QR J vs BA F & BA J
Jan 8, 2019, 10:59 pm
#1
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Posts: 389
QR J vs BA F & BA J
I flew in the QR Q-suite this week for the first time and was very impressed. And I couldnt help comparing it with BA F.
Certainly felt the QR hard product was a nose ahead of BA F; similar space, better IFE, more privacy due to the suite door, PJs, all seats with direct aisle access. The soft product was also very good; enthusiastic staff, good food, adequate wine.
Overall a close result ..... in fact, a dead heat.
And compared to BA J... well.. let's just leave it there for now and come back to the issue once the new J seats are launched.
Certainly felt the QR hard product was a nose ahead of BA F; similar space, better IFE, more privacy due to the suite door, PJs, all seats with direct aisle access. The soft product was also very good; enthusiastic staff, good food, adequate wine.
Overall a close result ..... in fact, a dead heat.
And compared to BA J... well.. let's just leave it there for now and come back to the issue once the new J seats are launched.
Jan 8, 2019, 11:24 pm
#2
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While I haven’t flown the Q Suites I think the general consensus is that QR J is closer to BA F than BA J but BA F is likely to edge it out on soft and hard product though QR can be better in certain regards. And I tend to prefer the QR lounge at LHR to the CCR but that’s personal preference.
Jan 8, 2019, 11:48 pm
#3
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To be honest, there are already a lot of existing threads discussing the comparison so perhaps it would be best to just add to one of them rather than start a new one. I like the Q Suite a lot. As a hard product I'll admit that I actually like it better than the BA F product though the F seat on the A380 have more space than single Q Suites, they have less privacy (and more "standardised" privacy while on the Q Suite you can choose to have more or less of it as you wish). In the case of the 777, 744, and even 789, the comparison is even more unfavourable to BA. A bizarre advantage of the Q Suite is that in the case of non-full flights, you can effectively privatise honeymoon pairs or at times even quads which then offer incredible space in addition to incredible privacy. In BA F, a non full cabin (it happens) will get you better service but that is about it.
I prefer the food on BA F to QR J by a margin. However, on Q Suite flights (except very short ones like ARN etc), I really like the light food Q Suite menu which is a bit reminiscent of the now disappeared bistro menu in BA F which I really miss. Wine and Champagne are also usually clearly better on BA, though on some of my recent flights, the F wine list was really disappointing, while the QR Pomerol and first flush Sauternes were truly excellent. The current BA F nuts are best avoided - I wish they would stop playing ridiculous tricks on those and return to plain macadamia (or olives if they want to pick on of IB's nice ideas). The good news, here is that reports elsewhere suggest that the BA F soft product is hopefully about to improve and the mistake (in my view) of discontinuing the bistro menu about to be corrected. That would certainly be good. The tea selection is rubbish on both and coffee decent on both. QR wins on sparkling water and on the quality of juices and soft drinks for those who share my focus on non-alcoholic drinks for most of the flight.
I generally have excellent flights on both BA F and QR Q Quites but it is admittedly a bit worrying for BA that it even makes sense to compare the two in the first place and we can only hope that the next seat and new soft product will make such comparisons absurd as they should always have remained.
I prefer the food on BA F to QR J by a margin. However, on Q Suite flights (except very short ones like ARN etc), I really like the light food Q Suite menu which is a bit reminiscent of the now disappeared bistro menu in BA F which I really miss. Wine and Champagne are also usually clearly better on BA, though on some of my recent flights, the F wine list was really disappointing, while the QR Pomerol and first flush Sauternes were truly excellent. The current BA F nuts are best avoided - I wish they would stop playing ridiculous tricks on those and return to plain macadamia (or olives if they want to pick on of IB's nice ideas). The good news, here is that reports elsewhere suggest that the BA F soft product is hopefully about to improve and the mistake (in my view) of discontinuing the bistro menu about to be corrected. That would certainly be good. The tea selection is rubbish on both and coffee decent on both. QR wins on sparkling water and on the quality of juices and soft drinks for those who share my focus on non-alcoholic drinks for most of the flight.
I generally have excellent flights on both BA F and QR Q Quites but it is admittedly a bit worrying for BA that it even makes sense to compare the two in the first place and we can only hope that the next seat and new soft product will make such comparisons absurd as they should always have remained.
Jan 8, 2019, 11:56 pm
#4
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To be honest, there are already a lot of existing threads discussing the comparison so perhaps it would be best to just add to one of them rather than start a new one. I like the Q Suite a lot. As a hard product I'll admit that I actually like it better than the BA F product though the F seat on the A380 have more space than single Q Suites, they have less privacy (and more "standardised" privacy while on the Q Suite you can choose to have more or less of it as you wish). In the case of the 777, 744, and even 789, the comparison is even more unfavourable to BA. A bizarre advantage of the Q Suite is that in the case of non-full flights, you can effectively privatise honeymoon pairs or at times even quads which then offer incredible space in addition to incredible privacy. In BA F, a non full cabin (it happens) will get you better service but that is about it.
I prefer the food on BA F to QR J by a margin. However, on Q Suite flights (except very short ones like ARN etc), I really like the light food Q Suite menu which is a bit reminiscent of the now disappeared bistro menu in BA F which I really miss. Wine and Champagne are also usually clearly better on BA, though on some of my recent flights, the F wine list was really disappointing, while the QR Pomerol and first flush Sauternes were truly excellent. The current BA F nuts are best avoided - I wish they would stop playing ridiculous tricks on those and return to plain macadamia (or olives if they want to pick on of IB's nice ideas). The good news, here is that reports elsewhere suggest that the BA F soft product is hopefully about to improve and the mistake (in my view) of discontinuing the bistro menu about to be corrected. That would certainly be good. The tea selection is rubbish on both and coffee decent on both. QR wins on sparkling water and on the quality of juices and soft drinks for those who share my focus on non-alcoholic drinks for most of the flight.
I generally have excellent flights on both BA F and QR Q Quites but it is admittedly a bit worrying for BA that it even makes sense to compare the two in the first place and we can only hope that the next seat and new soft product will make such comparisons absurd as they should always have remained.
I prefer the food on BA F to QR J by a margin. However, on Q Suite flights (except very short ones like ARN etc), I really like the light food Q Suite menu which is a bit reminiscent of the now disappeared bistro menu in BA F which I really miss. Wine and Champagne are also usually clearly better on BA, though on some of my recent flights, the F wine list was really disappointing, while the QR Pomerol and first flush Sauternes were truly excellent. The current BA F nuts are best avoided - I wish they would stop playing ridiculous tricks on those and return to plain macadamia (or olives if they want to pick on of IB's nice ideas). The good news, here is that reports elsewhere suggest that the BA F soft product is hopefully about to improve and the mistake (in my view) of discontinuing the bistro menu about to be corrected. That would certainly be good. The tea selection is rubbish on both and coffee decent on both. QR wins on sparkling water and on the quality of juices and soft drinks for those who share my focus on non-alcoholic drinks for most of the flight.
I generally have excellent flights on both BA F and QR Q Quites but it is admittedly a bit worrying for BA that it even makes sense to compare the two in the first place and we can only hope that the next seat and new soft product will make such comparisons absurd as they should always have remained.
Jan 8, 2019, 11:59 pm
#5
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... I would particularly highlight the poor non-alcoholic options on BA; as I have said previously (and got slated by alcohol dependents on here) BA should improve its options particularly given the increasing number of t-total pax, pax that need to remain sober for driving or just out of preference whilst flying.
Jan 9, 2019, 12:01 am
#6
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Jan 9, 2019, 12:07 am
#8
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In addition to what navylad already mentions, freshly squeezed orange juice from most destination (the 'supermarket machine' type, not Tropicana type as on BA), fresh squeeze lemon-mint, fresh yoghurt drink (laban). Of course, QR's important Muslim customer base may explain that they had no choice but to multiply those choices, but airlines such as CX offer signature mocktails too, JL a luxury bottled tea (ridiculously priced for those who buy it but still excellent), and I think it is fair to say that a significant proportion of frequent flyers choose not to drink (or to drink little) alcoholon board for entirely non-religious reasons so I do think it would be nice for BA to try and cater for them too. Right now, we are stuck with ridiculously sweet sodas, mediocre juices or (thankfully) sparkling water.
Jan 9, 2019, 12:12 am
#9
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Jan 9, 2019, 12:21 am
#11
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I will forever more ignore the "Flyertalk search forums" in the top right of this page and rely on Google (other search engines are available)
Last edited by Yeoman5; Jan 9, 2019 at 12:22 am Reason: adding extra info
Jan 9, 2019, 12:26 am
#12
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Do ignore indeed: it's totally rubbish! I used to think it couldn't be that bad but frankly, the "relevant" results are totally drowned in a long list of random threads about spaghetti Bolognese, boarding groups or god knows what. I intellectually resent thinking of Google as a one size fit all answer to searches, but they really are hard to beat, and it's also user friendly on phones which the FT search tool certainly isn't!
Jan 9, 2019, 12:48 am
#13
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https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/...ofiles/qat.pdf
cf.
https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/...ofiles/gbr.pdf