(bold added)

i personally wouldn’t go quite so far as to say it “exceeds” - but more like on a par. However ..... where a straight J versus J comparison is concerned, BA cannot really come close. Facilities such as on-demand dining in QR J class (along with PJ’s, slippers etc) is of course always widely regarded as a major benefit on longhaul.

In fact it’s hard to think of any aspect of the BA ground or inflight product that outshines QR. I’ve often commented that BA management should be asking themselves just why their lounges - at their OWN homebase, of LHR no less - are notably inferior to those provided by some overseas carriers. The CX facility at T3, and QR’s excellent lounge at T4 spring to mind. (And the quality of Al Safwa @ DOH and the CCR @ LHR are in entirely different leagues)

I can confirm on an award AA ticket I was charged 250 AED on April 17th at around 5pm for access to al-safwa

GF at say T5 is not really a first class lounge, rather for emeralds not traveling in first and who don’t have CCR access, ie comparable with the Qatar first class lounge for emeralds (as opposed to AS).

Walked into AM about 15 mins ago, probably the most zoo like I’ve ever seen it.

Walked over to AS and paid the 250AED - I now can’t see another human being, other than the man who just gave me the glass of La Grande Dame.

Utter bliss

Yes inform them you’d like to buy access to the lounge. Usually they have to call someone and confirm it’s okay. I’m still trying to understand who gets charged 350 and who gets charged 250 and why?

What is interesting is when I said can I pay to enter she said “since this is a fully paid business class ticket, you can pay for access to the lounge” but it was an AA award.

I cannot stress paying the 250 or 350 is absolutely worth it. The AM business class lounge is way too crowded and they only have 8 shower units for all these people.

Why are some people charged 250QAR and others 350QAR? I had a 4 hour layover in DOH going to BLR, and it was definetely worth the experience for 250. The agent told me I was limited to staying in the lounge for 6 hours only, though I’m unsure how they would police this. The “quiet zone” hotel rooms were glad to let me have a room had I had a longer layover. So I wouldn’t put much weight on a time limit imposed on you at check-in at the Al-Safwa desk if you buy access since no one can actually police this.

I loved the Al-Safwa lounge. It lives up, and possibly might be better than their competitors F lounges. The service, restaurant, amenities, and lounge ambience is absolutely fabulous. You cannot sit or walk more than 10 feet before a lounge attendant offers you food or drink and all lounge attendants are very attentive. Which certainly makes sense since the lounge is empty considering who QR gives access to.

On the way back, I only had an hour connection in Doha for my DOH-IAH flight, so I went to the AM lounge for J pax. It was an absolute disaster. It was so crowded because it was rush hour time 7am in DOH. People were waiting 30 minutes for shower suites. Food orders were being mixed up. It was hard to get someone to order food or drinks to begin with. The menu was very limited. They only have eight shower suites for that entire AM lounge which I couldn’t believe considering hundreds of pax are entitled to entry. After my indulgence in the Al-Safwa on the outbound I felt like it was a major downgrade.

You'd think they would be able to find a median between using the AM lounge coupled at the same time with the AS lounge on certain flights and at certain times of the day. It seems like such a waste of a beautiful large AS lounge to provide it to people who are flying on flights like Doha to Kuwait City, so 1-2hr flights, (which are fewer and fewer because of the diplomatic spat) while premium passengers who are about to embark on a 16 hour journey have to be subjected to a sub-par AM lounge experience. Why not designate certain long haul flights that don’t have an F cabin access to the AS lounge? It doesn’t make sense to me why they do this.

Can someone explain to me why QR has this lounge policy which seems like they are wasting the Al-Safwa Lounge?

Hi all - has anyone had experience of being allowed to pay for AS access on a paid eco ticket upgraded using Qcredits business class ticket? (So U class)

thx

This is an interesting question. I was granted access with U class which was an AA mileage redemption. But people commented it’s technically a paid ticket with miles and said about 3 posts up that upgraded tickets usually are not valid.

If youre in U class it can’t hurt to try.