Here’s an exciting fleet update. Qatar Airways operates one of the most modern fleets of aircraft in the world. Their newest aircraft is the Airbus A350-1000, a plane for which they were the launch customer, and they have a total of 40 on order.
The first US destination to feature the A350-1000 is New York, and last week I wrote about how the route will feature twice daily A350-1000s as of 2019. It’s not surprising to me that New York is the first US market to get the A350-1000.
What’s interesting is the second market to get them. Qatar Airways has just announced that they’ll fly the A350-1000 between Dallas Fort Worth and Doha between July 1 and October 26, 2019. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
QR729 Doha to Dallas departing 7:50AM arriving 1:50PM
QR730 Dallas to Doha departing 6:10PM arriving 4:40PM (+1 day)
This flight covers a distance of 7,932 miles in each direction, and is blocked at 14h30min eastbound and 15hr40min westbound.
Qatar Airways previously used a Boeing 777-300ER for the route, and they didn’t even use a Qsuites configured aircraft. So it’s interesting that they’re putting a brand new A350-1000 with Qsuites on a route that didn’t even previously feature Qsuites.
Note that while the flight is currently slated to feature Qsuites through October 26, that also represents the end of the summer schedule, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the plane extended beyond that once they update the winter schedule.
The A350-1000 features a total of 327 seats, including 46 business class seats and 281 economy seats.
As a point of comparison, the 777-300ER that’s being replaced on the route features a total of 358 seats, including 42 business class seats and 316 economy seats. So we’re seeing a slight increase in business class capacity, and a significant decrease in economy capacity.
Most importantly, though, we’re going from this business class product…
To this business class product…
The other great news is that there’s plenty of award availability on this flight, should you want to redeem miles for Qsuites on a brand new aircraft type.
It used to be that Qatar Airways wouldn’t make business class award seats available on flights with Qsuites, though as the number of flights with Qsuites has increased, they’ve gotten so much better about making award seats available.
DFW is a market with good award availability on Qatar Airways, and I see a good amount of award space. You can easily search space on aa.com, and if you want to narrow it down to the nonstop flight, select the “non-stop only” option.
Generally the best value for booking this is through American AAdvantage, as you can redeem just 70,000 miles for one-way business class between the US and the Middle East/India.
Anyone have plans to fly the A350-1000 between Dallas and Doha?
(Tip of the hat to @airlineroute)
The IAH flights are switching to A350-1000 from June 1.
I flew Qatar first class from DOH to SYD last Nov and rtn was q suites on the triple 7, sorry but first class on the A380 just didn't cut it against the Q Suites, other than the massive bathroom in First
@Lucky Why do you think QR will keep Qsuites on the DFW route? And, when do you think we'll have a more solid idea if they actually will? Booking a trip now and DFW would be my preferable routing. Thanks!
Ben, why do you think QR will keep the A350-1000 on this route? And, when does the winter schedule update so we can know for sure? Thanks!
FWIW, I just booked DOH-DFW for November 17 and it is showing 77W with the old seating chart. I'm going to guess that is just a holder.
The Qsuite is coming on January 16th but on the B777.
I have booked two business tickets on the first 350-1000 departure from DFW using miles and I did not have any issues. Frank and I are excited to fly in Qatar's Qsuites.
Ben, i got a chance to travel in qsuite from Doha to Mumbai in Nov, I liked the 777 Old Model Business more than the Qsuite , gave me more privacy but when I slept for a while in the Qsuite it was not as comfortable as the typical business
Do you think the price is pretty steep DFW-DOH route due to Qsuite?
I used google flights to compare a date 10/22 - 11/12 - 2019 , says $4500 for DFW-BOM and for IAH-BOM its just $3368
I guess MIA would be the LAST US Gateway to get the QSuite. :td:
That should be a nice long flight to enjoy the Qsuites. Even better on the A350. A very comfortable, silent and quiet plane compared to the noisy cabins on 777.
The price is way high for this flight, I took QR 3 times and paid way less..may be the qr is charging more for the qsuite model on A350
"So it’s interesting that they’re putting a brand new A350-1000 with Qsuites on a route that didn’t even previously feature Qsuites"
I had a DOH-DFW segment booked for 15-Sep and was able to select Qsuites on the 77W. It just wasn't published.
Also, one shouldn't take the QR availability that shows up on AA at face value. A lot of it is ghost availability which will just go away when you select it with the...
"So it’s interesting that they’re putting a brand new A350-1000 with Qsuites on a route that didn’t even previously feature Qsuites"
I had a DOH-DFW segment booked for 15-Sep and was able to select Qsuites on the 77W. It just wasn't published.
Also, one shouldn't take the QR availability that shows up on AA at face value. A lot of it is ghost availability which will just go away when you select it with the message ""The flight you selected is no longer available. Please modify your request." Best to verify it with JAL search.
I had read a while back that starting sometime in Jan 2019 the Qsuites were coming on DFW-DOH route. Where can you check this information online for a given date in the future?
"I would choose the 777 anyway over the A350. We had air vents !
You'd choose a 30 year old design over a brand new state-of-the-art design because of air vents?
Each to his own I guess.
Just flew Qsuites from IAH-DOH and wow, yes this is indeed the worlds very best busienss class. I would choose the 777 anyway over the A350. We had air vents ! Super powerful ones at each suite even in the center. Also the 777 is wider. I highly recommend the 777 to all.
I booked a flight from DFW on QR for May 2019 and the seating chart shows Qsuites in each direction on a 777-300ER.
Nooooo!!!!! I booked a flight from Doha to Dallas on Qatar in business to fly on June 26th 2019. This is just painfull.....