Qatar Airlines - From the States - Business Class

TravelGuy

We will be taking this trip in September 2019. I see in the discussions for air arrangements, that many use KLM.

Has anyone taken Qatar Airlines outbound and inbound through Doha?

If so, what is your opinion of Business Class on Qatar Airlines? Also, did you stay overnight in Doha? What accommodation options does Qatar provide?

MarcCohen

We took Qatar Air Business Class from JFK to Doha to Kilimanjaro in July. The flight from the States to Doha and visa versa is spectacular. They have Individual fully reclining pod seats, on demand dinning service with great food, and they give you great pajamas! The second flight from Doha to Kilimanjaro, and visa versa, was more like ordinary first class, but nice.

We connected without staying overnight. The connection is a little stressful in Doha. It is a beautiful airport but there is a lot of security to go through (even for a connecting flight) so you need to leave time for your connection.

Bottom line you are in for a treat for the first leg of your journey and the safari overall is beyond description. Have fun.

MarcCohen

One more thing. Here is an online video review of the flight that is very accurate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0B8k3UPZNc

alidor30

We will use them in December when we go on our Bridges tour in December to Tanzania. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary and are taking our daughter, husband and 2 grandchildren. I found Qatar to be at least $1300 less per person and I couldn't pass it up. There was a massive schedule change from when I first booked it to now, necessitating an overnight in Doha on the way there, but it still is worth it.


We will be flying coach on the way there with our family, but on the way back, my husband and I will be in business!

MGCGKC

We flew Qatar business class on a Tauck trip to China a few years ago. It was the best flight experience we have ever had. The cabin quality was exceptional, and the very capable crew pampers you. One nice feature of their service is that you can eat whenever you want. Also, their price at the time undercut all other airlines by quite a bit--and we were able to apply the Qatar miles to our American Airline account.

The Doha airport is lavish. Although we used the business lounge during the layovers, the common areas of the airport were excellent, as was the people watching. We would happily fly with them again.

Alexlee01

alidor30 wrote:

We will use them in December when we go on our Bridges tour in December to Tanzania. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary and are taking our daughter, husband and 2 grandchildren. I found Qatar to be at least $1300 less per person and I couldn't pass it up. There was a massive schedule change from when I first booked it to now, necessitating an overnight in Doha on the way there, but it still is worth it.


We will be flying coach on the way there with our family, but on the way back, my husband and I will be in business!

Nice! i had fun in Qatar airways.

Visit its youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3B7kPh-mcg
Qatar Airways is the World's first launch customer for A350-1000 series. This video document the first flight of Qatar Airways A350-1000.

chersaylor

TravelGuy wrote:

We will be taking this trip in September 2019. I see in the discussions for air arrangements, that many use KLM.

Has anyone taken Qatar Airlines outbound and inbound through Doha?

If so, what is your opinion of Business Class on Qatar Airlines? Also, did you stay overnight in Doha? What accommodation options does Qatar provide?

We took Qatar airlines in fall 2016 to Doha for an African trip. Business Class was great. The seats became flat beds. We got great PJs and assorted toiletry items. We stayed at the airport hotel at the Doha airport as we had a 16 hour layover. The room was very nice with a big walk in shower. The Business Class lounge at the airport was very large and pleasant with good food. As I recall, the airlines kept our big luggage and we just had to deal with our carry-ons overnight. It was a fairly short walk to our gate the next morning.

On our return, we had a 7 hour layover in Doha. We spent that time in the business class lounge. Showers are available. So I would recommend the stop. The airport is so spacious!!

Rampage1

Thank you SO MUCH for the info about overnighting in Doha. That is exactly what we are doing and I was concerned about Qatar Air having our bags for so long. Your response eased my mind greatly. Thank you!

Have never flown them before and am looking forward to it. Although we are in coach on the way to Kiliminjaro we are in business on the return!

BKMD

Personally, I would not want to give business to the country that is the ATM for terrorism.

British

I don’t think we need to get into real politics here.

Rampage1

Yes, I am aware of the political things associated with Qatar, BUT it saved us about $8000 taking them over KLM and considering they have such a good reputation, we went with it. And, I think we made the right decision.

TravelGuy

Thank you everyone for your input.

Toplex21

There are a lot of threads like that one on tripadvisor.

TravelGuy

We just returned from the K&T tour. We flew Qatar Airways Chicago-Doha-Arusha and inbound starting in Nairobi. We were in the Q-Suites on the long-haul segments and had the two middle seats. The crew was very attentive. When my wife put her seat in the flat position, the attendant put down a mattress cover to soften the seat. (No one changed into the pajamas that we could see!) The food was a little above average for business class food but not exceptional. Service on-demand is a nice feature.
Outbound we arrived in Doha around 4 pm their time. We stayed in the airport hotel in Doha and had our luggage checked through to Arusha.
The Qatar business class lounge at the airport is huge. On the day we arrived we had snacks on the first level. The next morning, we had the breakfast buffet on the second level. Try to allow plenty of time for breakfast. Many passengers simply stay at the table in the buffet area after finishing their breakfast, so it was difficult to find a table.
We had a tight connection inbound from Nairobi and were concerned about traversing through the airport to our new gate. Upon departing the plane in Doha, there was a Qatar staffer with a sign ‘Chicago’. She personally escorted us through the airport to our next boarding area. Nice touch!
Overall, we were very pleased with the Qatar experience.