QR739 DOH-LAX

October 24, 2019

In-transit:

My boyfriend and I had spent a long weekend in Paris (I know, how obnoxious). While he flew back to DC, I continued onto the review portion of my trip. I arrived at Doha Hamad International Airport shortly after 2 in the morning. This airport has been open for a few years now, but trust me when I tell you this is one of the world’s nicest airports - it’s clean, bright, airy and upscale. UPSCALE, ya know? Can LaGuardia even spell upscale? This airport smelled like Eau de Oil et Gold ya know???

I’m a semi-regular here at DOH, so I knew my way around the airport (duty-free shops). However, I haven’t visited the Al Safwa First Class Lounge before.

Lounge:

Qatar Airways reserves its first and business class lounges exclusively for its own first and business class passengers, which means that your (already worthless) American Airlines Executive Platinum status will not get you a free hot meal if you’re flying economy. Lucky for me, I was flying in business class. Qatar Airways also lets you pay QAR600 (~$165) to use its first class lounge as a business class passenger. While $165 is not an insignificant amount, I indulged on this offer because I was still (only slightly) intoxicated from the previous flight…

The entrance was grand. The wall behind reception was about 5 stories tall. I told the agent I’d like to pay for the visit, and she quickly swiped my Amex. At least I’m earning 5 points per dollar on the Platinum Card…

Immediately to the right of the reception was a separate duty-free store just for the lounge guests, with 6-digit AP watches on display tantalizing my inner itch to just smash the glass cases and run wild and free. For more tamed purchases, the selection included Salvatore Ferragamo leather goods to Lindt chocolates.

The duty-free salespeople were dozing off on their Candy Crush, so I decided to bless them with some undisturbed rest. To get to the main part of the lounge, I walked through the most absurd lounge hallway, or any hallway, honestly. Other than the 1,000,000 feet tall beige granite walls, there were also loaned artifacts from the Museum of Islamic Art exhibited on both sides.

Sooooo, anybody care to explain how is this necessary?

At the mid-point of this never-ending hallway to, I don’t know, probably heaven, was a sleek concierge desk.

The centerpiece of the lounge was this minimalist waterfall of Acqua Panna, flown in daily from Florence.

The lounge was a no man’s land. As far as I could see, there were about 10 waiting staff and 15 cleaning staff, with me being the only guest. Obviously you won’t have trouble grabbing yourself a seat here like you would at a Centurion Lounge. Grab ten!

This lounge makes British Airways Concorde Room at Heathrow look like a gas station near Newark Airport. I decided to grab a few drinks, as my body was in 5 different time zones, and I had a 16-hour flight to LA ahead of me. I sat down at the bar, but there were also tables available.

There was also a chef’s counter looking into the open kitchen, should you wanna be THAT GIRL who broadcasts everything she eats for her 3 Instagram Live followers.

The bartender quickly came by to offer me drinks. While I didn’t catch his name, he was super nice. Everybody at the lounge was super nice for that matter. They weren’t over the top attentive as you would experience from a Michelin restaurant or a five-star resort, but they were genuine and pampered me with the right balance between attention and alone time.

I was presented the menu and the wine list, which read as follows:

I ordered a glass of champagne, which was the Veuve Cliquot La Grand Dame (not your average Veuve). I was also served a glass of San Pellegrino, with lemon and ice.

I ordered something to snack on while catching up on emails. Before the food came I was offered a hot towel and some bread with dippings.

First up was the seafood bisque, which was pretty underwhelming even for Applebee’s standards - there were only some dried little shrimp, and the presentation was messy too (can I speak to your manager?).

Fortunately the fish cake with tartar sauce was really good.

The beef sambusak with harrisa mayo was also a savory nibble. From there, I carried on to drink more Bordeaux after the trip to France, which was the Château Branaire Grand Cru 2011. This red was YUM - bold and paired perfectly with the lamb chops.

Overall, the food at this lounge was not the highlight. On the spectrum of first class lounge dining facilities, there is Cathay Pacific The Pier First Class Lounge at HKG and Air France La Première First Class Lounge at CDG on one hand, serving high-end restaurant quality delicacies, and there is Al Safwa and Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge, which, are more of a formality than substance.

All that being said, I do have to commend Qatar for its investment in alcoholic beverages, which was visible in its onboard offerings as well.

As I was moving onto my exploration to other areas of the lounge, the friendly bartender offered me a menu for breakfast so I could decide if I wanted to plan a return before my flight, which was a nice gesture on his part. The breakfast menu read as follows:

The breakfast menu looked pretty good. I would have come back for some shakshuka if I wasn’t so full already. But then again, there really wasn’t anything first class on the menu.

The washroom in this lounge was decorated with beautiful marble and rosewood.

There was a bathroom attendant, who made sure the hand towels were in perfect pyramids and the sinks spotlessly clean.

After a visit to the loo, I was on my way to the lounge’s other absurd amenity - spa. But let’s just take a moment to appreciate these minimalist signage around the lounge.

The spa was outright preposterous. First there’s some small water feature surrounded by angled wooden panels… supposedly to provide you with some good zen because I don’t see how anyone can chill after they see this at an airport…

Then there’s different kinds of treatment rooms…

There’s a waiting area outside the locker room, as well as a relaxation area facing a waterfall.

While all the treatments weren’t free, the jacuzzi was.

A bathtub at an airport might sound crazy, but there’s actually quite a few out there. Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge in Hong Kong and Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt both have bathtubs. But there is something weirdly blissful about taking a dip at a major international aviation hub… like, there’s people out there eating reheated Pizza Hut by the gate, while you’re here, all naked, in a tub…

One thing I have to note was that there’s two showers in the jacuzzi room, and one of them wasn’t cleaned when I visited. I get that it was late at night and the other one wasn’t used so I just let that slide.

As my time at the lounge came to an end, I showered and went back out into the society where there’s, ugh, other people. The bartender from earlier in the night saw me and came to ask me if I wanted to have some breakfast or coffee. I physically did not have any spare room for food, so I obliged for a cappuccino. It was probably the best coffee I’ve had outside Australia.

On my way to board the flight, a lounge server approached me and asked me which flight I was on. She checked the gate information and told me which gate I needed to go to. Might as well drive me there in a club car, no?

Final thoughts about the lounge: it was the most physically stunning space of any lounge I’ve ever been to. My words felt short to describe its grandeurs. The food was mediocre, but it was made up by the extensive alcohol selection. The service was warm and personal. On a side note, Qatar Airways uses this burgundy color so consistently that it is engraved in every aspect of its branding - from its lounge furniture, crew uniform, onboard color scheme to aircraft livery. Qatar’s understated taste is in a league of its own and is eons ahead of Emirates’ faux gold and beige leather interior. It’s like Qatar is actively concealing the fact that it’s so rich that its planes are washed with Perrier-Jouët. Is this the world’s best first class lounge? No. Is this the world’s most Instagramable first class lounge? Hell yeah.

Boarding:

The real journey had actually just begun as I was flying in Qatar Airways revolutionary Qsuite, which is the newest generation business class seats that come with a sliding door. Needless to say I was very excited about this flight. Boarding was efficient and orderly. At Doha you would go through security again at each gate, however, there’s separated lanes for premium passengers. I managed to board first. The cabin was gorgeous.

The new cabin was glorious. As you can see from the pictures, each seat had such tall frames that there’s virtually very little space between the seats and the dropped-down overhead bins, making the privacy afforded by these seats unsurpassable. These pictures don’t do justice to how spacious the seats actually were though. Qatar’s signature burgundy color set the ambience for the cabin elegantly. During boarding, I saw there’s cameras around the cabin so the flight attendants could better manage service flows.

The details of the seats were also well thought out. There’s plenty of storage space - the side seating surface could be lifted up for your personal items, while the side counter was carved out underneath so you could put your electronics or smaller things.

The IFE screen was big and responsive, while the movie selection was a bit limited.

The footwell space was ample, as each seat (box) is tall. My feet are only 6.5-7 US (39-40 EU), but I doubt it would be an issue for people with bigger feet.

Since there’s another seating surface next to the seat, I was able to easily snuggle up sideways…

Shortly after settling down, I was offered whatever I wanted to drink, and a choice between hot or cold towel. I just asked for some iced water, since I had been on quite a bender…

Once more passengers boarded, I was offered a set of pajamas, which was provided by the White Company.

I was also presented the menu and wine list for the flight, including the snack platter menu available exclusively on Qsuite-operated flights, which read as follows:

The menu and wine list were never-ending. Soon enough we were pushed back. On our taxi to the runway, we passed several other majestic Qatar Airways aircraft.

Inflight:

On our ascent, the view of Doha was gorgeous.

Once stable in the air, the flight attendants came out to unlock the doors, so that they could be closed.

Given we’re departing shortly after 8 in the morning, the menu was designed to offer breakfast after take-off. However, Qatar Airways offers a true dine-on-demand menu, which means you could order anything at any time.

I wasn’t feeling breakfast, so I decided to mix things up a bit. To start, I had a banana date smoothie, which was way better than any $12 Equinox smoothie.

Then my table was set. Everything was placed directly on the tablecloth, involving no trays. There was a personal bread basket, proper salt and pepper shakers and a cute faux candle. Inside the salt shaker was Himalayan pink salt, which I think is the first for any airlines.

My first dish was the soup du jour, which I couldn’t recollect exactly what it was.

For my appetizer, I chose the panko coated crab cake stuffed with shrimp from the snack menu. These little fried things were amazeballs.

For the main course, I went with the saffron cod fish and grilled shrimp, served with coriander pesto cream sauce, barley risotto and garden baby vegetables. For an airplane fish dish, it was quite decent.

I decided to stay off the sauce for a bit. After finishing my meal, I asked for my bed to be made while changing into my pajamas for nap time.

I was able to sleep in three-hour increments. The sliding door enclosed the seat into a cocoon, which made a world of difference when sleeping. There was also a “Do Not Disturb” button. Having slept for roughly six hours, I woke up and trolled on the internet. Qatar Airways was rolling out its Super Wifi, and luckily our plane was equipped with it. The speed was decent, and every passenger got the first hour for free. Although the whole flight plan would’ve cost a mere $10.

I pressed the call button to order some snacks. I’ve had amazing flight attendants On Qatar Airways in the past - Jade and Anna are the two whom I still remember fondly. Jade was my flight attendant when I was flying from New York to Doha once. My IFE was broken, while her colleagues were restarting it for me, she brought out a tray of reading materials to keep me entertained. Like I’ve said numerous times, it’s the things you can’t teach that matter. Anna was this fabulous Serbian flight attendant on my flight from Tunis. She was incredibly passionate and very knowledgeable about wines. We had a whole conversation about the new world and the old world.

The flight attendant on this flight was okay. She was friendly and well-intentioned, but she didn’t seem all that excited to be there. To start, I first had some karak cardamon chai. The pattern on the mug reminded me of Bottega Veneta.

For snack, I ordered the afternoon tea. I was happy to see Qatar offering clotted cream, which a lot of airlines don’t have. I mean, why bother serving an English afternoon tea at all if you don’t even have clotted cream? It’s like a wedding without an open bar. An oxymoron, if you ask me.

The scones were warm. I liked how the finger sandwiches were wrapped in paper. After my free wifi expired, I went back to bed until we were two hours out of LA. At this point I decided to pick back up on the booze, knowing I’d be stuck on the 405 for god knows how long. I had a glass of Pommery, a glass of Haut-Brion, a glass of Rothschild’s Escudo Rojo Carmenere, which was pretty good by the way, and a glass of Quinta do Vallado tawny, all while watching a documentary on Pavarotti. Drink responsibly, kids!

To eat, I started with some poached cod fish.

Followed by some mini sliders, which totally hit the spot. Too bad Qatar didn’t have mayo onboard, cause I’m one of those people who eat fries with mayonnaise… Yes I lived in Europe, and I want you to know that.

On Arrival:

On our approach into LAX, there was smoke coming up in the distance. As my girl Lana sings, “LA is in flames, it’s getting hot.'“.

GIRL do I have loads to say about this flight. Qsuite might just be the best business class experience in the world. All the basics are ticked - great seat, fast and cheap wifi, gourmet food, sufficient bedding, good amenities and service. Qatar also wins at the details: there’s constant water refills during meal service - I never had to ask for more water, which a lot of airlines just don’t seem to get; the table is set in a manner common in first class - there’s no napkin-wrapped silverware as even cutleries were placed directly on the table; every passenger is escorted to their seats; for the seat controls, you can long press and it returns to the default setting; the reading light has three different brightness modes; the purser greeted me during boarding with a “welcome back”, and thanked me for being an oneworld alliance elite member, which I don’t even get when flying American of whom I’m the actual member.

There’s certainly areas Qatar doesn’t excel at, such as the limited movie selections and cheap headphones. But these drawbacks become inconsequential under the optics of a tastefully designed cabin, salivating food and beverages and (mostly) exceptional service.

When I first flew Qatar about four years ago, I thought it was the best airline in the world. I think that’s still true today.