So, having covered just short of 325k miles with Emirates last year I decided to give Qatar a try from Bucharest (OTP) to Dubai (DWC) via Doha, just wanted to give you provide you all with some details.



Check in at OTP - separate area, made to feel very welcome addressed by name exceptionally friendly check in staff.

Boarding - priority given to business class passengers and strictly enforced by gate agents.

Pre-departure - approached personally by purser and welcomed aboard, wished a pleasant flight, offered a choice of Brut or Rose champagne.

Seat - As this was a A320 was expecting the seat to be a little cramped, but it actually was ok, a 2+2 arrangement, very comfortable.

Dining on board - Excellent menu, great variety, looked and tasted amazing, in fact I would say it was much better than most of the meals I have had in F on EK for the past year or so. Started with the soup which was piping hot and rich tomato, followed by Arabian Chicken and cheese board.

As an aside, the chap next to me, when shown the menu, just nodded and said yep, I will have the lot! Again this was no problem for the crew and he ended up eating two starters, three mains, two desserts and washed down with a half bottle of port....good man!

Arrival at DOH - Remote stand, but separate bus for business class passengers, was in the terminal in less than 5 minutes!

Lounge in DOH - for some reason, I was ticketed into F class from DOH to DWC so was able to access the F lounge, seemed ok but a little cold to me, much prefer the F lounge at DXB.

Arrival in DWC - Off the plane and out of the terminal in less than 15 minutes and that was with checked luggage!

Overall - Well as someone with no status at all with Qatar I have to say the service was far about what I normally experience with EK when traveling F as a Plat!

I was genuinely made to feel welcome throughout the journey and reminded me how EK used to be about 5 years ago.

If I was to compare EK and QR, I would say that EK win on the lounges but QR is far more superior on service.

Although I don't think I will ever stop flying EK, I think I will give QR a few more tries and maybe start spreading my business between EK and QR.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings...got go and try and book my next EK flight to the Far East!

I would agree with the above - our flights with QR in J in February were excellent. The one downside for us is that frequency of flights to most destinations is generally less than with EK and journeys from the UK often end up with very long or very short connection times in DOH. Prices however are also excellent

QR is the only airline I would say is a genuine contender against EK as they have very modern planes, nice hard product, the new airport in DOH is quite good now and their fleet is more or less uniform, unlike EY which sucks in all the above. HOwever as pomkiwi notes, the issue is schedule... just can't beat EK on schedule. Where EK flights 4 or 5 years ago used to routinely have 7-10 hour layovers in DXB on some itineraries I now never have more than 4h (and usually with a shorter connection available with a less pleasant departure time so I choose the longer connection).

Agree with you regarding frequency, but, the upside to that is that your are not circling above DXB for 30 minutes waiting for a slot to land...haha

I think given time, they will ramp up frequencies and be a proper contender to EK, currently the pricing is very competitive, as an example, some friends of mine purchased Y class from BHX to DXB last week flying today and the fare was 50p plus 250 GBP taxes. How long they can maintain fares that low is anyone's guess though.

O/D out of DXB will also be cheaper through other airlines as EK prices those flights quite high

As long as the LNG flows in Qatar, the fares can be that low

QR is very good - especially in F, on the rare routes that have F (which probably explains why F standards are so good on QR - it's basically the Al-Thani family private jet system with a few regulars).

The only downside I would say is the network and scheduling frequency - hard product is great and the transit experience is DOH is now acceptable.

Also sometimes the mint and lime juice looks radioactive.

I am still chuckling to myself about the guy sitting next to me ordering everything on the menu....I think he ordered some kind of lime juice!

That's pretty much my experience when I did a MAN-DOH-DXB return using Avios last year.

Service and food was great. The F lounge wasn't open then, but the J lounge was great, and pretty empty the time I was there.

The only issue I have is you never know what sort of plane you'll be on! From MAN, it could be a A330/B777/B787, and they change at the last minute.

On my DOH-DXB leg, it was supposed to be a B787, but got change at the last minute to an A320!

I have been flying EK every month for almost 10 years, they have the best Economy product in the world, however their Business class seat value is slipping

So last year I flew some flights on QR for a promotion and am now Platinum / oneworld Emerald which is quite cool as I have never participated in an alliance

I will continue to fly EK but flights originating in Dubai will likely be on QR in future

the "dine on demand" service on QR Business + offerings puts EK to shame, to many crews rush through the service and food has less good though the wines exceptional

connections are an issue and few flights will be good if the crew sucks on either

From the few flights I've taken on QR, I've come away that for the business class traveller, QR has EK beat hands down, but for the F flyer, EK still wins my vote (not necessarily cuz EK's F is soooo much better then QR's but because QR has so few flights that offer it.

Same here, I prefer the QR overall product (and the EY inflight product on the 787) to EK in business, and have had more than my share of the DXB transit ordeal at peak times, but still mostly fly EK because of the frequencies...

You like the 787? What class, F or J? I don't know why but I try to stay away from 787s as much as psbl. It seems small to me (yes, I know it's my imagination) but still stay away from it. Are the EY suites the same size as on the 77W or are they smaller?

The apartment on the 380 is the best F product I've ever flown but I can't put up with EYs ground service so sticking with EK. EY has so few 380s that it's really a special service as opposed to something you fly every time. To bad EY doesn't have a 380 fleet like EK. Apartments to so many destinations would actually get me to switch carriers