Boarding the Qatar Airways QSuites 777-300ER, you’re immediately met with classy touches that show this aircraft is special.
Making that right turn, to my seat, 1A, it was clear this was QSuites, and the excitement was rather apparent. The general atmosphere of the cabin was not the glitzi-ness of Emriates A380 F. It was more subdued, dark, fairly gentle tones. Lots of maroon aligning with Qatar’s livery. The layout reminded me a lot of Etihad’s 787-9. Some seats facing backwards, some forwards, the aisles meandered, giving some seats just a tad more space than others.
The seat itself is rather impressive.
It was perhaps the most functional airline seat I’ve ever had. There was plenty of storage, plenty of space to work or place things.
I thought the NFC was interesting, allowing, I assume, for easier transactions. There were 2 USBs, an HDMI port, a 110 Volt power port, and plenty of seat controls.
I particularly appreciated the area above the controls and plugs – a nice, convenient area to store phones or tablets.
The flight attendants were just as excited about QSuites as we were, despite having trained and flown on them for at least a few weeks.
I had the obligatory pre-departure champagne, and perused the menus, all the while still trying to control my giddiness.
The drink menu was fairly exhaustive:
While the dining menu on this sub 5 hour flight wasn’t as exhaustive.
I started out with warm nuts and a glass of Royal Tokajis’s 2013 Puttonyos. I enjoy the sweet wines more than any other type, so I figured it’d be nice to try the Hungarian dessert wine. It was worth it.
While it was only a 5 hour flight, I figured I should test out the bed. I found it to be roomy in all the right places for a side sleeper, something that I’d say the Reverse Herringbone seat fails to deliver.
Wrapping Up – Qatar QSuites
After having flown the Qatar QSuites, I have to say that unequivocally, this is the best business class in the sky right now. It rises above the other best business class seats. But, more than that, some of the softer touches. All the touches on the seat, the blanket, they were all spot on and quality, right down to the plastic safety card highlighting the QSuites–think the kind’ve plastic thats good plastic (not laminated) playing cards are made from. And the pride of the crew. It’s hard to put a value crew that takes pride in their product.
do you think Qatar will fly this on BOTH JFK-DOH flights soon?
@T – I’m not sure, to be honest. They haven’t increased the frequency on CDG or LHR flights… My guess is they will continue to spread this abit more thinly (e.g. 1 flight per destination), as they get more birds with QSuites… To showcase their capability.
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