REVIEW – Qatar Airways : Business Class – Stockholm to Doha (B787)

Qatar Airways B787

Whilst most airlines have a bulkhead and galley next to the boarding door, Qatar want you to be impressed. If you’re travelling in Economy you’ll see this and immediately aspire to sit in one of these seats one day. The sleek marble bar and elegant bouquet of roses, framing the entrance as the purple ceiling extends overhead, is quite a sight to behold – especially when you’re used to US and European carriers… or indeed economy class.

Whilst the majority of the business class cabin is located on your left as you enter, there are two seats to your right – which are ensconced in their own private cocoon, behind the second bar and magazine rack.

A good friend of mine always picks these seats as he loves the private feeling. The cupboards to the sides are not actively used during the flight, so there’s no disruption from crew. Whilst the toilets do flank these seats, the entrance is adjacent to the boarding doors and away from the seats, with plenty of queuing room between the bars (not that this is needed when there are two bathrooms shared between only twenty two passengers.) The only thing that could go wrong here would be if the bassinets were attached to the front row of economy behind you.

This shot was taken later on in the flight…

…things were slightly more chaotic during boarding but moving out of the way for other pax was extremely easy given the space around each of the seats. I also like that the armrests sink into the seat pre-takeoff. This means that you have a flat surface to open your suitcase on, if you want to remove laptops, cameras etc.

I was sitting in seat 2A but would definitely take seat 1A in future if it is available. It has a massive table area above as well as two additional latched cupboards. The crew were generally very good at keeping the curtain closed as well. FYI The bulkhead seats on QR flights are only ever available at the airport and not even OneWorld Emeralds can select them in advance.

On the left, my seat : 2A. The Qatar reverse herringbone has to be the best looking business class seat I’ve ever laid eyes on. There is only one thing that I immediately wished for and that was a privacy shield at head height, like CX and AA have on their 777s. It makes a real difference to the privacy level when you can’t instantly make eye contact with half the cabin and I can see why most airlines opted to add the shield when creating their versions of the original US reverse herringbone seat.

The leather trim surrounding the seat is perfectly stitched. The IFE controller was ultra responsive. A bit of a shame to see S-Video next to the USB port though. Who actually uses that rather than HDMI?

The seat has a very user friendly interface for adjustments. Also, how incredibly shiny are those polished wooden surfaces?!!

Seat interface. The third from the left, on the bottom, is the massage function 😎

Music selection on point. The fixed screen also means that gate to gate entertainment is possible without giving yourself neck ache.

On my left was a very deep, leather topped, storage bin

Next to the storage bin is a universal Empower socket

Above this there was another large shelf polished to within an inch of its life, featuring some beautiful recessed lighting. I like how the literature rack has enough space to add a couple of your own magazines rather than being crammed to bursting already.

As I mentioned earlier, the aisle facing armrest moves up and down and is set to the down position for takeoff and landing. Inside the armrest was a bottle of Evian water and a sealed pair of noise cancelling headphones.

The headphones that Qatar uses are decent but nowhere near the level of the Bose QC25s offered by AA.

I need to work on smiling more in pictures. I was way happier than this XD

A thick, ice-cold towel (that smells like Turkish delight); a large glass of iced water; a full sized flute of Drappier Rosé (I figured I should try both champagnes in the interests of equitable research); Piano Gloss finishes and shiny HD entertainment. At this stage of the journey I was already convinced that this was going to be in my Top 3 business class flights of all time.

Whilst we were still on the ground, as I sat sipping my champagne, I was offered both a top up and an Armani amenity kit. The outside was not at all impressive and actually felt quite cheap.

The small bag contained some basic flight socks, eye mask and ear plugs. The full sized after shave balm and the small bottle of Acqua di Gio were a lovely touch though.

The cloud cover was pretty thick as we reached our cruising altitude but the enormous blue windows even made looking at a canvas of cloud exciting!

I was surprised by how quickly the warm cashews and champagne were brought out. It seemed to happen within milliseconds of the crew being released. All the more impressive given that everything was hand served for every passenger, including sample tastings for wine.

After finishing my champagne I went for a quick look around the cabin and started taking all of the pictures for this report. Just as I peeked out of the window I spotted this!

I’m pretty sure it was just a small private jet but for a second I did a double take, the speed with which it whizzed past and the dirty grey trail made it look like a missile 😮

I started with the beetroot soup and chive creme fraiche. My theory held fast. Soups on planes are almost always awesome and this was no exception.

It may have looked like somebody put Krang from TMNT into a blender but the soup was seriously delicious. I love how this was presented too, with a fitted porcelain lid that was removed at the table, allowing the aroma of the chives to fill the air around my seat.

Next up I went with the mixed Arabic mezze, which was decent but not spectacular. It was very carb heavy with zero protein. The Rully Premier Cru Gresigny on the other hand, was very good indeed.

Large tender pieces of marinated chicken, crunchy pieces of lightly steamed vegetables and a rich and aromatic sauce, sitting on a bed of fragrant rice. Utterly amazing. I had been to Dishoom in London the week before this flight and this dish was easily the equal of anything I ate there (and the lines can sometimes be an hour long, even when it’s raining!)

A perfect end to an amazing meal.

After the meal I checked out the bathroom, the Rituals toiletries were quite nice but the bathroom itself wasn’t particularly impressive.

It’s hard to argue with the view though.