How is QR a 5 star airline?
 

I moved to Doha in June. Since then, I've had the misfortune to fly QR and here is my experience (I have rapidly gone from Ivory to Gold in 5 mths). I will preface the following with the fact I've been in the Middle East for 9 years now and fly around 200k flown miles a year...

Qatar Experience:

- surly, unhelpful, often distant miserable crew;
- terrible lounges in Doha;
- poor onboard F+B consistently;
- inconsistent and mixed hard product on-board (save for 787 J class);
- extraordinarly / disproportionately expensive compared to competition;
- poor recognition for FF elites (I have never, ever been personally addressed or welcomed on a flight);
- point blank refusal of status match, despite proof of status and future travel plans;
- none existent ground staff service (e.g. I am writing this from lounge having just tried to swap to earlier flight - absolutely no interest in assisting, other carriers do this as a matter of course (I only have laptop case + no checked bags);
- rip off policy for F/J booking classes e.g. 2 class flights intra-Gulf are deemed F/Y class but long-haul J/Y class - means they can try to cream more for intra-gulf fares (e.g. F to DXB from DOHA is best part of 5000 Riyals (900 quid for a 40 min flight);
- no chauffeur drive;
- no fast track facilities (thank heaven for e-gate at DOH);
- generally all around fall short of competition, including EK (which I don't like), EY (which I do) and CX (which is by far best J class I've ever flown in);
- terrible booking engines / facilities. V difficult to book mixed classes etc and select specific fare classes;
- poor FFP - makes Skywards look generous!
- poor availability of rewards;
- zero customer service by telephone;
- regularly mess up bookings and take ages to issue flight confirmations.

The above is just off the top of my head as I sit waiting (dreading) another Gulf-hop with QR.

How on earth do QR maintain a supposed 5 star Skytrax rating? How much are they paying Skytrax? Is this a paid perk? I simply cannot believe I am the only one that thinks QR are only a shade above the likes of KLM and far worse than the other Gulf carriers and miles away from the Asian carriers?

Oh no I hope its not this bad, I am thinking of changing airlines and have just booked my first flight. I don't fly as many miles as you but with family and friends we do a lot more (all in J) so I was hoping for something better. I have top plastic (3 years) and its very rare I am personally welcomed so nothing is going to change there. I asked for a status match last year and was also told no so they had to wait for a new year to get new passengers. From what I've read here QR are not so good on the ground but I am expecting things in the air to be much better. I pay for all our travels so I have a choice and there are plenty of airlines to choose from. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I stopped reading your opinion after the first few points, among:
- "often distant, miserable crew". I did not fly with QR so often as you, but I have NEVER encountered "miserable" crew. Even in Y I could see "distant", but not worse. I find the in-air service as being great, although I fly QR mostly long-haul in business.
- "terrible lounges in Doha". I find the Oryx Lounge to be "decent", and the Premium terminal to be exquisite. There are only a handful of lounges in the world that compare, one of them being the QR lounge in LHR.
- "inconsistent hard product". AFAIK they have 3 types of J seats: recliner seat on A32x, angle flat on A33x, full flat on B777. You should fly more with Thai, United or Turkish to see more about inconsistent hard product. Or fly LH, then you know you always get consistent crappy one :(

I'd be curious on your actual experiences, which led you to your conclusions.

Boy, you sound ticked off, and I reckon your analysis reflects this.

You write from your experiences - a continual 1st and J traveller who demands that the service is spot on (and why shouldn't you, that's what you know and expect).
Well I, and a zillion other travellers (read, skytrax voters) come from a different place. We are normally down the back, cattle class, and when the opportunity comes up to ride up the "pointy end", we soak it up. The measurements we use are based on our experiences (mine are QF, AA, UL, TG, AK, DJ, UA, BA, MH and of course, QR - all airlines mostly Y, with a smattering of J).
You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to work out who will get my vote, both in Y and J !

1) Hub captive makes your prices more expensive. Try flying JL out of NRT, CX out of HKG, AC out of YVR, and try and tell me that you can't save money by beginning elsewhere.
2) Try the RCC in ORD or the AC in EZE and tell me what you think.
3) You can try accruing with a partner
4) You can fly another airline

Your whole rant is discredited when you wrote that QR is only a bit above KLM. Have you flown KLM in J or Y? Those things are horrible! Plus, QR Lounge > any KLM lounge around the world.

While I'm not a die-hard QR fan, I have to concede that they are at par with SQ and CX in terms of seat and service quality in Y and J. (I'm also a big fan of CX J, by the way). And, a little bit above MH. Way ahead of any US and European airlines. I do agree though that the QR customer service needs to improve - everyone has been complaining about this for years!

First of all I have to say I completely disagree when it comes to your description of QR cabin crew. I have the complete opposite experience (all based on 8 long hauls last year, all in Y). As I moved from Burgundy to Gold I was greeted as soon as the seatbelt sign light shut off, always by name, and first choice of food, and on one flight from OSL-DOH the person greeting me went into the front cabin and got me a copy of the New York Times. Throughout all my flights the attendants were smiling, cheerful and genuinely happy. On 3 flights as Silver I was flying alone, in smack full aircrafts, and had a free seat next to me, which was lovely! Now, I don´t know if that was because of my status, but I did not see any other free seats in Y.

As far as the lounge in DOH I will agree with you, as I have pointed out in other forums, the Oyx Lounge is not up to scratch for a 5* ailine, in my mind. Food offerings are bad (comparing to Shongololo Lounge in JNB, OSL Lounge in OSL, various LH lounges in FRA, *A Lounge at LHR, two lounges at NBO).

Other than that I am quite happy with QR, though I am really looking forward to NDIA opening, as I am sure it will improve ground service by miles, in terms of lounges, priority boarding, fast track security etc.

So, in some aspects I agree, but I tend to agree more with the other posting above.
In my mind they are 5* in the air, but a bit more lacklustre on the ground, until NDIA opens.

Like many others I also disagree....
I have to admit I've only flown QR in C so far, but I find the cabin crew way better than many other airlines. I really really enjoy flying QR C class on the 777.
It's my first choice for C class to Asia. I have never had any bad experience (so far) in the air or on ground. Except for boarding at outstations. That could be better.
And for lounges, I only try PT, and that is a very pleasent experience. At the moment I'm in the LH Sen lounge in Ham, and Dreaming about PT in DOH.

I think the biggest problem with QR is when something goes wrong..... But so far it has not happened to me. Every flight has been close to perfect.

Ditto, Been flying Gold with QR this year, I can say that relative to other airlines (you know who you are) their on-air services are excellent. Hey for the price you're paying you're getting near SQ experience at half the price (from where I'm based)

Stopped flying due to closure of the DOH-CEB route, hoping they come back.

Even in Burgundy I have always been, without fail, addressed and welcomed by name on boarding with Qatar, which is a really nice touch.

How the Hell is QR a 5 star airline?
 

Ditto also. Although I have only flow J on the 777s, I've never ever had any hardware or service or food complaints.

The first time I flew QR couple of years back was because of price as well - recall it being 30%+ less than others...

Some interesting responses. For the haters out there (why?) pls note my experiences are actually based on a mix of J and Y.

In terms of the crew, QR crew cannot even begin to compare with the likes of EK crew, or indeed CX or SQ crew. Yes, they may be better than the United / AA/ Delta dinosaurs, but then a robot would be. I find the crew often disinterested and God forbid if you ring the callbell... I heard one crewmember on a recent flight into DOH actually tell off a man from the Indian subcontinent who had dared ask for another cup of coffee "you're not allowed, we're landing soon" (we were still 40 mins from landing and she had the coffee pot on her cart).

Admittedly, like all Gulf carriers, YMMV with crew as some days they can be good, some days they can be bad. My experiences over last 12mths with QR is the latter. They seem demotivated, surly and disinterested.

In terms of the lounges, the Oryx lounge has a poor choice of F+B and is often overcrowded so it becomes problematic if you need to work or make calls in any degree of confidence. It is not comparable to most lounges these days.

The Premium terminal in Doha is too crowded and whilst better than the Oryx, still falls short of the EK / Cathay / BA experiences in their respective home airports. As we all know, Virgin remains the benchmark in this category (albeit the Wing & Pier lounges in HK are very, very good).

On board, anything other than a lie-flat in J is unacceptable in this day and age. This is one of my main criticisms also of EK who persist in a substandard J product (on some aircraft). The new 787's from QR do look good, but the Y class is still far from ideal with thin, hard seats and annoying IFE boxes under every second seat which compromise your foot space. EY still in my view set the standard for on-board hard product across their fleet.

Finally, onboard service from QR in Economy is not spectacular. As an example, EK do a tray light meal service in Y on the short intra-Gulf hops. QR don't and get very very annoyed if you want any soft drink other than the nasty orange juice or water which they serve. The dine-on-demand concept on EY still sets the standard in J.

Unless people are only flying QR and the LH/KLM/United etc, I still don't understand how QR can come out ahead of EK/EY/CX/SQ and even BA... in these Skytrax award things?

I only flew about 50k miles with QR, 75% of it in J. As said before, I never experienced such poor service as you describe. I have limited experience with EK, none with EY, can't compare.
Full-flat seats might be the unacceptable for you, but most airlines in the world still fly non-flat seats.

My point is that you have maybe too high expectations, if you have such feedback. I just trust that people who never flew QR so far will put it in context...

CAlex - don't you work for QR?

In this day and age, given the competition for traffic, esp from Middle Eastern and Asian airlines, is it unreasonable to expect flat beds in J and F?

If there were a price differential, then I would understand it...

In any event, my original point was I don't understand how an airline that DOESN'T have flatbeds across its fleet in F+J and has substandard product (hard and soft) to other regional (and global) competitors manages to rank higher in the Skytrax polls? In other words, by definition it can't be and shouldn't be ranked 5 star....

I have no problem in saying Qatar is not the worst airline I have flown (and is far better than most), but it most certainly isn't the best, and IMHO don't compare with and are not better than EK (4 star) and EY (4 star), and are nowhere near as good as the other 5 star airlines (e.g. SQ and Cathay). If an airline is to laud itself as a "5 star airline" and "world's leading airline blah blah" as QR does, then it should be head and shoulders above the rest, which QR most definitely isn't, often lagging behind the competition.

I am too tired to complete this. I think buddy your having a bad day. Just Fly Emirates if u are having a bad time. Enjoy the 10 abreast seating in EK's 777 or 7 abreast J seats--as opposed to the 9, 6 in QR's 777. :)