DOH-AMS (Qatar Airways Q Suites)
Qatar QSuites lives up to its reputation with a fantastic Suite-like Business Class hard product, and definitely one of the (if not the) best Business Class products currently.
Al Mourjan Business Lounge Doha Airport
DOH-AMS (Qatar Airways QSuites)
AMS-LHR-HEL (British Airways and Finnair Economy Class)
Hilton Helsinki Strand
GLO Hotel Kluuvi
Helsinki Highlights
HEL-SIN (Finnair New Premium Economy Class)
Boarding
After my very overnight layover at the Al Mourjan Business Lounge, it was time to board my most anticipated flight for this trip: Qatar QSuites here we come! I was really hoping that the aircraft would not be swapped, as I heard so many instances online till that I was crossing my fingers during boarding.
And that was highly possible, given that there were 4 B777-300ER layouts (with only 1 being the Q Suite layout).
Flight Details
Flight No.: QR273
Aircraft: B777-300ER
Seat
After peeking at my seat, I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I had finally hit the holy grail! First impressions of the business class cabin were that it was fantastic and looked exactly like the pictures.
Qatar Airways B777-300ER QSuites Cabin View
On this aircraft, the business class cabin had seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
Qatar Airways B777-300ER Q Suites layout (from Seatguru)
I was seated in 1A, a window seat towards the left side of the aircraft.
Seat 1A, my seat for this flight
Qatar Airways’ signature burgundy shades were evident here, though it was with contrasting tones of stylish grey and black from the seats and finishings. again, another classy match with the Qatar Airways brand.
The seat controls were located just above the headphones jacks and charging points, and were intuitive to use. The buttons were pretty sensitive too.
There were also 2 adjustable handles on both sides of the seat: one of them could be opened with storage space as you will see below.
Of course, the main barrier that encapsulates the guest from the outside world: the burgundy-toned suite door. And voila, you have a personal suite on a plane!
The legroom was pretty nice and deep, perhaps due to the right-angled orientation of the suite, and I had no issues with sleeping during lie-flat mode. The tray table was also large enough, this time the table had metallic burgundy shades instead of wooden ones, which gave a different but still classy vibe.
Looking around the suite, there was a large reading lamp and a clothes hook just beside the seat at head-level. There were also plenty of charging points, with 1 socket and 2 USB points near the seat controls. I also liked the location, which was near the counter top and allows easy placement of your electronics while charging. This seems to be a feature in Qatar Airways’ Business Class seats, looks like the seat designs were well thought of!
There is also an IFC reader and a HDMI cable, just above the safety card holder.
Storage in the suite seems to be the main weak point, with only the cubby located at the handrest near the suite door (but was pretty large to store most bulky items). Anyways, there is also the overhead storage available so it was not a big negative.
As it was a full flight, I was not able to take pictures of the middle seats, but I guess most of you will have seen numerous photos and videos of it online already so just some snapshots that I found online. Let’s just say that it would be really cool if you were able to book the middle seats for couple or even a family of 4 (yes it can be arranged to form a 4-person meetup or dining experience).
QSuites Middle Seat (photo from The Points Guy)
How cool is that layout?! (Picture from Forbes)
Amenity Kit and Amenities
The amenity kit was of the same brand as my last flight, which was supplied by Diptyque. The main difference would be that a pouch was provided instead of a gift pack compared to the previous flight.
The contents were a hand lotion, hand cream, lip balm, eau de toilette, earplugs and eye shades provided. Socks were also included in the amenity kit this time.
Noise-cancelling headphones were the same as the previous flight, which were of decent quality.
Food and Beverages
Upon reaching my seat, service commenced with the crew providing a pre-departure drink and cold towel. This time I went with the Tattinger Prestige Rose, because well why not. Besides it looked good in the picture.
While waiting for the flight commencement, I had a look at the in-flight dining and wine menu. The covers were similar to that of my previous flight, which was of the theme of Qatar Airways’ 25th Anniversary.
I realized that I did not take pictures of the wine menu, but it was similar to the previous flight.
It was Round 2 of the in-flight safety video. Lewandowski showed his comical side, and he does look good in red (a sign to come for his next club at that time?).
Qatar Airways In-Flight Safety Video
The nice weather made for some great views of Doha during take off……….
For the Pre-Starters: I tried the dessert wine to go with my warmed nuts (who says sweet wine can’t go with saltiness?)
Pre-starters: Jorge Ordonez No. 2 “Victoria” Moscatel Dulce 2016 and Warm Nuts
For the starter, I went with the Seared Beef with chermoula (pronounced sher-moo-lah) sauce. It is apparently a North African sauce with fresh herbs such as parsley and cilantro, with garlic, citrus and warm spices. It seemed a little under-plated, but the beef was alright.
Starters: Seared Beef with chermoula saurce.
For the mains, I had the Trio of seafood with saffron lemon sauce. The black rice complemented perfectly with the seafood and saffron lemon sauce, however I felt that the fish fillet could have been more savoury.
Mains: roasted herb crust snapper fillet
Even though I really hate ginger since childhood, the word “Orange” tempted me to try the dessert, a dulce ginger and orange cake. Overall, the ginger was not overpowering and the citrus flavour thoroughly cleansed my palate. Qatar Airways is on a streak in terms of nice endings to my meal service!
Dessert: dulce ginger and orange cake
Overall, a great meal service as usual, on par with my previous flight.
Wifi and In-Flight Entertainment
For this flight, Qatar Airways offers 1-hour complimentary Wi-Fi (named Super Wifi by Qatar Airways) to all Privilege Club passengers. For this flight, I found that the Full flight Super Wi-Fi was very value-for-money at 10 USD. However, I did not partake, as it did not really work for me based on my previous Wi-Fi experience.
The in-flight entertainment was similar to my previous flight, Qatar Airways’ Oryx One Entertainment System is definitely one of the best ones out there, with a wide array of movies and TV selection, including Middle Eastern ones. Sometimes the movies selection is even more updated than Singapore Airlines! I also liked how they categorized certain classics together for easy movie binging, for example the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary and James Bond Collection.
I felt some craving for anime, hence lying down while watching the Prince of Tennis movie. That said, I felt a bit cringy on the graphics, but nostalgia (together with Slam Dunk, sparked my love for sports).
Sleeping Experience
After the meal service, it was time for a short nap on the flat bed. The duvettes and blankets of Qatar Airways was really comfortable, and I especially like the satin-like texture of the blanket.
Legroom-wise, I feel that the flat bed is very similar to the Reverse Herringbone seats, and no issues with stretching out. I also liked how you are able to sit ergonomically upright or lying on the shell of the flat bed, as I feel some Business Class seats on certain airlines do not allow for this.
For the first-person view of the lie-flat bed experience inside a Suite, refer to the above video.
Bathroom
I liked the wooden tones of the bathroom. It was functional and had well-stocked amenities like Diptyque-branded body lotion, facial mist and hand wash, together with dental kits.
Service
Nothing to nitpick on the service of this flight, as per the usual high standards of Qatar Airways staff.
Guess I could only bring you grudges of the really bad weather as we descended onto Amsterdam……..and the double bad news of my AMS-HEL flight being cancelled right when I landed. Luckily Finnair promptly rebooked me into another (but longer) flight, hence the next article of this trip report.
Conclusion
Overall, Q Suites are really setting the standard for an evolution in the Business Class product, as what I have experienced confirms it. Soon Suites will become THE standard, and the added privacy and flexibility (of the middle seats), together with Qatar Airways usual consistent great service, tops even some First Class products out there.
Now to catch my super-tight connection in order to reunite with the missus……..
