Qatar Airways developed the world class Q – Suites Business Class Cabin that set new standards throughout the world for business class travel. The Qatar Airways Q Suites are so swish, it’s been argued that a first class cabin isn’t even needed. Our return to Qatar Airways would have us testing out their new Q Suites cabin on a fourteen hour flight from the West Coast of the United States all the way to Doha, Qatar. During our flight, we’d get to try out all of the Qatar amenities and service. How would our flight live up to these lofty expectations?

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Republic of the Maldives. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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Review: Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class A350-1000, San Francisco International Airport – Doha Hamad International Airport

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“Qatar Airways Double Q Suites has elevated international business class into a supremely private travel setting, accompanied with a stellar wine list and comfortable sleeping amenities in a cuddle class double bed”

This flight is of travels on Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class San Francisco – Doha. For the return journey, please see our separate review of Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class Doha – San Francisco.

Checking into Qatar Airways:

After spending a night at the San Francisco Airport Waterfront Marriott hotel, we checked in to Qatar Airways Business Class at the San Francisco International Airport – International Terminal. Our travels today were taking us from San Francisco over to the Maldives, through Qatar’s hub in Doha.

We arrived about three hours before our flight. We had absolutely no line at check in and were served almost immediately at the Qatar Premium Check In Counters.

Unfortunately, the Qatar Business Class check in was not the smoothest experience. We started off with our bags being weighed, including our hand luggage. After having previous theft from checked luggage along with delayed baggage while flying Qatar, we had packed as much as possible to carry on board with us in our rolling carry on suitcases.

Our reception agent took issue with our twenty five pounds weight in our total combinations of carry on luggage items and directed us to re-pack our bags up to seventy pounds in our checked luggage. Since we were only travelling with one checked bag, and two carry on suitcases, this became a real challenge. We were directed over to an unused aisle where we ended up laying with the the scales from what appeared to be the Turkish Airlines check in.

This cost us twenty five minutes, until a manager took pity on us, and allowed us to proceed when our hand luggage was just a few pounds over. Closing our the check in process, we were provided a lounge voucher in addition to our boarding cards. The manager also ensured we had our TSA Pre-Check printed on our boarding cards, to avoid any delays with security.

Visiting the Air France / KLM Lounge:

After our bags were accepted, we headed over to security screening and over to the “A” Gates in the San Francisco International Terminal. We visited the contracted Air France / KLM Lounge San Francisco, which I reviewed separately. The lounge was fairly plain, but met all the basic needs of a business class lounge in a small confined space.

During my pre flight time, I made an attempt to visit the One World affiliated Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge under the One World Business Class Lounge access policy, but the lounge reception attendant wouldn’t have any part of it and denied access. If you’re planning on visiting the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge while flying One World Partner Qatar Airways, be prepared for a bit of a discussion and a difference of opinions on whether you’re allowed to visit.

Boarding Qatar Airways:

After some time spent in the uninspiring but simple Air France / KLM Lounge, we headed down concourse to the gate. The San Francisco International Terminal “A” Gates are pretty large for an American airport, but leans more towards functional than over the top inspiring.

We had a great view of the Qatar Airways A350-1000 parked at the gate. It looked ever so sleek with it’s sunglasses painted over the cockpit windows.

We descended the escalators into the holding gate A9. The boarding area was pretty congested, and there was a queue of about twenty five people lined up in between chairs and bench seating when we arrived.

Qatar Airways started boarding immediately at 14:10 hrs, which was the time indicated on the boarding card. Qatar Airways didn’t have the most efficient boarding, as they elected to board Business Class at the same time as Group #1.

Despite having two jet bridges connected, the business class jet bridge wasn’t ready to go until about ten minutes after boarding had started. Add in a secondary security screening table at the start of the jet bridge, and you had a real congested mess on your hands.

Once they finally connected the second jet bridge, and the aircraft was ready to receive us, we made it through this crowded boarding process and settled into one of the world’s best business class cabins.

Qatar Airways
Business Class
SFO-DOH (San Francisco International Airport “A” Gates – Doha Hamad International Airport)
QR 738
Flown: March 7, 2023
Departure: 4:05 PM
Arrival: 6:10 PM + 1
Booked: Airbus 350-1000
Flown: Airbus 350-1000

On Board Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class:

We hopped on board at door L1 and entered in to the Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class Cabin. Qatar Airways had it’s boarding music playing, which sets a traditional, understated, but elegant middle eastern mood.

On board, I located my centre facing rear seat at 5F. The Qatar Airways Q Suite purple cabin is elegant looking and offers a contemporary look with modern colors.

Qatar Airways offers a combination of seating throughout it’s Q Suites Cabin. The Qatar Airways Business Class Cabin offers seating in either a 1 – 2 – 1 configuration with separated middle seats (branded as a Twin Q Suite), or a 1 – 2 – 1 configuration with joined middle seats (branded a Double Q Suite). The outer single seats facing the windows are branded as a Single Q Suite.

The Double Q Suite:

Booking the combination of joined Twin or Double Q Suites in the middle requires a call to the Qatar Airways Reservation Centre. With calls placed well in advance to hold our seats, we settled into Double Q Suites – Seats 5E and 5F.

It is worth noting that all of the Double Q Suites face rearwards towards the back of the plane. While this may bother some, I didn’t find it all that bad once you were underway.

The Qatar Airways Q Suites offer a double walled suite with sliding doors. The space offered with the Qatar Airways Q Suites rivals some International First Class cabins with the amount of privacy that is offered.

Each suite offers a walled space that is highly functional. The seat offers a small adjacent space for articles, in addition to a small table for storage.

The Qatar Q Suites Business Class Cabin only offers overhead bins storage found on the outer seats. With no storage bins over the centre seats, the outer bins can tend to get a little fuller than some other business class cabins. Despite there being less space, we had no issues storing our luggage.

Sitting into the Q Suite, the suite itself offers wide twenty six inch entertainment monitors, and a remarkably interconnected space when the middle privacy screen is lowered.

An adjustable partition wall offers either privacy or connectedness, dependent on whether it is raised or lowered. In a raised position, the Double Q Suite is remarkably private, with a privacy screen that rises to well above your head, while in a seated position.

The Double Q Suite was more than comfortable for a couple travelling together.

Single Q Suite:

The Qatar Airways Single Q Suites on the outer edges of the business class cabin offer bright windows that allow for a brighter environment. With seating that is aligned against the window, or closer to the aisle, each of these single Q Suites are terrific.

Features of the Q Suite:

The Qatar Airways Q Suite is a world class leading business class cabin. No matter whether you find yourself in a Qatar Airways Single Q Suite, a Twin Q Suite or a Double Q Suite, you’ll find an array of features designed to make your business class experience much more comfortable.

Each Q Suite is fitted with a personal and individual reading light. Unlike the larger British Airways suite lamps in First Class, the Qatar Airways suite lights are more specific and targeted with an adjustable beam lamp.

A small storage compartment was located in the space underneath the space in the arm rest. The space was ideal for wallets and other valuables that you’d want next to you, but not sitting out in the open during an overnight flight. The storage compartment contained a bottle of water for use during the flight.

The foot rest well offered a somewhat compact space. While you won’t store anything here, it was a comfortable rest for your feet.

The Q Suite offered in seat power, in addition to a variety of seat functions for recline, relax and dining. There was also a credit card payment set up, but it wasn’t ever used during our flight.

On our seat, a pillow with a Qatar Airways slip cover was waiting for us. The slogan “Beautiful Destinations often lead to everlasting memories” was travel oriented, but it appealed to MrsWT73.

Waiting for us on the seat when we arrived was a puffy Qatar Airways purple blanket, that was super comfortable. In addition, there was also a Diptyque Branded Amenity kit.

The Q Suite Table was located underneath the entertainment monitor. The table provided a solid space that was comfortable for working and equally for dining.

The Amenity Kit:

Qatar Airways has currently partnered with Diptyque Parfumeur Paris for it’s amenity kits. Qatar Airways describes these as “Offering signature fragrances inside each amenity kit, premium passengers will receive signature body and face care products designed to elevate the senses, packaged beautifully in elegant Diptyque branded amenity bags and luxurious bespoke gift boxes”.

I’m not too sure whether this qualifies as a luxurious bespoke gift box. It was more of a cardboard box that was rather inconvenient to pack and carry off the flight.It was memorable in patterning and design.

Inside the box, there were several Diptyque products including Fresh Hand Cream, Essential Face Cream and Nourishing Lip Palm.

Qatar Airways Pyjamas by The White Company:

Qatar Airways provides pjyamas for all of it’s business class customers on overseas flights that have a night time component. The current provider for Qatar Airways Business Class is The White Company. We’ve also seen these pjyama’s on British Airways First Class.

The pjyamas were loose fitting and appropriately sized. As a 187 cm person (6ft 2 inches) with an athletic build, I easily fit a large size. Given the long fourteen hour flight, I used the pjyamas and found them very comfortable for a long haul flight.

Pre-Departure Services:

Qatar Airways offered a purser introduction while we settled in waiting for departure. Qatar Airways opens their great champagne while on the ground in San Francisco. Today’s champagne was the outrageously expensive Champagne Alexandra Laurent Perrier Rosé 2016, currently retailing for $500 USD a bottle. I am happy to report that the champagne was also properly chilled; something that doesn’t always happen during pre-departure beverages if the champagne was recently catered on board.

A towel service was also provided. The towel service was provided in a wrapped container, which was a slightly low rent but pandemic safe touch.

The Dinner Menu:

While we were waiting to depart San Francisco, the menus were dropped off. Qatar Airways offers an impressive and showy dinner menu and wine list printed on elegant paper stock.

For this flight departing in the afternoon and leading towards an overnight flight that arrived in the late evening, there was a dinner option and a second service of a mid day breakfast / lunch option.

The dinner menu offered an evening dinner option with a soup option, two appetizer options, four main options, a cheese plate and three dessert options.

The second service of breakfast or lunch offered a mostly breakfast menu with light starters along with four choices of main courses. Snack options were also available in between meal periods.

The dinner meal service orders were taken on the ground in San Francisco.

Qatar Airways has a great wine program that rivals almost any airline worldwide. On this flight, Qatar Airways offered a choice of two champagnes, several whites, and several reads, including a Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux.

I was really impressed with the wine list. Given the amount of selection, I wouldn’t have any problem finding something to enjoy on this particular long haul flight.

Oryx One In Flight Entertainment:

Qatar Airways offers an excellent world class entertainment system called Oryx One. The enterainment is delivered through a twenty six inch monitor, which is class leading for business class cabins.

As we got underway, departing San Francisco International Airport we had a small Islamic prayer. I took the time to review the options on Oryx One, while I enjoyed a champagne.

The Qatar Airways Oryx One entertainment system has a large number of movies. With an international audience, Oryx One separates the movies in to Hollywood, Arabic, Bollywood and African categories.

Like many modern entertainment systems, I watched the flight time tick away from the top status bar of the Oryx One entertainment system.

With an international audience, there are always a few movies that have really unusual plot lines.

The flight map was comprehensive and allowed travellers to track the progress of the flight. Since I was seated in the middle of the plane without windows, I pretty much followed along with our journey through the flight map as we departed San Francisco.

Qatar Airways also offered wifi on board our flight from San Francisco to Doha. The pricing was at $10 USD for a full flight, or a free hour for Qatar Airways Privlege Club Members.

I didn’t test out the speed, but it remained an option in the event you absolutely needed to stay connected.

The Meal: A Full A La Carte Dinner Service

Shortly after we took off, the meal service started. I enjoyed a second glass of the Alexandra Laurent Perrier Rosé 2016 Champagne, which was served with warmed mixed nuts in a small but elegant bowl.

Shortly after the pre supper beverage, the flight attendant came to present the table service. A large white table cloth was presented, and the table was set. This included a tea light (similar to long haul Turkish Airlines), a small bread basket, an elegant purple water glass and lastly, individual salt and pepper shakers.

The first amuse bouche was presented. It was not listed on the menu, but it was a lobster with caviar pearls, along with celeriac slivers.

Given that we had a long flight, I went with the full meal. The first course was presented as roasted sweet potato soup with coconut cream and feta crumble. It was delivered with a food domed cover which was an elegant touch.

The second course was the appetizer. It was presented as herb crusted balik salmon with beetroot hummus, stuffed with tomato radish and lemon wedge. This dish was exceptionally tasty with edible flowers, which was an upscale touch for dining on board.

For the main course, instead of going for the traditional chettinad with basmati rice, I went with the meat option which was an innovative American Style Barbecue Brisket with braising jus, creamy mac and cheese with sautéed kale. The dish was paired with Château Batailley Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 2015.

The wine was really enjoyable on the nose with smooth flavour on the palette, as you’d might expect for a Grand Cru Classé wine. The American Brisket was great with the sauce with sauce but dry really quickly and not enough demi glace sauce.

For dessert, it was time for an absolutely heavenly triple chocolate brownie sundae with chocolate ice cream, raspberry and hot chocolate sauce. While United Airlines Business Class has been known for it’s sundaes for years, this was quite possibly the best dessert I’ve ever had on an airplane. It was a little small on the serving size for my tastes but what a treat and the flavours went together really well..

After dinner, the cabin was turned down for sleeping. It was a mostly dark experience in the centre Double Q Suites, with the occasional group of people working. By this point, we had only undergone about three hours and fifteen minutes of flight with eleven hours still to go.

Sleeping in Qatar Airways Q Suites:

Qatar Airways Q Suites offers an excellent sleep experience that rivals the worlds best business class. Qatar Airways offers full mattress pads, a sleep sheet along with fluffly purple blankets.

I called the flight attendant to have the bed made up. The space was converted into a Double Q Suite sleeping area. The combination is one of the few double beds in the sky; perfect for cuddling with your travel partner.

After a short night’s sleep the night before, I went down for about nine hours worth of sleep.

In terms of sleep quality, the seat itself was quite firm. I would say that it was about eight out of ten on the firmness scale. This was great for a performance car, but a little firm for a comfortable sleep.

In terms of the space, the Q Suite bed was a little compact for the tall sleepers like me. Much like United Polaris Business Class, the space cavity is a little compact for side sleepers, although I managed and was able to get accustomed to it.

There were no air jets nozzles in the centre of the cabin, which made for a little bit of a hot cabin when you’re ensconced in the sheets, fluffy blankets and pillows.

I ended up waking up just over the Caspian sea, with about three hours and forty five minutes left in the flight. With time zones out of touch, this was the equivalent of about 3:20 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Given that there were three hours left, I decided that it was a great time to have breakfast.

The Second Service: Breakfast

I pressed the call button to order breakfast. I was promptly attended to. After placing my order, I was told that it would be about fifteen minutes to warm up the food.

I started off with a café latte, which was nicely prepared.

After the table was set, I enjoyed a greek yoghurt with mixed berry compote and nut granola.

For the main breakfast course, I had the Four Cheese Omelette with roasted fingering potato with chives, cherry tomato and turkey bacon. While omelettes can usually taste the same on a plane, this one was nicely prepared. It was served with fresh orange juice in nice glassware.

Breakfast was followed up with Läderach Swiss Chocolates presented in a small box. Each box was different, so it was a bit of a surprise to see what was inside.

Landing at Doha Hamad International Airport:

Our flight time ticked down to zero. Our flight path took us over Greenland, Eastern Europe, around Ukraine and through the Middle East to Qatar.

The cabin was turned down and prepared for landing. It was lights back on for our early evening arrival.

I enjoyed a final glass of the Alexandra Champagne. I was surprised that they actually had some left to serve at fifteen hours into the flight.

I played around with the tail camera, which gave us a great view of arriving into Doha Hamad International Airport.

It was a reasonably quick taxi up to the gate at Doha Hamad International Airport.

We disembarked the Airbus 350 and had a long walk across moving travellators in Doha Hamad International Airport to the security screening check point.

Before we knew it, we were at the giant Lamp Teddy Bear display by artist Urs Fischer in the centre terminal of Doha Hamad International Airport. This display always brings a smile to my face. It’s an interesting piece of modern art that seems to align with travel; invoking memories of travels to home.

We killed off our layover in Doha at the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, before getting onto Qatar Airways Business Class Doha – Malé.

My Thoughts on Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class:

Qatar Airways Q Suites is arguably the world’s best business class. From a seating configuration that offers a private suite with doors that rivals some first class configurations, to a stellar world class wine menu, to a food program that is modern, contemporary and tasty,

The “Worlds’ Five Star Airline” kept us comfortable during our travels. It’s clear that Qatar Airways Q Suites is among the leading business class cabin’s in the world.

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If you’ve flown Qatar Airways Q Suites Business Class, did it live up to being one of your favourite business class air travel experiences ?

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