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Woo-hoo!

Since I’ve already given you a play-by-play of our flight from New York to India via Doha, I won’t repeat it since this flight was basically the same except we departed in early morning instead of late at night. However, I’ve created a Top 15 list including all the reasons why you would want to fly Qatar Airways (especially in business class!) with photos from both our Maldives-to-Doha and Doha-to-New York flights. One thing is for sure: Qatar Airways is an incredible airline but they do have room for improvement, which I’ll tell you about as well.

15 Reasons to Fly Qatar Airways

 

Traffic in DOH

1. Modern fleet
Qatar Airways operates one of the youngest and most modern fleets of aircraft in the skies today. They have 101 aircraft including 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, which is the plane they use for their North America routes. When you think about it, it’s amazing what Qatar Airways has done since their re-launch in 1997. They now fly to over 100 destinations on six continents. Wow!  

Cool flight attendant

2. Young flight crew
The flight attendants are young, attractive, and come from over 105 countries. And they take their job seriously. They wear stylish burgundy uniforms and hats for takeoff and landing. They put on black serving jackets for mealtime.

Natalie’s waffles

3. Excellent service
For the most part, the service was exceptional from check-in to arrival. The only complaint I have is that one or two of the flight attendants weren’t very attentive. I don’t even remember which flight it was but on one of them, I pressed the call button and no one came for eight minutes. On the DOH-JFK flight, I rang the call button twice and both times, someone came within 30 seconds. After the meal service was complete, they didn’t come through the cabin very often (on any of the flights, which is why I rang the call button). They also talked loudly to one another in the galley.

4. Attention to detail
Since the planes are so new, they are really clean and they have cool details like the tray tables, which looks like marble (although they’re not).

Breakfast

5. Fantastic food
When I was in France a couple weeks ago, I toured Servair catering (they provide the catering for tons of airlines). I asked the executive which airline has the best food and he said it has to be the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers since they have the biggest budgets. Qatar Airways has to be one of them.

6. Food on demand
You have to love an airline that offers food on demand, including buttered popcorn for watching movies.

Entertainment systems

7. Entertainment systems
Each seat has state-of-the-art entertainment systems called Oryx with over 1,000 entertainment options—movies, television, video games, and music. In business class, the screens are 17 inches and in economy, they are 10.6-inches.

777-300 Biz class seats

8. Comfortable seats
On the Boeing 777, coach passengers get between 32 and 34 inches of seat pitch (legroom) and seats are 18.9 inches wide. Business class passengers have 78 inches of seat pitch and 22-inch wide seats. The seats also have built-in massagers.

9. Power
There are power outlets for both plugs and USB and no adaptors are needed.

10. Mood lighting
The planes have mood lighting, which help you (or at least me) sleep better.

11. Pajamas
On long-haul flights, business class passengers are given soft his/hers, 100% cotton sleeper suits, no-slip socks and an eye mask to slip into to help you sleep better. You are free to take the pajamas home – but not the cotton-lined, pure wool blankets.

12. Luxury amenity kits
Prior to takeoff the fight attendants pass out Molton Brown amenity kits that have earplugs, lip balm and moisturizer.

Biz class bathroom

13. Clean bathrooms
The bathrooms are cleaned regularly, are bright, have a full-length mirror, and are stocked with toothbrushes, toothpaste, shaving kits, and sanitary wipes.

14. Accolades
Qatar Airways has won all kinds of awards and was recently named “Airline of the Year” by Skytrax

Nursery

15. Doha Airport
Qatar Airways’ premium terminal is off the charts – it’s my new favorite airline lounge and has everything you could think of: Comfortable chairs, three or four food stations, free Wi-Fi, showers, a kids room, family room, game room, smoking room, prayer room … you name it. Employees are all dressed to the tee like the flight attendants but are more attentive. When the new Doha airport is completed in the fall of 2012, it’s going to make this city, country, and airline that much better since passengers won’t need to take shuttle rides to and from the plane to the terminal, and boarding and deplaning will be much quicker.

Good to know
-Most Qatar Airways flight attendants only work two years.

-On both of our long haul flights, Natalie’s entertainment system didn’t work, which was annoying.

-The mid-flight snack bar has ridiculously good chocolate chip cookies and mini Godiva chocolates.

-We flew over Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Then I fell asleep but woke up when we were over Ukraine. The rest of the flight took us over Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

-For a snack, I had salad with grilled haloumi cheese and tomatoes.

-Upon landing, flight attendants get 31 hours in a NYC but the hotel is in Long Island and not Manhattan like it used to be.

-The only time the flight was turbulent was over Greenland.

-When the seatbelt sign went off, I went to use the bathroom at the same time as the co-pilot. I told him he could go ahead but he insisted that I did. Even the pilots are trained in customer service. Impressive.

JFK
JFK
NY
NY
USA
USA
Fruit before landing
Fruit before landing
My soup
My soup
Natalie's snack
Natalie's snack
Mid-flight snack
Mid-flight snack
Mid-flight treats
Mid-flight treats
More hot towels
More hot towels
Natalie's waffles
Natalie's waffles
My omelette
My omelette
Entertainment systems
Entertainment systems
Breakfast pastries
Breakfast pastries
Breakfast is served
Breakfast is served
Breakfast smoothie
Breakfast smoothie
Amenity kit
Amenity kit
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Doha from the air
Go time
Go time
Bye-bye Doha
Bye-bye Doha
Traffic in DOH
Traffic in DOH
About to takeoff
About to takeoff
Qatar Airways tails
Qatar Airways tails
Hot towels
Hot towels
Woo-hoo!
Woo-hoo!
Biz class bathroom
Biz class bathroom
Menu page 3
Menu page 3
Menu page 2
Menu page 2
Menu page 1
Menu page 1
Plenty of legroom
Plenty of legroom
Limeade
Limeade
Cool flight attendant
Cool flight attendant
View from seat
View from seat
Hidden bottles of water
Hidden bottles of water
Plenty of overhead space
Plenty of overhead space
Biz class seats up-close
Biz class seats up-close
DOH-JFK on Qatar Airways 777-300 Biz class seats. Credit: Johnny Jet
DOH-JFK on Qatar Airways 777-300 Biz class seats. Credit: Johnny Jet
Prayer room
Prayer room
Nursery
Nursery
Lounge shower
Lounge shower
Local food up-close
Local food up-close
Local food
Local food
More food
More food
Food in lounge
Food in lounge
Premium terminal
Premium terminal
Arrivals
Arrivals
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways
DOH!
DOH!
Almost there
Almost there
Doha
Doha
Doha
Doha
Doha
Doha
Seat pocket
Seat pocket
Breakfast
Breakfast
Chillin'
Chillin'
Appetizer
Appetizer
Bye-Bye paradise
Bye-Bye paradise
Natalie
Natalie
Menu
Menu
Hot towels
Hot towels
Newspapers
Newspapers
Drinks
Drinks
View from window
View from window
First class
First class
Boarding
Boarding
Lounge food
Lounge food
Lounge drinks
Lounge drinks
Qatar lounge
Qatar lounge
Gate area
Gate area

13 Comments On "15 Reasons to Fly Qatar Airways"
  1. Siriwan|

    Hi JJ,
    Since I can’t afford the 1st and biz classes….what about the last class? I would like to see the photos and services that QA offering such as accessible bathroom, seats, foods, mid-flight treats/snack, and etc. that will make me say, “woo-hoo!!”
    What would you recommend (airlines) for my trip from San Diego to BKK.

    Thx,

    1. Anonymous|

      Think its a little rude , all the flight attendants are young and attractive!
      Hope some one sacks you for being to old , oh and its just great that crew only work for two years, it must be time to leave you job, sounds like the dark ages. And to think the crew would be selfish in try and improve their employment laws.

      1. Noonuno|

        Completely astonished by the ‘young and attractive’ comment. Do you also think it would be better if all cabin staff were also all female?

        Cannot believe that anyone would make such a public, demeaning statement in this day and age, even if you privately believe what you say.

        Do the candy ‘bribes’ you exhort us to give to airline staff cancel out your attitude?

        1. PRAGUE TEACHER|

          Ah ha – so what you think in private is quite acceptable as long as you don’t say it in public. Rubbish! On the one hand people are appalled that only young people are acceptable (I’m 69) but on the other think that whilst crew should be able to speak out and stand up for themselves, we lesser mortals should keep our counsel and be pseudo-polite so as to not offend anyone. Double rubbish! On the trams in Prague the loudest people are the Americans and the Russians. Now I can’t say that? Even though that is the opinion of just about everyone here? I am to think it in private only and never express an opinion that might upset someone like you? Triple rubbish! And the posters who spout this quadruple rubbish refer to themselves as Anonymous and No-one-you-know. Please stay anonymous and remain someone I don’t know!

      2. Anonymous|

        Should someone sack you for your spelling and grammar (*too old, *your job, *it sounds, *selfish in trying to improve)? I agree with your point, pity it was not presented with rational logic.

      3. Dalia Sincrinity|

        totally agree i was gonna write same thing ( realize this is old now) but how rude is that.. from that old pervert

  2. Howard Miller|

    Hi JJ,

    I agree with Siriwan, now that you seem to fly biz class or 1st class on your long haul flights. It is nice to see how the other half lives. but we would like to know economy travel since this all most of us will experience.
    Also what were those breakfast items on Qatar?

    regards,

    HM

  3. DL|

    Great Blog….Thanks for sharing…:-)

  4. Max Ugeor|

    Well, if I pay top dollar for my business class travel experience I want service that pleases my eyes. I guess somebody has to be reminded that it is the passenger who pays the salaries of steward(esse)s and therefore has the right to demand particular characteristics of people (call it “discrimination”), As for the silly comment about “all females”: well, if the majority of passengers are heterosexual men then it should be so; if not there is no problem with having young men and women serving.

  5. rajiv|

    Hi
    Well i travel in qatar flight last month 787 dreamliner economy class
    First new and good thing i see is their is a 5 buttons on window for pure darkness to normal light, but other their food is very low in quantaty also pataos are not properly boiled,
    Seats are very much tight for even a 5’6″ guy like me . Washroom was tight and dirty ,All other things are fine

    1. PRAGUE|

      I first went on to the internet when there were seven places you could visit. Now there are billions. Over the intervening years, on Trip Advisor, Booking.com, Youtube etc etc I don’t think I’ve ever seen a positive review ever by someone with an Indian name. Stating that is a reflection of my experience of observed behaviour. No doubt some sensitive souls will see it as racist. It isn’t.

  6. maddy|

    its good to fly with qatar airways in economy class..ya food is amatter of concern but not that much.seating is comfortable. washroom are ok. facilities are also not so good not so bad

  7. Koh|

    I.am flying with qatar on.April .how many mah power bank am I allow on my hand luggage

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