Flight review: Qatar Airways Airbus A380 DOH - LHR Economy class

When the name “Qatar Airways” is said, the immediate thing that comes into my mind is the fact that the large majority of their passengers are transferring through Doha Hamad airport instead of going to visit Qatar. This is due to the large number of destinations that Qatar Airways and the One World alliance have to offer. In fact, the flight to London was actually the second leg of the journey to London from Maputo, Mozambique. Join me as I discuss the Seats, food, entertainment, and general quality of Qatar Airways…

The Seat

For a man like me who is small compared to many others, I often find that I have more than enough leg room on almost all the flights I go on, even after storing my carry-on luggage under the seat in front. The people I traveled with, being noticeably taller than myself, were comfortable with the legroom provided as well. With regards to the comfort of your head, I noticed that on Qatar airways’ long-haul fleet, the type of headrest changed depending on the aircraft. For instance, the 777-300 ER had foldable headrests because of its much more modern interior, whilst the A380 and 787-8 had older styled headrests.

The In-Flight Entertainment

The IFE system was incredible, with the airline claiming to have over 4,000 entertainment options on board. This included: Very recent films (Some of which were still in the cinema), An Excellent choice of Music, TV shows as well as games to play. However, due to Qatar Airways being a wholly government-owned airline, some film scenes were cut from viewing to adhere to Qatari regulations, which made for slightly less fun viewing. When flying in economy class, I would recommend bringing your plug-in headphones as they are generally more comfortable and have better sound quality than those which are handed out by the airline. The flight also featured WiFi on Board, which you could pay for certain amounts of time with, or you could get 8 MB of Messaging services free, which was great for communicating with friends and family during the flight.

The Food and Service

I was particularly impressed with the service shown, being able to order food and drink at any time when cruising, for free. Our flight to London departed at 03:20 Doha time, meaning that only sandwiches were served as an evening snack before the lights were dimmed. The breakfast was, as some might describe it, questionable…, but this was made up for with the large variety of beverages. One thing that I particularly liked about the flight was the offering of Juice in the middle of the night. The cabin crew were all friendly which was excellent to see on such a crowded flight, after all, it was an A380.

Overall opinion and rating

All in all, I felt that Qatar Airways was an exceptional airline, and their many SKYTRAX awards are well deserved. And besides, Qatar Airways can’t do much to silence screaming babies, so the lack of sleep on my part was really not their fault. One thing that I was slightly disappointed about with the flight was that passengers situated on the lower deck of the aircraft were not able to explore the upper cabin, which I was looking forward to as the flight was my first ever on an A380. Overall, I feel that I would give this airline a Solid 8 out of 10, because of their excellent service and in-flight entertainment systems.

Cover image credit: Bosshunting.com.au