Business / First Class Dine on Demand Discussion

[RooFlyer]

My point was that the overall experience didn't live up to the hype. It seems to me that QR = PR.

My comment was that the meal seemed more style over substance: you raised the points about glassware, butter, salt and pepper grinders. To me those don’t contribute to food quality. There’s been a lot of comparison between QF’s offering and that of QR. But to me it seems that comparison is mostly down to a difference in presentation… lots of ‘white space’ on QR.

The lounge, yeah… did it live up to the hype? Maybe they set expectations too high. Was it the world’s best business class lounge? I didn’t see it.

Is the Qsuite the best seat in the world in business class? I don’t see how it can be if there’s a better version of the same seat?

DOD? Yeah fine. It might be popular with customers, but I don’t know if it added significantly to the experience. No business class is ‘perfect’ but DOD wasn’t enough IMO to swing it to the ‘world’s best’.

About this 'substance' - if you think QF's meals are comparable to QR's then I don't think there's much more to say. Have a flick through the Qantas business meals thread (internationals) and then the Qatar business meals thread and check what's actually on the plate - cheese plate Vs cheese plate, dessert Vs dessert, caviar vs, well... Neil's leaves?, steak Vs steak, . If anyone can honestly say, that overall the two are comparable, I'll use dine on demand to consume my hat next time.

I'd call QF meals 'fish and chips by the seaside' - OK if you are into that sort of thing (but beware of soggy chips), but if I'm paying many thousands of dollars for that X hour ride, I'd want more both in terms of presentation, service and actual tucker.

Not sure where you are getting all these 'world's bests' from, but I guess such might have been adjudged over very many flights, by very many people, not just a couple of flights.

I don't fly QR time and again because its (reputably) the 'world's best'. I fly it time and again because the quality of the experience is better than the other carriers ex Australia to Europe (done 'em all#) and it suits me just fine for ex Asia. As I said elsewhere, I am trying Oman Air ex Asia in the middle of the year, and if that's better, I'll shift my business to them - although their routes and schedules aren't great. Drove my TA nuts trying to match Europe departure port and day to leave.

# Cathay not recently

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not sure where you are getting all these 'world's bests' from, but I guess such might have been adjudged over very many flights, by very many people, not just a couple of flights.

QR’s own advertising: https://www.qatarairways.com/en-au/offers/fly-the-worlds-best-business-class.html

 

[SCM]

Eventually qsuite 2 will be on most routes (all new 777X and a351s being delivered now), I'm hoping they will retrofit all the existing A351s, given product uniformity has always been their weak point, hopefully they see that as a common sense decision and not wait for the mid-life refresh. There aren't a lot of them out there anyway.

In terms of noise, I've flown Qatar a whole bunch in the last 2 years, and I've never even heard meal service of other passengers, I think this is way overblown, especially given cabin noise and headphones or earplugs, and the privacy doors.

I agree that it's much better to have dine on demand, it allows you to make your schedule more flexible.