Qatar Airways Restores Pre-Pandemic Inflight Service

Qatar Airways Restores Pre-Pandemic Inflight Service

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Qatar Airways has done an incredible job maintaining its network throughout the pandemic. As was the case with all airlines, some inflight services were adjusted due to the pandemic. Well, the airline is now returning to offering pre-pandemic inflight service, which many passengers will no doubt appreciate.

Timeline for Qatar Airways restoring service

Effective immediately, Qatar Airways has fully restored inflight pre-pandemic service on all routes to London (LHR) and Paris (CDG). This reintroduced service coincides with the airline flying Airbus A380s on the routes, which is being offered due to the grounding of many A350s (previously the plan was for Qatar Airways to retire these planes).

Qatar Airways plans to gradually resume full inflight service throughout its network of 140+ destinations as of January 2022, so that’s right around the corner.

As Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker describes this development:

“The past year and a half has been a challenging period for the aviation industry, however we grew stronger and became more resilient as time went by. Today, we are happy to mark a new chapter that brings us a step closer to the recovery of the pandemic. Passengers will now be able to further enjoy Qatar Airways’ world-renowned in-flight services onboard our flights between Doha, London and Paris with more destinations to follow.”

The Qatar Airways A380 bar is reopening

What’s changing with Qatar Airways’ service?

The truth is that Qatar Airways has maintained an excellent service standard throughout the pandemic, so the changes are all pretty minor. During the pandemic:

  • First & business class meals were served covered on a tray layup, and a cutlery roll was offered to passengers as an alternative to individual cutlery service
  • The airline introduced single-use menu cards and sealed refreshing wipes
  • Social areas were closed

All of this will be changing. For example, passengers in first & business class will no longer be offered meals on serving trays, but instead silverware and chinaware will be placed directly on a white linen, and the signature (fake) candle will also make a return.

Qatar Airways’ pre-pandemic business class meal service

Meanwhile in American Airlines first class

Qatar Airways Qsuites this is not…

Bottom line

Qatar Airways is in the process of fully restoring its pre-pandemic inflight service. This is now available on routes to London and Paris, and should be available on other routes as of January 2022.

In reality the airline has maintained more service than most airlines throughout the pandemic. However, some of the special touches of Qatar Airways’ service will be returning, including candles, dishes being placed directly on a tablecloth, etc.

If you flew Qatar Airways during the pandemic, what was your experience with the service?

Conversations (35)
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  1. Brian Guest

    My flight to Heathrow from Cape Town canceled for January due to this red international restriction. Unfare.

  2. Mrs kashif Kashif Guest

    Plz open fights johanessburg to pakistan we r all missing our family members plz help us do some thing

  3. Shernaaz shaikh Guest

    Excellent looking forward to travel this year

  4. Tracey evans Guest

    Six wks ago I flew from uk to Sydney and yesterday from Sydney to uk . Stop over in Doha . Business class was exceptional service.
    Could not fault anything.. staff were so attentive, clean, as covid safe as can be. A great experience and great service..

  5. Barsha Dassarma Guest

    What about resumption of flights from Johannesburg to India?

  6. Aman Guest

    Sorry but I see this as a case of misplaced priorities. I would imagine that most passengers would happily forgo the elaborate table setting for a single tray with the same food with minimised contact.
    As much as we hate to admit, COVID is not over and with many people unable to visit their families over the holidays, this just seems bizarre if not a tad insensitive.

    1. Kyle Guest

      No one is going to make you fly, so don't worry about it! Let others enjoy their lives.

    2. Mo Guest

      Qatar does not care about covid or flight safety in general so it is actually their priority.

  7. muhammad. Guest

    Very disappointed by qatar airways backtrack on resuming flight operations from southafrica. Caused me and my family a great great deal of inconvenience. Don't think will be flying qatar airways ever again!!

  8. Judith Weyers Guest

    Thank you Qatar Airways! EXCELLENT service. Flew me to Cape Town, South Africa. Will always be grateful, as I could attend my daughter's wedding. I salute you. Best airlines!

  9. Steven E Guest

    Good to know that their great standard is being restored, the best airline in business in my opinion (Qsuites A350)

  10. KHALID JAT Guest

    Very bad experience in my opinion I got ripped off by airline both ways

  11. IHateCandles Guest

    Huh?

    I've flown QA Business multiple times during 2021, and the only thing that they did do was provide you the rolled inside a napkin.
    Meals were not covered
    And they kept bringing me the freaking candle....

  12. Brad Snelling Guest

    I flew them on November 11th and 21st, 2021 and while the Qsuite was amazing, and great service by staff, the food was a disappointment. While it looked good, I found the taste and texture not as good as the hype. I thought it was due to the Montreal flight kitchens at first. But in the return flight had the same problem. And I am not picky! Maybe it was an off month.

  13. ClaudiusofSavoy Guest

    Paris-Doha-Adelaide (26/12/20), Business flights.....excellent flights and exceptional services. Best airline company by far

  14. Jeannine Roman Guest

    Flew LAX-DOH-DXB round trip this November in Business on A350. Seriously delayed boarding at LAX can only be described as resulting in third world chaos. Absolutely no crowd control by gate agents. Pax entering plane just sat in any seat they wanted (including Business) requiring flight attendants to remove them to their assigned seat. Transit through DOH a mass stampede with no pax traffic control. All pax crowded into fast track transit lane for First/Business...

    Flew LAX-DOH-DXB round trip this November in Business on A350. Seriously delayed boarding at LAX can only be described as resulting in third world chaos. Absolutely no crowd control by gate agents. Pax entering plane just sat in any seat they wanted (including Business) requiring flight attendants to remove them to their assigned seat. Transit through DOH a mass stampede with no pax traffic control. All pax crowded into fast track transit lane for First/Business pax. Lounges in DOH massively overcrowded. I found bed on all flights hard with end of seat rising just enough to poke into my back. The mattress pad is worthless--a mattress sheet. Foot well area is cramped. Not impressed with QSuite.

    $180USD COVID test I took one day prior to re-entering USA was not even looked at by Qatar's DXB check-in agent. The immigration officer at LAX just waived me through. So much for COVID testing.

    My general impression of Qatar for Business class service on the ground--huge fail.

    The flight attendants were lovely and very attentive. Qatar needs to get its act together about what happens to it's passengers before they get on the plane.

    1. Suhas Guest

      I think this low service is an american problem. Flew in july from SFO to doha, as a life time sapphire (in biz class) am entitled to lounge. Staff were clueless and told me to just go and try at the lounge

  15. R Sparks Guest

    Doha to NY last week. One of the entrees offered was costolette alla valdostana Oscar. It was excellent. Have not had this dish since leaving Spain. Try it you will like it.

  16. Saurabh Patwa Guest

    I had bad experience at Qatar Airways on travelling from Doha to Sydney in flight QR908.
    We had reserved the seats in row 18 and the lady at boarding desk change my seats in 38 th row for me and my wife causing great discomfort and she did in very insulting manner.
    She said everyone is shifted back but while we entred the plane we found the original window seats were occupied.
    Very bad for Qatar Airways

  17. Notmyname Guest

    Strange. Flew SEA-DOH-NBO and I did not notice a difference in service on my flights in early and late November than what I would have expected on any other business class long haul flight. The utensils wrapped in a napkin was happening, but it didn't stand out to me as something COVID response related.

    Otherwise, pretty much business as usual. No social areas on any of my planes, so can't speak to that.

    1. Rafa Guest

      I can echo this sentiment. Doha to Miami 6 weeks ago. Service was fantastic to
      Say the list. Dining on demand as usual. Lobster for dinner among other options.

  18. JS Guest

    Flew DFW-DOH-CPT and return trip back in September - all on A350-1000 in Q-Suites. Service was pretty much back to normal - but I'm definitely not a fan of "order on demand". This concept causes the cabin crew to become frantic trying to figure out everyone's drink orders, variety of food orders, etc. Ordering a cocktail literally took around 30 minutes from ordering to receiving. Food courses were sporadic at best. I had read so...

    Flew DFW-DOH-CPT and return trip back in September - all on A350-1000 in Q-Suites. Service was pretty much back to normal - but I'm definitely not a fan of "order on demand". This concept causes the cabin crew to become frantic trying to figure out everyone's drink orders, variety of food orders, etc. Ordering a cocktail literally took around 30 minutes from ordering to receiving. Food courses were sporadic at best. I had read so much on this blog about the exceptional service of Qatar in Q-Suites and having flown 4 legs of long-haul in Q-Suites, never received exceptional service. The Q-Suite itself is phenomenal but the service and overall experience was lacking - and I'm used to flying AA long-haul so therefore, my standards were exceptionally low going into the Qatar flights.

  19. Zulu Guest

    My experience was tired cabin crews multiple orders wrong (dare I say every drink on one of my flights). They seemed demotivated on all flights. Frequent a/c type changes flew even on an old A330. Food has improved in quality but even before takeoff your choice is not available sometimes, when paying +5000usd for a ticket! Oh and the announcements become more and more jibberish and non understandable English. Prefer Emirates way over Qatar but...

    My experience was tired cabin crews multiple orders wrong (dare I say every drink on one of my flights). They seemed demotivated on all flights. Frequent a/c type changes flew even on an old A330. Food has improved in quality but even before takeoff your choice is not available sometimes, when paying +5000usd for a ticket! Oh and the announcements become more and more jibberish and non understandable English. Prefer Emirates way over Qatar but unfortunately the destinations and frequency is better with Qr. Hope EK expands again! Also Eks cabin crew are way lovelier to chat with, in Qatar I feel like I'm talking to robots.

    1. glenn t Diamond

      You must have flown a non-mainstream route to have had that experience. The old aircraft/B-grade crew scenario is commonplace on nearly every airline, sad to say.
      Crew attitudes are also affected by having to operate sub-standard aircraft with reduced opportunities to provide the level of service they would like. (This may explain why US airlines are so lacking, although they never actively seek out opportunities to enhance the customer experience.)

    2. Zuli Guest

      I can't say my European sector was non mainstream. Yes agree connected flights were not a prime market I suppose. The crappiest service was on the 787 flight albeit all flights were relatively poor.

    3. Suhas Guest

      Always great crew on qatar flights very helpful.

  20. Steve S Guest

    Flew from Boston to Dar es Salaam in Nov and Dar es Salaam to Chicago in Dec. of course through Doha on Qatar and all flights had full service. It was excellent oh so excellent

  21. Daniel B. Guest

    Flew from ORD to DOH then MCT more than a month ago. Already full service with everything you described.

  22. FNT Delta Diamond Guest

    PLEASE UPDATE YOUR DESIGN. The amount of ads are making the website unreadable. Not to mention the horrendous design and font.

    1. CJ Guest

      Could not agree more. The new website design with the even more annoying ads and banners and, and, and, and....... are all annoying as hell!! No longer enjoyable to read. Do you have to sell yourself out that much with all the ads??? Now we know how you're able to stay at all the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton's you've been staying at lately.

    2. Joes Guest

      I love seeing these ads on here

    3. David Diamond

      People still browse the web without using an ad blocker?

    4. Max Guest

      If you are still browsing the web without an adblocker in 2021 (soon 2022!) you are the problem, not the site.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

FNT Delta Diamond Guest

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR DESIGN. The amount of ads are making the website unreadable. Not to mention the horrendous design and font.

3
tim Guest

That AA pic is hilarious :)

1
Zuli Guest

I can't say my European sector was non mainstream. Yes agree connected flights were not a prime market I suppose. The crappiest service was on the 787 flight albeit all flights were relatively poor.

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