QATAR AIRWAYS review : 30 April 2008 : by Andy Johnson

Customer Rating : 5/5

BKK-DOH-LHR Economy. Flight left early from BKK, but had to make a detour and make an unscheduled landing in Bombay due to someone having a heart attack on board. Very professionally handled. Everything was done at the back of the plane out of sight, hardly knew anything had happened until there was an announcement. The pilot kept everyone up to date with what was going on. Only had an hour on the ground in Bombay before taking off again. Was worried about missing connecting flight in Doha but landed in plenty of time and flights were held for other passengers. Food and In-flight entertainment excellent . Mainly south east asian crew so everything was very efficient.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 30 April 2008 : by A Amaladoss

Customer Rating : 4/5

LGW-DOH-KUL-DOH-LHR with family. All flights on A330. Check-in staff at Gatwick very helpful, and all four of us were unexpectedly upgraded to business class at the gate (the other flights were in business, using points for upgrades). Did not use USAir lounge at LGW. Flight was very good; meals well-presented, plenty of champagne, and IFE worked well. Used premium terminal at Doha; this got increasingly busy as the evening wore on, but there was always enough seating. Slept well on flight to KUL. The first meal served was a snack of calzone, which was rather dry and unappetising. Breakfast before arrival was good. Baggage took a while to arrive but probably not the fault of QR. Return flight left KUL at 0335. Able to use Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge, which was comfortable. Had a long stopover in Doha because of lack of availability of seats to London, and left airport and used a hotel in the city. Had to pay online visa fee of QAR 100 per person-only credit cards accepted. Aircraft change on the way back and seating problems as a result. Confusion in the cabin itself, as some seats not working properly. FAs reasonably helpful in sorting it all out. 'Warm refreshments' served soon after takeoff, and included caviar. No child meal available out of DOH- 'not loaded on' was the explanation. Children allowed to keep blankets and headsets until just before landing. FAs not always safety conscious eg glasses left uncollected in cabin before landing, and having to be held in the hand. Some of the male FAs need to improve their customer service skills - one of them asked my wife, referring to the child in the seat next to her asleep, 'Is that kid yours?'. When I asked for UK landing card and fast track pass, I was initially told that they were not available - this was put right by someone more senior.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 30 April 2008 : by Carlito Daguman

Customer Rating : 4/5

MNL-DOH-MAD return. Very comfortable and ample leg room. The cabin crew were courteous and helpful. The best part is the food they serve. The tickets were a bit pricey but it is the most comfortable flight I've ever had in economy.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 29 April 2008 : by H Hann

Customer Rating : 5/5

KUL-DOH-NBO return in economy. Very impressed with planes on all sectors. Much more spacious than Emirates flights taken recently, legroom more generous. Supplied with amenities kits. Entertainment good. Meals best we'd experienced. We found flight attendents friendly and helpful. Toilets kept in good condition throughout flights. Doha airport easy to negotiate. Paid small fee to access Oryx lounge for a 5 hour transit which was excellent value. Quiet, comfortable. Showers available and toilets kept very clean. Complimentary food and drinks. Could leave to look at shops then return and staff came and told you when your flight was boarding. Would fly them again, just hope their standards can be maintained with rapid growth.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 29 April 2008 : by Mikael Fjaellborg

Customer Rating : 2/5

LHR-DOH in F-class followed by DOH-HKG in F-class. Unprofessional and rude staff on DOH-HKG leg. QR seem to have employed some Russian/Ukrainian staff and they have same attitude to customer. I fly this route quite often and when QR have their Asian crew working onboard all is as smooth as is should be in F-class. BKK-DOH connecting to DOH-ARN all in C-class (no F-class on this routes) and again unpleasant. I have gained Gold status on their loyal frequent flyer program and I thought that will bring some benefits, but so far I have only experienced their wish to be unpleasan.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 29 April 2008 : by A Patel

Customer Rating : 3/5

Travelled LHR-DOH-AMD-DOH-LHR. Flight departure/Arrivals perfect as per schedule. Crew well mannered. Unless requested in advance, it is difficult to get vegetarian meals, therefore, I obtained confirmation for arrangement of vegetarian meal. DOH-LHR they failed to supply vegetarian meal - and I had to spent journey just on a small plateful of salad. I do not understand why such a five star airline can't make provision for a couple of extra dishes to meet last minute request?

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 28 April 2008 : by Carol Blenkinsop

Customer Rating : 2/5

Manchester to Doha to Male, return in Business. First leg from Manchester was very enjoyable, the plane, food and flight attendants all excellent. Doha to Male was okay. Male-Doha the staff were rude. When the drinks order was taken before dinner I ordered white wine and then had to ask for this several times, before it was slammed on to my tray. Doha to Manchester was an uncomfortable older plane, with no choice of Films/TV and slow service. I am giving this airline 2 stars but I would give the first leg a definite 5 star.

QATAR AIRWAYS review : 23 April 2008 : by David Chown

Customer Rating : 5/5

Paris-Doha-Male return. Airbus aircraft were almost new and immaculately clean. I am 6ft 3" but I had ample leg room in economy. Food good, and cabin staff attentive. Contrary to some comments, I found Doha airport modern, clean and efficient, but then, after Paris CDG anywhere else would be! We did have what seemed a bus tour of the Middle East after de-planing somewhere far out on the airfield at Doha, but the bus was new and comfortable. Overall an excellent first impression on all four flights.

Qatar Airways review - by H Davies

23 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LGW-DOH-BKK return in April 2008. The check in at LGW was easy, friendly and efficient. Boarding was simple. The plane was great. IFE was excellent, about 100 films and many other things to do. There were blankets and pillows for everyone. Catering was good, two meals on each leg. Alcohol free and easy to access. Doha is a bit of a downer, over ten UK pounds for four teas! The cabin staff were good and helpful. They were very busy and I can see why comments were made. I would be very happy to fly with Qatar again and would recommend them.

Qatar Airways review - by Jan Willems

12 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

FRA-DOH-BKK return, a bit of a mixed experience. On the plus side, punctuality of flights, decent entertainment system and the good and generous inflight catering. Seating average, as with most Y- class long-haul configurations these days. Crew on most legs robotic, and the minimum of contact with passengers. Flight staff was better than the ground staff in Doha, which was useless and even rude. Doha airport is a joke. Since most of the flights to the East with QR involve long layovers, you have no other choice than hang around at Doha airport or leaving the airport after buying a EUR 15 one-day visa to leave the airport and spend it in an hotel.

Qatar Airways review - by Franco Iacovella

9 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

IAD-DOH. Impressed the check-in counters open almost 5 hours prior departure. Check-in smooth and once onboard the smiling airline crew were great. AVOD is one of the best - over 700 music/television programs. The food was good and plentiful - disappointed the cabin crew did not come around more during the evening to check-up on passengers needs. As for duty fre, I heard no announcements made. Overall one of the better airlines in the world.

Qatar Airways review - by S Bothmer

4 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Berlin-Doha-Berlin. Very good experience. staff friendly. IFE superb on Airbus A330. good choice. only disadvantage: some routes operated by Airbus A319. this aircraft is not up to standard. no personal IFE.

Qatar Airways review - by Tony Ashton

2 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LHR-DOH-AUH Economy. Another good flight from Qatar Airways, nice food, AVOD, nice staff. Having flown this airline for a number of years what strikes me is the consistency of their offering - unlike some of their competitors in the gulf region. Terminal 3 Heathrow also seems to be improving! 10 minutes to get through security, but lack of space to sit in the airside shopping mall (sorry, i mean departure lounge). Nice new concourse outside T3.

Qatar Airways review - by R Campbell

1 April 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Manchester - Doha - Bangkok Return. Business class. We've flown Qatar Airlines before and have found the service and the experience to be very good. However, this time MAN-DOH was as usual superb. Second leg. I really can't describe how awful it was. My seat and the one next to me were loose. As it was, the seat would not stay reclined, I can go on. The service from the FA's was not up to the usual standards either. The return legs were back to the normal standards. The Kiwi flight director was professional.

Qatar Airways review - by Arne Scheehl

28 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

FRA-DOH-HKG return Economy. The service on board, IFE and crew were all outstanding. Only one catch: Check-in took more than in hour both in FRA and HKG, which is way too much. The aircarfts were new or well maintained and seat space was good - even for me with a height of 193cm. Food onboard was good and plenty, though drink selection was not 5-star and the offering throughout the flight was not that frequent. Requesting a drink, though, was no problem whatsoever. Crew very friendly and tried to help as much as possible. The flights were all almost fully booked. Stopover in Doha,Qatar is not very exiting as the airport is small and food/entertainment choices are limited. Free internet stations are available though. Duty free is cheap for alcohol and tobacco products.

Qatar Airways review - by P Yates

28 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LHR-DOH-CMB Return. Business class. It would be better if the seats were flat bed and not lie flat, but still managed to get a decent sleep. Food was excellent on all legs and FA's attentive without being obtrusive. DOH to CMB was by A321, which had the old style seats and no PTV. All in all a very pleasant experience, will definitely fly Qatar again

Qatar Airways review - by J Leow

27 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

SIN-DOH-ATH return. Overall, a pleasant experience with Qatar Airways. No on-seat inflight entertainment system in A330-200 on the DOH-SIN leg, which is considered a medium haul journey. Availability of certain beverages were limited (eg. Milk). Otherwise, it would be an excellent rating for Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways review - by R Marks

25 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

DOH-SGN-DOH. I don't know what the secret to getting upgrades on Qatar is but we seem to possess it. On an earlier flight to the US we were booked economy class and were upgraded to business. On this trip, I asked at check-in in DOH if we might get upgraded and after being asked to wait 10 minutes, got the free upgrade. On the return, I requested an upgrade in the same manner at the ticketing area but was declined. However as we were going through the gate, we were given new boarding passes to the business class. The service and equipment were awesome. After having flown QA now many times, I do not look forward to having to use other airlines.

Qatar Airways review - by Bradley Fitzsimmons

23 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

BKK-DOH-DME BUSINESS CLASS. I thought the food and wine selection was excellent. However it needs business class seats that fully recline. The seats on both legs did not - DOH-DME didn't even have a personal TV. Generally, I thought the cabin service was very good, but not near Singapore Airlines. The transfer from plane to terminal in Doha was excellent - the bus was a 12-seater and everyone got a seat. The lounge was minimalist, but well equipped with friendly and efficient staff. The best part was excellent connections - only 90 minutes in Doha before going on to Moscow.

Qatar Airways review - by Terrance Stevens

13 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

MAN-DOH-CPT Economy return. This was my 12th return flight with Qatar on this route since it was introduced in 2005. As usual the flight was faultless, aircraft modern and seating comfortable with ample legroom. The ground staff and cabin crew excellent, food and IFE superb. HOWEVER, Qatar has now changed it's schedules making it impossible to fly from MAN to CPT unless you wish to endure a total journey time of at least 25 hours on the way out and 37 hours on the return journey with no hotel accommodation being offered for the long stop-overs in Doha. This is at the same time that Emirates introduced a direct flight DXB to CPT with easy connection for pax from MAN. Come on Qatar rethink the schedule change on this route. Some of us would prefer to fly Qatar! This is not a good example of the way an expanding airline treats it's regular passengers.

Qatar Airways review - by David Manning

12 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LHR-DOH-TRV return. Fantastic airline on all four journeys - food excellent, economy legroom was great. Seats comfortable, inflight entertainment varied and interesting, plenty of choice.

Qatar Airways review - by J Yap

7 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

DXB-DOH-IAD. DXB-DOH in First, DOH-IAD in Business. The service is outstanding, but what sets Qatar Airways apart is the quality of the catering - the best overall standard of airline meals in international business class I have experienced. Good food and plenty of it. Very large AVOD screen to help pass the time. The only real disappointment was that, as a previous reviewer noted, the lie- flat seats I had heard would be introduced on the DOH-IAD leg are not yet lie-flat. Nonetheless, I was able to sleep comfortably. Premium Terminal in Doha was nice, but for business class amounted to essentially a very large business class lounge in a separate terminal. Still, it is a better place to spend the connection than the main terminal.

Qatar Airways review - by Bruno Lachaux

2 March 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Doha to Istanbul. The service was very nice due to the fact the plane was almost empty. Seat comfortable and aircraft spotless . Flight attendants mostly smiling persons. Liked the Entertainment system and particularly the special categories.

Qatar Airways review - by Geoff Wyndham-Jones

28 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

KWI-DOH-MNL return Y class. KWI-DOH on A320, aircraft clean and tidy, announcements from flight deck and cabin crew a little perfunctory, but adequate. DOH-MNL A330: again, interior of aircraft very presentable and washrooms kept clean throughout a 9-hour flight. AVOD extremely wide choice, although poor headsets degrade the quality of the sound. Catering imaginative, a choice between Arabic and Filipino dishes. Cabin crew worked hard on a full flight. Return flights similar to outward flights. Only comment is that the cabin crew tend to operate in a very mechanical fashion, rather than being naturally warm and friendly. Overall, an impressive offering for a Y cabin, and transiting through Doha is a reasonably quick, pleasant experience, although all flights are on remote stands, and the buses to the transit terminal sometimes take a rather scenic route. I can see why the airline is ranked as 5-star.

Qatar Airways review - by D Hoppin

26 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

Washington-Bahrain-Jeddah-Washington via Doha in Business. Washington-Doha sectors in new B777-300s. Excellent food, service and space, though seats were not fully flat - though I understand the plan is to install full-flat seats. Premium terminal in Doha is the best I've seen anywhere. Less impressed with the product on the Doha-Jeddah sector - somewhat dilapidated A340-300 and flight attendants who failed to pre-empt the surge of economy pax through business class upon arrival in Jeddah. Still an excellent product and my first choice to the Gulf.

Qatar Airways review - by Rohan McCarthy

26 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

AMM-DOH Economy Class. A relatively short flight, at about 2.5 hours. Despite it being quick, the professional cabin crew managed to hand out menu cards, hot towels, do a proper meal service - including alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks service - and smile throughout. It was fairly full cabin, so they needed to work quickly, but I sensed they enjoy their job. The fit-out on the A340-300 was a bit tired, and while there were PTVs, these were not on-demand and mine flickered on many of the looped channels. I liked the configuration of two-seats on the outside of each aisle. Landing at Doha, followed by a short bus ride, quick immigration check, and luggage waiting when we arrived at the carousel made it a breeze to get out of the airport - pity about the Doha evening traffic from there on!

Qatar Airways review - by M Phillips

25 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LGW-DOH-BKK return in business. LGW-DOH segment excellent on A330-300, business class cabin about 50% full, service very attentive, meals excellent. AVOD ws working and had a great selection of old and new films, TV programmes and music. On arrival into Doha, all business class passengers were bussed to the Premium terminal. Only had an hour transfer time and premium terminal very quiet. Boarded the dreaded A340 and was shocked with the difference - our seats did not recline much and footrests could not be raised. The purser who appeared embarrassed by the situation and allowed us to sit in row 2 (First class cabin not sold for this flight). Unfortunately the service was slow and we were never asked if we would like breakfast although we had woken up 1.5 hours out of BKK. BKK to DOH, we also had this aircraft - this time some seat controls had the buttons missing with 2 plasters covering the holes. However the service was much improved, the purser informed us that this aircraft was only going to be in service for another month. DOH-LHR was on their own A340 and we were back to the 5* service and amenities.

Qatar Airways review - by L Eames

25 February 2008  Customer Trip Rating :

LGW to Doha to Cochin; Trivandrum-Doha-LHR Business Class. Flight from LGW on A330 and return from Doha to LHR on A340. Both flights fine with attentive staff and good food and wine. The seats were slightly uncomfortable - seat is not that wide and when in the sleep position feels narrow. Sleeping on one's back is the only option. Doha to Cochin and return from Trivandrum on A320 - seats were old fashioned business class seats. There was a Bollywood movie playing all night on the small drop down screen which disturbed sleep. On the return flight to Doha, I asked to see one of the films on offer. I was brought a portable DVD player. Unfortunately, the socket on my seat didn't work, so it had to be plugged into the adjacent seat, which caused problems for that passenger. Broke down twice so the DVD player had to be changed. We were given breakfast, a bottle of water, and no amenity kits on flight from India, not even socks and a mask.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Comments and opinions contained in these pages do not represent the views of Skytrax. All features contain unsolicited input from site visitors, and we seek to exercise the minimum level of editorial control and censorship to ensure the widest debate and platform for customer opinions. We will not publish submissions that contain abusive language. We cannot guarantee to publish all opinions submitted.

ADD YOUR COMMENTS HERE

  These Review pages are designed to offer guidance and assistance to other travellers, and we ask respondents to use an "informative" style of comment and share any travel tips for the airline  in question.

  Your First Name (or initial) and Family Name, and E-mail address MUST be supplied.

  When submitting comments, please DO NOT insert paragraphs.

  Please check you use Upper and Lower case only - submissions made all in CAPITALS will NOT be accepted.

  Comment submissions that require extensive text editing CANNOT be published.