Qatar Airways takes an interesting approach to how it markets the forward cabin on many of its short haul flights, and it tends to confuse people. In this post, I’d like to discuss this in a bit more detail.
Continue reading: Qatar Airways’ Confusing Regional First Class Product Explained
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Question for you, you say "For service to Oman, flights to Muscat (MCT) have first class". Alaska awards for this flight (DOH-MCT) reference it being "business class", not first class. Would one actually be getting a first class award ticket if one purchased a business class award flight on AS for this flight? It certainly would appear to give better value if you're actually getting the first class ticket and the corresponding lounge access (assuming the upgraded lounge access actually comes with a reward ticket and there aren't some fine print exclusions)
I believe that’s one of the main reasons they have Saudi Arabia as their largest premium market, it’s a way to take business away from other competitors such as Etihad or Emirates.
Many locals in Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, etc prefer flying QA than their respective national carriers and in return QA rewards them with a superior product to any other airline in the region.
@ Nobody -- Do you have a specific date you're looking at, so I can check? Most of the award availability I see with Atmos Rewards is for Oman Air and not Qatar Airways in that market.
I actually love this oddity. Flying from UK regions -> Dubai I can either fly Emirates direct but end up on a flight time that is sub-par for maximum rest, or I can fly to DOH, stay overnight in a hotel for almost nothing courtesy of the QR stop-over then continue to SHJ the next day in F. On arrival it means the business class passport lounge (which for me is always completely empty) and the next morning I get to use the first class wing for entry and head to F lounge. I then end up in SHJ which is far quicker to exit than DXB and end up central in no time.
This normally costs me 50% less than Emirates J as well so no brainer - a night in a real bed, fully refreshed, no jet lag and a fun regional hop with better lounge. I know the main QR J lounge is great but at busy banked times it is heaving and not at all relaxing. This also let's me then skip major flight banks.
I haven't looked at those flights in a while, but I now see availability is non-existent. So maybe the question is moot.
@Nobody, this is for a different route, but I booked DOH-AUH on QR as a business class award on AA, and it shows up in QR’s app as a first class ticket.
Oops, have to correct myself. It did code as First on AA. I do recall seeing it as a business award on AS though (when it was available).
Couldn't agree more guytp. Did this in October when flying with a buddy to MCT. Stayed at the airport hotel. Had dinner and then drinks in the Al Safwa lounge and explored some of the airport I wasn't familiar with. Nice breakfast in the morning and off to Muscat. Great experience.
Woof. Haven't taken any of these, thankfully. Much prefer the Q-suite long-haul or 789 mini-Q-suite.
It’s also interesting to note that sometimes the specific flight determines whether it is marketed as First Class or Business Class. Qatar operates many frequencies to Riyadh (RUH) from Doha (DOH), and some of these flights are marketed as Business Class while others are marketed as First Class, even though the seats are identical. I’ve experienced this myself—it often seems to depend on the aircraft type. For example, I’ve noticed that the 787 is frequently marketed as Business Class on this route, whereas the 777 is often marketed as First Class.
Surprising that none of these are here yet.
AeroB13a crying with his usual word salad to convey absolutely nothing - "proletariat", "native", "clickbait", "World Rankings", ", yes?"
Proximanova starting the sentence with "It's funny how" and mentioning CI JX KE A321neos as if these are the only relevant planes out there, as well as Asiana's nonexistence 2-3-2 777s
Tim Dunn bragging Delta's profitability and the premium market position
Weird quirk is that DXB frequently gets the ex Cathay 777s with the separate first class cabin. If you're only travelling from DOH to DXB, you'll find they sell the business and first separately, and the business fares are far more reasonably priced.
This becomes a big disadvantage when connecting off a longer flight though, where you pay the same price but don't get First Class lounge access as your DXB connection is only marketed as business class
I agree it is a confusing product. Even more so for corporate travel: While my employer (thankfully!) has a policy which permits business class travel in some cases, including on connecting flights, the travel policy absolutely forbids first class travel under any circumstances. This always causes a big problem in this case with QR, but also with most US based airlines, since they insist on a separate Economy ticket to be purchased. This not only is inconvenient, it almost always comes at a higher cost and with separate tickets a risky, unprotected connection.
"Through some partner programs, you can include a regional first class connection as part of a larger business class award at the business class award cost" : ir used to be... but not any longer, at least via AA redemption. I have been a frequent flyer between East Asia and the Middle East (Cairo & the Gulf) via AA redemption for more than a decade. In the past, 40K AA redemption got you a biz+F mix (e.g. HND/SIN/ICN-Middle East incl. Cairo), but now it's a biz+eco mix with 40K redemption. As for non-Gulf cities (Cairo, Amman etc.), one now needs to pay 50K (First class) redemption for biz(long haul)+F(short haul) mix. As for routes to the Gulf destinations, Qatar doesn't allow this mix (only 40K for biz+eco mix is available).
This works great in the other direction too: QR often have attractive long haul premium fares ex-SHJ if an overnight layover is involved. So you can hop to Doha the afternoon / evening before, check into one of the many decent hotels near the airport, grab dinner, then head to the Al Safwa lounge for breakfast before your long-haul flight the next morning. Getting in and out of DOH is always a breeze too given how few passengers terminates / originates there. Definitely beats squirming through the 6AM rush at DXB.
It’s worth pointing out that many of these flights are super short (like, less than 40 mins in the air). So you’re definitely paying more for the premium ground experience than the hard product.
No wonder. I’m at Al Safwa and there are so so many people from this region - basically no international folks.