I recently flew QR for the first time. I had high expectations of the five star airline, and wasn’t disappointed. But I don’t know if I was exactly overwhelmed, either. My flights were in J, HEL-DOH-MEL-DOH-HEL, 787 and A380.

I wanted to make a quick comparison between AY and QR mostly in order to hear what your experiences are and what you think AY could do better to improve their product now that they are facing direct competition from the ME3.

Before the flight:
QR made schedule changes twice. Nothing major, but 30–40 minutes might screw everything up if you are on a tight connection, so in future, I would prepare for frequent schedule changes on QR bookings. AY seldom makes schedule changes.

The ”funny” thing here was that 2–3 days before my return, QR once again sent me one of those ”Change to your Qatar Airways flights” email, the third one, which of course didn’t come as a very nice surprise at that late stage. On top of that, the info they sent me was all wrong. I got a new ticket with revised timings for both flights MEL-DOH-HEL. Both flights were to depart roughly half an hour later than scheduled. The times somehow looked familiar and when I ckecked, they were the exact same times as in my original ticket which had been revised twice after that. I found it hard to believe that they would have reverted to the original timings and checked both the QR site MMB as well as Flightstats, and they both gave the old/previous flight times. At the airport, it turned out that those were correct and the info QR sent me was all false. Well, it was a matter of only 30 minutes so no big deal, but what if they had sent me an email falsely informing of a new departure time three hours later? I would have missed that flight. This didn’t give a very professional image of the company.

Otherwise, MMB worked well and seat selection was easy, comparable to AY. Picking my meal choice in advance was easy as well. Maybe AY could learn here and always make the choices available exactly 14 days before your flights, because now it’s a hit and miss. You never know when they show up, if they show up at all.

Check-in:
At HEL, I had done OLCI and had hand luggage only, but I wanted to visit the desk because OLCI had required me to fill in visa info on HEL-DOH, which had me worried something might be wrong since I don’t need a visa to DOH. The system wouldn’t let me proceed without the visa info, so I filled in the Australian visa data to trick it, which worked. After queueing for about 5–7 min to the one and only J desk, the agent looked at my booking and confirmed that the system indeed wanted my Aussie visa data even if it wasn’t stated anywhere and even if my MEL flight was only after two days. Got a new BP, hand luggage tags and a tip to visit the AY Premium lounge since it would be closer to my gate. Considering that AY usually wants to direct you to those poor contract lounges it was a nice change to get such a tip from QR.

In this category, AY wins, because they have a very straight forward OLCI ex-HEL. No matter where you’re flying, you can fill in all data online and amend at the gate if needed. Haven’t visited the desks at HEL for years.

At DOH, there was a huge separate check-in area for J. This time, I didn’t even receive a BP via OLCI so I was forced to go there. No lines, lots of agents available. Also a very quiet premium passport control and security line just behind the J check-in area. Very smooth experience, far better than at AYs home base.

At MEL, I didn’t go to the desk since I had self-printed my BPs. No priority passport control or security, or at least I didn’t see any. A pretty long wait at security, too. AY usually requires you to visit the desk at intercontinental outstations, which is a bother.

Lounges:
Comparing AY Premium lounge with QR Al Mourjan is like comparing Citymarket with Siwa. Sizewise, the difference is huge, but in the end they offer more or less the same things.

The AY Premium lounge would be OK, but it is far too small and at times supercrowded. Too few seats too close to each other and an erratic system with orders from the kitchen that need to be picked up, but you don’t know when. Either they should hand out numbers and bring the food to your table when ready, or they should give you one of those beepers that tell you when it’s pick-up time (like CX does).

The QR lounge was absolutely huge. It’s not the best QR has to offer since they have an F lounge, too, but sizewise it wins AY hands down. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really be so sure. After the oohs and aahs, you come to realise that both have wifi, both have semi-comfortable seating, both have something to eat, with Al Mourjan’s restaurant bigger but the buffet not necessarily better, both have showers (have never tried the AY shower but the QR one was just normal, nothing out of the ordinary. There was a wait of about 10 minutes, too, which didn’t really add to the experience, and an overenthusiastic shower attendant who did everything but undressed me).

The best lounge by far on this trip was the QF F lounge in MEL. Large, mostly empty, sit-down à la carte dining with nice options and good food, basic showers with no wait, spa treatments available, ample comfortable seating.

Boarding:
QR starts very early, at least compared to AY which often starts a bit too late. All my flights had boarding completed far in advance of the STD. The MEL-DOH flight left the gate 20 min before STD and we were in the air quick, landing a full hour before STA in DOH.

Priority boarding worked well and 3 out of 4 flights had a separate jetbridge for premium classes.

Flight:
This is QR’s definite stronghold with some details that I really liked. It started off with real rose-smelling towels (hot or cold, sir?) and not those disposable gauzes as well as any welcome drink instead of water/juice/champagne. But then on the other hand, some of the differences were very small of nonexistent.

Consider the amenity kit, for example. I find the AY amenity kit a disgrace. Those Clarins minis that say ”sample not for sale” make me laugh. And I don’t think the bag is even close to Marimekko standards – wonder how Marimekko allows them. But while QR’s Brics toilet bag definitely was of a higher standard and the Italian cosmetics are more exclusive than the bulk Clarins stuff, the remaining contents was very similar. QR includes socks, at AY you need to ask for them. QR’s eye mask is smaller, AY’s is larger and better. QR won’t give you a toothbrush by default (but they do stock their toilets with toothbrushes that are regular size and actually pretty good). AY gives you slippers by default nowadays, at QR you only get them if it’s a night flight. In the Amenity Kit category, QR wins over AY, but the difference is not as big as I had expected.

QR has pyjamas in J, AY doesn’t. I can’t really make up my mind about them, though – I did wear the PJ on DOH-MEL but didn’t bother on MEL-DOH. I guess it’s not something I will miss.

On QR, you will never experience AY’s ”now we come with the cart and it’s time to sit down and eat, children” meal service that on top of it all is really slow at times. QR’s menu is more varied, but I would have wanted more Western choices. You can dine whenever you want, which is a very good concept – after having just eaten in the lounge I rarely want my meal right after take-off, especially if it’s a very long flight. Once hungry, the meal service was quick but unhurried. The food was nicely presented but the main courses didn’t actually taste that special. I had some chicken Indian style which was okay but nothing remarkable, I had fish that had lost all its taste, don’t know why, I had beef which was just as overcooked as on any airline. But I also had a very good salmon appetizer as well as good Arabian meze. I was impressed by their ice creams, too. Always two different flavors, and they prepared a glass cup with berries and a chocolate decoration. Makes AY’s papercup bulk look so cheap.

I would say AY main courses taste better but QR has speedier and more personalized service, no trays, more variety and better appetizers and desserts. QR feels like dining at a restaurant.

Seat:
AY’s A350 and QR’s 787 and A380 all have a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration. QR feels less cramped and you can adjust the seat better, the seat controls have more options. QR has put more thought into the design, too, having more storage space and also dedicated spaces for headphones, water bottles and inflight magazines, menus etc. I don’t know how AY has managed to make their seat feel so cramped. On A380, QR also offered an extra mattress which made the seat a little softer and more comfortable for sleeping. I hope AY would do the same.

IFE:
Here, QR wins AY hands down. AY advertises a broad choice, but when you pick a tv-series, for instance, you might only get 2–4 episodes. QR gives you the whole season. Also, the selection of shows and movies seems larger. Can’t tell how often QR updates their selection, but AY seems to never do it so QR can hardly be worse.

Cabin crew:
If you need pampering, go for QR. If you want nice and friendly but completely impersonal chitchats, go for QR. If you want someone to appear literally seconds after pressing the call button, with a smile on their face, go for QR (I think I never waited for more than 20 seconds and never got that ”and what is it now” look). If you want infinite ”yes, sir, of course, and would you like one more”, then definitely go for QR.

However, if you’re equipped with a Nordic mindset, then you might want to go for AY. All the superimposed friendliness of the multinational (non-Qatari!) cabin crew was nice as such, but if I was to fly them more often, it would probably start to become a little overwhelming. I find the AY J ladies more genuine and down-to earth in a positive way. I’m not a passenger who easily engages in a conversation with them, but sometimes I do, and it feels like you are talking to a real person, not an automated doll that has been taught what to say and when to say it and, when running out of choices, becomes completely clueless.

Of course, I don’t like it that AY CC sometimes make me feel like I’m asking for the moon when I want my socks or an extra Häagen Dazs papercup, or when they try to trick me into eating some turkey sandwich after I’ve ordered roast beef. Surely AY would have a lot to learn from the QR attitude, but overall it’s not like they are losing the game to QR hands down.

Overall:
If I were Mr Vauramo, I would put everyone in my inflight experience team on a QR flight tomorrow. They would surely have a lot to learn, and there are many things that AY could do better, copying from QR, without using that much money. Better, washable towels, a greater variety of predeparture drinks and dine-on-request come to mind. Oh, and I would expand that lounge not tomorrow but today.

My choice:
I would definitely fly QR again. My overall experience was very positive. In J, I liked the welcome, the seat, the meal service and the IFE. But to fly QR, I would require relatively short connection times at DOH, which after some random searches doesn’t seem to be the case too often. They need to work on their banks.

If AY offered a direct flight at a price more or less similar or even somewhat more expensive, then I would choose AY without a second thought. In the theoretical situation where AY and QR would both offer a direct flight to my destination at a similar price, I would probably go for QR if flying in J.

In Y, I would prefer AY because I would get complimentary Y+ and the opportunity to upgrade to J.