Our Complete Experience with Qatar Airways

We read good reviews of Qatar Airways Q-Suite and wanted to experience the configuration where 2 seats can be turned into a “bed”. With some advanced planning, we managed to change our credit points to Avios during Qatar Airways 30% bonus campaign and booked this experience for our trip to the Balkans.

Leading to our trip in 2024, Hamad International was named World’s Best Airport 2024 and Qatar Airways was named World’s Best Airline 2024. With these dual crowns, there is no better year to experience them both. We were also looking forward to indulging in caviar onboard after they introduced it in 13 routes from 15 Aug 2024.

Here is our experience, what you can look forward to at Hamad International and Qatar Airways Q-Suite, and what you might want to take note of as well.

Qatar Airway Q-Suite Experience

During our trip, we managed to experience both Singapore Airlines Business class from SIN-IST and Qatar Airways Q-Suite from DOH-SIN. So we could compare and contrast the world’s top 2 airlines!

The experience started from our search for award flights. Login to qatarairways.com via web browser was problematic at times. The SQ App on iOS was also more intuitive than Qatar Airways’. Overall, SQ was less frustrating to use.

In-Flight Meals

Both airlines allow you to pre-book your flight meals via their app. Book the Cook with SQ and give their Lobster Thermidor a try, it never disappoints. The best dish for our SQ flight goes to A4 Wagyu Yakiniku - the beef melts in our mouth! How did they prepare this dish 30,000 feet in the sky? 🤩

Unfortunately, we were unable to pre-book our meals with Qatar Airways 24 hrs before our flight. It slipped our mind, and the option to pre-book from the app wasn’t as intuitive. Hence, we didn’t have the opportunity to find out their “book the cook” options. Nonetheless, the in-flight menu was very good, we didn’t feel like we missed out much.

We were lucky to be on the flight after Qatar Airways introduced caviar to their Business Class menu, and we love indulging in this dish with a glass of Gosset. It is a must try when flying their Q-Suite. Our taste buds were also delighted by the King Crab Congee from their breakfast menu, it was both light and delicious.

Our stomachs were already pretty full from our visits to the Al Mourjan lounges, and we feel bad turning down eager flight attendants serving us even more food. Mine asked if I would like to reserve the last piece of cake for later since I was quite full then.

As different attendants were assigned to each of us, we could discern the subtle difference in service. Mine was super friendly and proactive, and Jane’s was more laid back. Overall, the service was personal and attentive, pretty similar to our SQ experience.

Seat and In-Flight Amenities

The Q-Suite seats felt a step above SQ’s J seats. Our seats (3E and 3F) can be made into a “double bed” configuration, this is only possible for rear-facing seats. With the Q-Suite doors closed (yes there are doors), it really feels as though we have our own private room in the air. The flight attendants made our “bed” upon request, and took out bed linens and pillow cases to transform our seats to a bed! It was so comfy, we were basically lying flat throughout our flight except during take-off and landing.

We felt that both the seat and “feet-space” were wider compared to SQ. The side panel for seat adjustment was easy to understand, except for one button that vibrates the seat, mimicking a “massage”. It was more of a gimmick as the vibrations are too subtle, almost non-existent. The noise-cancelling wired headphone plugs in at 1 spot compared to SQ’s 2 options to choose from. Also, take note that there is no USB-C connection for charging. Either use USB-A or bring your own charger to plug into the power outlet at your seat.

We could not connect to the onboard wifi even though we had 1-hr complimentary use. Internet connectivity was non-existent onboard for us. However, Qatar Airways recently announced the progressive rollout of Starlink that could change this in the near future.

Thankfully, the inflight entertainment system had a decent selection. However, only movies in foreign languages have English subtitles. And we absolutely need subtitles while watching movies on the plane. We ended up watching Korean movies, because they have English subtitles.

Our Diptyque amenity kits come in 2 different colours - pink (female) and black (male). They also gave us exclusively-designed sleepwear created in collaboration with The White Company. Unfortunately, the sizes given were too big for us, and we were already in comfy clothes for the flight.

The toilets were well-equipped. One in particular was more spacious and even had a window. This is the first time we see a window in an airplane toilet 😂.

Qatar Airways Best Airline 2024 award is well deserved! If their app and website experiences improve, that could extend their lead over Singapore Air. What about their pre-flight, lounge experience then?

Hamad International Airport

Hamad International Airport was a pleasant visit. The crowd was massive during peak periods as Hamad is a popular transit airport. You could really feel how empty the airport gets once the crowd clears.

The transit area had plenty of shopping, F&B and unique attractions. They are transit tours like Discover Airport Art and City tours. Sadly, we didn’t manage to do any as there were no tours that fit our layover timing. It was also the first time seeing an “Oreo Cafe” at an airport. Roaming between the concourses we could see how they rival Changi Airport for the best airport award.

💡Tip: There is a security check before you enter the transit area, and they check all liquids. Make sure to have your proof of purchase if you bought and hand carry any liquid items (eg. wine, liquor, etc).

We decided to spend our time resting at the business lounges. And our experiences at Al Mourjan lounges were world’s apart from SilverKris lounge.

Al Mourjan Business Lounges

We had 9 hours during our transit at Hamad, so this gave us plenty of opportunities to utilize both lounges - Al Mourjan South and Al Mourjan Garden. The South lounge is near the '“Lamp Bear”, between Concourse A and B. The Garden Lounge is near the “Small Lies”, at Concourse C. You have unlimited access to any of these lounges with a Business Class ticket.

For a start, we were surprised to see so many service staff at the lounges. They greet you when you first enter, and serve you at your table. You can choose the buffet spread or order à la carte from their menu. This is a stark contrast to the self-service SilverKris Lounge.

The menu was updated and the tenderloin steak was sadly not available. We enjoyed their sea bass fillet (instead of hamour fillet) and chicken breast dishes. The Asian sticky beef strips weren’t good. For breakfast we only tried Eggs Benedict and it was decent, nothing to shout about.

Desserts were a decent spread. The last time we tried Turkish delights, we found them too sweet to our liking, so we didn’t buy any this trip. We tried the baklava and dates at the lounge and it was pretty good.

Their drinks selection was impressive. We didn’t like their non-alcoholic bubbly - Pierre Chavin Le Petit. But enjoyed the Markus Molitor Riesling, Watermelon Cooler, and Berries Smoothies. We experienced more attentive food service at the South lounge, but the Garden lounge had better and newer amenities.

Shower booths are first come first serve, individually assigned and fully equipped. Do note that there is no toilet attached to the shower, and toilet facilities are at a different section 🤷🏻‍♂️. Lockers are also available at a different section, useful for storing your hand carry.

You can technically catch a wink on the fixed recliner (not flat beds) in their Quiet Rooms. The rooms are assigned on a first come first serve basis and can have 1 or 2 recliners, with a maximum use of 6 hrs. Expect it to be full during peak period, we only managed to get one after a 4-hrs wait. Ironically, we had better sleep in the air on Q-Suite than on land in the lounge 🤷🏻‍♂️.

There is also a Game Room with a pool table, foosball table, and gaming console. It was almost empty at night and could make a suitable family room if you have kids.

Overall, we were blown away by our Qatar Airways experience. Even with our natural preference towards SQ, we cannot help but feel that Qatar Airways was deserving of the Best Airlines 2024 award. And we would not mind transiting through Doha to fly with them again if we can find suitable award flights in the future.

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