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Firstly sorry for the lack of pictures but having to look after a 5 month old on the flight kind of took up a fair bit of time. He was great though not one cry or yell in four 7hr flights, people actually congratulated us on what a great baby we have, he's a born flyer!
We flew from Changi T3 on the early morning flight so it was quiet in the airport and the check in desk was manned by general staff not from Qatar. First impressions were poor to say the least, the 4 girls sat there in the J class check in were chatting away in Filipino ( I think) to each other and did not even say hello. I then inquired about getting a push chair organised in the premium doha transfer terminal and was told "No we cant do that", I told them I have spoken to the airline and they say you can, "No we cant" It was not until I asked them to check again that the supervisor turned round from her chat and said they could ( which they did not in the end).
The lounge is the SATS premier and that was not great either, dirty toilets, poor food.
It’s a shame as it creates a really bad first impression of what turned out to be a very good flight.
Anyway once on board we settled down and the little man received a lot of attention from the crew, they were very helpful and we sorted ourselves out. We were in seats 1A and B and the seats were in a 2,2,2 configuration, with the seats on the left and right in front of the bassinet fixtures. The 777-300 planes are reasonably new with the touch screen IFE and fully lie flat seats with massage options and were very comfortable.
We were given an amenity kit that had Molton Brown goodies inside and a comfort kit with PJs, socks and eye shades in it.
As it was a night flight there was a small indulge menu option then a full breakfast later, the food was very good and particularly the mezze and breakfast was nice, the personal bread basket was a nice touch.
We landed in Doha and then hopped on the transit bus to the premium terminal, it works well and is only temporary until they build a new airport plus it’s good to see the plane close up.
The premium terminal is very nice I have to say, once passed security you pass the small duty free then J class get directed to one lounge and F to the other. There is a games room, children's room, doctors (all of which are now important) and the lounge is very big with 2 restaurant type areas, a snack area. You can order drinks and so on whilst sat anywhere and the service was very good. All in all it made for a pleasant wait and the staff came round to each table and told us when the bus left to board.
The second leg was again on a 777-300 and the crew were good again, it was a breakfast then snack menu. Arriving in LHR was the usual we were in a holding pattern for about 20minutes which was annoying, Qatar give out a fast track ticket for immigration which is useful but it was still chaotic. The woman in charge of queue management saw Mrs 225 and the baby and jumped us to the front of the queue as well so that was a bonus.
The return leg..
It was a nice change to fly from LHR T4 as opposed to T3, it seems quieter and there were no queues in security so we went straight to the lounge which was the shared Sky Team lounge. It was quite nice, reasonable food and quite big over two floors but no Champagne! Qatar will have their own lounge later in the year.
The first leg of the return was on an older A340-600 which had an F class cabin, the seats are pretty much the same in J as a 777-300 but were slight angle lie flat as opposed to fully flat and the IFE was non touch screen. F looked ok but dated. The food was a full lunch service then a small meal and again the crew were very helpful, the flight was a bit delayed due to the inbound flight so the crew were rushed.
The transfer again was Ok and the second leg was back on a 777-300 which was nicer.
All in all we were dreading the flight what with little man but it worked out well and this was in part to the staff at Qatar, the stopover of a couple of hours actually works with a baby and having all the facilities at the premium terminal was great.
One thing I did notice was that the pilots were not as trigger happy with the seat belt signs as SQ are, it took some proper bumpy air before they were switched on and even then the crew only once made an announcement out of the 4 legs which is nice and not the 700 announcements you get on SQ.
I would say SQ still has the edge in service slightly but not much in it and baring in mind the price difference for Qatar Vs SQ in J it’s a no brainer if you can spare the time of a stopover and are paying out of your own pocket.
We flew from Changi T3 on the early morning flight so it was quiet in the airport and the check in desk was manned by general staff not from Qatar. First impressions were poor to say the least, the 4 girls sat there in the J class check in were chatting away in Filipino ( I think) to each other and did not even say hello. I then inquired about getting a push chair organised in the premium doha transfer terminal and was told "No we cant do that", I told them I have spoken to the airline and they say you can, "No we cant" It was not until I asked them to check again that the supervisor turned round from her chat and said they could ( which they did not in the end).
The lounge is the SATS premier and that was not great either, dirty toilets, poor food.
It’s a shame as it creates a really bad first impression of what turned out to be a very good flight.
Anyway once on board we settled down and the little man received a lot of attention from the crew, they were very helpful and we sorted ourselves out. We were in seats 1A and B and the seats were in a 2,2,2 configuration, with the seats on the left and right in front of the bassinet fixtures. The 777-300 planes are reasonably new with the touch screen IFE and fully lie flat seats with massage options and were very comfortable.
We were given an amenity kit that had Molton Brown goodies inside and a comfort kit with PJs, socks and eye shades in it.
As it was a night flight there was a small indulge menu option then a full breakfast later, the food was very good and particularly the mezze and breakfast was nice, the personal bread basket was a nice touch.
We landed in Doha and then hopped on the transit bus to the premium terminal, it works well and is only temporary until they build a new airport plus it’s good to see the plane close up.
The premium terminal is very nice I have to say, once passed security you pass the small duty free then J class get directed to one lounge and F to the other. There is a games room, children's room, doctors (all of which are now important) and the lounge is very big with 2 restaurant type areas, a snack area. You can order drinks and so on whilst sat anywhere and the service was very good. All in all it made for a pleasant wait and the staff came round to each table and told us when the bus left to board.
The second leg was again on a 777-300 and the crew were good again, it was a breakfast then snack menu. Arriving in LHR was the usual we were in a holding pattern for about 20minutes which was annoying, Qatar give out a fast track ticket for immigration which is useful but it was still chaotic. The woman in charge of queue management saw Mrs 225 and the baby and jumped us to the front of the queue as well so that was a bonus.
The return leg..
It was a nice change to fly from LHR T4 as opposed to T3, it seems quieter and there were no queues in security so we went straight to the lounge which was the shared Sky Team lounge. It was quite nice, reasonable food and quite big over two floors but no Champagne! Qatar will have their own lounge later in the year.
The first leg of the return was on an older A340-600 which had an F class cabin, the seats are pretty much the same in J as a 777-300 but were slight angle lie flat as opposed to fully flat and the IFE was non touch screen. F looked ok but dated. The food was a full lunch service then a small meal and again the crew were very helpful, the flight was a bit delayed due to the inbound flight so the crew were rushed.
The transfer again was Ok and the second leg was back on a 777-300 which was nicer.
All in all we were dreading the flight what with little man but it worked out well and this was in part to the staff at Qatar, the stopover of a couple of hours actually works with a baby and having all the facilities at the premium terminal was great.
One thing I did notice was that the pilots were not as trigger happy with the seat belt signs as SQ are, it took some proper bumpy air before they were switched on and even then the crew only once made an announcement out of the 4 legs which is nice and not the 700 announcements you get on SQ.
I would say SQ still has the edge in service slightly but not much in it and baring in mind the price difference for Qatar Vs SQ in J it’s a no brainer if you can spare the time of a stopover and are paying out of your own pocket.
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