fly_ebos

Hi everybody and welcome to my second trip report. (You can find my first one here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...un-jersey.html)

I would like to start off and apologize for any language mistakes, but English is not my mother tongue.
As for the pictures, they are the best quality Steve Jobs allowed me to take with the iPhone 4S

Background

This story starts early December when I got a call from my father telling me he had 120.000 Qmiles expiring with Qatar Airways and no time to redeem them. Ofcourse we had just booked our holiday a couple of weeks earlier, so there was not really anything useful I could do. But then that little flyertalk voice in the back of my head started whispering: go crazy, go wild, book a trip, go first!

Next problem was when and where? As I live in Belgium and Brussels is a Qatar Airways destination it seemed pretty obvious where I would start this trip. But having never flown Qatar I was unaware that there is no first class on the Brussels flight. And ofcourse first was an absolute must with daddies miles
As Paris is easily reachable by high speed train, I made up my mind: Paris-Doha-Paris and back. Unfortunately I could only free up 2 days in my work schedule and that means flying to Doha one day and back the next. I did have a look to possible connection flights, but the only ones available to me where regional flights. I wasn't particularly interested in night flying across the Middle East, instead having about 8 hours in the premium terminal in Doha sounded like a good idea, especially as they have sleeping rooms.

Booking was not straight forward. The website kept giving me an error so that meant phoning to Qatar, but everything got sorted in about 10 minutes. Ticketing itself had to be done through the Brussels office and a week later the eticket arrived in my inbox.


Waiting for the local train to Brussels


Bruxelles Midi train station: direct TGV connection to Paris CDG gets you there in 1h15




Paris here we are!


Very modern train station in CDG terminal 2

The TGV train station is located in terminal 2 at the Paris airport. As terminal 2 is the Skyteam terminal, I had to head over to terminal 1. This is very easy and all very well indicated. You get out of the train, go up the stairs and head for CDGVAL, the airport shuttle.






It takes about 15 minutes to arrive at Terminal 1.

Qatar Airways flight 20

planned departure: 15h00
actual departure: 15h30
planned arrival: 23h20
actual arrival: 23h30
aircraft: Airbus 340-600 A7-AGC
seat: 2K

Checking in was easy: the first class desk was occupied so I got winked over to a business class check in. I had done the online check in a day earlier and got assigned to seat 1K, with row 2 being completely blocked. I usually find row one either too close to the galley or toilets so I asked if seat 2K would be available. Apparently my request was not straightforward and required supervisors approval to unblock row 2. She then told me casually I would be the only passenger in first, so what was all the fuzz about? I had 8 seats to chose

Air France 'La Première' lounge

Biggest reason to arrive a bit early was to check out the lounge in terminal 1. Well I can tell you now: don't be bothered, it's basically crap! After customs and passport control you go up the elevator to the 10th floor. When you get out you have the impression to be lost in a shabby part of the airport. This is branded as the 'Air France La Première' salon but there is nothing first class about it. Qatar Airways uses this facility for both its first and business class passengers. The lounge is rather smallish, windows without a view, a couple of drinks and some left over breakfast items. The only good thing was the high speed wifi.


Dodgy corridor


Small seating area with no view

Boarding

I left the lounge one hour prior to departure and went underground on the walkway to proceed to the satellite with gates 40 through 48. At the other end was security, luckily a swift process.



I noticed earlier in the day that the outbound flight from Doha to Paris had been delayed by an hour so I was expecting some sort of delay. My boarding card did show boarding at 14h for a 15h off block but in reality we did leave with half an hour delay.


Today's baby

Boarding was commenced by inviting families with children and elderly to board first. Business and first passengers were invited to board at leisure. Why wait in an airport if one could be waiting in the nose section of a jet


Seat 2K

I got the personal welcome by the senior purser who winked a junior member to show me to my seat. Nice touch! As this was my first time onboard Qatar I asked for the introduction to all features. Next question: Would I like something to freshen up? 'a glass of water, orange juice or some bubbly'.


Sure there would be plenty of bubbly later so I went for the fresh orange juice.

In the meantime several crew members passing by all gave me a heartily welcome. Shortly before pushing back I was offered the menu, amenity kit, but alas no pyjamas on board for this daytime flight.


"Sarko One"

Lunch menu

Wine Guide

fly_ebos

Climbing out of Paris CDG

Taking off in the afternoon reminds me of British afternoon tea, so there we went for green jasmine tee with a sweet trio of desert buffet. I could hear the folks behind me in business class being served a full course meal, I was happy to dine on demand and sip my tea.






The sun is setting.


I love a loo with a view!

One movie later, 3 hours into the flight I was ready for my aperitif, a glass of Krug champagne with heated nuts. What followed was an exquisite dining service by a top notch crew. They really went out of their way to maximize my dining experience and nothing was too much trouble.


Table set up


Amouse this evening consisted of caviar with blinis, yummy! If only I could have this every evening ^

I had some difficulty in deciding the entrée so the purser offered me a buffet of choice. The wine suggestion (Riesling) was a little too sweet for my liking so they also cracked open the Sauvignon Blanc.






Roasted chicken for the main course: whilst excellent in preparation and presentation, I found the dish rather simple.

By now I really got stuffed by all this delicious food, so I asked for a half hour break before serving the chocolate fondant.



Spending the night in Doha

We were close to our top of descent into Doha so time to clean up my belongings. Some twenty minutes later it was touchdown and after 15 minutes taxiing we came to a halt. Now comes my favorite part: being the first to get of the stairs and into the awaiting BMW7
As I did not plan to leave Doha airport I asked the driver to drop me off at the Premium terminal. They had a good look at my boarding pass when I entered but let me go through to spend the night. The terminal looks nice but on second glance I found it to be a bit disappointing. In the first class section there are no coaches to have some rest, only 3 men toilets and 2 showers. Luckily it was not that busy around midnight!

First thing upon entering the lounge was to head for the spa section. I knew I could find resting rooms here and thank God there were still some available. A refreshing shower later, I was ready for a couple of hours of sleep.


Corridor with the resting rooms. Head for the spa section and you will find it on your right hand side when entering.


Unfortunately I did not sleep that well: the airconditioning was making a hell of a noise, and it's cooling qualities were rather .

fly_ebos

Qatar Airways flight 19

planned departure: 07h55
actual departure: 09h10
planned arrival: 13h10
actual arrival: 14h10
aircraft: Airbus 340-600 A7-AGB
seat: 2K

When going to bed the previous night I was asked at what time I would like to have my wake up call. Boarding time was 7.20am so I asked for a 6 o'clock call. I did wake up fifteen minutes early and decided to spend it usefully by waking up in the big spa. They do provide you with some sort of a bathing cloth (the most hideous one-size-fits-all), luckily I did pack my own swimming short . After soaking in the hot tub I went for a shower. My body clock was still on European time, and at 4am I was not that hungry yet. There was a full option buffet available but I went for some yoghurt with English breakfast tea.

Around 7.15am I headed downstairs to the boarding area and I was asked to wait a couple of minutes for the driver to arrive. Yippee another BMW7 taking me to the aircraft


I would not have minded if the driver dropped me off at this bird...


But I did get to be passenger number one on the A7-AGB.

Again I was personally welcomed by name and directed to my seat. I could tell I was a little early as the staff was not fully ready yet, so loads of people running up and down. It didn't bother me. What was annoying was the 1h15 minutes delay we encountered due to late connecting passengers and then getting stuck in the middle of an outbound rush . Champagne before noon is not my cup of tea, instead I opted for the fresh orange juice.


We finally got airborne, view on the Doha harbor


What happens if a tsunami were ever to struck this area??



After takeoff I was offered a full service breakfast, but instead I opted for a healthy fruit and yoghurt with a breakfast bakery basket.



I could feel I did not have a good night's rest so I asked the cabin crew for a turndown service. Again it was a pity that no pyjamas were provided, but we managed . After a couple of hours I woke up overhead Romania, with about 2 hours to go. Just in time for a snack






Warm pesto chicken sandwich


A trio of salmon, sushi and foie gras


Snowy Germany, 1 hour to go


My personal favorite shot, with the shadow of the aircraft


And back where it started almost 24 hours earlier, Paris CDG terminal 1.

Verdict

Qatar Airways first class has been a wonderful experience. The crew where outstanding and beyond in giving me a truly first class service, on both legs. The seats were in excellent condition but the general look of the cabin did feel a bit outdated, especially compared to regional competitors.

The only really negative comment would be the contractor lounge they use in Paris.


Thank you for taking the time in reading and viewing this report! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did flying it. Please give me feedback, the good and the bad

Next trip: end of this month BRU-CPT-BRU with British Airways, out in CW, back in WT.

RTW4

great report.. Thank you so much!!!!

lsed

Interesting TR
Been wanting to read up about QR's F but it seems so elusive on the web.

Thanks for the post. And great pics btw.

The USA plane - probably concerning the Taliban office in Qatar?

MrDplus

Great report and awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing.

InternationalLiving

Nice TR, thanks

I think I would have tried the arabic mezze instead of the pasty-like-sandwich though

fly747first

Excellent report and thanks for all the great pics! Over the years, I have become more and more disappointed with QR F and I find EK F to be significantly better these days.

nomad1974

Very informative, thanks for posting. However, I couldn't help but thinking "what a waste of miles"

Oh, and BTW, that's not "Sarko One", that's just a French Government / Air Force transport A340.

"Sarko One" is an A330, here it is:

Commie

Excellent TR, thanks for sharing. What a way to spend couple of days.

Did you happen to try the Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou?

fly_ebos

Thanks every one for the nice comments!

Sorry no I didn't, not such a fan of red wine.

pefs65

very great TR^

GetSetJetSet

Nice report, just wondering why you didn't use the miles to book a trip for a future date when you might have more time to explore. Did you ask for PJ's on either flight?

snod08

Very nice TR!
Interesting to see that they offer an overnight bedroom for F-pax.!

fly_ebos

Yes I did but unfortunately they don't load PJ's on board for daytime flights.