This is this midlife adventurer’s Qatar Airways Qsuites flight from Doha to Montreal review. I flew by Qatar Airways business class mid-October, about a month before the FIFA World Cup 2022 began.
The flight ended my almost three week-long tour of the Middle East. The trip took me to Egypt, Oman and then to Qatar.
Here is my review including a link to YouTube video on my 4-day visit to Qatar
Here is my review including a link to my YouTube video on my desert safari in Qatar
Table of Contents
- The Background to Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
- The Aircraft
- The Cabin/Seat
- Meals – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
- Entertainment – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
- The Internet
- Final Comments – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
The Background to Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
Flying by Qatar Airways’ Qsuites was a longtime dream and recently it came true, thanks to awards points. I will write a review later how I used awards points for my entire Middle Eastern tour.
My flight, QR 763, was leaving Doha’s Hamad International Airport at 8.40 am but there was some confusion about what time we have to be at the airport. Because of the World Cup preparations, there was one advisory to be at the airport four (!) hours beforehand yet another said 3.5 hours and yet another email to me said two hours before the flight.
We were flying business and because it was the home turf of the Qatar Airlines, usually the check-in and immigration formalities would run quite fast. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, we decided to be at the airport three hours beforehand.
Fast Check-in
At the airport, there is a different entrance for business and first-class passengers and once we entered it, an officer checked for the Ehteraz app for our vaccination and PCR status.
And then we followed the business class section for check in.
We were guided to a counter immediately by an official.
It took us about 15 minutes to complete the check-in process. I gathered there was some trouble syncing the Qatar Airways app and the website data.
Afterwards, we marched towards immigration. They have an automated immigration departure gate system but for some reason it would not pass me so I was asked to go to a manned counter. The official then let me through.
The walk to the lounge was long. I will write a separate review on the Al Mourjan Lounge.
Boarding
About half an hour before the flight, I reached the boarding gate. The boarding area was separated into a numbered seating system, based on the passengers’ zone numbers.
We boarded the flight just before 8 am.
I was welcomed by a flight attendant (FA) who showed me my seat. I had a Qsuites aft-facing seat by the window.
A few minutes later, I was offered a choice of drinks – as usual there was juice, sparkling water, or champagne. I went for a Rose.
Loungewear
The Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha-Montreal flight comes with fancy amenity kits. The first one is the Qatar Airways lounge/nightwear. The package contained a pajama, a World Cup 2022-themed t-shirt and slippers. I think this set comes from the British luxury clothing retailer, the White Company.
After Eva Air, this is the second time I have received a pajama in a long-haul flight.
And a few minutes later the FA gave me the menu cards – for inflight meals and the drinks.
The FA also informed of the Qsuites meal on-demand, any-time meal system – meaning I can choose when I want to have the meals.
I went for a breakfast just after takeoff and then another meal just before landing. I was leaving Doha early morning and with the time difference my landing time in Montreal will be early afternoon. Nevertheless, long haul flights can confuse the body’s internal clocks, and usually my body feels landing time is morning time.
So, I asked the FA to give me the later meal at least 90 minutes before landing so I can brush my teeth and sponge-clean my face, to give the feeling of having refreshened myself after a night’s sleep, to be ready for the meal.
The flight took off almost on time.
Amenity Kits
And shortly after takeoff I got my sealed amenity kit. Made by the French perfumer Diptyque, the package contained tubes of face cream, lip balm, body lotion and eau de toilette. Women got pouches that were pink and white. According to QA, the pouches are made with vegan leather.
About 45 minutes after takeoff I got a beer (I had requested it) and a cup warm nuts, and a little later my first course. Check here for my full meal details.
About two hours into the Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha-Montreal flight – and by this time I was long done with my meal – the FA came to make my bed. The act of making the bed was to let the seat slide into a 180-degree position and then spread the mattress pad and then a blanket. There was a pillow as well.
I asked for a karak tea because I wasn’t in a mood to sleep. Instead, I thought of doing some writing and then watch something on the QA’s Entertainment suit, the Oryx One. Here is my detailed description of Oryx One.
The FA served my second meal about two hours before arrival.
In between, I asked for tea or beer and was always promptly served.
And then it was time to land and say goodbye to the friendly and professional crew.
The Aircraft
Sometimes QA deploys Airbus 350 on this route but this Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha-Montreal flight used a Boeing 777-300ER.
The Cabin/Seat
I was looking forward to the cabin including the seats of this Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha-Montreal flight.
The business class seats are structured on the so-called herring bone fashion, on a 1-2-1 basis. I had chosen a window seat. As it is customary, the window seats come in two configurations – the seat right by the window and the storage between the seat and the aisle, and the seat by the aisle and the storage by the window.
As mentioned earlier, the seat by the window faced the aft.
And I got three windows!
The cabin has sufficient space to store items such as laptops, headphones etc., and, more importantly, to stretch oneself. I am not that tall, so it worked out for me that there was more than enough leg room.
One of the unique features of the seat is the half-sized sliding door that you can pull to close access to the seat from the aisle and give you some privacy.
Another feature is in the double-seat configuration where you can push down the ‘door’ separating the seats. This is ideal for couples or other family members travelling together where they can chat/drink or entertainment themselves without the separator.
There are also configurations that will allow more members of a family to have common meals etc.
The dining tray is located below the TV-panel and it took me a while to figure out how to pull it out. When you pull it out, you can flip open the second half to make a quite wide tray.
Between the TV panel and the sliding door is storage space where the pillows, comforter etc., were stored.
And between the seat and the door was a small compartment with a lid for more storage. It had space for the headphone, laptop and even more.
The seat was comfortable enough. Below the storage space was a number of controls that can be used to control the seat – from reclining it into various angles up to a full-flat status, lift the leg rest, bring forward the seat towards the dining tray etc. There were also slots for HDMI, USB etc.
Meals – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
The FA explained to me the menu card and the application of the meal-on-demand service.
So, for the first meal, I chose the following:
- Assiette of cold cuts. This included smoked salmon and mackerel, caper berries, goat cheese and egg mimosa. I love smoked fish, particularly salmon and mackerel, and this starter did not fail to impress me. It was served at the perfect temperature and the taste.
- Traditional Arabic breakfast. I also had the option of choosing an omelet with grilled veal sausage, baked doughnut with Nutella, or steel-cut oats with berries and cream but I decided on the Arabic breakfast as this was, I felt, the most unique meal (even though I was returning after an almost three-week tour of the Middle East). It came with feta cheese, tomatoes, olives with foul medames and Arabic bread. Again, I was impressed with the food.
For the 2nd meal, I chose the following:
- Lobster cocktail with pan-fried jumbo prawn. I had the option of a classic Arabic Mezze but I love seafood, particularly lobsters. The cocktail was more a semi-pureed stuff and it came with pickled radish and wedged green and red tomatoes. I loved the contrast in tastes.
- Lobster thermidor. Yes, it was lobster again though I must concede that I gave some thought before ordering it. I wanted the lobster but not the accompanying creamy herb fettuccine and the steamed vegetables. Rice would have been nice. But I went with lobster anyway. The lobster thermidor was well done with a great taste that took most of that raw lobster meat taste away.
- Dessert. Dulce orange and ginger cake with blue berries in red berry sauce.
The flight has a wide range of drinks, from beers, whiskey and cognac. Of course, there is wine and non-alcoholic drinks and juices. There was also karak and green tea.
Entertainment – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
My flight’s duration was more than 13 hours, it was not just about working and eating (and sleeping of which I did very little) so I wanted to check out the Entertainment system.
The Oryx One system was divided into a number of categories, such as movies, TV, Quran, Radio etc. Each of these categories were sub divided into appropriate sections, such as new releases, Hollywood movies, South Asian movies, Asian movies, African movies, European movies etc.
This flight’s English/Hollywood section was great but I expected more films from the Asian/South Asian regions. The pickings from Europe were also somewhat limited. Overall, I thought the World section of the movie database could be improved.
The Internet
Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha-Montreal offers one hour of free wifi aboard. One could also buy wifi access for the entire flight for US10.
I chose the former. Setting up the connection was easy. I had to turn on the wifi mode (I had switched on to Flight Mode) and select the correct connection and it connected easily. The speed was impressive – at 144 mbps.
But then I wanted to connect my laptop so I disconnected the cellphone and connected the laptop. Unfortunately, it would not allow me, saying the max number of devices allowed were already connected.
Which was okay but the problem was that when I came back to my cellphone it said I have used up all my quota!
The Washrooms
There were two washrooms in the front. One was a little smaller than the other. Both had all the amenities including moisturizers, creams etc. The washrooms were always clean.
Final Comments – Qatar Airways Qsuites Doha Montreal Flight
As I mentioned earlier, QA had deployed a Boeing 777 to this flight. The aircraft showed its age with some of the functions not working properly. I needed to try a few times to get them going.
And the Internet was an issue.
I also think there should be a mini guidebook instructing how to operate those seat controls. These seats are becoming fantastic in making the flight a fun-filled adventure but sometimes they can be a little complicated.
But the quality of the food was fantastic.
