Originally Posted by LeSouris

Just a tip for those planning business-class RTWs: make sure you have as many legs on Qatar Airways as you can.

We're just back from a nice meaty RTW (OSL-xDOH-ICN-SYD-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL-LAX-xDFW-BNA-(surface)-MSY-DFW-SFO-DOH-LHR-OSL) and managed to get four legs onto QR.

It's been widely commented on elsewhere, but QR's hard and soft product is arguably the best in the skies -- better than BA First (and similar) in many ways. You have lots of room -- tons of room if your aircraft is configured with the QSuite. Service is generally thoughtful and responsive. Pyjamas are provided. Meals are apparently available at whatever time you want (this was one of the advantages of First) and the food was pretty good, albeit still airline food. (And a million times better than the prison-slop AA threw in front of us on each of our domestic US flights.)

Ground service is variable - Doha has fabulous lounges, other airports put you in a codeshare lounge of mediocre quality. In some airports checkin/boarding is outsourced and can be poor - on the first flight for a RTW we arrived literally 30 seconds after checkin closed and the local (Oslo) person said "all your flights will be cancelled and we can do nothing" and in response to my request to speak to the QR manager they said "he won't want to speak to you" !! Once we did actually get hold of the QR manager he was instantly and delightfullly helpful, not only getting us onto the flight straight away but also coming down personally on a scooter to ensure we were comfortably passing through immigration. First-rate service once you get the local team out of the way.

Long flights are a real test of an airline's comfort, and I can say that the long (don't-ask-about-the-carbon-footprint) route SFO-LHR via Doha was amazingly comfortable. The 15 hour leg flew by. And in Doha we took a 23-hour stopover to visit the souk (camels! falcons! merchants!) and the absolutely fantastic Islamic Art Museum.

Not every flight will be perfect but on the basis of our last couple of RTWs I'd say if you can get any legs to be QR, do so.

(Also, on this RTW, QR kept to schedule almost all the time, but every Qantas flight was cancelled, rescheduled without telling us, or horrendously delayed with minimal compensation. Worth avoiding.)