MrGatch

Hi all,

Looking at booking MAN-DOH-HKG (4 pax) and would like to get the QSuite Quad, ideally on the MAN flight, maybe the HKG, luckily on both.

The QR28 (14:55) flight is the best timing for us although QR22 (08:20) is acceptable, both connecting to QR818 to HKG.

Both QR22 and QR28 are currently showing as QSuite for the next few months, but when I look at our actual travel date (August) it is showing an A359 and no QSuite.

Is this likely actual availability, or will this potentially change nearer to the time to a QSuite-equipped aircraft?

Thanks!

pythonisman

Right now aircraft could be switched out at a moment’s notice up to and including on the day of your flight (or when the operating aircraft departs DOH for MAN for your first leg).

If you do book direct with QR, they offer some flexibility if you lose QSuite however this may trait some persistence to achieve.

Right now unfortunately there’s no way to guarantee (or necessarily improve the chances of) aircraft type or configuration ’sticking’ at this point.

Schwann

Qatar can (and do) change aircraft types right up until the time of departure from Doha so you're really at their mercy.

littlevoices

I'm going on this exact route in June 2022 and wasn't expecting a QSuite at all, whilst my experience has been limited due to the pandemic, even pre-COVID the HKG route was 50/50 on QSuite and the Manchester one was always QSuite free. It would be a pleasant occasion if they did upgrade it of course, but I think you'll just have to book without it and hope for some luck. If you really want QSuite you should probably do something like LHR-DOH-BKK (and tag on extra flights/travel, which would be more expense) as then you can be more sure of the QSuite.

Compared to the risk of going direct with Cathay and getting cancelled, or choosing another airline and definitely not getting a QSuite it isn't a terrible outcome to be on their perfectly respectable "normal" business class.

brunos

QR has been operating A359 without Qsuite consistently on DOH-HKG for a very long time (since pandemic). Never a Qsuite. That could be explained by the regulations imposed by HK on aircrew. I would not bet on Qsuite on that route.
Spending 10h in DOH just to hope for Qsuite on the MAN-DOH QR22/27 does not make much sense to me.

MrGatch

Thanks for all the advice.

I appreciate that equipment could/will change right up to the day of the flight. Just wanting to gauge probability, which I appreciate is difficult at the moment.

Sounds like DOH-HKG will be unlikely be QSuite due to the COVID situation.

Today's MAN-DOH flights are both 777-300ERs and have QSuite. This seems to consistently be the case up until summer and then switches to non-QSuite. Anyone know if this is likely real or just a future scheduling thing where there is a possibility that all of these services will switch to QSuite as the date gets closer?

QR announced in January 2020 that they would be running QSuite on the MAN flights, however COVID will have mucked that up.

Not waiting 10h in DOH obviously, would be booking QR28 with a 2h layover.

Little more context - this is MAN-LHR-HKG cancelled flight on BA and I'm hoping I should have some flexibility with the rerouting.

We don't travel in J very often so the opportunity for the family to do the QSuite is worth a little bit of inconvenience.

Possible routings are:

MAN-DOH-HKG
MAN-LHR-DOH-HKG

Anyone know which one is more likely to have QSuite?

Schwann

LHR is a prestige route for QR so I imagine would be the last to be swapped onto non QSuite aircraft.. however it does happen.

No one knows.. not even QR.

pythonisman

Aside from the 380 rotation, I’d expect London to have a better chance than Manchester, but plenty of longer/premium heavy routes have been swapped from QSuite recently so it really is finger in the wind territory.
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littlevoices

If your mission is to try the QSuite without inconvenience then I'd suggest you go via LHR and you also get a better lounge experience thrown in as well. However, if I was BA doing a rerouting I would try to insist on putting you on the BA LHR-DOH flight that goes at least once a day and will not be QSuite... so be prepared to compromise and just go straight from Manchester. If your seat is an award one then if you can find award space before you call it will be easier, as if booking in the same fare class they should be understandable, i.e. calling up and saying "I've got this flight with my airmiles, I've searched online and found an alternative routing" is better.... however you also mention family, so not sure how many seats you'd really find.

There also now appear to be routings MAN-LGW-DOH that appear in the flight searches. I have no idea if that comes up with the QSuite, but it is an alternative.

brunos

Your desire to get Qsuite is dwarfed by the risk of flight suspension to HKG.
Going to LHR and learn that QR818 has just been suspended for a week is not a good prospect. Stick to MAN QR828 and hope for the best.
Just my personal viewpoint following the drama of all these flight suspensions.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=444158831

arxxxx

There were actually Q Suite aircraft go to HKG during pandemic. However, it is rare and temporary in time to time. Q Suite did appear half or more of HKG flights (10/20) in February and (13/24) in March this year with the following special dates:
10 FEB - A350-1000 (A7-ANH)
17, 19, 21, 23 MAR - B777-300ER (A7-BEH, EQ, AI, EG)
30 MAR & 10 APR - A350-1000 (A7-ANQ)
At that time, it was due to lack of non-Q Suite A350. Routes such as HKG and SIN are occationally swapped to Q Suite aircraft. However, there are more Q Suite A350 being grounded these days. Q Suite aircraft including A350-900/1000 and 777-300ER are priority distributed to ultra long haul routes such as United States and "flag ship" routes such as LHR, CDG, FRA.

There are in fact future Q Suite flights. A350-1000 will be operating on 22 JUL and 9 OCT and Q Suite 777-300ER on 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 SEP. It is possibly due to the number of business class passenger is more than 36, which means not able to fit in all passengers on A350-900 by the time the schedule changes from ex-Cathay 777-300ER on 14 MAR. If no passengers rebook their ticket, the schedules probably stays the same by the point of QR818 departs.

arxxxx

Following the new regulations on HKG, flights will be banned if 5% of the total number of passengers are infected. (Correct me if I am wrong) Since QR818 has just restarted to pick up passengers, the loading is expected to be high with a full business class cabin and 70% full economy class cabin. The number of infected passengers that will triger the ban will be 10. The past figure shows the number of infected passengers are usually between 3 to 7 on the first departure, only with an exception in January having 12 and 15 possibly due to the new varient and winter season.
It is understandable that passengers who will be travelling to HKG via DOH in the future (including me) are worry about the ban, as it did fall into a cycle which is 2 days of carrying passengers + 14 then 7 then currently 5 day cargo flights to HKG. So that's the reason to monitor this flight very closely.

littlevoices

As far as I know, this was in the timetable, but they then canned it (I know as I was booked in F HKG-DOH, and now "slumming it" in J when they changed the planes back to the A35x)... I'm also watching the route closely, but my trip back to HKG will be DOH-BKK // BKK-HKG (EK) to avoid this complexity. I should have a QSuite on the DOH-BKK flight though.

TL;DR - HKG is a ....-show route until the local restrictions ease, so my original point of going via BKK remains valid, if you're flying to HKG you must be aware of the restrictions/quarantines/regular changes/flight bans etc.

littlevoices

Just to give a depressing update on this thread: I booked a QSuite return from MAN-DOH-xxx-DOH-MAN. The outbound was unchanged but the return DOH-MAN switched to the old 777 2-2-2 layout on the day (after check-in six hours earlier)... It was fairly chaotic during the boarding/at the gate checks, as many passengers, including myself, were being moved all over the plane. A depressing end to the trip

So, even if it seems like a QSuite, something can always happen on the day to move it around.

plunet

The roulette wheel of a change of craft at the gate was a fair common occurrence in the mid-10s as Qatar went through rapid expansion and deliveries of new aircraft lagged their appetite for new routes. It started to stabilise towards the end of the last decade with a supply of new 787s and 350s to bolster their fleet, and was not an issue during the pandemic, but had become an issue in the past year due to the flakey paint issue and Qatar grounding a significant number of A350s whilst they debate with Airbus in the courts what's going on with these birds.