On a 4-sector December 2018 trip to Malaysia I flew on 3 different Qatar Airways aircraft types and experienced 3 quite different business class products.  You’ll already know I love flying with Qatar Airways, (“QR”) so maybe I’m biased when I say that even the oldest and worst of the three products I flew on was better than BA’s Club World product!

The first sector, from Heathrow to Doha, was on the 1 year old Boeing 777-300ER A7-BEO, which was fitted with QR’s latest Business Class, the “Q Suite”. Roomy individual (or group) suites with sliding doors give you an experience equivalent to other airlines’ first class, with total privacy, plenty of stowage and work space, a generously wide flat bed seat, excellent catering and ‘best in class’ service, all in a 1-2-1 layout.  A more detailed review of the Q Suite, from a previous journey is here.  To that review I would like to add that, to my surprise, I preferred the rear-facing window seats (K) to the slightly inboard J seat I had on this flight.  For me, it was better to have the side table space between me and the aisle, which Ks have, rather than being sat too far from the window and right up against the sliding door, in the J.  Once again, for a flight in Q Suites, I was slightly disturbed by uncontrolled children, whose families had booked the ‘quatro seats’.

But the flight was a good one, and I made use of the ‘dine on demand’ service by booking my breakfast for later in the flight, as my need for sleep was greater than my hunger, having got up at 04:30. And breakfast was of a particularly good quality – QR’s premium classes catering upgrade in 2018 has definitely been noticeable. 10/10

Flight QR6 left Heathrow just after an 08:00 dawn, and I was surprised when we landed in Doha at 17:30 local, to find that it was dark there so early!  I felt a whole day had gone past me over the course of a 6 hour flight.

After only 45 minutes in the impressive Al Mourjan lounge in Doha, we boarded flight QR844 to Kuala Lumpur. This flight was operated by a B787-8 Dreamliner, registered A7-BDA, which is fitted with QR’s second most recent Business product; a reverse herringbone 1-2-1 layout of ‘open suites’ of fully flat seat-beds, based on the Rockwell Aerospace “Super Diamond” product.

I really like this product, which is also on QR’s A380s and A350-900s; it’s very comfortable to both sit and sleep in, and the cabin feels more airy and open than the ‘boxed off” Q Suites.  And the Dreamliner is my favourite aircraft because (inter alia) it is the only plane to bring fresh, clean air directly into the cabin, as opposed to cabin air fed via a bleed from the engines on all other aircraft types.  The positive effect this has on my physical wellbeing is very noticeable indeed. 10/10

On our return flight out of Kuala Lumpur 9 days later, the QR849 to Doha was operated by an A340-600, registered A7-AGC.  The A340-600 is amongst the oldest types flown by QR and it only has 4 in its fleet, flying between Doha, KL, and Colombo.  This was my first time on this aircraft and I was quite looking forward to it, in an “AvGeek” way. The Business cabin looks old by QR standards, with a 2-2-2 layout, but in fact this product was only installed two or three years ago, in place of a first class cabin they used to have on this type.  You can see I look pretty cramped in my seat (2A), but it was actually quite comfortable and there were small personal stowage spaces behind each shoulder, so things were still a lot better than on British Airways’ 8 abreast business class product. But like on BA, window seat pax have to climb over their neighbour to get to the aisle, which isn’t good.

When I first sat down I was unimpressed with the very small footwell in front of me, but when my seat extended to its fully flat bed position I didn’t find it too small, and I was able to stretch out quite well.  I was though quite envious of the pax in row 1, who had a full width footwell (and whose seats faced forward, rather than my slightly inclined to the fuselage one).

Once again I took advantage of QR’s “Dine on Demand” in Business by having just soup and a cheese platter after take-off, then a light snack before landing in Doha. The flight ran to time and landed in Doha at 23:00.  Despite lying flat for most of the flight, I wasn’t able to get any proper sleep because I found the cabin too warm and dry. The FAs did lower the temperature, but the dry air is a common fact on most aircraft types.  7/10

We toasted the new year in QR’s Al Mourjan lounge, after Mr had a shower (no queue), and then at 01:15 we boarded flight QR329 to Gatwick, operated by another B787 Dreamliner, registration A7-BCS, which had the same seat product as the DOH-KUL sector 8 days earlier.  Our approach to Gatwick was notably different to landing at Heathrow in the early morning: we lined up for the runway when we were leaving the Dutch coast, and just flew straight. No circling, turning or stacking at all!

Whilst I remain very fond of flying with QR and their onboard products (whichever one you get) I have become very frustrated by their poor back-room service (especially from their frequent flyer programme), so I regret to say that they will lose my patronage in the future.