The Middle Eastern carriers rightfully rank among the best in the world. But each of them still have their strengths: Emirates, for all its glitzy First Class suites and showers, still has 3 middle seats in Business Class. Etihad, with its lavish Residence, unfortunately has had to downsize considerably in the last few years. Qatar’s business class has been named as one of the best, if not the best, in the world. With a few service adjustments, I would say they are well on their way towards towards the crown of being the world’s best business class.

Flight: QR 737

Departing: Doha (DOH)

Arriving: San Francisco (SFO)

Operated by: A350-1000

Cabin: Business Class

Check In and Ground Experience

After an extremely early morning 5:40AM flight to Doha, I landed at Hamad International Airport. Whilst I was half asleep on the Economy Class flight, I still thought that the economy class seat was above average in terms of cleanliness and comfort.

Hamad International Airport is…massive. The check in terminal has 25,000 sqm of space, with enough room for more than 138 check in counters. Whilst this was good for ensuring capacity, this was slightly confusing for first time arrival at the airport. Using the giant bear as a starting point, I gradually got my bearings.

A member of the Qatar Royal Family purchased this for almost $7M at action, and it has been hanging around at the airport since it’s opening in 2014.

Oneworld Elite members and those travelling on Qatar’s business class offerings can access the Al Mourjan Business Lounge, a massive (get the trend here) 10,000 sqm space that contains multiple rooms.

I liked the overall decor of the lounge, which was a mix of stainless steel, glass and soft wood construction. However, I felt that the lounge could have been better designed: there could have been a smaller, central atrium with more deliberate funnels to different mini areas. The lounge attempted this, but went with sheer size instead. Qatar please don’t ban me, this is miles better than any Maple Leaf Lounge lol.

There was a wide variety of small bites - Air Canada take note, using semi-reusable bowls is the way to go. The food wasn’t revolutionary by any means, but keep in mind this was at 0700.

Speaking of 0700, I decided it was time for a drink for the novelty of it, especially since I had been awake for more than 24 hours, so it was technically “nighttime” for me.

There were also significant non-alcoholic beverages, including both still and sparkling water and a variety of soft drinks.

The lounge has other amenities, including showers, business centers, family areas and a game room. However, I would save any room for food and drink on the plane!

Seat and Cabin

Boarding was pretty hectic given that this flight was almost full. One interesting thing was that because they ran out of business class ticketing paper, I was printed an economy ticket; the flight attendant checking me in insisted I get a proper business class ticket!

The plane has 46 suites, split into a forward and back cabin - if given the choice, I would say the back cabin is a bit more private, and since it’s dine on demand food choices won’t theoretically be constrained. Stepping onto the plane, I was greeted by a mix of Qatar Airway’s wonderful boarding music, and a lovely burgundy cabin reminiscence of a nice corporate office.

One Mile at a Time has already written a comprehensive article about the best business class seats in Qsuites, so I just wanted to highlight a few things. Firstly, there are some backwards facing seats, which should make for an interesting experience. Secondly, the middle seats can be configured into a double bed, or even into a “quad” with 4 passengers facing each other.

I settled into my humble 6G, and gosh I was amazed at the sheer amount of space there was: combined with the door, it truly felt like a little bit of an aircraft all to myself.

Let’s take a look at the amenities waiting for me. There was a cute pillow (which I could not take home), a blanket, amenity kit and menu.

There is also an extendable remote control for the screen.

Underneath the shelf was a clever partition for people to place their electronics, along with a suite of charging outlets.

Moving backwards, we can see there is a massive second “seat” for all your belonging - I used it to stow my backpack, but I can see it comfortably fitting another human being.

The other notable feature of the seat was the massive 21.5’’ entertainment screen; to start, it was playing the safety video. As someone who doesn’t really watch sports, it took me a while to figure out that the new safety video was to celebrate Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup.

The table on this seat actually was stowed not in the entertainment console, but rather in a separate apparatus underneath the screen.

Where did the champagne come from? Well, at 0800, the airline naturally come around and asked us about our choice of welcome drink! There was a choice between Laurent Perrier (which coincidentally is what Air Canada serves) or Charles Heidsieck Rose. I initially ordered the Rose, but the flight attendant accidently gave me Laurent Perrier; despite my sleep deprived state, I could still tell the difference, and so the flight attendant brought me my original order (#firstworldproblem). I must say I much preferred Charles Heidsieck as I am sucker for Rose.

Amenities

Like most airlines, Qatar gave an amenity kit stocked with goodies. The amenity kit was provided in partnership with French brand Diptyque, and included a Lip Balm, Body Lotions, Facial Creams, Eau de Toilette; there was also an eye mask, earplugs and socks.

While I admittedly was too poor to know of the brand, everything in there was high quality; indeed the Qatar eye mask even surpassed the one provided by Emirates First Class!

Qatar’s attempts to distinguish itself really shone through in the area of sleep. While most business classes decline to provide a set of pajamas (or just a plastic bag, cough Lufthansa), Qatar provided a quite comfortable set of pajamas for all passengers by the White Company.

Interestingly enough, British Airways actually uses the White Company, although it should not be surprising given the White Company literally has London in its logo. They were actually quite stylish and form fitting, and I know I will be using them at home.

In conjunction, Qatar offered a mattress pad and turndown service. While I still am debating between this and Air Canada’s business class seat on the most comfortable business class in the sky, I can safely say the mattress pad did let me get over 9 hours of sleep in the sky.

One thing that was lacking a bit was when I went to the toilet, there were only basic amenities like a freshening spray. The other thing was that the toilet occasionally was dirty, but this was unfortunately expected given how full the plane was.

Not wanting to end this section with the pictures of the bathroom, let’s talk about Qatar’s wifi, which they called “Super Wifi”. Passengers get the first hour free, and then it’s $10 for the entire flight. As a Gen Z glued to his phone, I thought this was definitely an area that could use improvement: connection was slow, but more importantly the connection dropped every so often. But to distract from this, Qatar has provided some of the best food in the sky!

Food and Drink

As Qatar aims to capture passengers from all different continents, this invariably causes problems of passengers being on different schedules. Qatar has attempted to solve this by offering dine on demand.

Beyond the sheer weight of the menu, I both the sheer number of choices and how they were presented (cough Lufthansa). I started with some breakfast, the omelette with grilled veal sausage, roasted baby potato and creamy spinach.

I was actually glad I started out with this, as I thought it was the weakest and least seasoned dish. In the spirit of continuing to drink to prevent a hangover, I also had a dry martini from the drinks menu, which was quite expertly made and sufficiently strong.

And before I went to sleep I ordered the hot pot pulled oxtail on the brouche bun, which was delicious! The oxtail fell apart, the bun was perfectly toasted somehow and the salad was seasoned just right. Alas, then I went to ask for another later in the flight, the crew ran out.

After sleeping for a long time, I was ready to put the rest of the menu to the test. I started out with two portions of the assiette (fancy word for dish) of cold cuts that included smoked salmon and smoked mackerel. I have no idea how they did it, but I can attest that this was perhaps the best smoked fish I had on a plane. And kudos to the lovely flight attendant that plated twice the amount of appetizers on the same plate!

I also decided to randomly taste test the 3 dark spirits on the menu (Glenfiddich, Chivas and Woodford): I was easily able to distinguish the bourbon, but mixed up the two Whiskies. But still, I like Bourbon. Next up, I decided to order 2 mains, with the first being the braised lamb belly thareed. And oh my goodness was the lamb cooked to perfection, it was extremely soft and broke apart easily.

At this point, I also want to mention how labor intensive but attentive Qatar’s service is. They individually set your table, provide some lovely accompaniments like a fake candle and individually provide plates of food.

I was still hungry, and having a good experience with the seafood earlier, I decided to order the trio of seafood with saffron lemon sauce. The flight attendant remarked at my luck, as this was the last one available!

Again, no complaints, somehow they managed to cook seafood just right at 40,000 ft. And at the suggestion of the flight attendant, I decided to try the dulce ginger and orange cake. And boy, was she not wrong, the cake was absolutely delicious, with the flavors balancing each other out.

Near the end of the flight, the attendants passed out some chocolates, which contained just the right amount of sweetness.

Not to belabor the point, but my goodness was this the best business class meal I had in the sky.

Service

While the service was miles better than other airlines, there were some misses. One minor thing was getting the champagne order wrong: as they say in banking, its not so much getting the order wrong as it gets the client to start questioning the competency. The other thing was that I pre-ordered food with the same flight attendant; despite having taken my order to eat at 1100, I had to remind her 10 minutes later to get the meal started. Nevertheless, I do believe this was an isolated case: the lead flight attendant in particular exemplified service, whether it was giving me a ton of water to helping fill out immigration forms. The rest of the crew I found were also highly efficient, especially considering the significant demands a dine on demand has on the crew. Finally, I do feel that Qatar either needs to add more food to flights, or set limits on dine on demand: dishes towards the end of the flight tended to run out, which while fair does color the meaning of “dine on demand”.

Final Thoughts

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar’s CEO, has said some crazy stuff, but I generally appreciate how open and savage he is. Notably, he has said that US airlines basically offer a subpar product, both hard and soft. To this end, I believe that he is correct: Qatar’s business class product stands head and shoulders above anything in North America, and even the world. Its hard product doesn’t have a peer (oay, maybe ANA) and it’s food and drink rivals Turkish airlines. The service, while a work in progress, was overall polished and a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend anyone thinking of flying transatlantic or pacific chose to connect in Qatar - after all, while the flight is long and the wifi spotty, there is at least a feast on board!