Great airline! (Qatar Airways)

Member Name: frankie1984

Product:	Qatar Airways
Date:	15/05/08 (506 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Staff, food, inflight entertainment system, smooth connections.

Disadvantages: Shame Doha airport isn't as advanced as the flights are yet (but they are working on it!)

I have been lucky enough to have travelled with Qatar airways in all 3 classes and wanted to share my experience as i think many people will find it interesting.

Prices:
prise wise, they are pretty similar to rates with similar airlines such as emirates, ethiad, etc but , you may find they do a lot of offer seats so can be much cheaper on certain occasions than their competitors. If you are doing economy for a round trip to bangkok you can get it at around £450pp maybe little bit less or more is any special offers are out, business approx £1200pp and first around £1600( very much rough ball part as like i said it does pay to see if any operators have specials if you are actually booking a whole package rather than just flights as it can work out a lot cheaper than paying for the flights plus accom in whichever resort you are staying)

Staff at the airport:
Qatar flt from Manchester, gatwick and heathrow of which i flew from gatwick. The check in area at gatwick for the airline has the usual seperate area for business and first class passengers and all the satff are lovely. check in was quick and done with a smile with a guy who chatted away to me unlike some other flights i've checked in for where staff are just doing the job with no customer service! i had my tickets and was on my way within minutes. The airline also seemed to have a good mix of staff as with being a multi national airline they seemed to have employed a good mix of different nationaliites.

Boarding:
Again this was done quickly and all the first class and business class passemgers had priority boarding so as to be able to get comfy on the flight and get settled. Also again staff seemed happy and chatty.

I will do each class separately and start with economy and work my way up!

Economy:
The aircraft was laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration in economy ans seats were a good 34'' pitch( which if anyone isn't familiar with is one of the best for economy).
the staff were helpful and there was about 8 stewardesses to the economy section. The seats each have their own seatback tv with has AVOD (audio video on demand) which basically means you can choose exactly what you want to watch or listen to and when. Now the AVOD on qatar is one of the best I have come across as it allows you to actually go through hundreds of cd's and pick which songs you want of the albums of hundreds of different artists old and new and add them to your playlist( seriously, you can spend the whole flight just playing around with the AVOD and land before you've finished checking everyhting out!) I loved the fact that I was able to listen to an old classic that is Al Greens ''let's stay together'' on my flight!
You can choose from about 25 movies of again which are mostly new release in cinemas and about 20 tv shows and also the news from around the world etc. the list is endless. There are also about 10 games which inlcude things like tetris, battleship and who wants to be a millionaire. certain games can be played against other passengers like battleship - as long as somebody else is waiting to play against others passengers it will find them and let you compete. The remote for your own tv is in your armrest.

The food is served as one main meal and a snack at intervals of which on this particular flight i had a thai green curry( but wasn't actually spicy in anyway!) and the light snack was a sandwich. the food that was served was very nice and much nicer than normal plane food. if at any point you fancied a light snack in between you only had to ask and they get it for you. drinks were complimentary throughout including alcoholic.
One other thing that the airline did was give you stickers to put on your chair upon boaridng which you stuck on the bak of your chair to alert staff of either a: wake me for food b: wake me for duty free or c: leave me to sleep. I know other airlines now do this anyway but it's a nice little touch! Economy passengers have 20kilos of lugage allowance

Business:
Business configuration is laid out in a 2-2-2 seat plan. If I remember rightly there were 18 seats so only 3 rows in business and the seats reclined to 160 degree angles which is pretty low as almost a full flat bed. They also have a foot massage bar on the foot rest whcih is nice. There were approx 3 staff to the business class guests so easily enough to cover our needs and seats are very spacious with. The seats have their own personal tvs again but also have a small reading lamp which is on a flexible stand next to each seat so as to not disturb the passenger next to you. The tv has the same choice of channels as economy so nothing different there. The main difference was that the tv was'nt on the seat in front but a tv set up on a movable stand so that it could be positioned to suit you.
Again the staff were extremely helpful and were chatty and it was a nice quick service due to staff levels. Food was a major difference here as the main meal was served with 'real' cutlery and you had a small table that was tucked away down the side of you chair which you could pull up and over during meals. drinks were served in proper glasses and the food was laid out on proper plates with real napkins. The snack that we had again was a sandwich but looked more gourmet and was served with tortilla chips on the side. Business passengers have 30kilos of luggage allowance

First:
Now the first class cabin! The seats in this section are laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration but all the seats are single really - middle two seats are separated by a wall. The seats do lie fully flat at 180 degree angles. The booth as i like to call it has a wall at the end where your tv is situated (which is larger than both economy and business) and your remote its tucked neatly away in it's own pouch at the side of the chair. The seta is large and very comfy and the controls for the seat are also at the side, of which you can adjust so that it's fully flat or maybe just the feet etc. On the wall which the tv is on there is a seat (which acts as the end of the bed when the seat is fully flat) which can be used for a guest to join you to eat if you aren't travelling alone. To give you an indication of how long the bed is and the actual one seat area, i had 5 windows next to me plus space on either of the two end ones. The table for when meals are served again is tucked down the side and this pulls out to form a tabel big enough for two.
Meal times are fab in first as the stewardess comes and pulls the table out for you and then lays a tablecloth. She then puts out all your cutlery for you including two water glasses - one for still, one for sparkling - and generally you are treated like you are in a restaurant!
The meal I had I have just have to mention was chicken which was served with asparagus and coated in chilli sauce - absolutely scrummy! Now the thing with first is you are given a menu upon boarding to choose your main meal and desert before you've even taken off and are given a lovely glass of champagne for take off too. Desert was ice cream served ina glass bowl decorated with cherries and very nice ice cream too may I add!
Again staff were excellent and there were 3 on my flight to the firt class cabin so again adequate enough for the amount of us.
Upon disembarking the aircraft, if you have travelled in first class you can take the option of being transported to the terminal building by mercedes rather than taking the shuttle bus( which you can do on to board aswell if you like). It's literally a two minute journey if that but none the less it's what you've paid for so you may aswell!

Luggage:
Nw with the airline if you are booking a connecting flight onwards you wouldn't need to collect your luaggae at doha airport and then check it in again as it is transported all the way through for you. For example if you board at gatwick and your final destination is bangkok, that is where you would then collect your luggage. I 've never had a problem with this and it's always been waiting for me so another plus from this airline.

Doha airport:
At the moment the airport isn't very large and last time i was there they were still finishing off building work to improve it. The airport is one of the busiest in terms of passenger numbers due to the fact that qatar airaways is one of the only four 5* airlines in the world.(malaysian, singapore and cathy are the others) and the rates are pretty good. plus they do a lot of destinantions with really good connection times.
There was only one duty free shop last time i was there and one main cafe which was't very big but, amazingly it doesn't ever seem to get too over crowded and I think this is due to the quick turnaround of flights.
There isn't many seats though and that is one big downside.
the qatar lounge however is very nice and has a good choice of hot and cold food along with all your complimentary drinks. lovely atmosphere and a great place to escape the hustle of the main building!
The airport is duty and tax free so items are really cheap - however it is worth noting it is better to purchase goods on your return journey as if for example you are travelling to the maldives iand purchasing alcohol, it would be consficated upon arrival at male airport.
Also a point to note if you're a smoker - they have smoking room set up which is quite tiny and has awful low ceilings - not sure if this is still the case as it was mainly while they do the building work but, if you can go without it would definitly be worth while!

Things to note:
All three classes are what I like to call inclusive and therefore you don't pay for any food or drink on the flight at all - the only thing you would pay for is duty free.
Headsets are provided for the tvs in all three classes also and you don't have to pay for these either. All three classes are provided with a toiletry bag containing essentials like toothbrush and paste, eye mask etc and these again are complimentary but better in each class in terms of qaulity of products etc.
The tvs also allow passengers to track where they are on their journey and you can see speed of the aircraft, altitude, temp outside, time to journey etc. SOME people find this interesting - not everyone will but i found it quite interesting to see the temp rising as we were making our descent and suddenly going up from minus degrees to plus etc! maybe something to keep children entertained with?

One last thing is the loyalty programme - I will share with you what I was once told which may come in pretty useful. If you sign up to the airlines loyalty programme which is free, you can earn points on other airlines too but not only that if you are checking in and they have an upgraded seat to offer, they are more likely to offer it to a loyalty card holder than to somebody who isn't - now this doesn't happen very often but beleive me it does occasionally if they have the space to fill and escpecially if they see a passenger who is a mega frequent flyer! If you book your trip through a tour operator just give them your loyalty number and they can pop it in the booking for you. simple as that!
I would have no hestitation in recommending qatar to anyway as I believe they are one of the best airlines for long haul travel - good rates, great staff and service, good seat spaces, good entertainment system and good food.

Summary: A great choice for flights all around the world due to the flight service and prices