I had to go to Saudi Arabia on the 25th of Janury for business reasons, to Al-Khobar which is next to Bahrein. So I decided to try Qatar Airways, and their Madrid-Doha flight (almost a seven-hour flight). In Doha I would change for the connecting flight to Bahrein. My flight was in business class, and I truly found that QR is a five-star airline!

After check-in at Terminal 1 in Madrid Barajas, I went to the business lounge of this terminal, the “Cibeles” lounge. Some pictures:





So here’s the plane, A7-AEM, one of the newest A333 in Qatar’s fleet, it was delivered just one year ago.



On the picture you can see on the left the wing of a US Airways A333, bound for Philadelphia. Next to it and docked at other jetways more planes bound for North America: Delta’s B764 to Atlanta, DL’s B763 to JFK and two Continental birds to Newark, one B762 and one B752. This area for the Non-Schengen flights in Madrid’s T1 is very busy in the mornings!

I got my seat, which was 2B. The flight crew was very friendly, they took my coat, and I received an orange juice as the first drink. Business class was almost full on this flight.

Pictures of the seats:









The main meal was this:

Palate pleaser
Tapas of chicken, mushroom and potato

To commence
Spanish lobster bisque, crème fraiche

Seafood cocktail
smoked northern Spanish salmon, marinated red onion and orange salad steamed mussels

Classic Arabic mezze

To follow
Oven roasted leg of lamb, garlic jus, grilled asparagus, potato and ceps gratin

Pan seared chicken breast honey and vinegar glaze char grilled vegetables
Fried rice

Zucchini flowers filled with pine nuts and goat cheese, carrot puree
Grilled mushrooms and red peppers

Cheese plate
An individual plate of French brie, manchego and ibores cheese
Dried fruits and crackers

Sweet finale
Soft centered chocolate cake, raspberry coulis, Chantilly cream

Sliced fresh fruit

Vanilla ice cream with berry compote

Tea and coffee with fine chocolate
Coffee: Cappuccino, espresso, café latte, macchiato, American, Kenyan estate
Tea: Earl grey, English breakfast, green, roasted Japanese, Moroccan mint, non-caffeinated, herbal.

Some pictures of the different meals:













The Oryx on-demand in-flight entertainment was amazing, with a wide choice of movies, TV series, music. I watched the movie “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”



The complete amenity kit.



On arrival at Doha’s airport, which was on time, I didn’t have enough time to try the business lounge. Doha’s current terminal has no jetways, so buses are used. Business class passengers have separate buses. On the Doha-Bahrein flight, on a QR’s 332, I had the same seat, 2B. This was a short hop, the flight takes less than 45 minutes.



And finally some pictures from Saudi Arabia, riding on four-wheels motorcycles in the desert, and a beach.





[Edited 2009-02-16 14:11:12]