Review: Qatar Airways Business Class A350 Doha To Frankfurt

Great review as always.
Now I am hungry and thirsty.

does his excellency drink alcohol on board?

Nothing was missing from the Arabic breakfast, it was just plated badly.

Thinking out loud, Heather cho definitely wasn't germaphobe!

Awesome review. Love quiet planes. And it looks like this will be my favorite aircraft type. Too bad Boeing didn't make the 787 quiet or wide or with real shades.

Lucky, based on this flight and your previous experiences with their airlines, if you had to pick one which business class product to fly for ultralonghaul, which would you pick (based on based on product, service, their hub, etcetera).for a "wow, that's how you do it" introduction to premium travel?

- Qatar reverse herringbone
- Etihad Business Studio
- Emirates A380

@ Jonathan -- I'd probably do Qatar (especially if A380) > Etihad > Emirates.

@ Lantean -- He didn't.

Why does only Gino get a cake?...that's strange...was he the only one that bought a full flex ticket for this? 🙂

Ben,

You wrote: "Pajamas on a six hour daytime flight in business class? Wow, impressive!"
That was in January.

Only two weeks ago I flew YGN-DOH at 8:am, a seven hour flight in J, so very similar to yours. However, to my surprise we did not get pajamas, so I specifically asked a FA about it. Later on the Service Director came up to me and explained that that was the case because it was a daytime flight.

Pretty inconsistent I must say: a new - lesser - service offering?

Every day I quietly pray that the 777-300ER I'm scheduled to fly from DOH-PHL in November will be replaced with an A350. Seems like a good route for the aircraft.

@Lantean and @Ben

Do you think he's legally allowed to consume alcohol on a flight? It's not hard to imagine that international regulations might loosely consider him, as an airline employee, to be crew on a flight and therefore have a zero-tolerance policy towards consumption of alcohol. Or maybe it is. I dunno.

From an engineering perspective, what is the rational for the curved wing tip?

Also, what qualifies one for the title his excellency?

CM - I thought that the winglet at the end of the wing is to help reduce the drag impact of the vortices that occur due to different pressures below and above the wing.

No water cannon for this inaugural?

@ Al -- Nope! I was kind of surprised.

After reading this detailed account about the public relations flight, I've got only one question: Did you purchase one of the aviation photography books prominently displayed in the business class snack area authored by Sam Chui?

As far as not getting your capuccino when requested, all you had to do is walk to the galley and using your best Southern charm accent loudly exclaim: "Who do I have to blow to get my damn coffee hon' ?" Preferably, while the CNN cameras were running. 😉

@lucky - A shame!

@Thomas - Someone in corporate communications probably thought QR should put a little more effort into wooing someone the likes of Gino.

I flew both a night time flight from doh-arn and a day flight from cpn-doh both on the 787 in November and no mattress pad or pajamas were offered. The amenity kit also was much smaller and ferragamo. This may be brand standard on the a350 but not on the 787.

Does anybody know if the matress pad, pajamas and Armani amenity kit are offered on regular A350 flight ? Or is it just a one time thing, since it's an inaugural flight and His Excellency is also flying. There isn't any slippers offered, is there ?

Ryan,

I don't know about the 787, 380 or 350, but this is my experience of just two weeks ago on two daytime flights on "lesser" aircraft types (if that has any relevance at all):

1) YGN-DOH 8:00 am, 7 hrs, A330: Armani amenity kit, but no PJs or slippers (and I asked crew specifically about these, see my comment above). Don't remember about the mattress pad as I didn't plan on sleeping;
2) DOH-JFK 8:00 am, 14 hrs, B777-300ER: all four items were available.

Jeffrey

They're flying the A350 to Singapore next! Awesome.

Hi! Great review! I just have a question.
I never flew in anything better than economy class, so I don't know if all of that stuff that you ate, drank and used were free. Especially all those drinks. And if you wanted some more, would you just ask for it and they would have given it to you for free? Thanks for the answer!

@ Alex -- Yep, all is free, and can typically have as much as you'd like, as long as they have enough for everyone. Thanks for reading!

Flying the a350 in J together with a partner, which middle row would you take - row 2? 6? 7? 8? 9?
Thanks

Thank you for the review

Lucky,

I got really bad luck:(

I booked a business class ticket from FRA to DOH on September16th right after I saw this review, since I found it really attractive. However, it turns out on Qatar Airways' website that THAT flight will be an A330-200...

Lucky,
Now that you have reviewed both Qatar's a350 and 787 could you compare and tell which you like better

Thanks for this great review. I wish this had not been an inaugural flight, so I could get a better feel for the service, but still fantastic pics. The plane looks so beautiful, I just bought a ticket from BOS - DOH on the A350 for my trip to AUH later this year. The price for two of us was only $12,000, which is half the price Etihad was charging for their business class. I think that's a steal, considering the level of service Qatar seems to provide. Can't wait to experience it.

Lucky the seats on AA and CX's 777-300ERs were designed by Cathay Pacific and built by Zodiac (AA then licensed them from CX), these seats were designed and built by B/E aerospace, a competing company.

I enjoyed my flight.  The cabin was comfortable and felt luxurious.  The service was wonderful and warm.  The initial delay and rude airline official really frustrated me, as I’d assume the staff at the home airport would be the best-trained, but that may not be fair to Qatar Airways.

Thanks for the good review, I will be flying the A350 biz later this year so it's good to have. A few corrections though... DOHA only has one runway, so it was RWY 34, not 34L. And one of the pictures approaching FRA says "view on final approach" is inaccurate. Looks like you are parallel to the runway, so you would be on the downwind. On final, the runway is directly in front of you.

They’re flying the A350 to Singapore next! Awesome.

Lucky the seats on AA and CX’s 777-300ERs were designed by Cathay Pacific and built by Zodiac (AA then licensed them from CX), these seats were designed and built by B/E aerospace, a competing company.