone randomly autocorrects the name)
        
        Because unlike you and a bunch of self-righteous and arrogant “others” (I’d like to use a different word there but I don’t think Rob would appreciate it on his blog!), I asked what information they required and they haven’t answered. If they do answer, no-one has helped and I know the answer to the question, I will.
        
        While you may feel linking to articles on the website that may or may not answer the question is the only acceptable response to the question, I personally think it would be much more useful if they said which aspect they had trouble with and they can then be given information you know is actually useful. A crazy notion I know.
        
        If your objection is that despite being able to, they shouldn’t be expected to find basic information such as what routes Qatar flies or how much an individual flight is themselves, then I wholly disagree.
        
        Finally, I’ve re-read my comment half a dozen times and the only possible way it could have been read maliciously is if you decided to load non-existent vitriol onto it (not a single word used in the post is offensive or dismissive without an agenda being placed onto it first) and deliberately and knowingly ignore any other possible interpretation. But I’ve certainly learnt my lesson and won’t bother trying to offer help on here any more (which I’ve irrefutably done many times – not that I’m so arrogant as to pretend there aren’t several thousand readers who could offer the exact same or better quality of advice in my absence).
- Andrew H says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 08:55
  
  Carlos,
  
  I don’t believe Raffles has done an up to date article on this, but you may find this item from December 2013 useful. The award values may have changed (correct me if I’m wrong, anyone) but there is useful info there.
  
  https://headforpoints.com/2013/12/05/interesting-anomalies-in-avios-reward-pricing-you-can-exploit-updated/
  - Raffles says:
    
    9 Mar9 March 08:57
    
    Yup. Only advice is:
    
    Starting in Germany or anywhere South East of there makes the Avios cost lower.
    
    Search leg by leg as BA.com struggles with connections sometimes.
- Yuff says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 09:02
  
  There are plenty of articles regarding booking redemption flights on Qatar.
  I had booked an A380 flight, pre devaluation, from LHR which, unbeknown to me, got switched to a 777 and I only realised when I cancelled to take advantage of a Qatar sale ex eu.
  I also like breaking up the flights with a stay at the airport hotel as the OH prefers not to travel overnight.
Polly says:

9 Mar9 March 06:01

Agree fully with this assessment. We have done both A380 and Dreamliner in J ex EU to Asia, have mentioned it before, and recommended it as an equivalent to BA F. Even if you have a smidgen less personal space, the cabin has an airy larger feel to it. Just feels more spacious in every way, and brighter! The Doha break can be managed really well too, ESP if you can use the hotel option for a longer layover. V g flying experience, but only worth it from ex EU, or using miles from UK.
Look out for the QR sales too!
Nathan says:

9 Mar9 March 06:15

I flew the A380 last week from BKK to DOH and loved it!
The business class seating is so much better than their old style although I’m sad they have got rid of the massage chair function as that was surprisingly nice.
Inalsonnoticed the A380 on board wifi is different and gives people 15 minutes free but it also has a loop hole in that you can keep getting 15 minutes free by signing up again and again. I was told that first passengers get a free wifi code for the duration of the flight. I think that was my only criticism, as in my opinion business should get the free wifi too.
Bring on the next Qatar sub £1000 sale!
- Nathan says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 06:16
  
  I also noticed *
- Bob says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 07:30
  
  I was upgraded from Business to First on Qatar’s A380 and this included a free WiFi voucher indeed, albeit with the flight attendants additional remark that it would not be of much use above the Indian ocean, which was the biggest part of the flight.
Dannyrado says:

9 Mar9 March 06:29

I’m guessing that since you have a minor tie in with Qatar, someone from the airline might read the blog??

Let me take this opportunity to say, put a decent aircraft on the Manchester route please.
- mark says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 08:14
  
  They are now flying the 787 into MAN, i flew it twice in the last couple of weeks – great for J, but for Y passengers not as good as the old aircraft.
  
  Note as i have put in the flyertalk thread, the lounge is closed until April for Manchester – they just give you a £12.50 voucher which will not get you much…
  - Mark1980 says:
    
    9 Mar9 March 12:17
    
    Danny / Mark, I am looking at booking a one-way Avios redemption in J for DOH-MAN in OCtober and hadnt really thought about the type of plane. Looking at the flight history it seems to be a A332 but then obviously Mark mentions a 787. Should I be wary of the plane type? Whats the worst case scenario? Are they all flat beds? Thanks.
    - EdC says:
      
      9 Mar9 March 13:19
      
      Qatar don’t really know what aircraft will be flying the route in May, let alone October. – they’ve just shifted us from an A333 to a 787.
      
      Shamelessly copied from Flyertalk (probably the same thread Mark’s posted in) – http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26288692-post41.html – “QR still juggling equipment on our flights. For the month of April the early morning flights are all 788s, the lunchtime flights are 77Ws and the evening flights a mix of A332/A333.”
      
      AIUI, almost all their A330s now have flat beds in business (and the rest are due to be gone any month now). So less of a concern anyway.
- Mr(s) Entitled says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 12:31
  
  +1
  
  It would be my preferred carrier when travelling east with a decent plane. I’d much rather transfer DOH than any LHR offering. You have six a380s. Go on, give us one!
Mike says:

9 Mar9 March 06:37

Flew ex CPH-BKK via Doha in Business in October for £750 after an article here. (Let’s hope they do another similar sale this year)
Personally, I preferred the Dreamliner to the A380.
The toilets were surprisingly larger and more ergonomic on the Dreamliner -useful for changing into the PJs (superior to BAs First PJs)
The lack of the proper bar was not a major issue, we visited it on the A380 but they were night flights so really preferred to sleep.
The A380 Business cabin was so large that it didn’t feel exclusive. Yes the seat, the food and drink and amenities were all the same, but it felt less special, a bit like BA Club World experience feeling better upstairs on a 747
- Leo says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 08:49
  
  I agree with that. Overall preferred the 787 to the a380. As I’m travelling with oh am hoping for a 777 HKT to DOH next week….neither of the other 2 are that great if travelling as a couple. Preferred the AA 777 seat to either of the QR seats though.
  - Polly says:
    
    9 Mar9 March 14:11
    
    Leo, either plane you will have a very enjoyable flight. We did that route in oct, from CPH, really comfy. Do report back tho….we are going again this oct al well. Great way to nearly obtain silver and or retain it, with the extra couple of BA sectors. That was the best part! Don’t understand why the scandi folk don’t cough up for J, the cabins are only ever half full. Whilst Y is packed…
    - RIccati says:
      
      9 Mar9 March 15:38
      
      That’s Scandi folk! J travel is for business, and holiday time can be spend in the crowded Y.
      
      Same for travelling to/out of AMS for the Far East destinations.
shore-215.blogspot.ae says:

9 Mar9 March 06:42

shore-215.blogspot.ae

Qatar Airways A380 business class reviewed
Harry K says:

9 Mar9 March 06:58

Why is your EDT bottle so small? The London route should have the larger bottle (around 15-20ml) whereas all the ‘less premium’ routes seem to have the small bottle. I got the larger bottle LHR-DOH and the smaller bottle DOH-BKK both ways.
- Raffles says:
  
  9 Mar9 March 08:51
  
  Only got the small one, as in the picture.
ee says:

9 Mar9 March 07:06

Nice review brings back good memories of our AMS-BKK bargain flights late last year which were B787 and A380.

I really didn’t understand the security screening in transit at Doha. Ex AMS we were subjected to this but Ex BKK we were not. Surprised they think flights from Europe need more screening than inbound from Bangkok! Was painless with the fast track line but still better not to have to go through at all!