Flying Qatar Airways

Well, the invitation by Qatar Airways is for me to write about the flying experience. I jumped on the chance because I love New York. Secondly, its the shortest route to New York now that the Singapore Airlines will cancel their all business class non stop flight to New York from Singapore. 

The flight will be to Doha which takes 7 hours flat, a two hour transit and the second leg to New York is only 13 hours 25 minutes.





The brilliant thing is that when you fly business, you could use their resplendent shower room at the lounge in Doha. Doha terminal is a hive of activity, I think the majority who go there are taking it as a hub to almost every far flung corners of the world. 

At KLIA, all Qatar Airways business class pax can use Malaysia Airlines Golden Club Lounge. The reading materials on board is extensive.  But I am more impressed with the food and wines. Especially the wines, they are almost all drinkable and premium. The one I really liked was the barolo for sure since I am not a champagne guy. 

Its hard to get decent food even on most business class or better, but this was impressive. The designer chefs consulting their menus include Tome Adams and Nobu, among others. Close to 5 star quality.

As the plane arrived 30 minutes late, I was rushed and did not spend too much time at the expansive lounge at Doha, but it looked opulent. Even had PS3 free standing game rooms.

Doha terminal's biggest attraction has to be their duty free goods, and many of the transit passengers were busy grabbing all kinds of bargains. Their Cuban cigars were just half the retail price you pay in Malaysia.

If you are a frequent business or first class traveller, you should know that effective 30 Oct 2013, QA will officially join the ONEWORLD alliance.  This will be huge in Malaysia as MH, CX and JAL are members too and operate from KUL. For eg. if pax is member of Enrich frequent flyer card, he/she could not only earn and redeem miles on other oneworld members such as QA but  also tier status points.  Other benefits include better value on fares, offer more destinations by oneworld alliance, more access to lounges (550 lounges globally).

We took the A330 for KUL to DOH (very comfy even though the seats are not full flat) and the Doha-JFK sector on B777 (all seats are full flat bed). The nice touch was that they even have a little mattress laid on the seats when you wish to sleep. For such a long flight, it was not too bad.

Food wise, you can order any food that you like and not necessarily have to wait for the designated meal serving time as long as it is 1.5 to 2 hrs before touch down. 

Baggage wise, you can take 2 bags (trolley bags) on board as long as it does not exceed 15kg in total.  For check-in baggage you are allowed to take 2 bags (each does not exceed 32kg). Qatar Airways currently flies 3 times daily from KUL. Plus in addition to New York, they also fly daily to Chicago when you are thinking of going to the US.

A side note, as Qatar Airways is an official jersey sponsor, they do show this video on their flights .... kinda cool, much like the Lord of The Rings with Air New zealand.

Qatar Airways  - World's Best Business Class 2013, World's Best Business Class Lounge 2013

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