rosenkavalier

Well said

rosenkavalier

Spa reception
It was now time to head over to the spa reception to check availability of the quiet rooms. This lounge features 12 quiet rooms, which are like hotel rooms with en-suite bathrooms which can be used for 6 hours at a time, supplementary time can be added for a fee. Some feature a single twin bed, others feature 2 twins. My plan was to get a room from midnight to 6am so I asked if I could reserve a room in advance. The receptionist informed me that the rooms were all occupied at the moment but that there were a few that would be vacant from 11pm. They don’t take reservations but I was advised to come back at 11pm to get a room for midnight.



Spa reception


Al Mourjan tour
At this point I decided to quickly head over to the Al Mourjan lounge, as I was curious as to how it compared to the Al Safwa and other business class lounges. Access to this lounge is also via an escalator from the main duty free area of the terminal, and after passing through the numerous checks at the bottom and top of the escalator (nobody noticed I was trying to enter the wrong lounge and send me back to Al Safwa as they printed my boarding pass on business class stock in SFO) I entered the Al Mourjan Business lounge. It featured plenty of seating and had its own water feature, in this case a huge body of water with small jets leaping from the surface at random intervals. This lounge was a lot more crowded but still very comfortable and there was never a struggle to find a seat as is often the case with competitors at their hub lounges. There is a spiral staircase with an impressive vertical chandelier leading to the upper floor which featured a restaurant. Besides the buffet I saw a sushi bar and servers roaming around with food on their trays so I suppose there is also an à la carte service. I didn’t take many photos as it was more crowded here but I felt that this lounge was quite a bit superior compared to most other business class lounges. I had a quick look at the other facilities, including the game room, family area, secondary restaurant/sandwich bar, quiet area and walked away with a very positive impression.



Spiral stairs next to leaping water feature and chandelier

Tall chandelier

Seating towards the back of the lounge

Restaurant- upstairs

More seating (same lamps as Al Safwa)

Game room

Seating area

Freud-style chaise longue

Back to Al Safwa…
Returning to the Al Safwa lounge, I was greeted this time by an employee in a suit roaming around (the equivalent to the personal assistant at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal?) who welcomed me and asked if there was anything he could do to help. This interaction was missing during my first entry so I proceeded to tell him of my plan to use the spa at one point and try to get a room at around midnight. He informed me that while rooms were not bookable in advance, he would take my details and inform the spa reception of my plans. I went over to the spa and asked about treatments and the jacuzzi. The spa is open until 1am (only in the Middle East!) but the therapist was busy at that moment so I decided to opt for the jacuzzi. Note that beauty treatments are to be paid, while the jacuzzi is available for no charge. There seemed to be only one therapist on duty so I was told to return in an hour, as the jacuzzi tub would be filled by the therapist once she was finished with her treatment.

I spent the next hour lounging around catching up on work and before I knew it the hour was up and I was now ready for my jacuzzi session!

steveman518

Not much of a trick on the fountain, but usually it's just water flowing down the side of a clear piece of plastic/glass. If you've seen similar things where there's a spout "floating" in the air with water coming out of it water is being pumped up inside the clear pipe and then flowing out outside the pipe.

rosenkavalier

ah, I hadn’t thought of the clear plastic tube…

rosenkavalier

Jacuzzi time
I made my way back to the spa reception and this time, the jacuzzi was ready for me and the receptionist led me through the entrance into the spa area. If I have understood correctly, the layout is divided into 2 down the middle and both sides are mirror images of the other. On the left is the entrance for women and on the right, men. There is a long corridor with tall narrow wooden beams angled so one gets a glimpse of the shallow pool of water dividing the two sides.


Corridor leading to the spa


Past this, one enters a maze of treatment rooms (there were at least 4-6 if I recall), locker, relax area and jacuzzi.



Massage treatment room

Hot sand treatment room

Jacuzzi suite

The jacuzzi room is equipped with a large tub and 2 showers so it’s also possible to be used by couples. Side note: knowing the Middle East and it’s strict laws on homosexuality and culture of separating genders, I wonder how they expect heterosexual couples to share the jacuzzi facilities on the men’s side of the spa. The only couples who can use these together would be same-sex, or they open this up to strangers to share, but then we are entering adult film territory 🤣 (I know foreigners, namely those with spending power, are often exempt from these cultural taboos at hotels but I just found this dichotomy interesting)


Jacuzzi

View of showers from the jacuzzi

Reinforcing the idea of couples utilization were 2 Frette bathrobes hanging on the wall. In the showers were mini bottles of Diptyque shampoo, conditioner and shower gel (which may have found their way with me back home)


Frette bathrobe


Anyway, what sheer luxury to be able to soak in a hot jacuzzi after a long flight! I alternated between the jacuzzi and relax area back and forth, I was the only one in the spa the whole time I was there.


Relax area

Very high ceiling, like in the rest of the lounge

View of waterfall on the wall from the beanbag lounger

Restaurant
Well relaxed and cleansed, I headed to the restaurant for dinner. By this time it was already almost 10pm and the restaurant was nearly empty. I had the choice of seating and decided on a table near the panoramic window. Unfortunately on this evening, there was no plane parked at the gate adjacent to the lounge and it was dark outside anyway.


Nighttime view from restaurant (please excuse the spa slippers in the reflection)

There are no menus at the moment, everything was accessible via the QR code provided at the table.


Wine list



Menu

I order a glass of champagne, tonight it was Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame 2008. A very generous pour from the bartender, however this glass was not among the first few from the bottle, or it had been opened a while ago, it wasn’t as effervescent as I would have liked. (Generous pour was probably to finish off the bottle?)



Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame 2008

Placing my order, I went for the seafood bisque, sushi platter and then fillet of beef. For dessert I chose the warm chocolate cake and substituted the beetroot sorbet with vanilla ice cream. I might be criticized for being so common in that substitution, but I thought that there was enough beetroot on the side and the peppercorn tuile garnish was exotic enough that it needed to be rounded off with something familiar. To accompany the beef I chose the 2008 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou (2ème Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux) and harmonizing with the dessert the Quinta do Vallado Tawny Port. Quite an impressive wine list! So, I can already hear the question on all of your minds, how was the food? It was in general solid but there were also areas to be improved. The seafood bisque was lukewarm when it was served and not really a bisque as I was expecting, more like a minestrone in texture. I had lower expectations for sushi in a lounge in the Middle East and it was fine, the beef was surprisingly good. I know many contrarians on this forum like to criticize the beef fillet but perhaps I was just lucky that evening, it was tender, cooked the way I ordered it, with a nice sauce served on the side. The bread roll, however was awful. It managed to be soft, dense and dry all at the same time. I know different cultures have their own concepts of bread (soft and buttery in Asia, harder and crusty in Germanic countries etc…) and I think I’m quite adept at adjusting my expectations according to the region I’m in, but this was really something…



Seafood bisque

Sushi moriawase

Fillet of beef with Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2008, St. Julien

Warm chocolate cake with Quinta do Vallado Tawny

Another interesting detail, the restaurant started to fill up with a few tables of local Qatari guests while I was eating, and the servers brought out cardamom coffee and dates to serve them. I wasn’t offered this hospitality when I arrived and this meant that I was served my dates and coffee between my sushi and beef…



Arabic hospitality

The chocolate fondant with ice cream was a nice finish to this meal and by now I was ready to call it a night so I headed over to the spa reception again to see if I could get a bedroom.

Duck1981

Great TR - haven't been to DOH for two years unfortunately! Time to go back.

Btw, I would assume given your user name you got some Austrian heritage in your family?

Thanks for the report

daniellam

They'll probably just hand each person a "paper underwear" and ask that they wear it before going in. At hotels in Asia, it is quite common for spa staff to ask the guest to put on on the paper underwear before going in for a massage. Although the paper underwear doesn't do much (it's usually of poor quality and you can still see through it), asking the guest to use it at least manages their expectation as to what is allowed and what isn't.

SKT-DK

Don't get me wrong, I am a similar nut-case myself But having recently endured 6:30 and 10+ hour layovers in Al Safwa out of necessity, I was going mad of boredom not even halfway through. So thinking of 15 hrs would surely see me fit to be tied.

My other half demanded that next time we fly direct - hopefully she will have forgotten by then, and connections are available at more palatable durations

Edit to add: Great pictures and narration, rosenkavalier - it is an enjoyable read!

rosenkavalier

it’s one thing to wear paper underwear for a massage but entirely different to enter a jacuzzi and get wet…!!

rosenkavalier

Thanks!
for me it was just the right amount of time as it was my first Al Safwa experience and I guess the novelty of it all kept me entertained. Between the spa, restaurant and hotel room, it was not much of an issue to spend the night there. Hope for you that your girlfriend will have forgotten by the next time you fly through DOH! 🤣

rosenkavalier

Quiet area/bedroom
Back at the spa reception, it was already about 11:30pm and I went to ask whether there would be a room available from midnight. Luckily there was availability and after taking my boarding pass as collateral, the receptionist led me through the hallway to my room, number 6 and informed me that I had the room until 6am the next day, extendable for a fee.


Hallway of the quiet area

Halllway looking towards entrance of quiet area

There are a total of 12 rooms

I was assigned room 6

Room 6 is a single with a twin bed facing the flat screen TV and desk. The en-suite bathroom featured a toilet and standing shower, with the usual personal items at the sink (dental hygiene, shaving kit, cotton pads etc) and bath products from Diptyque (notice a pattern here? &#129315 Here again, the design language was very congruent with the rest of the lounge, with the gorgeous stone adorning the walls of the shower. There was also a reference to the inflight burgundy blanket, which was used as a throw to decorate the bed. The bathrobe, towels and bed linen were from Frette. These rooms are really meant for sleeping, as there are no windows (at least in mine).


Luggage and coat storage at the entrance of room 6

Twin bed with burgundy inflight blanket throw

Flat screen TV and desk

En-suite bathroom

Diptyque products

Mirror above sink

Just can’t get enough of this gorgeous stone!!


The only other lounge I know of that offers proper bedrooms is the SWISS First lounge in ZRH/E concourse, which offers stunning views of the tarmac and runway. Despite this advantage, it would be hard to have to choose between the two: there are 12 rooms at the Al Safwa and the lounge is open 24/7, SWISS only has 2 rooms and the lounge is closed at night but has the great views of the planes.


As a comparison, the bedroom of the SWISS First lounge at ZRH

Room with a view!

I had 2 issues with the room I was in: 1) I couldn’t find the switch to turn off the light at the entrance to the room. I had already undressed by then and was too lazy tired to go back to the reception to inquire so I just left it at that 2) the other problem was not being able to charge my phone with the numerous sockets on the walls. Again, I just didn’t have the courage to go the reception to ask for an adapter, so I charged my phone in the bathroom at the shaving socket. The fact that these 2 problems have been thoroughly discussed on the Al Safwa thread of the QR forum suggests that they are common occurrences.

Don’t get me wrong, these are just minor gripes in the larger context but should be addressed. Overall though, it was still an incredible experience to have access to private rooms in a lounge to spend the night. I also consider myself lucky to get a room at midnight as that seems to be peak hour. Was it the concierge who unofficially reserved the room with the reception when I told him of my plans and he took down my details? Perhaps, and I will never know, but that’s how good service in these luxury places should work, discreetly and behind-the-scenes. When I checked-out at 6am, there were a few people lined up at the reception being denied rooms as the ‘hotel’ was full.

Breakfast
It was time to have breakfast and continue my journey. I checked out of the room and went to the restaurant, the lounge was much more crowded now than the night before. The sun had risen and it was nice to see the lounge in full daylight so I chose to sit facing the large window in the restaurant. This time, there was an A350 parked at the gate right in front of the restaurant, a huge improvement over the night before!


Morning view from Al Safwa restaurant

The server came with a hot towel and took my order: I went with a freshly-squeezed orange juice, a peach and honey smoothie, eggs royale and the viennoiserie basket. This included a croissant with a local seed, za’atar. The food was served surprisingly quickly considering how busy they were and was of good quality.


Breakfast at Al Safwa restaurant

Restaurant view in daylight

Cruise ship in the distance

How do they wash these curtains…?!

After finishing breakfast, I went back to the lockers to collect my belongings and head to the boarding gate. I passed by the concierge desk to ask them to reprint my boarding pass as the stub was about to fall off after 30 hours of scanning and putting back in my pocket. I was secretly hoping they would reprint it on First Class stock, but I think the agent probably didn’t even realize I was in F and just reprinted it on the silver Business Class boarding pass. I also inquired about the way to my gate, and wasn’t offered any kind of car or buggy service.

On my way out I quickly checked the private in-lounge duty free shop. It has 2 parts, an outer part on a terrace selling luxury watches, jewellery etc and the inner circular chamber that sells chocolates, local specialities, electronics etc and a mini Ermenegildo Zegna boutique on the side. This part was so discreet and dimly lit most people probably even miss it. I decided instead to buy local products at the store in the main terminal the lounge concierge had recommended as I was sure I would have a much larger choice and better prices. I didn’t take pictures of the duty free store as there was always an employee hovering around and it wasn’t large enough to be discreet. I wonder if they ever sell anything there, it seemed to be empty every time I passed it.

Conclusion: the Al Safwa lounge is absolutely incredible with great amenities, stunning design and overall good service. The high ceilings and vast spaces may not be for those who prefer a more cosy, intimate style, but nevertheless it is objectively one of the best first class lounge experiences out there. In a perfect world they would offer car service to the boarding gate but then again, it was probably a good thing I had a long trek to the D gates to burn off some calories after all the wining and dining so far.


One final look before leaving, the fountain in daylight


Trek to the D gates
The main terminal was bustling at this time of the morning with a large bank of US flights and connections from all over the world. Definitely a change from the luxurious cocoon of the Al Safwa lounge! I stopped by a duty free store to pick up some local souvenirs (saffron is quite a bit less expensive in larger quantities than in supermarkets in the US and Europe).


Store in the main terminal selling local souvenirs

As it was my first time at Hamad International it started to dawn upon me that the D gates were the furthest from the central part of the terminal when I had to abandon my cart and board a monorail.


Ad in the terminal- I think we can leave out the genius part, just plain crazy

Boarding
I arrived at gate D22 slightly ahead of boarding time but the flight was already boarding and they were loading passengers onto buses to the aircraft. Would the experience be an improvement at their hub for a passenger in First Class, compared to the boarding experience I had in SFO the day before? The answer is a resounding no. Premium class boarding was on the right of the podium and there was a bunch of passengers lined up to have their boarding passes scanned. The reason for the congestion was that past this initial scan, there was another employee checking boarding passes to filter passengers onto the right bus, (business or economy). I asked the gate agent whether there was a separate service for First Class, she seemed surprised that there was even F on this flight and just pointed towards the Business Class bus. This is absolutely a first world problem but I really feel that they could provide car service from the lounge at least for remote stand gates.
I boarded the premium bus and after waiting for it to fill up we were driven for a good 10 minutes towards the aircraft parked near the runway. I was in AvGeek heaven as we passed countless QR aircraft, including A350s, B787s and A380s. There was an interesting mix of passenger profiles on this flight, Swiss passengers and families and a few young Indonesian Chinese families who knew each other and were traveling as a group.

Finally we arrived at the remote stand where the ex-CX Boeing 777-300ER registration A7-BOB in QR albino livery (white fuselage) was waiting to take us to ZRH. What a beauty!!


There he is, Bob! Boeing 777-300ER A7-BOB

I guess it would be unreasonable to expect a separate set of stairs to board F 😉

Mighty GE-90

View from the stairs

About to board QR 95 to ZRH

rosenkavalier

Qathay Pacific Airways
As I boarded the aircraft, the FA checking boarding passes greeted me by name and passed me on to a colleague standing next to her who walked me past the 2 row business mini-cabin to my seat 1A. She turned out to be the FA working in F, so I presume she was waiting at the main door for me to board in order to be able to guide me to my seat. That’s service! What a contrast to the numerous times I’ve just been pointed the direction of the F cabin when boarding on BA…


View upon entering the Qathay/Cathar F cabin

Legroom view of 1A

Arriving at Suite 1A

This friendly FA introduced herself to me and welcomed me onboard and offered to show me the functions of the seat. I told her I was very excited to be flying on one of the ex-CX birds for the first time and she confessed that it was also her first time. During this chat, I also asked her what the load was for today, and she said I was the only passenger in F for this flight!! This is the first time ever I’ve been the only passenger in F, and my heart skipped a beat at the idea that I had the entire 6-seat cabin to myself.


View of the other side of the cabin

The cabin is no doubt familiar to many of you, with 6 wide and spacious suites in a 1-1-1 layout. Massage, seat and lighting adjustment was via a small touchscreen panel. It was funny to see the seats with burgundy headrest covers instead of the CX white pillow-headrest. Just take a moment to reflect that this product has been around for approx. 15 years if I’m not mistaken. First introduced on the B747-400 and later on the B777-300ER, it has gone through 2 updates with enhanced features and surfaces, but the bare bones of the suite and layout of the cabin hasn’t changed. Despite its age, the suite has all the basics covered: spacious, comfortable, functional and private even without a door because of the way the seats are angled. There are no overhead bins in this cabin but that wasn’t an issue because of the very deep closet integrated into each suite, my 2 pieces of hand luggage and duty-free shopping bag easily fit into the closet.


View of Suite 2A

Suite 1A

Buddy seat/ottoman of 1A

Touchscreen panel for massage, seat and lighting adjustment (still with CX logo)

View of the aisle from 1A, this aisle is only used for 1A and 2A, so if the cabin is full, much less foot traffic

I was offered a welcome drink and went for the QR signature lime mint juice, asking for only a half portion topped off with sparkling water and also asked about my preference of hot or cold towel. I went for cold this time as we were departing a hot environment in Doha. This would be my first QR lime mint juice, however I was almost certain it would be too sweet based on experiences with other airlines signature drinks (like the ANA Kabosu juice, also perfect diluted with Perrier). My drink was brought to me with the requested cold towel, a small bowl of Parmesan chunks and olives and a small box of Läderach chocolates.


Welcome onboard QR 95 to ZRH

Flight deck preparing for departure

Also offered was the Diptyque amenity kit, this time the black faux leather version and a set of White Company pyjamas. The amenities were identical to those offered in Business but I didn’t mind at all as the standard of the Business offering is superior to most other airlines. I was handed the menu and wine list and was told everything had been loaded and since I was the only passenger, it was all for me. The menu featured a full lunch service plus a selection of lighter options. Nice to see the upgrade in meal service in F on these shorter European morning departures.



Menu- QR 95 DOH-ZRH. All this food for one passenger to be consumed in 6 hours…

While browsing the menu, a lot of the items looked quite tempting and I started to regret having such a rich breakfast at the Al Safwa lounge just 2 hours prior. Definitely a rookie mistake, but the view from the restaurant was so inviting that I couldn’t resist sitting down and enjoying breakfast. When the FA came back to take my meal order, I informed her that I would skip the meal post take-off and instead have lunch around 2 hours before arrival into ZRH at 1340. Since I wasn’t really hungry, I chose the caviar followed by the king crab leg and lobster starter instead of a main course, but somehow the FA managed to convince me that the portions were so small that I should definitely try one of the mains. I gave in to her and went for the baked halibut and prawn. I had trouble deciding between the 2 desserts and ended up choosing the deconstructed black forest. It is at this point that I told the FA how I hate wasting food and that she should share the rest of the menu with her colleagues as I wouldn’t be eating anything else. I will never know what happened eventually but I hope that she also hates wasting food as much as I do…

In the meantime, a purser came by to introduce himself and inform me that he would be working with his colleague in the F cabin. A real luxury to have a crew to passenger ratio of 2:1!

The taxi to take-off wasn’t very long as our remote stand was right next to the starting end of the runway. Parked along a taxiway parallel to the runway were at least 7 of the grounded A350-900s that are part of the ongoing legal battle with Airbus, what a sad sight. Baking in the hot desert sun for weeks/months is probably also not great for the paint on the fuselage…?




Grounded A350-900s parked along the runway

Soon it was our turn to take-off and the departure route this time didn’t take us past The Pearl Qatar and the other monuments that I saw landing on the other runway. Also to note, this 77W doesn’t feature onboard cameras unlike the A350-1000 I previously flew.

Inflight
Once we reached a certain altitude and the captain released the crew, I was offered a drink and this time went for the Krug 2004, which was served with a bowl of nuts. I turned on the IFE system and began to ascertain that the selection of movies, TV shows and music was far inferior than on other QR aircraft, I assume it’s a technical issue of the compatibility of systems between the CX hardware and QR content? I also tried connecting to the WiFi only to find no possibility to connect for free in F. Not even the free 1 hour usually offered to Privilege Club members in other classes was available. I inquired about this with a crew member who confirmed this to be the case. Why can’t they prepare vouchers with access codes for passengers in F?
Anyway, I didn’t let that spoil my experience, I could have all the internet I wanted on the ground, I was better off concentrating on my glass of Krug!


Krug 2004 with nuts

All the placards and signage in the cabin have been replaced from English/Chinese to English/Arabic except the IFE controller cradle and the seat control panel with CX logo

I asked for the suite 2A behind me to be made into my bed and decided to have a short nap before lunch. The bedding on this flight was identical to that of Business Class, with a mattress topper and the burgundy blanket. I assume the full duvet service in F is only available on longer A380 flights to SYD? The cabin was made dark with all the window shades down and the curtains drawn, something that probably wouldn’t have happened had I not been the only passenger.


Suite 2A in bed mode with business class bedding

After a few hours in bed it was time for lunch to be served.

rosenkavalier

Lunch
A few hours had now passed and it was time to have lunch. I ordered another glass of Krug and the purser came to set the table. The setting featured the signature candlelight, bread basket with triple bread roll, salt and pepper shakers, unsalted beurre d’Isigny (butter) and a choice of olive oil. First up (and not mentioned on the menu) was an amuse-bouche of beef wrapped in nori seaweed, garnished with edible flowers (too pretty to eat).


Amuse-bouche

That was followed by the caviar and smoked salmon. The caviar was served with the traditional garnishes and the dish was plated beautifully. There was an additional basket with what must have been the cutest baby blinis I have seen, along with crackers. The salmon unfortunately was not as tender and unctuous (in a good way) as I had expected. The most important detail, I must add, was handled correctly: the mother of pearl spoon for the caviar. In fact, 2 mother of pearl spoons. (Take note, Lufthansa!)


Caviar and smoked salmon

Next up was the delicious lobster and king crab leg dish with ponzu dressing, this was probably one of the most beautifully plated appetizers I have had on a plane so far. The purser serving this meal definitely had the right eye for presentation.


Glazed lobster and king crab leg with ponzu dressing

The main course of halibut and jumbo prawn was less of a success in terms of plating, though by no fault of the crew, there were just too many elements of this dish to fit onto the plate. The halibut however, was tender, moist and flaky, I was impressed that they pulled this dish off without overheating the fish. One minor detail: the plate itself was not hot for this main course.


Baked halibut and jumbo prawn

I skipped the cheese course and was served the deconstructed black forest, again another beautifully plated dish. This dessert featured a base chocolate biscuit surrounded by cherries, airy chocolate genoise, thin white chocolate rings broken up and three chocolate spheres filled with chocolate, cherry and vanilla cream. Topped off with a red garnish tree and cranberries. Probably the most intricate dessert I have had in the air, and most likely very labour intensive to make on the ground due to the sheer number of different components. I had a glass of Port to accompany this dessert and finish off the meal.


Deconstructed black forest

Service throughout was perfectly paced and I really felt the commitment by the catering team on the ground and the crew in the air to deliver a dining experience exceptional for a 6 hour flight departing in the morning. Most airlines, even premium Asian carriers, would use a morning or midnight departure as a reason to serve a reduced menu, but not Qatar Airways.

Arrival
The flight was slowly coming to an end and the last service items were a hot towel and another box of Läderach chocolates as we descended into ZRH.


Hot towel and chocolates upon descent

It was a fine day offering some scenic lake views as we approached our destination, and I changed out of my pyjamas and stowed away my belongings in preparation for landing.



Descent into ZRH

What an outstanding experience overall.

As we pulled into the gate at Kloten Airport, I bid the crew farewell and exited the aircraft via the L1. (Funny how they didn’t use 2 airbridges/stairs neither at SFO nor DOH, but in ZRH for just one passenger, I was able to exit via my own jetbridge!)

chongl

Fantastic report. I felt like I could retrace your steps with the detail you provided.

rosenkavalier

many thanks! Yes, I was really a little OTT with the details but I really enjoy reading TRs when they are detailed so I thought I might as well…