Boarding began a few minutes before I arrived and the agent decided to direct me to the regular bus until I mentioned to him I was eligible to use the business class shuttle, which after checking my boarding pass a second time, confirmed.

Qatar uses a small minibus to bring business class passengers to the aircraft when the plane is not connected to the terminal. After a few minutes of drive, we arrived at the door of the A350-900, registered A7-ALC


Bus gate to SIN






Business class transfer bus


QR Airbus A350-900 (A7-ALC)




Boarding using door 2L

Qatar Airways QR942, November 21st 2018
DOH Doha Hamad Intl - 20:15
SIN Singapore Changi - 09:15 (+1)
Airbus A350-900 – A7-ALC – Seat 07A, Business class, Bulkhead seat, window.

The boarding was done using stairs connected to the door #2 Left and the cabin service manager together with one flight attendant were greeting each passengers coming in. My seat, 7A, was the first one of the business class mini-cabin and located right next to the entrance.

Qatar Airways has configured its business class cabin on board the Airbus 350-900 in a 1-2-1 configuration, ensuring that every business class passenger has direct access to the aisle (this is also called « herringbone » configuration). The seats in row 1, just like the ones in row 7, have slightly better legroom and extra storage space as those are the first rows of the two business class sections.

Finally, there is no real divider between the two business class sections and the galley #2 (which is not really a galley per se actually, more the location where some snacks and drinks are available during the flight). I thought this would be a big disadvantage of being seated in row 7, but I have to say this was not, as I still had a bit of privacy towards the galley, and this particular flight was very quiet as most of the passengers slept, not really many people ever visited this snacking area.


Seat 7A


Little cabinet to stow personal items


This cabinet is large enough to accomodate my laptop for example (Macbook 12)


Additional stowage for the noise cancelling headphone and water bottle


Legroom


I love the fact air ducts are available, as this is not always the case on wide body aircrafts in premium cabins...


View from the seat...


Although the seat 7A is at the first row of the mini cabin, facing the bar area, I was not disturbed by any noise or passenger movements.

The seat, just like most of the business class seats in the market those days had a USB port, a 110V power plug, diverse seated positions with lumbar support and can transform in a full flat bed of almost 2 meters. It did not have an electric massage function though. Wifi was available on board, with the first 15 minutes for free. A reasonable amount os storage was available, next to the seat, and in front of it. More in depth review of this product is available on my previous flyer talk trip report, as the seat used on this Airbus 350-900 was similar to the one used on their Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner and the Airbus 380-800.

Shortly before departure, a welcome drink was offered together with a choice of cold or hot towels. The pajamas and sleepers were also provided, with the menus for the food and wines.

At the seat upon boarding were already placed the Bric’s amenity kit, the pillow and blanket.


Brics amenity kit with the cold towel and welcome beverage (just water this time)


Never had this color before...


Pyjama, sleepers and the menus






Pommery is a safe bet, but I am going to try the other one...










And more booze !

Finally, just like on every QR long haul flight in Business class, the purser, an Italian man in his late 30s came to every passenger to introduce himself and inform us that the flight time to Singapore will be around 8 hours, as scheduled.

He also informed us that another flight attendant, a friendly Korean lady in her early 30s would be servicing this section of the cabin during the flight.

I never really saw again the purser during almost the entire flight, but the Korean FA remained very available and came frequently at the rear section of the cabin to check if everything was alright. We eventually talked a bot about my travels and also the places she got the opportunity to visit at mid-flight.

Together with bringing the pajamas, my welcome drink and the cold towel I ordered, the FA asked me if I wanted to drink anything after take off, and I opted for some rosé champagne.

We took off around 20:30 as I recall and service started shortly after, with my champagne order coming with some nuts.


Take off from DOH watching an episode of "New Girl"


Post-departure drink - Going to try the Ataïr rosé champagne


It came with warm nuts. The champagne was ok, but I had better rosés on other flights and airlines...

The champagne, an Ataïr rosé, was ok, but I had some better ones on board other airlines, including QR…

One thing I absolutely love about flying Qatar business class in long haul is that you can pretty much order any food on the menu at anytime (« Dine on demand » concept). I felt a bit hungry after take off so I decided to have my dinner at this stage. 20 minutes after my order, the flight attendant came to dress the table (I love this fake candle they placed !) and brought at the same time a very good shrimp amuse bouche.


Amuse-bouche...

Excellent !

The starter later arrived (Salmon gravlax) and it was excellent.


Salmon Gravlax

I opted for the sea bass main course and it was also pretty good !


Sea bass.



Finally, I choose a healthy option for the dessert and opted for the fresh berries in rose water syrup… It was very good !

It came with a chamomile tea and some Godiva chocolates. I felt pretty tired after the dinner and just had the time to watch a 20-minute episode of a TV series and visit the lavatory to put the pajama on before falling asleep, for a couple hours…


Red fruit salad, in a mint "soup"


Camomille tea with Godiva chocolates


Bathroom stop before going to bed !


Soon off to bed!


View on the front business class cabin


Snacking area next to door 2

About 3 hours later I woke up and an hour later the crew started to ask the ones awake if they wanted to have some breakfast. I was not very hungry so I opted for the fresh fruits with the granola yogurt.





All the lights were switched on about an hour before landing and the immigration forms were given about 40 minutes before arrival, which I think is a bit late. I like when the crew gives the forms just after departure so passengers have plenty of time to complete those. Especially considering there were a few turbulences during the descent into Singapore.



The approach into Singapore was very scenic and this was one of those days I was happy to have a window seat !










Scenic approach in Singapore Changi








Total route DOH-SIN

We landed around 09.05 local time and arrived at our gate 5 minutes later, so a few minutes before scheduled arrival time

Disembarking was smooth and as usual in Singapore, the immigration was painless (you can even get free candies there !). Luggage arrived quite promptly, with my bag being one of the first ones on the belt.

Singapore customs were pretty active that morning and my belongings, were requested to be X-ray screened. This was also the case for maybe a third of the other passengers on this flight.




Singapore immigration clearance was very fast...


... Such as the luggage delivery !

Overall, I think Qatar airways has a very solid business class product, probably one of the best around. Being a OneWorld member airline, it makes the redemptions using miles, but also the miles credit very easy and potentially lucrative for a lot of frequent flyer programs. I personally credited my previous flights to my British Airways account, although this time, I used some BA Avios to purchase those business class tickets from Muscat and paid in total 64500 Miles + 192 Euros of taxes and fees. The same ticket would have easily cost 1000 Euros or more. I just wished I could have tried their new Q Suites business class product… Maybe next time !