To London on Qatar's Old/New Airbuses (SIN-DOH-LHR on QR A330/A350/A380)

[ycp81]

Marketing @ Portobello
















Afternoon visit to Hitchin Lavender farm, an hour's drive north of London central.

[ycp81]

And now for the foodies!

Loved the Classic Breakfast at Liz's Café, across from my hotel.




Tasty quiche from Liz's Café.




Breakfast at The Muffin Man at Kensington.




Their scones with clotted cream and jam is simply divine!




Excellent fish n chips at a non-touristy chain, Kerbisher & Malt.




Going healthy once a while.




And the Battle of the London Roast Ducks!

Four Seasons @ Bayswater



vs

Goldmine @ Bayswater




Verdict? Goldmine wins! Preferred the roast duck at Goldmine as it is slightly more tender, more meaty, tastier sauce and of course slightly cheaper as well!


5 nights in London ended within a blink of an eye and I am on my way back to Singapore via Doha. Departure was from Terminal 4 and after a horribly long wait for tax refund, I checked in at the near empty counters of QR. The whole stretch of Row A was dedicated to QR and I guessed there must be at least 14 counters opened for our A380 flight and the slightly later all-J A319 flight.




Boarding pass.




Departures for the evening.




Security was not too long this evening and soon we were at the departure hall with the usual duty-free shopping.

[ycp81]

At the gate holding area, with most passengers being from our QR flight.




MH A380 being towed into the gate for its flight to KUL.




Departing from Gate 5.





10 August 2015
Qatar Airways
QR 2
London Heathrow (LHR) - Doha (DOH)
A380-800
A7-APE
Economy Class

QR's newest A380 aircraft, which is barely 2 months old, would be operating the flight. Always nice to get a brand new aircraft.




Boarding commenced almost an hour before scheduled departure time. Boarding was orderly again. Entered the aircraft via door 1 as I was seated right at the front cabin. QR configures its A380 with a dense Economy layout, having the entire lower deck and a small section of upper deck configured with 461 Economy seats. Combined with 8F and 48J, there is a total of 517 seats onboard this whale!

Stairways to "Heaven". Unfortunately, I would not be going up this evening.




Pillow, blanket an amenity kit already placed on each seat.




At first glance, the seats on the A380 looked similar to the ones on the A350. However, upon sitting on it, it is slightly noticeable that the seat has a slightly smaller frame and width, slight lower height of the seat back, about half to an inch less pitch and also a slightly smaller IFE monitor. Aisle seats also have a small IFE box that takes up a small portion of the legroom. However, it was still perfectly acceptable and comfortable for economy seats.






Boarding in progress. Reddish mood lightings were turned on throughout the boarding process and first meal service.




Unlike the A350 with 3 different camera views, the A380 is only fitted with the tailcam view. Resolution is also not as clear as on the A350.




Amenity kit for the overnight flight and headphones.




Amenity kit is well stocked, with socks, toothbrush set, ear plugs and eyeshades.

[ycp81]

August issue of the inflight magazine and safety card. Pics were taken from later inflight.






Flight was totally full again, at least in economy. Boarding was completed by 2120hrs for our 2130hrs departure. However due to congestion of airspace, the captain informed that we could expect a 20min delay in pushback. However flight time would only be a short 6h15m. Continued with my unfinished movie from the previous flight in the meantime.




Finally pushed back with the safety video played.




MH A380 being prepped for departure.




We made a really slow and lengthy taxi to Rwy27R, following an Etihad A380. Passing a Kuwait Airways Govt B744! Guess either Kuwaiti government officials or royal family were in London at the moment.




Passed by the new Terminal 2, with an SQ A380 pushing back and taxi for departure as well. The SQ A380 eventually departed a slot ahead of us even though it was scheduled for a 25min later departure than our flight.




Finally after a delay of almost 40min, we took off from Rwy27R, bound for Doha. As expected, the A380 was really quiet, especially when seated ahead of the engines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2bhMTUCFIw


Lights over London.




Seatbelt signs switched off and dinner was being prepared. As this was a late departure, a beverage run was not conducted so as to speed up the meal service. As usual, the menu was cycled twice on screen. This time, they got the menu correct (which was the wrong menu shown on the DOH-LHR sector).








In the mean time, I started on another movie "The Cobbler", which I felt was a rather boring show...

[ycp81]

Dinner service in progress. Crew as usual were polite, professional and efficient.




Meal tray. I had a mango juice to go along.







Starter of sun blushed tomato, red onions, spinach and orzo pasta salad, and Chocolate and cherry delice for dessert. Both the starter and dessert were delicious!




I has the Braised beef in pizzaiola sauce, sautéed onions, potatoes and broccoli. Very tender and flavourful beef cubes! Wished portion could be larger.




Roll with butter, cheese and a Valrhona chocolate.




Nice salt/pepper package and metal cutlery.






The Chicken picadillo and pasta option was very tasty as well!




Economy lavatory of the A380. Rather nicely appointed.




Midflight, snacks of chips and chocolate bars, and drinks were offered.




A couple more hours to go.

[ycp81]

Flying into the sunrise.






Cabin lights were switched on dimly slightly more than an hour before arrival to signal the start of the morning refreshment service.




A warm breakfast snack was offered, which consists of a Scrambled eggs and tomato wrap, and a Cinnamon and custard danish. Both were actually rather tasty! I had a coffee and water to go along.








Sun is fully out. Descend started, blankets collected and cabin prepped for landing.








Video of descend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDhNX2v7Uog


Shadow of our A380 as we land on Doha Hamad Intl Rwy34L, almost 20min late due to the uncontrollable late departure from Heathrow.




Video of the landing into Doha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlitGFhOz7Q


Land of QR, with the occasional visitor.




Parked beside another QR A380.




Another pleasant and comfortable flight on Qatar Airways. Even though Qatar has fitted its A380 with a rather elegant interior design, the excitement of flying the A380 has already worn out on me due to having flown it a number of times prior. Nonetheless, it was still a good flying experience on the Whalejet.

After the aircraft was parked, we Singapore-bound pax barely had 15min to make our connection. Seated at the front cabin, we were one of the first to disembark. It was followed by a mad rush out into the terminal (no transfer security this time round, straight into the departure hall after exit) where there were ground staff holding signs with connecting flights and directing passengers to the relevant gates. It was then a mad rush through the Doha terminal from the 'A' gates to our SIN-bound flight at the 'B' gates. Our SIN-bound flight was held for all the passengers connecting from LHR (think there were at least 20 of us) and our baggage made it too!

[ycp81]

11 August 2015
Qatar Airways
QR 938
Doha (DOH) - Singapore (SIN)
A350-900
A7-ALD
Economy Class

Reached the departure gate after a long trek through 3/4 of terminal building. All passengers had already boarded but the gate was still open with agents waiting for us connecting pax from LHR. Guess it is more feasible to wait for the more than 20-30 of us than to rebook us on a later flight.




Flying on QR's newest A350 aircraft, A7-ALD on this flight. She was delivered on the same day as A7-APE which I had flown on the earlier sector! Unable a catch a photo of the plane though.

Will not describe too much for this flight as I have covered most details on the first sector. Economy class was again totally full. QR must be very successful on its SIN flights! Heard from the crew that nowadays, most flights to SIN are very full.




Us at the gate while waiting for the rest of the connecting passengers.




QR's A330 taxied by. Our departure was delayed for half an hour as we await for the connecting baggage to be loaded as well.




During the wait, menus and health advisory leaflets were distributed.




A look at the menu offerings. Breakfast would be served after takeoff, and a refreshment before arrival.






Pushed back and taxied to the runway.








Passed a A310 in QR livery. Guess it is a government plane.




Took off from Rwy34R for the 7h30m flight to Singapore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txw4_MI7oHI


Climbing out.

[ycp81]

Breakfast was served shortly after takeoff. I chose the Blueberry an ricotta pancakes with vanilla sauce and strawberry compote. It came with fruits, strawberry yoghurt, warm croissant with butter and jam, and n orange juice. I had a tea and water to go along.




Fruits and yoghurt. Fruits were fresh and sweet.




Croissant and beverages. The croissant was delicious!




Pancakes were sweet, but rather soggy due to soaking in the vanilla sauce.




Steamed fish with fried rice option. The sauce was rather salty.




Passengers settling in to rest after breakfast.




Amenities in the lavatory. The hand cream was replaced with a brandless bottle. Hopefully is a one-off and not cost-cutting in progress.




High above the clouds.




Midflight snacks of chips and Mars offered.

[ycp81]

Slightly more than an hour of flight left.




Watching a CNN Travel video on the inaugural commercial service of the A350.




Warm refreshment of Basil Chicken Calzone and Apricot Danish. Again, I much prefer the sweet option.






Skimming above the clouds.




Crew preparing cabin for arrival and collecting blankets.




Sunset during descend.




It was rather turbulent during the last half hour of flight due to heavy clouds, till we were approaching Singapore.

Flying pass Batam.




Approaching from the northeast.




Landing on Changi Rwy20R. 15min behind schedule, but who am I to complain when all our bags made it despite the very tight connection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrSmpa0nFP8


Only a short taxi to our gate at Terminal 3. Thank you for flying Qatar Airways.




Waiting to disembark, with the funky reddish/purplish mood lightings turned on.




Passing Business Class.




Again, it was a joy to fly QR's A350. Very comfortable flight even though it was full, and the higher humidity and quiet cabin certainly reduces fatigue for me. Also, service remained consistently good and professional overall and catering was adequate. With such premium offerings and low fares, it is certainly not too difficult to wonder why many airlines are wary of the rise of the ME carriers capturing away their market share.

If you have survived through this very long flight report, Congrats!! Hope this will provide a detailed view on the QR experience. Your comments are also certainly very welcomed.

[mr_botak]

Thanks for the very detailed report. I've not tried QR in economy, but it looks pretty decent. By the looks of it you managed to avoid the scrum at DOH security which can be pretty bad in the night.

[SQueeze]

Very very solid Economy product. QR has come a long way since A330 which has their Y, J, and F seats looking so similar

The airport looks posh. Like Mumbai airport but with less bling. Very stylish and it must be a pleasant place to transit comparing to DXB and AUH,

[ycp81]

I've not tried QR in economy, but it looks pretty decent. By the looks of it you managed to avoid the scrum at DOH security which can be pretty bad in the night.

Thanks for reading. Yes, QR economy is more than decent indeed if you get their newest planes. As my 1st transit was in the afternoon and we were one of the very few arrival flights during that period, security was totally empty. As for the return transit, we were allowed access into the departure hall straight from the aircraft without security screening. One of the perks of arriving into DOH from "trusted destinations", and greatly speeded up our connection.

[ycp81]

The airport looks posh. Like Mumbai airport but with less bling. Very stylish and it must be a pleasant place to transit comparing to DXB and AUH,

The airport is still work in progress, but a rather pleasant transit airport. Not sure how it would be in the middle of the night though with the major arrival and departure banks of flights.

[MAN Flyer]

Thanks for the TR, and to yflyer for their recent one on QR.

I'll find out this weekend how the new DOH is in the middle of the night as I will be paying my first to the place. While I am not a fan of breaking journeys to and from Asia in the ME I at least get the chance to try their A350, along with the old slopey 2-2-2 across A330's to and from MAN....

[yflyer]

Thanks for the TR, and to yflyer for their recent one on QR.

I'll find out this weekend how the new DOH is in the middle of the night as I will be paying my first to the place. While I am not a fan of breaking journeys to and from Asia in the ME I at least get the chance to try their A350, along with the old slopey 2-2-2 across A330's to and from MAN....

Keen to hear your thoughts on the QR / DOH experience, MAN Flyer!