Over a period of two weeks I took 6 flights with Qatar Airways. About 13,500 miles were flown on a mixture of aircraft types – A330’s, 777 and 787’s in the mix.

Qatar Airways bills itself as a 5* Airline.

My experience with Qatar was pretty mixed, but if there is a theme it was that the service in the air was superb, whilst the service on the ground was awful. Not just bad you understand but some of the worst I have ever experienced. So, let’s concentrate on what went well – in flight service.

The segments to and from Cairo are operated by the same 2-class aircraft but the up-front service is branded as First Class. The food is pretty much the same, but they do stock Krug.

This pretty much the standard layout and seating that I found on my flights – except the 787.

2-2-2 with the centre 2 having aisle access. I noticed a small trick whereby the staff layout the purple menu books for occupied seats before the passengers board. This often gives you a clue about empty seats if you want to move. Check with the staff as they have iPads and can see in real-time whether someone has already snagged the seats.

Most of the seats have the TV screens in the back of the seat in front. However, the front row has them in the arm rest.

The seats are equipped with blanket, pillow and amenity kit around the seat.

Row 1 window seats have plenty of leg room to get around a person sleeping on the aisle.

The seat controls are in the arm of the seat.

The other trick I noticed is that Qatar often release seats in Row 1 about 36 hours before departure, when check-in opens. Worth snagging if you can as often you get a spare one next to you. With the exception of one flight there were empty seats on each of the planes I took.

787 seats:

Food and Drink

This is a typical menu from one of the breakfast flights:

The table layouts were done superbly, a lesson for many other airlines.

Breakfast

Pre-Landing snack/dinner

Soups – which was superb I have to say

Dinner – overnight departure from BKK

Arabic Mezze

Pasta – not the best dish

Pudding

Summary
The staff were invariably attentive, with nothing being too much trouble. They addressed by name on almost every encounter and worked hard to make sure even the most demanding passenger was content.

The seats are comfortable to sleep in and I would recommend the inflight service.