Comparison between BA/QR/AA on one booking
 

Just returned from a long trip where I flew QR/BA and AA on one ticket (AA issued)

CGK-DOH - Qatar Business
DOH-LHR- BA Club
LHR-DFW - AA Business
DFW-JFK - AA Business (Domestic First)
JFK-DOH- AA Business
DOH-CGK - Qatar Business

Qatar Flights - as you expect with QR the seats (787/350) where decent (No Q Suites), the food was reasonable and the staff polite
Doha Airport- The place was a zoo both ways, it was completely packed, the restaurant was full, so the staff decided denied entry to the stairs/lift and told you to come back in 30 mins, great on a short connection...my overriding thought on QR is great in the air, but the ground service leaves a lot to be desired.

American Flights- I have to say I enjoyed all, the 777 from LHR was packed, seat was ok (seemed to be similar to CX), food was ok but nothing special (I bought a sandwich in Boots) service was great, the DFW domestic first flight from DFW to JFK was great, service first class, food was good, nothing to complain, the flight to Doha was good, I slept, we where provided with a mattress which didn't happen from Heathrow which meant sleep was good, the food decent, the only thing which slightly put me off was over friendly crew, every time they walked or approached it was a hand on the shoulder or arm (maybe that's just me..) the one time I didn't like it, was one male CC who actually poked me to get my attention...

One thing I did note, Flagship First, do they have the same food as Business?, from my seat in 3A it certainly looked that way, also it did seem that First was full of non revenue passengers, especially friends of the crew. from what I saw BA first looked much better

Lounges - DFW Flagship - Great , JFK Flagship - Not so good, JFK lounge closed about an hour before the flight left so we where asked to wait at the gate.

BA- Not good at all, plane swapped from CS to Gatwick Club within 24 hours, AVOD didn't work, food was awful and inedible, BA lost one of my bags at LHR (I thought it maybe AA, but BA sent an email) the only thing that was good was the crew, they provided the best service they could with the poor hardware.

BA lounge - Used CX First Lounge - As good as always.

The reason I booked to go via ME/London was due to cost, normally I will fly JAL to USA from Jakarta but the cost was over $11k where as this flight was a little over $4k.

You say the BA flight was swapped from CS but no LGW flights have CS.......

I read that as swapped from what was orignally intended to have been a CS plane to one without CS

Hi thanks for this.
I've not transited through DOH but am looking at possible QR routes for future travel to SE Asia.
Which bit of the airport was packed? Specifically the lounges? I assume you had access to the Al Mourjan lounge as travelling on QR J? I see they've also just opened three new lounges for OW ticketed passengers - Silver / Gold / Platinum - with OWE getting access to all including the Platinum lounge. Did you per chance see how busy they were?

Having just done AA in Business (on 787) my favourite thing about it is the seat, which is bang on, but the food was ok- not amazing. Service was pretty good, though in the past BA's CW service has always been very good on the Dreamliner in my experience, but less good in the bigger CW cabins (especially 380).

There are reports that all lounges are very busy at peak times over on the QR forum. In general the whole airport is extremely busy and has been for a while.

Remember your ticket needs to not be in basic business (P class) to get access to Al Mourjan.

When booked and up to a couple of days before, the flight was showing as CS but at some point in the last 24 hours it was swapped to the Gatwick style 777, the flight was to Heathrow


Agree about the food, it was ok, the Ice Cream Sundae was pretty good though...


The airport seemed pretty packed throughout, especially so during the early morning (1am) and the morning departures (8am) they closed the restaurant during the morning departures, I didn't see the other lounges but I assume the same, they QR lounge (AL Mourjan) just couldn't cope with the number of passengers, I was told that if I had QR Platinum I would be allowed access to the First Class Lounge, I always have found QR restricting access a bit bizarre and not in line with OW, but they must have there reasons, Maybe BA should start restricting QR Platinum from using the lounges when flying Economy and not allow Business class QR Plat from using the First Lounge at T5? then things may change...

For lounges EK is a better bet than QR in my humble view

Hmm bit worrying re: Al Mourjan lounge. I think they're hoping opening the other 3 lounges would've helped. The 3 new lounges are OW lounges so their essentially like BA First and Galleries at T5 whilst the CCR is a restricted BA (and AA) lounge. From what I've read the platinum lounge may have a similar service (including al la carte as well as buffet) dining - but only a few months old. Haven't been able to find any detailed reviews or YouTube videos which I would've expected some keen YT'ber would've done already.

I've been through AM a few times this year at peak times... usually the restaurant doesn't "close" but you can have your name added to a list and you can usually get called within about 10 minutes.

BA already does - it restricts access to one of its 1st class lounges (Concorde Room) and sends those with OW Emerald status to another lounge. QR is just as much out of alignment with OW as BA

My thought process with BA is that they have Galleries for Business Class , First Lounge for Emerald and GGL is for First Class/GGL

They don't send Y class passengers to a different lounge, so in my humble view, the BA system is more balanced, but agreed still out of line a little

Yes it does - a passenger holding OW Emerald status is sent to the 1st class lounge and not granted admission to its lounge available to 1st class passengers ( the Concorde Room ).

Not that much diifferent to QR not allowing access to its main 1st class lounge (Al Safwa lounge) to economy passenger holding OW Emerald status

There was a rationale for the Concorde Room when there was a Concorde service, but Concorde never operated from Terminal 5 and now is just a 1st class lounge with restricted access

Are you sure you were on an A350 with QR? These have Q Suites ( If they’re even flying right now ). Also which 787 was it? The 787-10 has their newer Business Suite

I’ve done all three in the past few months and I concur about DOH lounges. I paid for the First lounge on the way out (connecting to BOM) and it was worth it. The proper J lounge (not the frequent flyer one) was packed to the gills and its food was basically a tarted up sandwich.

Just to add having used QR to Oz a fair bit this year in J, it's a complete mess in the lounge, pop over to the QR forum for the latest. As said above while food tends to be achievable with a 10-20 min delay the showers have been multi-hour waits.