Qatar Airways Qsuite

• Its interesting that there appear to be both forward- and rear-facing seats. Personally, I like this to fly backwards, but I haven’t liked how it was executed on the American 777-200 retrofit. I suspect Qatar’s execution will be better.
• The two seats in the middle of the cabin, when closer, definitely seem to be more geared toward folks who know each other (the video shows families and couples). It almost looks like they have a double bed. This will be great for couples, but could be really awkward for strangers.
• Also on the middle seats the two sets of facing seats, it looks like the screens can slide over blocking that view or opening it. They really make it look like it’d be great for 4 people that know each other to be able to interact, which could be fun. Of course, that could also get loud for the others in the cabin.
• Oh yeah, the suites have doors. Its the new big thing in Business Class, after Delta did it.

Conclusion

Qatar Airways Qsuite was billed to be revolutionary. I’m not quite so sure. Is it evolutionary? I think more so. It evolves business class cabin concepts that exist or have been announced by Delta and Etihad, and improves on them. The idea of a double bed in business class is fun, but, it doesn’t seem all that much different from some of the similar center “together” seats, other than maybe additional privacy. The door is logical, as business continues to be improved with some of the benefits of first class. One thing is clear – this is a huge improvement over the current business class seats on Qatar’s 777 fleet.

What do you think? Is the Qatar Airways Qsuite revolutionary?