Qatar’s Second Hand First Class – Doha to Bangkok Flight Review

Qatar’s Second Hand First Class – Doha to Bangkok Flight Review

so hello welcome to the video and welcome to Doha I’m in one of the massage treatment rooms here having just had a shower to refresh after my flight in and in a short while I’ll be departing on Qatar Airways In First Class to Bangkok now for many years Qatar didn’t put any focus at all on offering a first class product because they felt that their business class product and specifically the Q Suite was better than most other Airlines first classes they were wrong but qar is now Under New Management and that management seems to be putting a priority back on offering a first class cabin but that’s not something you can just do overnight so Qatar has acquired a few airplanes from various other airlines that already have first class cabins installed and specifically from cath Pacific so today I’ll be flying Qatar Airways on a former cath Pacific plane it’s had a paint job they’ve reprogrammed the inflight entertainment it will look and feel very much like a Qatar plane but we’ll know that it was formerly operated by cath Pacific and it has I think it’s six maybe eight seats in a first class cabin very much looking forward to this so if you’d like to see what qatar’s first class experience is like stick around hi I’m Matt and this is Matt’s Planet I aim to entertain educate and Inspire with my travel Adventures from planning to execution I’ll show you how you can travel in style for a lot less than you’d think so subscribe so you can come with me departing Doha in first class and indeed arriving that way gives you access to the AL safoa Lounge one of the very best in the world I’ve covered this place in a previous video so won’t Linger on it here except to say that it’s a slightly different experience at 500 a.m. than it is at 8:00 p.m. I had to wait for perhaps 20 minutes to use a shower and ended up using one attached to one of the therapy rooms in the spa even with these rooms repurposed there’s clearly not enough showers to meet demand at that time of day I asked whether one of the private nap rooms was available but once again was out of luck having only gotten hour sleep on my inbound flight a nap would have worked nicely I did enjoy some eggs Benedict in the restaurant turkey ham here alcohol is available but they draw the line at serving pork I’d only had about 3 hours on the ground for this connection which really isn’t enough for a lounge that good I’ve been looking forward to another ride on one of the outrageous over pimped first class transfer buses and Julie presented myself at the connection gate within the alafa lounge for that experience only to be denied it I didn’t completely catch what the agent said but I think she described the Bangkok Service as a contract flight and so the First Class Bus transfer was not offered I had no option but to walk through the terminal to get to the gate which as I’d assumed I’d be getting there on a bus ended up being a bit of a pain as we departed from from gate c24 which is the furthest possible gate from the AL Safir Lounge to be found at the back of the New Garden extension a long brisk walk hadn’t been in my plan Google tells me that these ex cath planes are least they have a slightly different paint job to regular Qatar planes but even so it seems a little DFT that a product sold as a qar first class experience doesn’t actually give you the full Qatar first class experience it took me so long to walk the length of the terminal that boarding was well underway when I got there I tried to find a premium Lane so I could maximize my time on board only to be told that first class boarding had not yet started it turned out that economy passengers were being buffered before boarding so I was invited to sit and wait rather than waiting in a hot crowded boarding area which was fair enough when we were called there was no dispensation made for first passengers and the two of us were co-mingled with the 53 or so business class passengers I believe that cab was full for this flight it wasn’t a great experience to be honest particularly as there was a secondary check after the first one for which all premium passengers were co-mingled with the last of the economy passengers I may be wrong but it felt like this check was solely to direct you to the correct boarding door which should have been unnecessary had the boarding process been better designed but as I said I could be wrong the contract word I’d heard in the lounge made me suspicious that Qatar has outsourced this boarding process as it really didn’t feel like the normal smooth Qatar experience and it would explain why the First Class party buses weren’t offered for this flight so boarding was not great but things got markedly better when I made it into the plane a 14-year-old Boeing 7300 series with extra range it was delivered new to Cath Pacific and operated with them for a decade before going into storage during the you know what Qatar snapped it up in December 2021 into the six seat first class cabin set up in a 111 layout and my first glimpse of my seat a 14-year-old seat but a proper first class setup the starboard side of the cabin has seats both sides of the aisle probably the best choice for couples but no pair is ideal for intimate chats only one of the four seats was occupied on my flight a wall then separates that block of four from the window seats on the port side of the plane which have a whisker more privacy although none of the six are a booby seat in this cabin one thing you’ll quickly notice is that there’s no overhead bins which makes the space feel very open and Airy the crew invited me to stash my roller board in the seats foot well which wasn’t a great solution and it was only after we took off that I found this cupboard which happily housed my bag and also stored the bedding plus there was a handy hanger I found it a bit odd that this wasn’t point pointed out to me on boarding there’s an immediate clue as to where the plane has come from this panel controls the seat it must be really really tricky to reprogram this to the left is a pretty deep storage bin a remote for the entertainment system and a largish surface from which the table emerges a plug and a USB socket ahead of you too that table emerges elegantly from its stored position eventually and is substantial it’s easily big enough to allow buddy dining if you’re flying with a buddy which I wasn’t the screen lives alongside that storage cupboard and slides into a more convenient viewing position thusly it’s a 14-year-old screen and whilst it may have been extraordinary when it was new it didn’t compare well to Modern screens good enough but not outstanding it was best controlled via the remote as the screen was a long way away a very good range of options as you’d expect on a Qatar plane I’d love to to know whether they had to upgrade any of the plan’s systems to be able to offer so much as I can’t believe the original entertainment would have done so 14 years ago noise cancelling headphones and a bottle of fancy water were offered in a storage space under the screen the same headphones is the business cabin although in first they’re presented in a bag to your right is a pull down armrest a little flimsy actually but it was useful for enhancing your lounging comfort in flight another seat control panel a conveniently located sick bag and a reading lamp food and wine menus were waiting for me more on them later as was an amenity kit that broke out into a couple of sub packages which in turn broke out into an array of goodies that will be very familiar if you’ve ever flown qatar’s business class as I’m pretty sure the contents were identical a different case the same dipti contents it was an excellent seat 14 years ago and it’s still an excellent seat today a few signs of wear and tear Hey Cath Pacific isn’t going to have retired its newest and best equipment but it’s a really excellent space to spend the 5 hours and 35 minutes it would take to get to Bangkok annoyingly strong Tailwind shortened the flight as I could have spent a lot longer enjoying the space the predeparture service started with a glass of champagne and some cheese and olives which made a nice change from a bowl of mixed nuts cheers I don’t look like a bloke working on 1 hour sleep do I and as Middle Eastern Airlines like to do an Arabic coffee and a date were offered and accepted the coffee went into me to keep me awake and the date went into my bag for my mom to enjoy when I got home we pushed back a couple of minutes late and took off towards the north into a beautiful Doha morning a northbound departure is the most common so sitting on the left is most likely to give you a good view of the city and it’s a very attractive City to fly over too I have to say it was around 8:00 a.m. and did I mention that I’d only had an hour’s sleep I’m not sure but anyway I started with a peppermint tea regular viewers please contain your shock at this development our routing took us directly overhead Dubai and it was a spect spectacular view did you know there are two Palms in Dubai this is the Palm jira which everyone knows but they built a second bigger one called the Palm Jebel alley a little further down the coast unfortunately I couldn’t see it from my seat the second one though never got built out and it’s still sitting there undeveloped out the back of the container Port Dubai really is a strange place that’s the world further up which also never really took off this was only a couple of days after the incredible rains duai experienced I couldn’t really see any flooding from up here but I’ll compare this footage to what I capture next time I fly over here are the menus Qatar offers a dine on demand experience for both their business and first class cabins and there was a breakfast and an allak cart offering available that day I’d eaten breakfast in the lounge and Airline breakfasts are rarely exceptional even in first class so I asked to go straight to the alak cart options a couple of hours into the flight are you that time to explore the seat in bed mode it was a very smooth transition into a fully flat bed plenty long enough for all 193 cm of me that’s 6’4 in in old money and no foot cubby and I did rejoice as I was happy the space for the feet is still not abundantly wide but if I wanted to sleep in this seat I am confident that I would have been very comfortable when doing so good privacy as you’d expect too I didn’t waste a packet of bedding to illustrate the sleeping paraphernalia that qar offers but I am confident that it would have been of high quality I did though take a pair of pajamas for future use I decided to warm up for my meal with an oldfashioned served with the nuts I’d missed before takeoff I decided to skip the armanda bryac and Ballinger Champagnes in hindsight I could probably manage to glass of one or perhaps both of them but hey we all make mistakes that cocktail was very nice though my me started of course with the caviar service it’s hard to know where to start in describing this it was magnificent non-traditional Norwegian salmon was offered alongside the more traditional accompaniments of cream onions and egg along with bleenies and crackers and of course a glass of chilled vodka the caviar was very subtle in flavor not at all fishy and the accompaniments were just excellent it was exceptional I demolished it and the flight attendant offered me another traful and again in hindsight I should have gone around again but I was really looking forward to what was to come so declined as I say we all make mistakes next was an amused B I have no recollection at all of what this was then a lobster and king crab felo pie beautifully presented and accompanied by a glass of the rioka and again this was exceptional full of flavor and wonderfully fresh and a substantial serving too although that wasn’t a problem for me and for my man I broke my steaks on a plane Rule and went for the beef tender hey Qatar had me at wagu served with rice and mushrooms delicious again about a little overcooked for my taste as so often happens with steaks on a plane that was more than enough for me so I had to skip the cheese and desserts I did manage to enjoy some frapper XO cognac although no video evidence exists of this fact without doubt the best meal I’ve ever had on a plane and 5 and 1 half hours after leaving Doha we descended into Bangkok so to wrap up qatar’s first class experience the food was excellent and was a clear step up from what qar offers in its business cabins the seat is a proper first class seat albeit with some miles on the clock that was inherited for another airline I’ve not flown Qatar own first class seats which were only found on their e 380s but I think these Cafe seats are perhaps a little better not least from the extra privacy that they offer as for everything else I just didn’t feel it was a full step up from qatar’s business offering the ground experience was disappointing access to the alafa lounge is obviously a huge plus but not offering a first class bus is hard to understand and the gate experience was poor and apart from the Champagnes the beverage offering aboard lacks the wow factor other first class offerings deliver and the crew were great friendly and attentive but again I didn’t detect a significant step up from what you experience in qatar’s business cabin perhaps half a step up but not a full step as I said in the intro Qatar has not had a focus on a first class offering for some time and so it’s perhaps not a surprise that this experience felt a little incomplete food is the easiest part of an offering to amplify and could AR has absolutely nailed it and I’m sure their renewed focus on offering a worldclass first class will produce something exceptional when that process is complete but right now I don’t think Qatar is quite up there with the leading first class operators which I’d say are currently Emirates J and Air France I thoroughly enjoyed the experience don’t misunderstand me but it’s my job to be ultra critical particularly when people may be paying vast amounts of money for an experience and should only ever make that investment armed with a realistic understanding of the return that they’re going to get on that investment it’s an experience I’d recommend all of you have if you get the chance but don’t expect a world leading first class experience yet this flight was part of a multi partner award Redemption I made through British Airways for 180,000 avos and 650 quid I booked 7 flights five of them in business and two in first this Qatar Flight plus the connection in from a on I’ll cover all of those flights on the channel I get my avos for. 22p each this video explains how so allocating the total cost based on the miles flown this flight cost me 255 quid which is ridiculous and is a 92% discount on what this flight would have cost if You’ bought it for Cash There’s a wee bit of YouTube clickbait maths in here as I get my avos very cheaply you probably not buy a one-way ticket and the overall routing I took was a bit dared but you get the idea I’ll also say it’s no trivial matter to book this trip as all seven legs needed to have reward availability and I think I was very very lucky to be able to line up a trip that worked but it is undoubtedly the best value I’ve ever achieved for a Redemption and it was an amazing experience so thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed it please give this video a like if you enjoyed it give it a like if you didn’t and leave me a comment is this something you’d look at doing yourselves please consider subscribing if you’re new and if you’d like to support what I’m doing more directly there is a patreon account the link to which is in the description below so thanks again for watching and I’ll see you all in the next one goodbye

My multi-partner award trip continues with a First Class flight on Qatar airways from Doha to Bangkok. Qatar seems to perpetually be short of airframes so begs, borrows and leases equipment from other airlines wherever they can. A couple of years ago they took 3 777s from Cathay Pacific and incorporated them into the Qatar network These planes came with a 6-seat First Class cabin, which allowed Qatar to extend its First Class offering beyond its own A380s.

But is it any good? Qatar used to claim that its QSuite product was as good as anyone else’s First class so there was no real focus on building a First Class product… The airline is under new management and that new management is taking a different view, and is looking to re-establish a world-class first-class product. But do they already have that with the offering they currently operated? In this video, I’ll find out!

⭐ #flightreview #QatarFirstClass #MattsPlanet ⭐

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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
1.31 – The Al Safwa
4:53 – The Seat
8:58 – The Service
13:44 – Conclusions

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