Flight Review: Qatar Airways Economy Class A320 & B787-8
Flight: QR1045
From: Zayed International Airport Abu Dhabi (AUH)
To: Hamad International Airport Doha (DOH)
Flight time: 1h
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Flight: QR141
From: Hamad International Airport Doha (DOH)
To: Barcelona (BCN)
Flight time: 7h
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
This is one of those reviews that try to encapsulate a whole itinerary, rather than a specific flight. In this case it was two consecutive flights on Qatar Airways’ economy class (which we had already experienced onboard one of the airline’s A380s)
What to expect on Qatar Airways economy class?
This journey is broken in two separate legs, and while one was much shorter than the other, and one of them was on a narrow body aircraft and the other on a widebody one, it was pretty consistent when it comes to all touch points. Let’s see what I mean.
The frst flight was Abu Dhabi to Doha on an A320. As you can see, Qatar Airways is one of those carriers that differentiates properly between the business class (left) and economy class (right) cabins, even on single aisle aircraft operating short routes.
The cabin, in which, as you can see, Qatar Airways’ trademark colours dominate, has the regular looks and feel of a legacy carrier economy class.
However, the Qatari carrier has preserved some of the attributes of the more, let’s say “luxurious” economy class products of yesteryear.
For example, while being slim and light, the seat has some soft padding and it also reclines.
Seat pitch is rather generous 31”.
Below you can see other small details:
Hard pocket in the upper part of the seat
Soft pocket in the lower part of the seat
Hanger for suits
The seats are also fitted with in-seat power and USB ports, which comes in handy if you are using the onboard internet connectivity system. In this regard, Qatar Airways has been rolling out SpaceX Starlink broadband across its fleet, however, this particular aircraft was not yet fitted with it and only offered the legacy paid packages to access the internet.
It is also possible to access the Oryx One inflight streaming entertainment system.
Since this was a rather short flight (possibly one of the three shortest) in the whole of Qatar Airways network, there is not much to say about inflight catering and other amenities.
We were given some refreshing towels and a short meal and drink. Despite its simplicity, I quite liked the mezze set and its very efficient but also minimalistically elegant presentation.
Stopover at Hamad International Airport Doha
This is another plus of the Qatar Airways experience. Hamad International is a very modern and efficient airport. It opened just a few days ago and you can tell it was built precisely for the role of being a major connecting node.
Wi-fi at Doha’s Hamad airport is fast and easy to access and, unlike, at other major hub airports (Istanbul I am looking at you!) it doesn’t come with a short time limit.
In addition to the iconic giant teddy bear, the central garden patio is also a thing of beauty and it’s easy to forget for some time that you are in the middle of an airport transfer!
How is it like to fly Qatar Airways long-haul on economy class
So, now we get to the second part of the journey the 7h flight between Doha and Barcelona. It is true that this is not a particularly long route within Qatar Airways’ network, but at least it gives us some more elements to evaluate the airline’s economy class experience.
Qatar Airways B787-8 economy class cabin has 232 seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. Interestingly, if the narrowbody cabin alternates Burgundyurple-grey-Burgundy within each set of three seats, here it follows the same pattern at whole row level, with the grey-coloured seats in the central part of the cabin.
The seats offer the same type of pitch as in the single-aisle aircraft (or at least that was my impression), with the difference that on twin-aisle aircraft they are fitted with seatback screens to access the inflight entertainment system.
The seat has also a generous recline and it has the “ears” headrest that let you cocoon your head a little bit during the flight.
When it comes to amenities, on economy class you get a blanket, a pillow and a set of headphones.
As you may expect from an airline that aims to compete for the top spots in airline’s global pecking order, Qatar Airways offers quite a comprehensive and broad content catalogue through its inflight entertainment system (IFE). There is a good selection of movies, series, etc. Although many of them have advertising (which I guess is an additional source of revenue for the airline).
The screens are also quite modern and easy to use and responsive to touch. The position of the screen can also be adjusted a bit, for better visualization, particularly if your seat or the seat in front are reclined.
Just as in the case of the previous (A320) flight, this B787-8 was fitted with inflight internet, but still the legacy system, which can be accessed through a number of packages with different pricing plans. There is a free option, though, that lets you connect to use some light-data applications such as whatsapp messaging.
I guess this part of the experience will change radically within a very short period of time, as Qatar Airways rolls out free fast broadband onboard provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Lunch time! Since this flight run through the middle of the day, we had one main meal served on this flight, which was lunch.
Unlike the cold mezze that we were served on the very short segment between Abu Dhabi and Doha, here we had a proper warm three-course meal, alongside with drinks (including a choice of wine, liquor and soft drinks) and coffee.
You can get an idea of how is it like in the following pictures. While I wouldn’t say this was a mind-blowing culinary experience, I think the quality and quantity were overall pretty good and the crew were happily refilling drinks to whomever asked for it.
We did have another round of coffee and tea and a snack a little bit before landing.
Let’s finish with a couple more pics to get the full view of the experience: the lavatory (nothing to report here) and the nightime view of the cabin after most of the Dreamliner’s windows have been dimmed.
Our Take:
Not unexpectedly, given the airline’s regular topping of all sorts of “best service” rankings, Qatar Airways has a solid and well rounded economy class product (perhaps one of those mezze sets instead of the bag of crisps would have made it even better!) and the imminent arrival of Starlink connectivity will only improve it!
