Flights 2 and 3, Qatar to Oman, via the UAE
This is part a much bigger report, if you’ve not read parts 1 and 2, check them out first!
First or Business?
Before we carry on, let’s talk about the structure of short haul business class.
The European business class onboard offering, as many of you will know, basically consists of an economy seat (see photo on left) with an empty seat next to you, and an improved level of service. But that’s about it. They do this to allow the cabins to be flexible so they can adjust the number of business passengers on flights depending on demand. It makes very good economic sense for them, but it does give a lesser experience for a business class customer. In America and the Middle East (see photo on the right) short hall aircraft are fitted out with a fixed number of business class seats at the front. The seats are generally bigger and more comfortable with a decent recline, not too dissimilar to a premium economy seat on a long-haul flight. In America this is referred to as first class.
If you go back to the early days of flying, first class was the only class available, so it wasn’t actually called first class. Flying was a luxury only the rich could afford, so the people who flew expected a first-class service. It was just flying, and when they introduced a cheaper method of flying, they called it coach or tourist class. The idea was to put more seats in the cabin, offer a lower service and therefor cut prices to allow more people to fly. So, in early flying there was only first class and coach, coach now being known as standard or economy class.
To this day, America, still refers to their cabins by these names. Thus, their short-haul business class product is called first. In the Middle East, most refer to their premium product as business class, but Qatar Airways have copied the American model and gone for first class as their premium product on short haul. The great thing about this is if you buy a short haul, first class ticket on Qatar, you get all the first-class treatment at the airport before you get on the plane. This is not the case in America. Here is the experience I had with Qatar.
Arriving in Doha
Having collected my bag from my BA flight, I headed out to the arrivals area and into a lift to the top floor to re-enter departures. I discovered that there was a separate business and first check-in zone, and it was mostly fenced off. For a moment I was thinking I might actually have to leave, go outside in the heat and walk along the pavement to go back in through the correct door, but I noticed there was a small gate allowing access. It was open and it was signposted with Qatar and British Airways business and first-class check-in. I headed through the gate, and I was almost immediately met by somebody, there were a lot of staff in this area waiting to greet people. I showed them my boarding pass with first on it and they almost snapped into “extra customer service mode” and escorted me, taking my bag for me around to the far side of the zone to where the first-class check-in area was. I was led straight up to one of the check-in booths where I was offered a seat and a nice refreshing cold towel. While they were processing my check in, I pointed out that I had paid for Al Maha services, which the person checking me in confirmed on my booking.
A little extra in Doha
“Al Maha services” is an optional extra you can purchase at Doha Airport, often sold by Qatar alongside their tickets. It’s a VIP escort service that takes you through the airport from your arrival point to your final leaving point. It’s available for transfers, arrivals and departures. There are also different levels of service from the basic gold package to be escorted around, up to platinum service, which allows a slightly better service and a better quality of lounge. And that’s one of the key services they offer, is they have their own lounges, and you can access them when you buy the service. As I already had lounge access, I went for the cheapest possible gold option which I think cost me around about £45. A week or so before flying, I was emailed telling me that I should phone them at least 30 minutes before my arrival at the airport to let them know exactly when I’ll arrive, so they can meet me at the door. I phoned them the day before arrival to explain that I was going to be on another flight and phoning them immediately before arrival was not going to be possible. They seemed to think that was okay and then they said can you phone us before you arrive, meaning they hadn’t actually understood my request at all. I tried to explain again, and they said, “just come and find us at one of the desks when you arrive and we will take you from there.”
I was sat in the first-class check in area, they did all the formalities, gave me a paper boarding pass and then escorted me over to a seating area adjacent to the check-in. There they offered me a drink of water, and I was allowed to wait for my person to escort me through. They didn’t take long to arrive, and she came over and apologised for being late. She said she didn’t know I was coming, I pointed out I couldn’t phone because I was flying on another flight. She seemed very confused by this and asked why I didn’t get them to meet me off my last flight. I had to explain about non-connecting plane tickets. Anyway, after that she then escorted me away from the first-class area straight into a small immigration area. I was able to use the e-gates and dedicated security to get through very quickly, it helped that there was nobody there. This then led directly to the rear entrance of the first-class lounge.
The Qatar first class lounge
Wow, just wow! This is a level of airline lounge I’ve never seen before, and I’ve been to Doha a few times and I’ve been through their amazing business class lounges. This is on another level. The first thing that strikes you is the size and the space. The walls go up and up, 3 or 4 stories for no reason. The entrance corridor is massively wide and gigantic, with a water feature raining down the entire length of one wall. It’s using a huge amount of space for the sake of using a huge amount of space, presumably mostly to show off that they have the room so they’re using it. I was led past the entrance to the spa, and my escort asked me if I’d like to book a room. Not really sure what this was, I just said yes to see what happens. She spoke to one of the staff and told me that a room was not available until 9am, but I could come back then, and I would be on the reserve list to get a room, assuming one was actually available then. This was about 7:30am, and I was pretty hungry anyway so I was gonna have some breakfast. I was led to the centre of the first-class lounge, where I was handed over to some lounge staff and given instructions by my escort to meet her back here at this location at about 12:30pm. The lounge staff then gave me a guided tour of the lounge, showing me where the restaurant, business centre, children’s area, toilets and of course the ‘in-lounge duty free shop’ were all located. I then walked past another ridiculously open space, with a huge water feature in the middle of it, to the restaurant area, where I was sat at a table and given the full table service experience for my breakfast.
After breakfast, I decided I needed to stretch my legs, so I left the lounge went down to the main concourse and took the transit to the C gate area. The airport is really split into two major sections; the main central concourse, with A and B Gates going off on long corridors on each side, and the C gate section which is down a much longer corridor, which features gates on either side, opening out at the end to the main C gate section, and this is where the Orchard is contained. As the corridor to C gates is so long it has a transit system to get down there quickly. The transit runs overhead above all the gates, it’s a cable driven thing on tires, so it’s incredibly quiet. I took this to the other end and then walked through the shops, to get to the Orchard.
For those of you that don’t know, the orchard is essentially a miniature rainforest contained inside the centre of a terminal. It’s completely unbelievable to have something of this scale inside an airport terminal, but it is a lovely and beautiful place to go and wait for a plane. I wondered around here doing the walkways and exploring the area for a few minutes to stretch my legs and enjoy the tranquillity of the space. If I wanted to, I could’ve headed up to the south business class lounge that overlooks this garden, but I was aware of the time and I wanted to explore the shops before I went back for my “room” in the first-class lounge.
I explored the shops and restaurants in the area just to see what was there and I took the transit back to the main area with the teddy bear in the centre. I did a full lap around there again exploring all the shops and restaurants, again, just to see what was there. I’ve never had this much free time to explore the airport before. And then I headed back into the first-class lounge to explore their own smaller version of a duty-free shop. They had a mixture of everything in there, from Harrods chocolates to electronics, but no alcohol I noted. Then it was time for me to find out what a “room” was, so I headed to the spa check in area and mentioned I was on a reserve list for a room, the lady said yes, we have one available now and I was escorted through.
The room
I was taken into to what looked like a small hotel, shown into a room and given a room key, just like a hotel. The room consists of essentially a small and simple hotel room. That was a bed, a desk, a small wardrobe containing and towel dressing gown, and the bathroom! The bathroom had a sink, a toilet and a shower. I had planned for a shower in the lounge in my packing, so I had to change of clothes in my hand luggage. I jumped in the shower, freshened up and went to lie in the bed for a bit. After a quick phone call home, I decided to take a power nap, and I think I’m good a good hour and a half of sleep in the bed before my alarm woke me up for lunch. When I checked into the room, I asked if there was a time limit and they said no, you have the room for as long as you want, but for a maximum of six hours. They did point out since my flight is before then I’d have to leave before then anyway. With the room key, I could have left the room to go and have some food or drink and come back again if I wanted to. But I didn’t need to, so I left the room, checked out and headed back to the restaurant to get myself some lunch.
I ordered some beef carpaccio to start and then a very nice Arabic chicken dish, all washed down with some delicious pink champagne. Before long it was time to head back to the meeting area for my official escort to the gate. I had already clocked the gate number and knew where I was going, but I thought I’d still use the service to see what they did. The person who met me was there early, she identified herself and simply led me straight to the gate. It turns out that she was then required to escort me all the way to the plane itself, so she took me through to a priority seating area. Let me sit down and she chatted to the gate staff until it was time to board, when it came time to board, she came and got me first before they made the announcement so I was first down the corridor onto the plane. She left me at the plane door and handed me over to the staff on the plane.
Flight 2 – Doha to Sharjah
This was on an A320, I was in one of Qatar’s short-haul first-class seats, which I later learned was identical to some business seats on the other airlines in the region. The seats were in a 2-2 configuration, they were wide, soft and comfortable, and there was a cushion for extra support if I wanted it. I was offered a drink before take-off, they generally tend to push their signature drink, a lime and mint cocktail, which luckily I love, so I asked for one of those. Before take-off I was also offered a cold towel, a date and a cup of Arabic coffee. Quite impressive for a preflight sequence for a short flight. After take-off I was presented with the menu, which offered a simple three course meal with a couple of choices for each course, I opted only for the dessert as I’d had lunch recently and needed something sweet. The dessert was a salted caramel tart and it was absolutely lovely. It was a short one hour hop over to Sharjah, as I mentioned earlier, I was flying to Sharjah due to timing issues, it’s only about 20 minutes away from Dubai main airport, DXB. And it did allow me to have my nice long six-hour break at Doha airport experiencing everything the first-class lounge had to offer. Sharjah is a small regional airport, which meant my arrival process was very quick and simple. In fact, I might be tempted to fly there again in the future based on how easy it was to get out. Given it’s only 20 minutes longer in the taxi to get into the centre of Dubai, that’s time you’ll easily lose at DXB by walking down the long, long corridors and waiting in the queue for immigration. I was through immigration in no time and my bag was waiting for me on the belt, so I headed straight out to grab an Uber and head off to my hotel.
I had a couple of very pleasant days in Dubai with friends, one who lives in Abu Dhabi, and I headed back with him for another couple of days of theme parks with the family there before my next flight.
Flight 3 – Abu Dhabi to Muscat – Upgraded!
Remember I booked this trip in economy, but I put in a “bid to upgrade”? Well, I got the upgrade and was now in business class for this trip.
My friend offered to drop me to the airport, as we approached there were very clear road signs for business and first class, so we followed those. This took us round the side of the building to what looked like a dedicated limo drop-off area. Having looked at the website since this trip I have learned they offer a complimentary Etihad Chauffeur if you’re flying in The Residence, First, Business Comfort, or Business Deluxe. I was in normal business which does not qualify for this free pick up. He pulled into a bay, and we finished our conversation. I don’t think we were supposed to park there, but there was nowhere else to go for business class drop off. After a few minutes of sitting there chatting, someone started walking towards us looking like they meant to question us, I think probably intending to tell us to either drop off or move on. We weren’t in a particular rush and there were no other cars in this whole area, so I’m not sure what the hurry was. Anyway, we got out and I grabbed my suitcase, as soon as I reach the curb it was taken off me and I was escorted inside. The business class check-in area was very nice, big and modern. Giant white slabs of check-in desks were in front of me, but not many staff. Luckily there weren’t many customers either. I was greeted by one of the staff and they invited me to use the self-check-in. I pointed out this probably wouldn’t work because I wasn’t able to do online check-in due to me not having a visa for Oman. He insisted that I try anyway, so he assisted me with the self-check-in which of course duly failed to work. He had to go and sit at the desk himself and check me in to bypass the visa request process, (UK citizens don’t need a visa for short visits). After a lot of typing on his keyboard, he managed to produce my boarding pass, and I was sent on my way. At the end of the row of desks was their own dedicated immigration and security, so I headed through there and was out into the main airport concourse in no time. I then went looking for the business class lounge.
The Abu Dhabi airport is colossal, with a very impressive large curving roof. They seem to go for the system of just having everything under one giant roof, so there was one business class lounge and one first class lounge to find. It was a little bit of a trek, but I eventually came across it. As you can imagine the lounge was huge. Split across 3 levels, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lounge on three levels before. Ground floor had the main restaurant, whereas the middle floor had things like showers and spa facilities. The top floor had more casual dining and the bar. I started in the main restaurant on the ground floor which offered a huge variety of food, and several chefs on hand creating specialist dishes where needed. It was international cuisine, with lots of different varieties from different countries. I had a mixture of Arabic and Indian food, and it was a very pleasant meal there. I headed up to explore the other floors and ended up on the top floor, where I went to the bar. I had some very nice champagne and some sweet Arabic treats. I waited the final half hour here in a nice comfy chair before I had to go to my flight. Then I made my way down back out and headed off to the gate. It wasn’t long after arriving at the gate that I was allowed to board and I went straight onto my next short-haul flight in this region.
The Flight
The seat was the same as the one I had on Qatar, very comfortable, nice recline, and a little mini tray table between seats for pre-flight drinks. What amused me was the service was identical to Qatar; they offered me a pre-flight drink, I took a lime and mint, and then I was offered a cold towel, a date and an Arabic coffee. Again, in flight I was offered a light meal. Since I had eaten in the lounge, I decided to skip that and just have another lime and mint, this time it came with some nuts. The flight itself was quite uneventful, and we landed on time into Muscat, where I arrived and went through the e-gate to get straight into the country. On this entire trip around the Middle East, the only time I spoke to a human to enter or leave a country was when I first got into Qatar and confused the lady completely by my immediate departure.
