Help Me Get To Italy This Summer

November 25, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 3 Comments

My parents have always wanted to go on a cruise, and we’ve decided that this summer is probably the time to finally do so. I live in London now – though as luck would have it, I need to be in Hong Kong near the end of June, whereas the cruise occurs during the second part of July. I’m finally trying Cathay Pacific’s A350 premium economy from Gatwick to Hong Kong in June 2020, which I’m really excited about – stay tuned for that. Since I’m trying British Airways’ premium economy in January, I’ll have tried all three airlines’ premium economy products that fly direct between Hong Kong and London by then, which I’ve vowed to do for the longest time.

Right, back to Italy. Now, I’ve checked award space on American AAdvantage and Cathay Pacific, and have had no luck in either direction (Etihad has award space for two, but I don’t have enough miles for four passengers, and they don’t fly from Venice). The four of us need to fly into Rome and out of Venice, and I’ve narrowed my options down to the following.

Now, since my dad is travelling, we’re trying our best to get ourselves in a premium cabin with a maximum of one connection each way. Here are the options I’ve found:

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Review: Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Quad Suite Doha to Hong Kong

September 18, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: Home QSuite Home
Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Hong Kong to Doha
The Sad State of Transit at Doha Airport
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Doha to Amsterdam
Hilton The Hague Family Suite
The Hotel Brussels Panorama Suite/Superior Twin Room
British Airways Galleries Lounge Brussels Airport
Qatar Airways 777 Old Business Class Brussels to Doha
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Doha to Hong Kong

If you’re trying to learn more about the QSuite experience, I’d highly recommend you check out the review of my flight from Hong Kong to Doha, where I gave an extensive evaluation of the hard product. On this flight I assigned my family a quad suite, which is one of the ways Qatar Airways creatively customised their QSuite product. This trip report will mostly focus on that, as well as how the soft product differed of that of the other Qatar Airways flights I took on this trip.

After clearing immigration, I headed towards the E gates, since our flight was leaving from E4. I’d never taken the train at Doha Airport before; while modern, the trains were quite hot, and poorly ventilated (which isn’t exactly a complaint, since I realise Doha doesn’t have the coolest climate). Fortunately the train ride was quite short, and I made my way towards the “other” end of Doha Airport.

Doha Hamad Airport E Gates Area

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Review: Qatar Airways 777 Old Business Class Brussels to Doha

September 12, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

While three out of our four Qatar Airways flights were operated by the spectacular QSuite, the segment from Brussels to Doha was operated by Qatar Airways’ older 777 product. I knew going in that the product would be inferior, though I was excited to try out a new product nonetheless. This flight served as a nice juxtaposition between the experiences you get on Qatar Airways’ QSuite-equipped 777s versus these planes, as the QSuite experience was superior in almost every way. This sounds obvious on the surface, though I was surprised by how different some of the soft-product elements were, too – keep on reading.

It also seems like we drew the short end of the stick – I’ve seen reviews of Qatar Airways’ Brussels-Doha route operated by 787s and A350s, which feature Qatar Airways’ newer, reverse herringbone business class product. I’ve flown it before, and find it a very nice product. Occasionally Qatar even swaps out this flight for a QSuite-equipped 777, which would’ve been a nice treat, though that wasn’t the case today. So with that in mind, I made sure to catch one last glimpse of our 777 before boarding through the jetbridge onto the plane.

Qatar Airways Boeing 777 Brussels Airport

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Review: Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Doha to Amsterdam

September 4, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

After a disappointing transit at Doha Airport, we headed over to gate C5, where our flight would be departing. While I have my issues with Doha Airport (mainly the WiFi), it still comes across as almost psychedelically modern on first glance, with high wooden ceilings and the occasional train passing by overhead. The C gates occupy the “center” of Doha Airport (with the A and B gates on one end and the D and E gates on the other), so this part of the airport felt particularly open and airy.

Doha Airport C Gates

The gate agent scanned my boarding pass, and thanked me for choosing Qatar Airways. Doha Airport has “holding pens” where boarding passes are scanned before you enter a dedicated waiting area for your flight, so I waited. Eventually boarding was delayed for 10 minutes (until 7:15 AM), though at 7:15 AM boarding was called by zone, starting with business class passengers and Qatar Airways Privilege Club frequent flyers.

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The Sad State of Transit at Doha Airport

August 26, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

While I’m a fan of Qatar Airways’ onboard product, I’m not as much a fan of how the airline is on the ground. In 2017 I transited Doha Airport for the first time, right when Qatar Airways was starting to gain popularity. I found the lounge to be a little soulless, but at the time it had all the things I’d look for in an airport lounge. I also thought the airport was cool, since it was architecturally impressive.

Now that I’ve been to Doha Airport a second time, suffice to say that my impression of the airport has changed. Doha Airport is no longer a pleasant airport to transit through, and I’d aim for a layover of two hours if a stopover wasn’t possible. Over the past couple of years as Qatar Airways developed into a smashing success, Doha Airport has gone from being an aviation superpower to simply being a transit factory.

The gimmicks are still there. The centerpiece of the airport continues to be a huge teddy bear under interrogation, as there’s a lamp stuck “into” its head (in order to prop the bear up, though it certainly feels a little gruesome).

Doha Airport Teddy Bear

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Review: Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Hong Kong to Doha

August 26, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Boarding was scheduled for 12:30 AM ahead of our 1:20 AM flight. I’d been monitoring our aircraft until it departed out of Doha – an hour late – so I knew it was going to feature QSuites ahead of time. My biggest gripe with booking the QSuites configuration is that you’re not guaranteed it, as many flights get swapped out last minute. Heck, as of writing, this exact same flight has been swapped three times in the past 7 days, which represents a 57% QSuite probability – not too much of a “guarantee”, if you ask me!

Qatar Airways Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

Anyway, we were on a QSuites flight, fortunately (we didn’t have any equipment swaps in all four segments of our booking, which I largely consider to be a blessing). Boarding was called shortly after it was scheduled, at around 12:35 AM; I was the first one in the Qatar Airways QSuite.

This was going to be a fun Friday night (or Saturday morning)!

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Introduction: Home QSuite Home

August 20, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

This trip report will cover my Qatar Airways itinerary that I flew during our trip this summer. Our objective was to visit various cities in the Netherlands and Belgium, and I booked flights on Qatar Airways specifically to try out the new QSuite, which they introduced in 2017.

Qatar Airways Boeing 777 QSuite Business Class

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Qatar Airways’ Disappointing Non-Refurbished 777 Business Class

August 13, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

I’m currently flying over the Persian Gulf, on my way to Doha so I can return home. Between the derogatory customs department at Brussels Airport, keeping myself updated on Hong Kong’s depressing state, and a general deprivation of natural light/company, it’s been an exhausting day.

Assuming my Doha to Hong Kong flight doesn’t get swapped out, my Brussels to Doha flight is the only flight that I have scheduled in Qatar Airways’ non-refurbished 777 business class cabin (the remaining flights are all in their QSuite, which I love). While I’ve flown the leased LATAM A350 aircraft that Qatar occasionally flies, which features a similar configuration, this is my first time in Qatar Airways’ non-refurbished 777 business class product. It’s weird to think that Qatar Airways came to prominence as one of the world’s best airlines while flying most of their ultra-longhaul routes with this seat.

Qatar Airways Boeing 777 Brussels Airport

The reason I say that is that, as much as I love Qatar’s soft product, I can’t overlook how disappointing this hard product is even on a six-hour night flight from Brussels to Doha.

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Qatar Airways’ QSuite Is As Good As I Hoped It To Be

August 4, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

WOW! Hello from 34,000 feet somewhere over Iran. I’m currently trying out Qatar Airways’ QSuite between Doha and Amsterdam. I flew to Doha this morning, where I managed to sample QSuites for the first time; I believed that a review of the “world’s best business class product” was long overdue.

Qatar Airways Boeing 777 QSuite Business Class

Mainly I was looking forward to playing some sort of devil’s advocate, since I’ve heard unanimous praise from various trusted bloggers. It all seemed too good to be true.

It wasn’t. Obviously I’ve tried enough business class products so that I can come up with a couple of (nitpicky) criticisms with regards to the seat, though there’s no question that this business class product blows any other that I’ve flown out of the water.

This is as close to perfection as business class gets.

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Qatar Airways’ New Economy Class Looks A Bit Familiar…

March 12, 2019April 8, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 3 Comments

As you’d expect for a 17-year-old traveller critiquing premium travel, pretentiousness and I go hand in hand. As a result of that, one airline I really love is Qatar Airways. They’re pretentious as hell, but they are perfectionists. They’ve had a couple slip-ups here and there over the past few years, though even when doing so they end up somewhere around the top 10 premium products out there.

Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Business Class

Qatar Airways touted a brand new business class product up until 2017, the year they revealed their QSuite. I’d say the hype was well-deserved, since the product has almost received unanimous praise from everyone I’ve heard from so far. I’m slated to try the product out later this year (assuming there aren’t any equipment swaps), so I’m excited about that.

That being said, Qatar Airways has always said that their economy class has been “like other airlines’ premium economy”. I’m not sure how credible that is given they have a 3-4-3 configuration on their 777s and a 3-3-3 configuration on their 787s, making their seats one of the narrowest economy seats out there. But I haven’t actually taken their economy product before, so I’ll take Akbar Al Baker’s word for it. 😉

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