Embarking on our First Business Class Adventure
Flight Overview
Qatar Airways’ QSuites is considered to be one of the best business class products in the world and thanks to the power of points, we were able to experience it. This was our first business class experience and between the food, spacious seats, and service, we’re not sure it can be beat!
Here are our flight details:
Montreal (YUL) - Doha (DOH)
Depart: Sunday, November 13th (8:50pm)
Arrival: Monday, November 14th (5:00pm)
Duration: 12 hours, 10 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Booking
A one-way Qatar ticket from Montreal to Doha costs around $5,000. Buying two tickets for $10,000 was definitely out of our budget. We applied for the American Express Gold credit card, when the offer was to spend $6,000 in six months with a reward of 100,000 points.
We then transferred our American Express points to British Airways Avios points during a transfer bonus and used those points to book one-way tickets (70,000 British Airways Avios points) plus about ~$200 in taxes and fees per person.
Lounge
In the Montreal airport, Qatar Airlines doesn’t have its own lounge. So we visited the National Bank lounge instead. This was honestly our only criticism throughout the entire Qatar experience. It was small, busy, and we were a bit disappointed in the food selection as well. Luckily, our second lounge in Doha called Al Mourjan Business lounge was out of this world! We were there for eight hours and never felt cramped due to its very high ceilings and open layout.
When we first arrived it was a little busy so we found a spot in the main room before heading to the second floor for dinner. The main dining area had a buffet, sushi bar, a la carte selection and cocktail bar. We thought the food was good but after traveling all day it was time for a nap in a private area that held the semi-private sleeping pods. We got about three hours of sleep before heading to the showers to freshen up and change clothes for our next flight. The shower was first come, first serve but we had no issues getting a room and thought everything was up to date and clean. We really enjoyed our time at the lounge and couldn't have asked for a better space to camp out for our overnight layover.
Boarding
We arrived at the airport with excitement as we had a dedicated business class check-in counter and separate expedited security lane. Due to this being our first business class flight, we went to the gate early and were able to board early due to our expedited boarding that comes with the ticket. After getting settled in, the flight attendant introduced herself and offered us champagne and a hot towel. Does it get better than settling into a business class flight with a glass of champagne?
Seat
Qatar's 777-300ER has a 1-2-1 configuration layout that features sliding doors creating an enclosed suite. These suite-style business-class seats can be configured as single seats, double beds or four-person family areas. We picked the middle seats because we were looking forward to the double bed option. The middle seats also had a divider that could be removed during turndown service, when the crew helps make your bed. The middles suites also felt very large and they each contained our own separate amenity kits that included an eye mask, pajamas, socks, earplugs, and Diptyque lip balm and skincare essentials.
Food + Drink
The entertainment portal had many movie, tv show, and music options to choose from. We were looking for so long that we hadn’t even found a movie before our attendant came over to talk us through the menu with a great deal of familiarity. Dinner was the first meal served and the entire dinner experience blew our expectations out of the water. We started with an old fashioned, red wine, bread and an amazing appetizer of lobster tail with cauliflower mousseline. This was a great start and it got even better with our entree selection of seared beef filet with chimichurri and seared white halibut steak with pomodoro sauce. We barely had any room left in our stomach for our dessert selection of chocolate and caramel tart. One of the nice things about Qatar Qsuites is that food can be ordered whenever as part of their a la carte service. We were too full from dinner to order again and didn’t have another meal until breakfast.
Breakfast was after our night's rest and began with coffee and mimosas to have with our food. We split the truffle omelet with chicken sausage and french toast with pecan maple butter. The omelet hit the spot but the french toast left little to be desired. Dinner and drinks were amazing on this flight and we left very content and impressed with all of the food and drink options.
Overall, we rated Qatar Qsuites a 9/10 — between the experience, lounge, food, comfort, and service. If you have an opportunity to fly this airline, we highly recommend it!