For all the pictures that go with this report,
please click here!This trip came about by accident, as I was supposed to fly Dublin-London Heathrow-Tokyo Haneda-Sydney with British Airways and Japan Airlines. Due to a bunch of flight cancellations, the whole itinerary was thrown out and it took me 70 hours to get from Dublin to Sydney, including an overnight in Glasgow and one at London Gatwick.
As luck would have it, I was re-routed London Gatwick-Doha-Sydney in the end on Qatar Airways. That meant I got to try the Qatar Airways Airbus A380 and the business class bar for the first time, which I had always wanted to do.
After landing at Doha, I found a First Class bus and a Business Class bus waiting for the Business Class passengers. Since I had never been in
the First Class bus before, I beelined for there and it took us to the terminal. As you can see, it doesn't take many people and it's far, far more luxurious than the usual bus you might see at airports. To be fair, the business class bus is nice too, but a level below this.
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Next, it was through transfer security and off to
the Al Mourjan Lounge for some relaxation and food. I had deliberately not over-eaten on the flight from London Gatwick to Doha as I was saving space for the restaurant food.
This time they had people serving from behind plastic screens, so I took a little rice, beef and pasta, washed down with some Champagne. It was a nice little snack as it usually is in this lounge restaurant.
After the first dish, I spotted the people making the sushi which I had forgotten was available. Of course, I ordered some and found it to be really nice. This time the restaurant was busy and I had to wait for people to leave to be allowed upstairs, but the wait was very, very short.
After spending some time in the lounge, I headed down to gate C13 where we were to board. There are two sides to the gate entry and waiting areas, one for economy class and one for first and business class.
After waiting inside for a little while, we were permitted to leave, having our boarding passes scanned again. It was then a walk to board straight into the upper deck of the plane.
QR908 – Doha to Sydney (DOH-SYD)
3 July 2022
Airbus A380 – A7-API
Seat: Business Class 10K
Departure: 20:30 Arrival: 17:25+1I quickly found my seat at the front of the business class cabin. Upstairs on the Qatar Airways A380 is first class, business class, the bar and a small section of economy class at the rear,
which you can see on the seating plan here. There are no Qsuites on this aircraft and instead it features 48 of the older Super Diamond seats. These continue to be a modern product and are perfectly comfortable for flying.
Shortly after taking my seat, I was asked what I would like for my welcome drink and I took a Champagne. There was a ladies amenity kit at my seat, which the crew offered to switch for a men’s one, but as the only difference is the fragrance, I kept the one I had.
The service to Sydney is around 14 hours from Doha, which means there is a full à la carte dinner offered as well as breakfast. You can have anything at any time, and I really like the dine on demand concept so I can suit myself.
Orders were taken before take-off. I elected to start with afternoon tea, and then have dinner before landing in Sydney. Later I was advised to have the ice cream for dessert earlier as it would have melted by the end of the flight, so I decided to have it first. After the safety demonstration played on the monitors, we headed to the runway and into the warm sky above Doha. Shortly after the seat belt sign was turned off I headed to the toilet.
My next drink arrived and I set about looking for something to watch on the Oryx One system, settling for The Matrix Resurrections. I popped on my headphones and started the film. Content is often edited when flying this airline, so swearing and some references are changed here and there. I’m not a fan of this at all, as I believe it should remain as originally intended by the creators.
Next, it was time for my afternoon tea. I quite like the whole sandwiches, scones and all the rest of it, no matter which airline is serving it up. It’s usually quite nice and I wanted something relatively light as I’d eaten in the lounge before the flight.
Happily it was all very delicious, with the service being spot on as usual. The Qatar Airways crew never leave you waiting for long periods once one course is finished, which is great attention to detail.
After the movie was done, I headed off to visit the bar. This is located at the rear of the business class cabin and I was excited to give it a try as I’d never been to a bar on a flight before. When I arrived, I found two other passengers there, and after a while they left and it was just me.
I spent some time chatting to the lovely crew and trying some of the snacks. They assured me on daytime flights the bar was usually very busy. Anyway, I wrote up a full article with lots of pictures of the bar which you can see here.
The hours passed quite quickly and soon enough it was only a couple of hours until top of descent, which is when my dinner was going to be served. First up came an amuse-bouche, followed by the soup. When they deliver the soup, it has a lid on the bowl, which they remove with a flourish after they set it down. It’s kinda fun!
All the courses arrived promptly and I found it all quite nice. Even the polenta with the beef cheeks tasted okay, and I’m not really a fan of polenta. The black plate the dessert was presented on was really slick, maybe this is from the first class cabin? Looks fantastic! Once done, everything was cleared away, the chocolates arrived and we descended and landed into Sydney after a few circles along the way.
The Qatar Airways A380 is a wonderful way to fly. It’s a comfortable aircraft and that coupled with the oneworld alliance airline’s seat and attentive friendly on board service makes it a complete win. Being able to dine on demand remains a wonderful feature of the service. Since I had eaten on the ground, being forced to have a four course dinner immediately after take-off would not have been great for me, so I really appreciate it.
The Airbus A380 has only been reactivated at the Doha based airline on a temporary basis. It is anticipated they will be retired for good in due course, so if you want to experience the bar (and first class, for that matter) you had best do so sooner rather than later.
Have you flown on board the Qatar Airways double decker before? Ever tried the bar? What do you think of their product? Thank you for reading, remember -
to see all the pictures, click here - and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.