Quiet area/bedroom
Back at the spa reception, it was already about 11:30pm and I went to ask whether there would be a room available from midnight. Luckily there was availability and after taking my boarding pass as collateral, the receptionist led me through the hallway to my room, number 6 and informed me that I had the room until 6am the next day, extendable for a fee.
Hallway of the quiet area
Halllway looking towards entrance of quiet area
There are a total of 12 rooms
I was assigned room 6
Room 6 is a single with a twin bed facing the flat screen TV and desk. The en-suite bathroom featured a toilet and standing shower, with the usual personal items at the sink (dental hygiene, shaving kit, cotton pads etc) and bath products from Diptyque (notice a pattern here? 🤣
Here again, the design language was very congruent with the rest of the lounge, with the gorgeous stone adorning the walls of the shower. There was also a reference to the inflight burgundy blanket, which was used as a throw to decorate the bed. The bathrobe, towels and bed linen were from Frette. These rooms are really meant for sleeping, as there are no windows (at least in mine).
Luggage and coat storage at the entrance of room 6
Twin bed with burgundy inflight blanket throw
Flat screen TV and desk
En-suite bathroom
Diptyque products
Mirror above sink
Just can’t get enough of this gorgeous stone!!
The only other lounge I know of that offers proper bedrooms is the SWISS First lounge in ZRH/E concourse, which offers stunning views of the tarmac and runway. Despite this advantage, it would be hard to have to choose between the two: there are 12 rooms at the Al Safwa and the lounge is open 24/7, SWISS only has 2 rooms and the lounge is closed at night but has the great views of the planes.
As a comparison, the bedroom of the SWISS First lounge at ZRH
Room with a view!
I had 2 issues with the room I was in: 1) I couldn’t find the switch to turn off the light at the entrance to the room. I had already undressed by then and was too lazy tired to go back to the reception to inquire so I just left it at that 2) the other problem was not being able to charge my phone with the numerous sockets on the walls. Again, I just didn’t have the courage to go the reception to ask for an adapter, so I charged my phone in the bathroom at the shaving socket. The fact that these 2 problems have been thoroughly discussed on the Al Safwa thread of the QR forum suggests that they are common occurrences.
Don’t get me wrong, these are just minor gripes in the larger context but should be addressed. Overall though, it was still an incredible experience to have access to private rooms in a lounge to spend the night. I also consider myself lucky to get a room at midnight as that seems to be peak hour. Was it the concierge who unofficially reserved the room with the reception when I told him of my plans and he took down my details? Perhaps, and I will never know, but that’s how good service in these luxury places should work, discreetly and behind-the-scenes. When I checked-out at 6am, there were a few people lined up at the reception being denied rooms as the ‘hotel’ was full.
Breakfast
It was time to have breakfast and continue my journey. I checked out of the room and went to the restaurant, the lounge was much more crowded now than the night before. The sun had risen and it was nice to see the lounge in full daylight so I chose to sit facing the large window in the restaurant. This time, there was an A350 parked at the gate right in front of the restaurant, a huge improvement over the night before!
Morning view from Al Safwa restaurant
The server came with a hot towel and took my order: I went with a freshly-squeezed orange juice, a peach and honey smoothie, eggs royale and the viennoiserie basket. This included a croissant with a local seed, za’atar. The food was served surprisingly quickly considering how busy they were and was of good quality.
Breakfast at Al Safwa restaurant
Restaurant view in daylight
Cruise ship in the distance
How do they wash these curtains…?!
After finishing breakfast, I went back to the lockers to collect my belongings and head to the boarding gate. I passed by the concierge desk to ask them to reprint my boarding pass as the stub was about to fall off after 30 hours of scanning and putting back in my pocket. I was secretly hoping they would reprint it on First Class stock, but I think the agent probably didn’t even realize I was in F and just reprinted it on the silver Business Class boarding pass. I also inquired about the way to my gate, and wasn’t offered any kind of car or buggy service.
On my way out I quickly checked the private in-lounge duty free shop. It has 2 parts, an outer part on a terrace selling luxury watches, jewellery etc and the inner circular chamber that sells chocolates, local specialities, electronics etc and a mini Ermenegildo Zegna boutique on the side. This part was so discreet and dimly lit most people probably even miss it. I decided instead to buy local products at the store in the main terminal the lounge concierge had recommended as I was sure I would have a much larger choice and better prices. I didn’t take pictures of the duty free store as there was always an employee hovering around and it wasn’t large enough to be discreet. I wonder if they ever sell anything there, it seemed to be empty every time I passed it.
Conclusion: the Al Safwa lounge is absolutely incredible with great amenities, stunning design and overall good service. The high ceilings and vast spaces may not be for those who prefer a more cosy, intimate style, but nevertheless it is objectively one of the best first class lounge experiences out there. In a perfect world they would offer car service to the boarding gate but then again, it was probably a good thing I had a long trek to the D gates to burn off some calories after all the wining and dining so far.
One final look before leaving, the fountain in daylight
Trek to the D gates
The main terminal was bustling at this time of the morning with a large bank of US flights and connections from all over the world. Definitely a change from the luxurious cocoon of the Al Safwa lounge! I stopped by a duty free store to pick up some local souvenirs (saffron is quite a bit less expensive in larger quantities than in supermarkets in the US and Europe).
Store in the main terminal selling local souvenirs
As it was my first time at Hamad International it started to dawn upon me that the D gates were the furthest from the central part of the terminal when I had to abandon my cart and board a monorail.
Ad in the terminal- I think we can leave out the genius part, just plain crazy
Boarding
I arrived at gate D22 slightly ahead of boarding time but the flight was already boarding and they were loading passengers onto buses to the aircraft. Would the experience be an improvement at their hub for a passenger in First Class, compared to the boarding experience I had in SFO the day before? The answer is a resounding no. Premium class boarding was on the right of the podium and there was a bunch of passengers lined up to have their boarding passes scanned. The reason for the congestion was that past this initial scan, there was another employee checking boarding passes to filter passengers onto the right bus, (business or economy). I asked the gate agent whether there was a separate service for First Class, she seemed surprised that there was even F on this flight and just pointed towards the Business Class bus. This is absolutely a first world problem but I really feel that they could provide car service from the lounge at least for remote stand gates.
I boarded the premium bus and after waiting for it to fill up we were driven for a good 10 minutes towards the aircraft parked near the runway. I was in AvGeek heaven as we passed countless QR aircraft, including A350s, B787s and A380s. There was an interesting mix of passenger profiles on this flight, Swiss passengers and families and a few young Indonesian Chinese families who knew each other and were traveling as a group.
Finally we arrived at the remote stand where the ex-CX Boeing 777-300ER registration A7-BOB in QR albino livery (white fuselage) was waiting to take us to ZRH. What a beauty!!
There he is, Bob! Boeing 777-300ER A7-BOB
I guess it would be unreasonable to expect a separate set of stairs to board F 😉
Mighty GE-90
View from the stairs
About to board QR 95 to ZRH