After a once in a lifetime trip, it was time for the long journey home. We managed to all travel back on the same flight using miles, with what I consider to be one of the best award chart sweet spots out there.
Continue reading: Review: Qatar Airways A350-900 Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lucky, I know it's your job and your name, but you really are lucky scoring award seats. How far in advance did you book these?
I recently booked just Seattle to Tokyo or Osaka for May 2020. I have Alaska, AA and UR miles and had a few dates to play with 8 months in advance. I couldn't get any JAL direct from SEA or YVR in either direction. Routing through ICN on Asiana outbound and SFO on JAL with a long layover on the return. Sigh.
I think the key is more degree of flexibility. In your case you didn't have the flexibility in origin, nor few dates is enough. To be fair, @Lucky can fly any day and stay as long as the visa allows. That itself is a lot of flexibility.
In your case, did you try looking at UR to VS miles on DL out of SEA? or AS on KE roundtrip.
QR muhammara is the best! Though I remembered liking their steak sandwich on DOH to BOS.
@eskimo Yes, I checked Delta and it was 120k each way per person for Delta One and wasn't showing up on Virgin site. I was somewhat flexible, but had to avoid Golden Week in Japan. Still happy I found something.
I flew this exact flight last week and they ran out of several menu options (otherwise great flight). I wonder if all the food comes from Doha?
Often QR run out of food in J class, nothing new, my worst experience was DOH-DPS with only one item left from the entire menu.
Concerning the A350-900 some new delivery have Qsuite AND Super-Wifi (but I get one with Super-Wifi non working from SIN).
Great review, Lucky!
We flew PHL DOH JNB round trip a while back and it was a wonderful trip. Service on the A350-900 was excellent. The 777 was not quite the same wow factor, but an no 8 on scale of 10. Best use of 75K AAdvantage miles out there.
Needless to say we look forward to another QR itinery, this timecwith Q Suites, perhaps Nepal trekking or Kerala.
I loved to see that they had the 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu. I do not recall seeing it on other airlines' wine list. But then again I am not a frequent business class traveller......
@Lucky, how far in advance did you book this? Recently I've been looking for QR awards in business on aa.com, different markets (BOS-MLE, SYD-SEZ, SYD-EDI,...). All of them show availability around 1 am Eastern Time for 331 days out, all of them generate an error ("your flight is no longer available") when trying to book online.
Has anyone been able to book QR business awards on aa.com recently?
didn't they give you a set of pajamas and flip flops? I got them while flying Qsuites (777-300). One great thing about Qatar business is you can order food any time... and whatever items you want from menu - you can order 3 main course and they'll serve you.
Am flying A350-1000 from JFK in Dec, hope the service is as good as the last time I flew in June. And they better not run out of food - esp. the biryani!
Btw, I didn't see kadaak chai in their US menu last time. Will have to check again! Thanks for the nice review.
@SBS basically don’t bother looking for award availability involving Sydney, almost never happens. I think QR restrict it to some partners too (eg Qantas for sure)
A lot of good stuff QR has to offer with the business class services. Allow me to highlight couple of things which I do not like.
1) There is no overhead storage when you are taking the middle seats. It means you will have to share luggage space with window seats' passengers. Chances are you will have to place your luggage at overhead compartment ahead or behind where you sit. It is not too clumsy but definitely causing nuisance to those sitting in window seats.
2) Most of my experiences with QR's J class service have been of top notch but I did notice inconsistency, e.g. pace of meal serving, cordiality of cabin crew. Sometimes I would prefer a bit less exciting service (e.g. on CX and SQ) while there is consistency.
Ben,
My wife and I flew this exact same flight one day before you! Too bad we missed your party. This was an excellent flight, great service and decent food. I agree with you that the cabin is beautiful and spacious. In total for our trip from the U.S. to SA and back, we had 4 separate segments on Qatar, 3 on A350-900 and 1 on A350-1000. The service on each leg was extremely different, with the CPT-DOH being by far the best. The A350-1000 had the best seats with Q-Suites, but had terrible service on my aisle side. On our flight from ATL-DOH, they didn't upload all the newest entertainment for the month to the plane and a flight attendant thought I was vlogger Sam Chui (I don't look anything like him). It wasn't until we got to the A350-1000 did we have a full complement of movies. I rank Qatar as the best overall business class considering hard and soft products, but I do wish the service was more consistent across the flights.
I just flew this product. The seat is amazing. Best out there. And the food is wonderful. My only issue after 14 hours was the movies are terrible. Which is to be expected from a middle eastern airline to a certain extent. But REALLY terrible options. So while the screen was large and beautiful I’ve never watched so many terrible movies.
How warm was the flight? I might've missed it, but I thought you mentioned the lack of air nozzles in the middle seats was a blessing and a curse.
Just curious why you get into the ethnicity of the personnel. Does it add anything?
"Lucky, a Caucasian blogger, took a flight in business class on Qatar Airways."
See how weird that is?
@ John -- I don't mention the ethnicity, I mention the nationality. I do so because one of my favorite thing about the Gulf carriers is just how international they are.
"though our connecting flight to Dallas was very different." Dun dun dun....suspense!
@John It adds exposure to diversity, I too am curious and like to notice where travelers and cabin crew are from. One of the reasons people travel, no? Doesn't hurt to add.
Can't wait to hear about your flight to Dallas. We just back from a round trip out of PHL on the 350-900 q suites. Departing from PHL service was good (not great). On par with Cathay J but no where near an F product. Returning ex-DOH, it was awful. Almost as bad as AA.
We actually had better service on the "regional" flights to/from Africa (ZNZ and JRO).
Now the Al Safwa lounge.... That was a different story. Worth every penny of the $160 pp for an overnight stay. Stopped in Al Mourjan on the departure segments and it became incredibly crowded after midnight. Almost as bad as a US centurion lounge. Did Al Mourjan on the way home and there was maybe 10 people total the entire time. That coupled with the Veuve Grand La Dame, private rooms, and 4 staff per person made it probably the best F lounge out there.
Flew LAX-DOH in the Q Suite, and the 350-900 herringbone DOH-CPT earlier this year.
The LAX-DOH was not scheduled for the Q Suite, so I was a kid in a candy store when I boarded and saw the config. The Suite and service were stunning, the food was very good, but I would not say great. But at least they didn’t run out of anything.
The 350-900 seat was good, but also not great. It doesn’t have the same privacy headwing as AA or CX, maybe others, and the lack of privacy seemed noticeable. Service was again great, though...the FA accidentally skipped my seat for pre departure drink and was horrified when she realized, apologizing even as I was disembarking in CPT.
Haven’t flown Singapore Air or Emirates, but have almost all the others, and hard to imagine how anyone can beat the Q Suite and service level...but no doubt Singapore has its reputation for good reason.
And the DOH lounge is pretty, architecturally great if a weird layout, but the food is really dull.
My extra little measure of lounge quality are the shower facilities. Qatar misses the the mark entirely. Small, sterile, generic toiletries. Kudos to an attentive shower staff, but being advised that I should keep the door open while getting dressed to cool down the shower room not a very good sign. BA LHR Arrivals shower lounge by far the worst in the world. My favs CX First HKG, Qantas Brisbane Domestic terminal (yes, domestic), and AA Flagship LAX.
Just my two (or three) cents....
Always enjoy your reviews and your fabulous reviews; your vegetable jalfrezi with cumin pulao loo Iks delicious; have to agree with your thoughts on Indian cuisine on airplanes. I ahve been lucky enough to experience Silk and Singapore Business where I found the Indian cuisine a whole delcious cut above the "western" cuisine;
thank you for your informative review of Qatari business from South Africa to Qatar
Ben, please, please, please, post your Qatar A350-1000 segment review. Don't leave us hanging!
@Nestor
Many destination don't have the option, some meal missing from the menu, it's not SQ "book the cook"
Ben - How far in advance does business space open on this sector? I have been searching for something in Jan/Feb for months to no luck on AA with this space. Any suggestions?
Does the seat go fully flat?
I have took this flight to Cape Town and they are telling me it doesn’t fully recline?
I booked an award ticket through Alaska Airlines for January, noted as “R” class. Does anyone know if that includes lounge access in Doha through either Qatar Air or a lounge partner?