Review: Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge Doha Airport DOH

Lucky, thanks for the review! Who can actually enter this lounge? QR J/F passengers only? Other airlines' premium cabin pax? Can you use this lounge with OW Sapphire or Emerald status?

We thought it was great. Kids room was cool too with a diaper changing room fully stocked. Also you missed pictures of the "family area" where they essentially have little living rooms set up (private) with a sofa set and TV.

My one comment (which I didn't share with the man who asked us—maybe he was a manager or something) is that it's a little bit weird/embarrassing how the restroom attendants clean the toilet immediately after you use it. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the cleanliness, but someone walking in to a bathroom stall moments after I use it (this happened 3 times during our long layover) was a little weird.

Hey Ben,

Do you know what is the business hours for the lounge? If people have a boarding time 01.20am, do you think they close at the midnight?

@ ernest -- I believe it's open 24 hours per day. It should definitely be open for your 1:20AM departure. In the Middle East airports are bustling at that hour!

@ Jamie -- OMG! That was in my notes but forgot to mention it. TOTALLY agree. The whole situation creeps me out.

@ Whisky Bravo -- Qatar Airways and oneworld first and business class passengers can use it. Unfortunately oneworld frequent flyers have to use the Oryx Lounge.

Regarding finding you in the lounge... I once had to buy a last-minute ticket at the counter in DOH, and for some reason it wasn't issuing. The QR lady working the ticketing desk assured me that she would get it fixed, and I could feel free to move around the terminal, go do some shopping, and I'd receive the itinerary.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later, she comes up to me, halfway across the terminal, and hands me my ticket.

I think they're just magical.

From all the pictures I've seen, that Teddy Bear is weird. Not sure who thought it should go in an airport. Though I'm not sure where it should go.

Thought it funny that the giant screens at the boarding area had to be labeled "Television" Isn't it obvious that's what they are?

We had a long transit here in Sept. Between 11pm and 6am The lounge becomes very quiet and believe me the only comfy seats are the long leather couches. Then the floor buffers start.... There is a VIP lounge, which I believe has bed type seats, but they are uni-sex. I think long transit customers can use them, but I didnt try to access.
The washroom cleaners stay in them all night long, very creepy. Also, check your gate when you arrive, we nearly missed our flight to Jakarta as our gate was E4 and it was a VERY long walk which we were not aware of.

Was The Chief actually on the flight? If so did you get to meet him?

@ Patrick -- Sadly he wasn't. 🙁

@ Filipe -- Hah, but it sounds like in that case they at least knew who you were since they saw you earlier. In this case I hadn't even checked in, so they had no way of knowing who I was.

Actually they are letting in OneWorld Emeralds flying Y. I was flying Y as a OWE and went to the Oryx lounge but they redirected me to the Al Mourjan lounge. It was a much nicer lounge.

@John, I also had access to the Al Mourjan lounge as a OneWorld Emerald flying QR in Y in early October. I was wondering if they were going to close that access. What was the date of your flight?

I have been flying Y on QR every other week since September and they have always given me access as OWE.

Do they have any quiet rooms/cabanas/daybed style seating where you could nap undisturbed for a few hours on a long layover? Is that what the "family area" is for? I'll be there from midnight til 6 am in January.

I flew early November. I suspect the access may be revoked once they finish building the First Class lounge and their VIP terminals.

Hey Lucky, I was hoping there would be some kind of sleeper rooms for my 11:30pm to 8am layover coming up. Besides the airport hotel that wants to charge 180USD for 6 hours, do you have any sleeping tips or ideas? I am flying in on CX and out on QR biz on an award ticket, so QR declined to provide accommodations. Any ideas? Thanks for the review, I'm glad you got it up before my trip.

Lucky, did the lounge ever feel 'sterile'? I notice that they've replaced a lot of the brown woods with a much darker greyish wood and a lot of metal/faux-metal...

Bathroom-wise, it's a great improvement over the old ones though!

@ Slugger -- If there were, I didn't notice them.

@ Aubrey -- It's a fairly nice lounge, so if you get some rest on the flights then it's not a bad place to kill the night. That being said, I'd probably pay for the hotel to get some rest. Don't know of any other options, unfortunately.

@ Charlie -- That's a toughie, as I sometimes have a weird taste. It's somewhere between sterile and minimalist, which I have a tendency to like, actually...

@lucky, they actually do have a day-bed zone hidden to the right side of the deli without any sign at the end of the corridor leading to the toilets. In front of the zone, it says VIP only. You just need to ask a staff member to bring you there. I guess it is reserved for first class passengers. In that area there are around 10 beds and a dedicated shower facility. FYI.

Hi Ben,

Did you check out the Oryx lounge? I thought that was something you were going to do the last time you were in Doha! Could you please do a review of this lounge the next time you pass through, even only to take pictures 🙂

It's obvious that Al Mourjan is a great lounge, but the key here is that OW Emerald and Sapphires flying Economy are not able to use it.

How does Oryx compare against Al Mourjan? Is it like Galleries First vs. the Concorde Room?

ROFL on "Naturally I had a hard time controlling myself."

Here is a TR with a visit to another business class lounge at HIA. It's at the end of the TR.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/253860/

NAP ROOMS ON AL MOURJAN LOUNGE

There are nap rooms, pretty cool ones.

This is what you need to do:

1) Go to the "Resort Area" which is a glass paneled area with seating and informal ambience. (is on the left side where there is a "bistro").
2) Behind the bar, there is a rest Area (opposite to the kids playground area).

The place is great! you will have a mini-cabana with 3 bottles of water and chocolates, a hanger an open closet, 42 inch screen, a leather couch with ottoman, a coffee table with magazines. It is very private and it has probably 12 "cabanas". You can use the showers there which are more private than the ones presented by @lucky.

Sad that you missed them; my pictures were not very clear. Next week for my trip to KL I will try to make nicer ones!

Thanks for the report. We only had time for a quick light lunch in the bistro recently and the grilled sandwiches were fine. But ... the bottle of Krug in the ice bucket was empty and other champagnes were at room temperature. By the look of your pix, they have faith in the chilling properties of cork in the restaurant too. Training/supervision issues, maybe? We'll check it out on our return next week.

I find it odd that they don't have separate showers area but instead they were built together with the washrooms with no clear signage, making them a bit difficult to find. And when you ask for directions, depending on where you are in the lounge, you may be pointed to a washroom area with just one or two shower rooms, which I find very awkward to use(since you'll probably the only one naked in that area). It also lacked some of the basic amenities like comb, shower cap, etc. Apart from that, they have a decent-looking game room, though unfortunately none of the devices seem to be working or even turned on. The service there was indeed lacking a bit, as you'd have to ask every time, and I also find it a bit disappointing that they don't have a dedicated First Class area inside even though it's huge. The locker is definitely a plus, and I was able to spend some time in the shopping area of the terminal thanks to that.

I think all in all it has a potential to become the world's best Business Class Lounge, though there's definitely room for improvement in terms of service and amenities.

@ yw1248 -- Wow, interesting. Saw the "VIP Only" sign, but didn't bother asking what was behind it. Figured it was only for "Excellencies." 😉

@ TheRealBabushka -- I'll be sure to check it out the next time I pass through.

@ arraitch -- That's just a display. The drinks themselves should be poured by the bartender from fresh bottles in the fridge.

Breakfast menu: I'm guessing you passed on having foul madamas? 😉

Nice lounge. I dig the game room.

I found during busy times, their service really wanes. I went to the upstairs restaurant area, and got a table. There was no proactive offer for drinks, so went to the bar (staffed by one person who was serving wait staff and passengers), order 2 OJ's, 2 waters and 2 coffee's. Took them to the table myself. Staff did not offer to help.

An order for fried eggs took close to 20 minutes,

I felt service to be very underwhelming. But the Krug made up for it:)

@Lucky....Great TR! Do members flying EY business class get access to the lounge?

@ Dan -- Sadly not, they use a contract lounge as far as I know.

@Lucky. Ahh ok for some reason from all of mid January-Mid February to the UAE from DOH. QR has blocked ALL award space where EY was open. Obviously want to fly QR so I can go into the lounge. Any experiences with this and if so when can I anticipate things will open back up as its every flight to AUH/DXB for a months time.

@ Dan -- They are pretty good about opening space as the departure date approaches, so I'd keep monitoring. Not sure about the timeframe though -- perhaps only within a couple of weeks of departure.

Lucky, are pax in paid J allowed to bring a guest into the lounge? Is anyone allowed to bring a guest?

@ Steve -- Yep, one guest.

I used the lounge a few days ago and thought it was great.

I agree that the service was confusing - there was staff wandering around the lounge, and whenever I got up to help myself to a drink from the drink station, the one nearest me would jump to attention, run over and intently watch me as I poured myself a drink. I'm not sure what the deal is, whether I should have ordered drinks from him, or what. Having said that, all of the staff were very friendly.

I also agree with the comment above regarding toilet attendants - at least let me leave the bathroom before cleaning after me!

Also it's worth noting that when I was there, a member of staff was going round asking passengers what flight they were on, and then she seemed to be noting it down, presumably with the passengers' location in the lounge.

I was there early afternoon and it was practically empty.

Great lounge.

I'm in DOH and using the Al Mourjan Business lounge as a OWE right now (Dec 12). While the official Qatar airways website says you can't use it, when I went to the Oryx lounge I was directed here. They were checking access at the bottom of the escalator and had a portable sign up saying OWE and OWS can access.

The lounge, at around 6-7am, gets super busy. They aren't staffed up to handle these many people. The Deli had a line of around 20 people waiting for food, and the main restaurant was equally pasked.

They do still serve Krug though, but as they ran out of proper classes they served it in a normal wine glass.

I'll be passing through in mid Jan again and will report if access by OWE is still allowed.

@Lucky , just wanted to know whether you knew the answer, cause I'm getting more and more confused with different information from Google, Qatar's website and the airport's website.

How many lounges are there to get into in DOH?
- from QR's website and the oneworld 'Lounge access' site, seems that there is the Al Mourjan lounge limited to J and F passengers; the 'First Class' and 'Business Class' lounges for oneworld elites on Y; and the Oryx Lounge for 'lounge-eligible' passengers on other oneworld flights
- from the airport's page, seems like F passengers on QR are supposed to go the 'First Class' lounge; QR J passengers and non-QR F/J to the Oryx lounge; QR FFP eligible members to a 'Silver' or a 'Gold' lounge

- yet there seem to be absolutely no reviews or mentions of visits to any lounge in DOH other than the Al Mourjan lounge --> is there really a 'First Class', 'Business Class', Oryx, 'Silver' and 'Gold' lounge in addition to the Al Mourjan?

On that point, any news about the Al Safwa lounge? Is it still 'in progress' or cancelled?

@ Charlie -- There's an Al Mourjan and Oryx Lounge. The first class lounge will open in the coming months.

I have visited the Al Mourjan lounge a couple times the last two weeks. The lounge is still combined first&bizz class.

My first visit was 2 hrs during the busy early morning hrs. There were no a`la carte in the restaurant and no Krug (or other champagne for that matter). But great service at the tables downstairs and the waiters quickly asked the guests if they wanted refill of what they had in their glasses, as soon as anything started to become empty.

My second visit was 2 hrs during the even more busy late evening hrs. Again no a`la carte and no Krug. I asked a waiter about the a`la carte, and he said it was not available "for certain reasons", but it should come back at a later date. He said "for certain reasons" several times and in a bit of a funny way, so I started to get curious what those reasons were, but I didnt find out. Maybe it was for the best.
The waiters downstairs, that were so nice a couple weeks before, were now hardly to be seen, and you had to go and find a bar to get anything. Well, I guess that is ok for a bizz lounge.
The internet was terrible, both on the wi-fi and on the table side tablets. Hardly possible to download even the simplest web sites.

It is still a good lounge, but reading your review, I do get the feeling they might not manage keep the standard, not even when it still is a combined F/J lounge.

And as a sidenote, after the 2nd visit, I headed to the gate early, as I felt it would be better to wait in the aircraft than in the crowded lounge. I walked to a gate in "D", where you have to be bussed to the aircraft. I walked for a long, long time and finally came to check in. They hurdled us bizz pax into one buss and the econ pax into another.
After 5 min the econ buss took off and we waited. And waited. And waited. One econ buss took off. Then another econ buss were filled. Apparently, they wanted to have one buss for the bizz and wanted all to arrive before it could be released. Finally I got up and asked if we were punished for buying bizz, since we had to wait in a crappy buss during the whole dang check in. Finally, the manager released the buss, even with 2 pax still to come. So we headed for the aircraft and arrived after two econ busses, that had to finish embarking the single entry, before we were released from our moving prison.
If I only knew... Id taken the first econ buss...

And unfortunately, it was an A333. If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.... (well, I had to take that dang buss this time)

My partner & I (flying QR in discount Y, with myself as a OWS) were allowed access a few weeks ago, while transiting from MEL to BCN. Until the new First Class lounge opens, OneWorld Sapphires & Emeralds (regardless of class flown) are being temporarily allowed access. Word on the block is that this will occur sometime in June.

Constant cleaners in the bathroom are creepy - agreed. You feel them ready to pounce!

I find it minimalist & mildly sterile, but am also somewhat a fan of those aesthetics too. Checked at the bar and with the maître d’ upstairs - definitely no longer any Krug available in this lounge, nor any plans to do so again. Apparently this will be reserved only for the new First Class lounge once it opens. The service I found to be impeccable; my partner & I asked where in the terminal the smoking lounge would be only to find to his surprise it was a small room WITHIN the actual lounge itself! The staff member insisted he escort my partner down. Well played!

Question - does anyknow know when the new first class lounge will open? Thanks!

@ Maja -- They still don't have a date, unfortunately.

@Lucky,

Is the food any better now? Last trip I'd been on (April 2015) the food was horrendous. Everything tasted like cardboard (granted I'm a chef on the side), but I was horrified. Also, no real sleeping area. 8 hours in Doha was a nightmare even with an amazing lounge. But I had asked about Krug and it was still there then... Guess I'll fly QR - Singapore much less now. Missed the ex-Germany - KUL first class error fare on BA last week by seconds too - which was a total bummer.

Also agree with a previous post that LHR-DOH-SIN is stupid silly with an 8 hour layover as I didn't sleep during 6 hour LHR-DOH but crashed so hard DOH-SIN (I didn't even eat) because I hadn't slept for about 28 hours then. :/

Feb 2016: They aren't serving Krug anymore. I asked and the attendant said they've discontinued it. I'm hoping he's mistaken...

Qatar's lounge needs to be compared to that of other premium airlines.

To be honest, its very dissapointing when compared to Emirates and Qantas home base lounges.

American Express has better lounges than Qatar.

Not enough staff are on duty to service the quantity of guests in its one and only lounge in Doha.
After waiting 30 minutes for a waiter, you walk up to place an order for coffee and an avergae sandwich and you are yelled at to go sit back down.
Broken coffee machines.
Buffet quality was on par with that of a 3 star hotel.
2hr wait to use the shower facilities.
One World Emerald members are not allowed to access the first class lounge.

In comparison, Emirates and Qantas first class lounges which can be used by respective top tier members have access to day spa's, al a carte table service. A grade beer, wine and spirits

For an airline that is trying to attract Emirates and Qantas premium international passenges, Qatar has failed.

I'd rather pay the premium and fly Emirates of Qantas who provide an end to end premium service

Thanks for all the pictures and the detailed review. Going here on Christmas Day and excited about the journey as well as the lounge.

Krug is over -- lucky I think you should update your post to reflect this!