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My 13th A380 Operator: Qatar A380 CDG-DOH-BKK
Qatar Airways has always been one of my favorite ME3 airlines, and my first roundtrip flight on Qatar was on its A340-600s with the onboard lounge. While those suites were not fancy, the service was great. Catering was excellent, but unfortunately, I found the standard had declined. While it was still top notch compared to most US and European airlines, catering and amenities offered obviously suffered major cost-cutting efforts. Catering suffers the most, especially the elimination of the canapés course, as well as the rather poor main course selections, especially compared to Etihad and Emirates’ more varied a la carte menu. There is also a great difference between lounges in out stations and in Doha – they are like two different worlds. The Paris lounge, “Salon Galaxy” does not even offer free WIFI, while the Doha’s Al Safwa First Class lounge is amazing. What it reveals that Qatar cares about costs – while Doha features amazing lounge and even ground service, Qatar Airways spends as little money as possible in out stations, except the few major cities in the world. If it is truly generous, it will offer turndown service on all flights above six hours, as well as both amenity kits and pajamas. Qatar is really not as generous as before, and at the same time, it has a hard time maintainining consistency among its cabin crews. Anyway, this trip celebrates my 13th A380 operator – until the next operator (ANA possibly) arrives, I can clalim I fly all 13 of them.
Full album:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...ebruary%202016
(I will like to apologize for the lack of actual plane pictures, as all three airports offer little chance for good plane pictures, as well as good close up pictures. While the plane sat in BKK for the afternoon, that airport is just simply bad for any good photos!)
February 22, 2016
QR 40 CDG-DOH Lv1500 Arr2325 Airbus A380-800 A7-APA
Check in:
I did my research, so I knew Qatar Airways’ CDG operation was pretty unimpressive in advance. I arrived CDG about 150 minutes prior to departure. The check-in area was very busy, but the supervisor was in hand directing passengers. There are separate lanes for first, business class, elite passengers, and online check-in/baggage drop off lanes. First Class lane was fairly busy this morning, and I recognized one of my neighbors eventually later during flight. Unfortunately this check in was anything but smooth. The gentleman checking me in was friendly and polite, and he checked my bags all the way to HKG via DOH and BKK, and they could even print out the boarding passes on the Cathay Pacific’s segment. Unfortunately, I immediately noticed that my pre-assigned window seats had mysteriously disappeared. I of course raised my attention and the agent said that all the window seats were occupied. I told him that I had already pre-booked and gave him a printout of the reservation with the corresponding seat assignments, 1A and 2A. He immediately called for help from his supervisor. The supervisor wanted to give me the go around, but I told her that I booked these seats almost 6 months ago. Who took my seat? She spoke a bunch of French with the agent, but all the window seats were occupied. The agent eventually released a window seat for me on the DOH-BKK flight, as well as the CX BKK-HKG flight, but I was persistent. So she just said that she would block the seats next to me but I don’t know if getting both 1E and 1F help. Of course the tail camera chose to go out on this flight. If a major airline can’t even honor my seat assignment, how can I book a flight with them? I was planning an Asian trip in the summer, and despite Qatar Airways offer some good fares from CMB to the East coast on the Airbus A350s, I immediately book other options. This incident really irritates me.
Lounge:
I received an invitation to the Salon Galaxy, which is just a new name to the previous Air France Le Salon Premier. This lounge was simply awful in every aspect. The food options are sad but at least they have cup noodles and sandwiches now. Unfortunately the furniture were the same – sad outdated and pathetic. The worst part was that there is no complimentary WIFI at all. I just can’t imagine any business class lounge in 2016 will have no free WIFI, in the age that we are complaining about lack of free WIFI in airports. For Priority pass users, I recommend you going to the Star Alliance lounge one floor above this one. Don’t even waste your time here.
Given the poor lounge situation, I decided to proceed to the gate hoping to at least get to board early and to take some pictures of the cabin, which I at least was about to do so.
A7-APA
Qatar Airways has always been one of my favorite ME3 airlines, and my first roundtrip flight on Qatar was on its A340-600s with the onboard lounge. While those suites were not fancy, the service was great. Catering was excellent, but unfortunately, I found the standard had declined. While it was still top notch compared to most US and European airlines, catering and amenities offered obviously suffered major cost-cutting efforts. Catering suffers the most, especially the elimination of the canapés course, as well as the rather poor main course selections, especially compared to Etihad and Emirates’ more varied a la carte menu. There is also a great difference between lounges in out stations and in Doha – they are like two different worlds. The Paris lounge, “Salon Galaxy” does not even offer free WIFI, while the Doha’s Al Safwa First Class lounge is amazing. What it reveals that Qatar cares about costs – while Doha features amazing lounge and even ground service, Qatar Airways spends as little money as possible in out stations, except the few major cities in the world. If it is truly generous, it will offer turndown service on all flights above six hours, as well as both amenity kits and pajamas. Qatar is really not as generous as before, and at the same time, it has a hard time maintainining consistency among its cabin crews. Anyway, this trip celebrates my 13th A380 operator – until the next operator (ANA possibly) arrives, I can clalim I fly all 13 of them.
Full album:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...ebruary%202016
(I will like to apologize for the lack of actual plane pictures, as all three airports offer little chance for good plane pictures, as well as good close up pictures. While the plane sat in BKK for the afternoon, that airport is just simply bad for any good photos!)
February 22, 2016
QR 40 CDG-DOH Lv1500 Arr2325 Airbus A380-800 A7-APA
Check in:
I did my research, so I knew Qatar Airways’ CDG operation was pretty unimpressive in advance. I arrived CDG about 150 minutes prior to departure. The check-in area was very busy, but the supervisor was in hand directing passengers. There are separate lanes for first, business class, elite passengers, and online check-in/baggage drop off lanes. First Class lane was fairly busy this morning, and I recognized one of my neighbors eventually later during flight. Unfortunately this check in was anything but smooth. The gentleman checking me in was friendly and polite, and he checked my bags all the way to HKG via DOH and BKK, and they could even print out the boarding passes on the Cathay Pacific’s segment. Unfortunately, I immediately noticed that my pre-assigned window seats had mysteriously disappeared. I of course raised my attention and the agent said that all the window seats were occupied. I told him that I had already pre-booked and gave him a printout of the reservation with the corresponding seat assignments, 1A and 2A. He immediately called for help from his supervisor. The supervisor wanted to give me the go around, but I told her that I booked these seats almost 6 months ago. Who took my seat? She spoke a bunch of French with the agent, but all the window seats were occupied. The agent eventually released a window seat for me on the DOH-BKK flight, as well as the CX BKK-HKG flight, but I was persistent. So she just said that she would block the seats next to me but I don’t know if getting both 1E and 1F help. Of course the tail camera chose to go out on this flight. If a major airline can’t even honor my seat assignment, how can I book a flight with them? I was planning an Asian trip in the summer, and despite Qatar Airways offer some good fares from CMB to the East coast on the Airbus A350s, I immediately book other options. This incident really irritates me.
Lounge:
I received an invitation to the Salon Galaxy, which is just a new name to the previous Air France Le Salon Premier. This lounge was simply awful in every aspect. The food options are sad but at least they have cup noodles and sandwiches now. Unfortunately the furniture were the same – sad outdated and pathetic. The worst part was that there is no complimentary WIFI at all. I just can’t imagine any business class lounge in 2016 will have no free WIFI, in the age that we are complaining about lack of free WIFI in airports. For Priority pass users, I recommend you going to the Star Alliance lounge one floor above this one. Don’t even waste your time here.
Given the poor lounge situation, I decided to proceed to the gate hoping to at least get to board early and to take some pictures of the cabin, which I at least was about to do so.
A7-APA
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