Flight: Dublin to Doha

Airline: Qatar Airways

Flight Number: QR18

Plane: Boeing 787

Cabin: Business Class

Seat: 2A

This Flight

This is my review of my trip from Dublin to Doha, which was part of my larger trip to the Maldives.

As I understand it, Qatar Airways operate a once-daily flight from Dublin over to Doha, which is around a 6hr flight. The flight QR18, leaves at 14:05 and lands at 00:05.

Checking In

Qatar Airways are based out of Dublin’s Terminal 1.

Checking in was a piece of cake. Qatar have (for a once-daily flight) a large number of check-in areas and the Business Class line only had 1 passenger in front, who were dealt with quickly. Because this was a connecting trip, my luggage was checked through to Male – so that was easy!

After checking in, it was off to the Fast Track Security lane, which (for Dublin) wasn’t very long at all!

The Lounge

Qatar Airways (along with Etihad, Emirates and EgyptAir) use the East Lounge, which I have reviewed here.

This is an excellent Lounge, and by far my favourite in Dublin. After a couple of hours (and maybe the odd Guinness) it was time to board the plane.

The only slightly odd thing was that even at 1pm, they were still serving breakfast!

The Plane

This was Qatar Airways’ Boeing 787-8. The aircraft is fitted with 22 x Business Class seats, and 232 Economy seats. Qatar Airways do not operate Premium Economy at all – and no First Class was fitted on this plane.

One thing about this plane is that it did not have Q-Suites. Previously, I have flown on Qatar Airways’s 787 where it does, sort of.

The Seat

So, this plane doesn’t have Q-suite – which basically means that it doesn’t have the door. Whilst of course this doesn’t make it as private as the Q-Suite, I still found the seat to be fairly private and to Qatar Airways usual high standards.

The seat itself had plenty of space, good storage and plenty of room to work. It has a large table for a laptop, and plenty of space for paperwork, if you are going to work in the sky.

There is a universal mains socket, and also a single USB socket for charging – although once airborne, I did have to remind the cabin crew to switch the power on!

The seat controls were a bit basic, and as far as I could see there was no memory to store your position, if you went to the bathroom.

All in all this seat is extremely comfortable, and I would be happy to be seated in it for far longer than 6 hours – I really didn’t have an issue with the fact there was no door, but I can see why some might.

Food and Drink

Qatar Airways sort of offer pre-selection of food. Seemingly long-distance flights from Doha do allow it. On this flight food could be pre-selected, other than special dietary requests.

Drinks

Prior to takeoff, I was asked what I wanted to drink, and I asked for Champagne. I was told that this was not possible on this flight until after takeoff due to Dublin’s rules. This surprised me a little, as I had previously had Champagne on both American Airlines flights from Dublin – and also on an Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi.

After takeoff, I decided to have a beer, which was served with nuts. I am glad to say Qatar Airways have ‘good’ beer, including Stela, Budweiser and Leffe.

Qatar Airways do offer an excellent wine list, including the newly added Whispering Angel wine.

Food – Lunch

On this flight was ‘lunch’, with a light snack later on. As always, lunch was served with the candle, accessories and breads.

Starters for lunch included;

• Soup of the day
• Arabic Mezze

The soup was leak and potato, so I chose it – and it was rather good.

Options for mains included;

• Grilled beef fillet
• Qatari-style chicken
• Salmon
• Spinach and ricotta mezzaluna

My actual preferred choice was the mezzaluna, as I knew I would be eating again on the next flight. Oddly, despite being in the second row (2A), was told that they had ran out, so I went for the fillet.

I have to say this is the best steak if ever had on a plane, so I was’t disappointed at all!

Desert options included;

• Cheese
• Chocolate mousse
• Fresh berries

I chose the cheese board, which was very nice, and in my view much heartier than other airlines offerings.

One thing that did annoy me was that I was provided a glass of wine with the main – but never offered a refill. When I ordered my desert I asked for another glass of wine and this was forgotten about.

Food – Second Meal

Two options were on the menu as snack;

• Afternoon tea
• Steak sandwich

Neither of these options were proactively offered, and I wasn’t that hungry anyway.

Food – Snacks

A fruit bowl and a bowl of crisps and chocolate were placed on the console at the rear of the cabin. By the time I re-looked at it 3 hours into the flight it had all gone, and there were no signs of any top-up!

At the very end of the flight a small box of chocolates is brought round as a thank you – which is always a nice touch.

Amenities Kit

There seems to be this strange ‘rule’ now where long-haul flights to Doha get a cardboard Amenity Kit, and long-haul flights from Doha get a ‘nice’ leather Amenity Kit. I am sure there will be arguments over sustainability, etc – but I’d argue that the cardboard boxes come across as cost-saving and cheap whichever way you look at it.

The Dublin to Doha flight had the cardboard version, which was nonetheless provided by Diptyque. Inside the Amenities Kit was;

• Socks
• Hand cream
• Lip balm
• Face cream
• Fresh spray

Items available in the toilets (but not the kit) include toothbrushes, toothpaste and razors.

Wifi

Wifi was available for the price of $10 or $20. There is also a free messaging plan, which is free for an hour.

I chose not to use the Wifi as I was able to work on documents offline – but whether you pay $20 or $10, it seems a fair price to me.

Entertainment

The entertainment screen is large, and in my view well-sized (I didn’t measure it), and controlled by the remote at the seat. Cleverly, the seat remote can have different content on it to the main screen – so you can control music on the remote whilst watching the flight map, for example.

It’s always been my experience that Qatar Airways’ entertainment is extremely generous.

There are literally hours and hours of music (often multiple albums of the same bands), which is great. On this flight there were about 6 albums by The Eagles and 4 or 5 by Aerosmith. Plus loads of live concerts, etc.

There was a whole bunch of other entertainment choices of film, TV, sports, etc – more than you could ever watch on a flight around the world!

Headphones are offered as per of the package. Often, I use headphones to save getting mine out. I find the Oryx headphones to be decent – and unlike American Airlines, they’re not demanded back 90 minutes before landing!

Cabin Crew

Usually, the Cabin Crew from Qatar Airways are excellent. Unfortunately, however, I wasn’t overly impressed with the Cabin Crew for this flight;

• The in-flight manager did not introduce themselves, and I never saw him or her
• ‘My’ flight attendant gave me the odd excuse about the Champagne in Dublin, which I don’t believe is correct
• ‘My’ flight attendant did not offer refills to my drinks, and forgot my wine with the desert
• Between meal services, there was no offer of drinks
• The snacks were not replenished
• There was no proactive offer for the second meal

Having flown with Qatar Airways many many times, these seemed like a lack of attentiveness that otherwise would never be allowed. Possibly it was a bad day, who knows?

Landing in Doha

Landing into Doha was very easy.

Once off the plane, it was a fairly long bus trip to the Terminal, through connections to do security again – and straight off to my connection to the Maldives!

Although the bus trip was quite long, there are specific busses for Business Class passengers – so we didn’t have to wait for everyone to get on the bus, which was good.

Conclusion

I am usually a big Qatar Airways advocate and I have to say by other standards, this flight was extremely good. The seat was great, entertainment greats and food excellent.

However, the lack of attentiveness from the cabin crew and the cardboard Amenities Kit, makes me wonder if either Qatar Airways standards are starting to slip – or if they are cost-cutting.

Admittedly compared to other airlines (British Airways, American Airlines, etc), these are relatively minor points – and all in all it was a very good flight……..but it could have been better, knowing what Qatar Airways can do at their best!