I recently had a trip to the Middle East, where I had to move around between Qatar, the UAE and Oman. This gave me a great chance to try out some different airlines in the region and compare them. This was part of a bigger trip and I’ve done a full report on the entire trip and why I was doing all this, which you can read here.
All these trips were approximately an hour in length and in the premium cabin of a major national airline for each country. I actually had two short flights on Qatar, so I’ve used both in combination as a comparison to the other airlines.
One thing to remember with this comparison is that Qatar do not offer business class on their short haul fleet, much like America, they only do first and economy. The onboard experience is a business class product, and one that is significantly better than European business class, but the ticket itself is classed as a first-class ticket. This means at the airport you get treated as a first-class customer with all the benefits that entails. This easily elevates Qatar above the other airlines, as you’re getting first-class treatment at the airport, so you might not consider this a fair comparison. However, on my return leg on Qatar there was no first-class lounge, so that experience is the most comparable to the other airlines.
The three airlines I am comparing here are Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Oman Air.
Airport experience
Getting into the Airport
All three airlines offer a completely dedicated check-in zone for business class at their home airports. In Doha, with Qatar, they have an entire section which is spit into 2, one side for business and the other for first class. And there is signage posted on the approaching roads, so you get dropped off at the right door. In Abu Dhabi there is sign posting on the roads approaching, but this leads to a dedicated parking area for business and first class. In Oman, Muscat airport also has a dedicated door and entry that leads you up to another set of doors that takes you into the business class check in area.
The winner here is Etihad as they had a dedicated traffic parking area for business class, making the drop off considerably less stressful as there’s no other cars coming behind you, whereas the other two are just early sections of the main drop-off area with cars piling up behind.
Check in
All three airlines had separate business class check-in areas, completely separated from the main economy check-in desks and other airlines. They all offered waiting areas if you needed to wait. Whilst Etihad probably looked the fanciest, they were very keen for me to use self check-in, which they guided me through. However, I was not keen to use it as I knew that I was going to be a problem with check in as I didn’t have a Visa for Oman. When they figured this out, they had to take me to a manual check-in anyway to go and bypass the system to allow travel as I didn’t require a visa.
Oman Air’s check-in, whilst in a dedicated area, was not very well manned and there was nobody on the customer side of the desks offering to guide you, help you or offer you a seat to wait until it was your turn. I had to wait to be served, which in the grand scheme of things is not a huge issue. But when you compare with the other airlines, who have people hanging around just to greet you, it doesn’t match up. Qatar wins this one, with somebody by the door to direct you easily to the first or business class area, and then plenty of people waiting to greet you as you enter and escort you to a desk. If they were busy, they would offer you a seat and a drink while you wait, then they’ll come and get you when a desk is free.
Having tried both the business class and the first-class side of Qatar‘s check in area, it still wins hands down simply due to the amount of staff they have on hand and their willingness to help you and make you comfortable if you have to wait.
From check in to lounge
None of the airlines offer a direct check-in to lounge route in business class, but Qatar do in their first class, which as I mentioned before is what you get when you fly short haul business.
However, they all offer dedicated immigration and security services straight after their check-in areas that you don’t have to join any queues or even look for a fast-track lane to get into. After that it’s the usual trip through duty-free to go and find where the airline lounge is.
Qatar first class is of course different, as you proceed to the lounge, you go straight through security and immigration and up into the first-class lounge entrance area.
The lounges
I’ve covered the lounge in considerable detail in my other report, so I will just summarise here.
I think Qatar offer the most spectacular lounges, even the lowly business class offers some great lounging experiences, and the first class is out of this world. The Etihad lounge was also great on three different levels with plenty of choices of food, drinks and snacks, as well as different styles of seating areas and business centres.
Oman Air was probably the simplest of all the lounges but still a very nice lounge, with a restaurant, bar, and a huge variety of different types of seating areas all tucked away in different places, making the lounge feel cozy and intimate without actually revealing how big it truly is.
All three lounges definitely are superior to your typical British Airways lounge or even most of your common European lounges to be honest. I enjoyed my time in all of them, but again I think Qatar wins. When you’ve been to the lounge that overlooks the Orchard, it’s hard to beat that.
Boarding
All the airlines, of course, offer priority boarding for their premium customers, and actually the timings of when to go to the gates were pretty spot on. I never spent more than a couple of minutes at every gate and was generally boarded first. I can’t say that any airline stood out here, they all got me on board quickly, with no fuss. And there were no issues with getting priority customers on before everyone else, something I know that annoys some.
The Flights
Seats
All of these flights were your normal narrowbody short-haul aircraft, either an A320, A321 or a 737. They all offered proper business class seats in a 2-2 configuration, all nice and wide, comfortable and come with a decent recline on them. However, the clear winner on this occasion was Oman Air, who had a much newer seat which resembled something I’d expect to find on a long-haul flight. A large screen in front of me, a remote control beside me, a privacy screen between me and my neighbour, good storage under the armrest in the seat, and nice leg support and recline on the seat itself. And there were noise cancelling headphones included!
That said, all of these seats were very superior to your standard European “business class“ where you get a normal economy seat and a tray next to you. But in this particular contest, Oman Air wins with their very comfy seat.
Pre-flight Service
This quite amused me, they all offered the identical pre-flight service. First of all, a drink and a towel followed by the offer of a date and an Arabic coffee.
They always offer you their signature lime and mint cocktail, which oddly seems to be the signature cocktail for all three airlines. On all three occasions I indulged in the rather delicious cocktail. I could’ve had champagne on each occasion, I didn’t feel the need to drink alcohol on any of the flights, I usually save that for long-haul or flights home.
In flight service
They all offered me a menu for the choice of a light meal en route if I wanted. The meals all looked nice and those that I saw with other customers looked very presentable. Due to the times that I was travelling, I’d eaten in the lounge on most occasions, the only time I chose to eat anything other than a drink or a snack was with Qatar. I fancied a dessert, and they brought me a delicious salted caramel tart. On the other flights I simply requested another lime and mint cocktail which came with a bowl of nuts on each occasion. The service was pretty much identical on all three flights, with nothing particularly standing out against each other.
Landing and arrival experience
Nothing particularly stood out about the arrival experience, other than the fact that the crew always go back and close the business class curtain again after landing. This is to make sure that you’re able to leave in comfort and your own time before the economy passengers do. I quite like this. All my flights arrived at a gate with an air bridge, even in the small airport of Sharjah. Once in the airport it was pretty uneventful, none of them offer any kind of business class benefit on arrival. I do know that if you’re going to Doha to transfer that there is a business and first class lane for security recheck, but this doesn’t apply when you are arriving to stay. All of them managed to produce my bag incredibly quickly, often arriving as I arrived at the belt.
So to compare them with each other here, they’re all the same. But if you were comparing to European airlines, I would say they were all much easier to get from aircraft to exit.
Bottom line
The major airlines of these countries clearly keep close tabs on what the other airlines are doing. They offer an almost identical service in their premium cabins for short haul trips around the region. There was very little that stood out between the airlines, and I’d have no hesitation of flying with any of them again as they were all exceptional.
They all put European business class to shame with their quality of service, quality of seat and exceptional lounges at the airport.
Oman Air stand out with their amazing seat and Qatar stand out with their exceptional lounges at the airport before you leave.
