Which Lounge Does Qatar Airways Use At LAX?

After the renovations, the T2 is really nice. Yeah, the air canada lounge got its liquor license, but the food spread has gone way down hill at the same time. Decent way to take advantage of a priority pass lounge but definitely not a premium experience. Btw, crankyflier has a blog post on Delta's plan to move into T2 and T3 at Lax so we shall see what happens.

speaking of the Al Safwa First Lounge in Doha, is it back open again after the rain/flood damage shut it down a cpl months ago? you never posted an update about that. just one of those nice to know things!

The best lounge in T2, in my opinion, is the new VS Clubhouse that opened last year. Nick reviewed it back then but I hope you'll be able to review it at some point.

@Adam: yup, it's open again--I was there right before NYE.

What terminal is AA new flight to Sydney operating out of now? Any ideas?

I remember you were less than impressed with the Air Canada lounge and I thought it hilarious they didnt have a booze license

@Rand

Not true, he was actually rather impressed. From the review he did:

"I was quite impressed by the Air Canada Lounge LAX. The lounge was spacious, modern, and had a pretty impressive food spread, especially for a Priority Pass lounge. Since you can use this lounge regardless of which terminal you’re flying out of, I think it’s a great option for Priority Pass members passing through Los Angeles."

Now, is it up to the standards he'd expect from a lounge being used by Qatar Airways? Probably not. No champagne to instatweet about, for one thing...

I took this flight on Jan 6th and I was really unimpressed by the ground staff. They only had one check-in agent for business class and it took about 45 minutes for her to check us in. It appeared to be her first day so she kept having to ask her supervisor how to do everything. You'd think they'd have someone more experienced for business class. We got to security and realized she forgot one of our boarding passes so had to go back to check-in to get it. By this time we had no time for the lounge and went straight to the gate, which was a bigger mess. They were finished boarding business and started economy boarding. We showed up and were told to wait for 10 minutes while they finished boarding economy and then we could board. Overall a horrible ground experience. I know it's a new route so hopefully they get their act together. The flight itself was great though!

@ Ricky the AA SYD flight operates out of T4 just like the rest of AA's flights...I was there the night of the inaugural, they used the first big gate area on the right as you enter the main part of the terminal

It always intrigues me how Etihad, Emirates and Qatar are called the "big three gulf carriers", while Saudia has the second largest fleet after Emirates, and has the largest number of daily flights compared to all other carriers in the gulf region.
Granted Saudia is ages behind the aforementioned three when it comes to services and reputation, yet it's still interesting that they're called "biggest" rather than "best".

I guess it's down to perception rather than actual numbers.

QR 728 PHL to DOH using new A350 cancelled today for aircraft maintenance issue. Waited 4 hrs., told part was on way, and then flight cancelled. Automatically Rebooked out of JFK this evening. What could go wrong on brand new aircraft...

@Gulfer

Are you including their domestic routes/flights as well? If you are...nobody gives a shit about those. What most people look at is their international service, and Saudia's is...meh.

@Aaron
I'm talking crude numbers here rather than quality. Saying "biggest" should imply size while "best" is all about quality.

I recently flew Qatar Business R/T from DFW to DOH and on to DEL. The lounge in DFW was horrible with very poor food and rot gut wines. Just terrible. I left and went to the Amex Lounge that was directly across from the gate. It was great as usual, as they have cleaned up their act after poor performance under a different manager. The Qatar in-flight was very good even with the older 777-200's. The 787 from DOH to DEL was fine, but nothing special. After the 777 everything on that plane felt cramped. On the return the DEL lounge was absolutely disgusting. It was a "rent-a-lounge" for a variety of airlines, totally noncompetitive with the dedicated Emirates lounge in DEL. Obviously, the DOH business lounge was spectacular, and while I was annoyed that One World Emerald flyers are not able to access the FC lounge, it was still amazing. Qatar is a great airline, but the lounges that they use in some markets are really not acceptable. I am unsure if they care about the remote stations....

It will be nice when Qatar upgrades the J cabins on their non-JFK/BOS routes.

Crap, forgot to subscribe.

Qr will be rolling out a new biz class for their 777-300ers planes, 1-2-1 seating , so similar to the a380 seating. - no timescale as of yet, but will have full privacy

"I’m talking crude numbers here"

Ok, are your numbers referring to their total operation or just their international routes?

Qatar airways is now back to Tom Bradley terminal @ LAX. They're no longer in Terminal 2:
http://www.airport-technology.com/news/newsqatar-airways-completes-terminal-relocation-at-lax-5802847