Qatar Airways leased a number of aircraft from Cathay Pacific and has been using them on their Doha – Malé routes to service the elevated demand for luxury travel to the Republic of the Maldives. These unique aircraft are configured in a four class cabin with business class and a first class cabin. Our overnight flight would allow us to test out this configuration on our way to an extended stay at the Maldives. Read on to see how our flight into the Maldives compared to our Qatar Airways Q Suites flight into Doha.

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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.

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Review: Qatar Airways Business Class B777-300, Doha Hamad International Airport – Malé Velana International Airport

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Qatar Airways offers a world class Qatar Airways Q Suite Business Class configuration. Along with recent expansion plans, Qatar Airways made the decision to recently lease a number of Boeing 777-300 aircraft from One World Alliance partner Cathay Pacific, in order to add capacity to their fleet.

These leased Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 777-300 aircraft operate in a four class configuration. We’d flown these aircraft previously on Cathay Pacific First Class Vancouver – New York and Cathay Pacific First Class New York – Vancouver. Today’ we’d get the opportunity to fly the Qatar Airways version of this aircraft on our flight into the Republic of the Maldives.

Connecting at Doha Hamad International Airport:

We arrived into Doha Hamad International Airport on Qatar Airways Q Suites San Francisco – Doha, which was an excellent international long haul experience.

We had a long layover of about nine hours at Hamad International Airport, during which I was able to re-visit the Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, along with a brief visit to The Al Maha Lounge Doha, courtesy of Priority Pass.

Our departure gate from Doha Hamad was gate C42, which was quite a ways out on the “C D E” concourse. We passed by the Gold store; one of the first few gold retail stores that I’d seen in an airport.

It’s quite a walk out towards the outer concourse. We were happy that we allowed ourselves some time. Although there is an elevated and internal tram, we were happy to stretch the legs a little after being seated for fourteen hours and another seven hour lounge visit.

When we got out towards the new Doha Hamad International Airport “Garden” area, we realized we were headed towards a bus gate. We descended down escalators from the main concourse area to the lower level which contained a second series of gates.

Boarding Qatar Airways:

The boarding process for Qatar Airways at the bus gate was a little confusing. Qatar Airways’ boarding process was that they planned to board Qatar Airways Business Class last.

However, they didn’t actually announce that. Rather, the gate agent announced economy classes with business class “take a seat”, which led to a bit of confusion amongst all the business class and Qatar Airways Elites.

Eventually we got on board a bus and headed out to the east apron to a remote loading stand. When we arrived, we climbed up the air stairs got onto a leased Cathay Pacific plane that was fully painted as Qatar airways.

Qatar Airways
Business Class
DOH-MLE (Doha Hamad International Airport – Velana International Airport)
QR 670
Flown: March 8, 2023
Departure: 2:00 AM
Arrival: 6:40 AM
Booked: Boeing 777-300
Flown: Boeing 777-300 (Cathay Pacific Lease)

On Board Qatar Airways Business Class:

We boarded our flight by stairs at door 2L and turned left into the mini cabin of business class. The Qatar Airways Business Class is set up in a 1 – 2 – 1 configuration across the aircraft.

The Qatar Airways Business Class cabin is split across two different cabins. This aircraft configuration has 2 rows of business class in the forward mini cabin, followed by a further 12 rows of business class in a rear cabin leading towards the economy class cabin.

The seat itself is Cirrus Seat made by Zodiac Aerospace, now operating under Safran Seats. The seat itself is very compact and upright. I would almost describe it as “coffin” like since the walls surrounding the seat are quite high. Despite the design, the configuration of the cabin means that all travellers have direct aisle access with no need to step over anyone to get out of your seat and move around.

The centre of the cabin offers seating that angles inward towards each other. With two people travelling together, you have some privacy from the seat console, along with a privacy screen that can be raised.

Settling into the business class seat, we were offered enough real estate for two airplane windows. There was a small shelf area available for wallets, drinks and passports, although the space wasn’t as large enough for laptop’s or some others that we have seen, particularly in the newer reverse herringbone configurations.

The seat console featured an upright cupboard that could be used for storage. On today’s flight, the cupboard featured a bottle of water and some noise cancelling headphones. I always have mixed feelings about cupboard storage on business class seats since items tend to fall out when the cupboard is opened mid flight. As a result, I didn’t use this for any storage space on my flight.

My seat 11K (a bulkhead), featured a fold aware television monitor. It required a little bit of a stretch to unfold the monitor from it’s housing. The monitor could also not be used during take off and landing.

The business cabin featured a small foot rest seat that allowed for sleeping or resting your feet. It was pretty standard sized, and not all too spacious for side sleepers.

Ultimately, Qatar Airways leased Cathay Pacific planes offer a fully flat seat. The seat has limited real estate, but at least you will have direct aisle access, and a pretty private seating environment.

On Board Qatar Airways First Class:

Since these planes were leased from Cathay Pacific in a four class configuration, Qatar Airways has the ability to offer a First Class cabin on this particular route. If this aircraft is scheduled for your journey, you’ll have the ability to purchase a ticket in the First Class cabin.

It’s worth noting that Qatar Airways First Class is usually limited to its Qatar Airways Airbus 380-8 configuration, along with First Class branding on short haul flights throughout the Middle East departing from Doha.

The Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300 First Class cabin is set up in a very spacious 1 – 1 -1 configuration. Aside from some Qatar Airways purple colour accents, it is identical to Cathay Pacific First Class seating.

The Qatar Airways First Class cabin is so similar, it even has the same Cathay Pacific art work on the walls, but otherwise the cabin is entirely rebranded with Qatar materials.

Pre-Departure Services:

Qatar Airways offered a purser introduction while we settled in and were waiting for departure. Despite asking for it, Qatar Airways didn’t offer their more expensive Champagne Alexandra Laurent Perrier Rosé 2016 while on the ground in Doha, Qatar. Instead, we enjoyed the more mainstream Piper Heinsciek NV champagne.

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 Amenity Kit:

While we were waiting on the ground, we also had a light amenity kit dropped off. We are generally seeing airlines provide less amenity kits on short haul international flights, and this was no exception.

Today’s amenity kits consisted of a simple eye mark, ear plugs and socks in a recycled plastic bag. Generally speaking, it wasn’t worthy enough to take with you.

While it was a nice touch to offer an amenity kit, this one in particular wasn’t one that was very memorable. I can’t blame Qatar Airways for trying to cut some costs, but it was nicer to have something instead of nothing at all.

The Dinner Menu:

As final flight preparations were finishing, we were offered a dinner and wine menu for this flight.

We were departing at 2 AM and arriving into Malé at 6 AM. As expected, we had a light food menu offering consisting of the choice of light sandwiches, omelette and a tasting menu presented all at once. There was also a second breakfast service offered.

Qatar Airways always offers a terrific and exceptional wine list. Today’s shorter international flight was no different. With premium wines available from every corner of the old and new world, we didn’t have any issues with finding something delicious to drink.

For those that were not into wine, there were a small number of cocktails available, in addition to regular whiskies and upscale Grey Goose Vodka.

The wine lists were much more impressive than the food menu and there was something for everyone on the list.

In Flight Entertainment:

Normally, Qatar Airways offers an excellent world class entertainment system called Oryx One. However, on today’s flight, we ended up with the inherited Cathay Pacific system. Despite being branded as Qatar Airways, it seemed to have less functionality and features than it’s comparable gold standard in Oryx One.

The moving map seemed to have no actual mapping landscape loaded into the system. As a result, we were left with cities painted overtop of a black night landscape.

The system featured a few international movies, but featured a lot less quantity that you might expect with it’s gold standard Oryx One Entertainment system.

Given the overnight nature of this flight, I didn’t get into a movie but stuck with the minimalistic moving map.

The Meal: A Light Snack

Our flight departed Doha Hamad International Airport at 2AM, with an arrival time of 6:40 AM at Velana International Airport. That overnight time period is a challenging time to offer two meal services for connecting world travellers, since everyone is on a different schedule and clock.

I ended up enjoying a glass of the Alexandra Laurent Perrier Rosé 2016 Champagne, along with some warmed mixed nuts.

For the main course, I ended up ordering the corn soup. It was a fairly simple meal to present, but regrettably it took until 3:40 AM (or one hour and forty minutes after takeoff) to be prepared and plated. On a four and a half hour flight, the first service seriously cut into your sleeping time and I would probably just skip the snack if I was taking this route again.

After the soup course, I bedded down into the fully flat seat. Although there were no fluffy blankets or mattress pads, I slept pretty soundly for about two hours.

The Second Service: Breakfast

As I went off to sleep, there was no official confirmation or instructions taken (or given) for the second service. I ended up waking up to the sounds of clattering crockery and found many around me eating.

I ended up hastily ordering a breakfast omelette, which was served up only one hour and fifteen minutes before landing. The breakfast omelette was presented as a tomato Onion and Grilled Cheese Omelette with Cream Cheese Roasted Potatoes and Creamy Spinach. This was served with a mixed fruit breakfast smoothie. Given time constraints, I didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy any bread basket with any jams or butters.

Towards the end of the second service, we were provided another towel service. This time, we received a proper towel that wasn’t wrapped, but rather served on a tray.

If I were taking this flight next time, I would probably aim to eat in the lounge before travels, and leave instructions with my flight attendant to be woken up in order to enjoy a larger breakfast. This way, I’d probably be fuller getting off the plane before getting to expensive resort pricing.

Landing at Velana Malé International Airport:

We descended into the Republic of the Maldives. While I might have hoped for great Maldivian Atoll views, I’d have to save those for the Trans Maldivian Airways Sea Plane ride from Malé to W Hotels and Malé to St Regis Vommuli Atolls. We had a few peek a boo views of the atolls on our descent into Malé Velana International Airport.

Returning to Malé for the third time, there were quite a few changes in the airport since my last visit in the year 2015. The new international airport was well under construction, and there were a larger number of planes on the apron than before. These included an Austrian Airways and another Qatar Airways flight.

Since Malé Velana International Airport does not currently have jet bridges, we deplaned from our Boeing 777-300 and descended air stairs into a bus.

We arrived off our Qatar Airways Business Class flight. We had a shared checked bag which took some time to be put out on the conveyor belts since Maldavian Customs was X-Ray’ing all the bags.

We ended up transferring onwards, staying at both the W Maldives and the St Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort for a wonderful eleven day stay in the Republic of the Maldives.

My Thoughts on Qatar Airways Business Class:

The Qatar Airways Business Class flight on the leased Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300 was a comfortable fully flat way to get to the Maldives on the short four and a half hour hop from Doha Hamad International Airport. Although it wasn’t to the level of Qatar Airways Q Suites, it was still an exceptionally comfortable experience.

The red eye flight through the night made for a bit of a complicated service delivery issue for the food presentation with the presentation being quite rushed. I would probably end up just eating in the lounge next time. Despite this, the early arrival into the Maldives is well timed for sea plane departures and allows you to connect to your resort with the most available daylight time.

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If you’ve flown Qatar Airways Business Class to the Maldives, did you find the timing of the flight to be challenging?

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