So What is Qatar Airways Like?
 

I need to book award tix in Business from JNB to LAX. Qatar Airways may be a possible way to go but I have no idea what the planes and overall service is like. I know they claim to be a "five star" airline but I'm not sure what that means. Could one or two of you provide me a a quick review? Thanks in advance.

qatar flights
 

you wont be disappointed
business class is spot on and the premium lounge is something to be seen and enjoyed.
food and drinks on board enjoyable, nothing is to much trouble for the flight attendants, nice selections of wine and a lovely port for the cheese and biscuits;) cabins are clean and facilities on board fine, everything says 5 star
i have paid to go business class and have been bumped up a few times also had an award flight, the service every time is really good.
economy is good and that's the way i normally travel i travel 2 or 3 times per year from manchester to bangkok have tried other airlines ie emirate etihad and klm and qatar is by far the best.

Can't wait for our upcoming flights at the end of July. Biz on the A333. Never flown Qatar before or visited Doha, knocking out both of those.

Though not exactly from JNB to DOH to LAX, this may give you a rough idea of what to expect with your flight...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...k-iah-doh.html

exactly
 

yes exactly as i experienced it down to the port:D

GuyBetsy, I am considering row 7 on flight from IAH to DOH in Dec. But I am wondering if row 7 to too near the "baby row", first bulkhead row in economy. How did you find it noise-wise??
Thank you,
Jane

Be advised that on the A333s, Qatar does not have fully flat beds in J so you will get slanted seats.

Qatar Airways - Not as great as it seems
 

My husband and I recently flew business class from Singapore to Paris return with Qatar Airways. This was our first flight with Qatar so we didn't know what to expect. Unfortunately, we experienced several issues with the Airline which tarnished the positive experiences on board.

The cabin crew were excellent as was their on board service and cuisine except for the Qatar to Paris leg on 1 June. The crew looking after us just weren't as good or as focussed and also messed up quite badly. I had told the steward that I was allergic to crustaceans (I explained exactly what that meant because he didn't understand, which is most surprising for a world class airline) and the first think I was given was a crab croquette. It could have been a deadly mistake.

The business class lounge in Qatar is simply outstanding. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the Business Class lounge we were sent to at Terminal 3 in Changi Airport. It was a dump. It was small, drab and there wasn't even any food.

Don't ever bother calling the Qatar Singapore office in Orchard Road. They never answer the phone. We had to end up going into the office to resolve a major issue and found them to be very cold and indifferent in their dealings with us.

The on-line check-in system never worked properly with any of our bookings. It simply didn't recognise either our booking reference numbers nor our e-ticket numbers. I spoke to the Qatar ground staff at Changi and also called Qatar in Frankfurt and spoke to the ground staff in Paris and they all said the same thing - the on-line check in system is supposed to open 36 hours prior to the flights departure but often doesn't and customers are always complaining about problems using the system.

When I got back to Sydney I emailed the Customer Relations Department. What I discovered was that Qatar Airways was simply a corporate sharks after the dollar. They have absolutely no customer service skills nor a desire to truly assist nor appease their customers. They simply towed the party line, not wanting to take any responsibility or provide any real satisfaction. They even had the gaul to end their email sincerely apologising for the inconvenience caused and they hoped that this would not deter us from using their services again in the future. They have to be kidding. Unfortunately, the way they dealt with our complaint was extremely disappointing and as such this negated any positive experiences we may have had flying with them. I certainly wouldn't want to give them my hard earned cash in future. We will never be flying with them again and they have made the top of our black list in our Company.

Interesting first post to FT ccfccf.

Hopefully my first experience with QR next week goes well. I am very much looking forward to it.

pcharles, I'd like to hear your experience. I'm flying them from EBB-DOH-LHR in a couple weeks. Paid for 1st (via UA), but they said 1st is sold out, so I'm in biz class on the a333.

No problem. I'm booked IAD-DOH-DPS and DPS-SIN in biz on their 777-300ER. I'll also be checking out CX in biz and long haul 77W in F.

Looking forward to checking out the Virgin Clubhouse pre-departure, the ride to DOH, the premium terminal in DOH, then onward to DPS. Its a decent route with a fairly easy connection.

I thank another FT member who suggested I look into alternatives to UA metal for the saver award. Doing some additional work paid off nicely ;)

Will there be a trip report??? This sounds like a trip we'd all like to hear about!
:D

I will be trying QR out in the next 2 weeks on CDG-DOH, DOH-TBS and GRU-EZE all in J as part of a very scenic Paris--->NY return that is routed CDG-DOH-TBS-IST-BEY-CAI-ZRH-BCN-GRU-EZE-SCL-JFK on a combination of QR J, TK J, MS Y, LX J, SQ F, AC J, LA J. Very much looking forward to seeing how QR stacks up.

Sitting in the premium lounge right now, lounge is fabulous. Will do a report post trip. For now, enjoying a cocktail deciding which food area to endulge first than onward to Bali later in the evening. Another set of pajamas I assume ;)

^
Happy Travels!