TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Earlier today Qatar Airways used a press conference at the ITB Berlin exhibition to launch its highly anticipated new Business Class seat to the world. After years of waiting to see what Qatar Airways would come up with after its CEO His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker had promised us a “Super Business Class” that would rival the First Class offerings from a number of competitors, we finally got to see what all the excitement and fanfare was about.
Qatar Airways says that its new QSuite is “ushering in a never-before-seen standard in Business Class travel” and that “the customisable private suites, named QSuite, introduce a host of firsts to Premium Class travel, reshaping expectations for global business travellers.”
These are heady claims indeed….so does the seat deliver?
The truth is we won’t really know just how great (or not) the seat is until we get to try it out, but the details we now have do appear to suggest that we’re dealing with a potentially industry leading product.
The QSuite will allow Qatar Airways to offer the first-ever double bed available in Business Class (in the centre of the aircraft):
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
The privacy panels between the middle seats will stow away and “allow passengers in adjoining seats to create their own private room.”
But that’s not where the flexibility of the QSuite ends.
If you manage to book the 4 centre seats on an aircraft fitted with the new QSuite product the combination of adjustable panels and movable TV monitors will allow passengers travelling together to “transform their space into a private suite, allowing them to work, dine and socialise together.”
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
That’s pretty impressive….although we’ll have to wait and see just how easy it will be for a group of 4 to book those 4 centre seats.
As the cabins featuring the new Business Class QSuite will be arranged in a 1-2-1 layout the centre seats will appeal most to couples and colleagues traveling together…and it looks like the layout should work pretty well.
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
From the images provided by Qatar Airways we can see that the centre seats will alternate in layout just like the Business Class seats already alternate in cabins like Etihad’s A380 Business Class cabin.
In the images above you should be able to see that one pair of seats has the passengers sitting quite close together with the table/ledge next to the aisle while the second pair of seats has the table/ledge between the two passengers and the seats closer to the aisle and further away from one another.
For couples the former will probably be preferable while for colleagues (or solo travelers who couldn’t snag a window seat) the latter will probably be a better choice.
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
For solo travelers it will be the seats on either side of the aircraft that will be most coveted and the images provided by Qatar Airways appear to indicate a high level of privacy that we haven’t seen in a working Business Class cabin before……
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
….although, as a lot of us suspected, this is where the QSuite does appear to have a few things in common with the new Business Class seat Delta announced for its A350s a few months ago:
Delta’s Proposed New Business Class Seat
Delta’s Proposed New Business Class Seat
I’m not completely sold on just how roomy this new seat is going to be as, if you take a look at this actual photograph from the launch in Berlin….
Qatar Airways New Business Class – QSuite
…the seat doesn’t look particularly wide or spacious. I’m, sure it will be fine for sitting or reclining but I’m going to reserve judgement on what it will be like as a bed until I have a good look at the physical product.
The new QSuites will be fitted to the Airbus A350-1000 for which Qatar Airways is the launch customer but we’re also going to see a rapid (and much needed) retrofit of these seats to Qatar’s 777-300ER aircraft which currently offer a 2-2-2 cabin layout that lags significantly behind what the airline already offers on its 787 Dreamliners, its A380s and its existing A350s. The existing A350s will also receive the new seat.
The airline has confirmed that the first retrofitted aircraft will debut on the Doha – London route and is set to take to the skies as soon as June of this year.
Interestingly the new QSuite will not be fitted to the airlines A380 or 787 aircraft….at least not in its current guise. Due to the nature of the shape of those cabins the new QSuite wouldn’t actually fit so a new modified product will be what eventually makes its way on to those aircraft.
Qatar Airways isn’t just improving its hard product but will also be putting through changes to the soft product too.
The airline is also launching a new food and beverage concept, introducing a menu that offers a host of new dining choices.
In addition to the existing decadent ‘dine on demand’ service, the new Business Class menu will now offer a selection of snack ‘sharing dishes’ available throughout the flight, allowing travellers to turn dining at 35,000 feet into a social experience. A wake-up Express Breakfast will also be available for those who choose to sleep a little longer by making the most of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option available on the door of their private QSuite.
Qatar Airways will continue to delight passengers with an array of special touches and additional service enhancements, including elegant new chinaware and cutlery, sumptuous soft furnishings and luxurious bed linens.
The recently announced partnership with The White Company to provide exclusively-designed cotton Business Class sleeper suits and luggage brand BRIC’S to provide bespoke new amenity kits featuring products from Italy’s Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio complete the refreshed and enhanced experience awaiting Qatar Airways’ Business Class passengers on board.
Qatar Airways is clearly excited about its new product and Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, is quoted as saying:
Today I am proud to unveil the future of Premium travel with our new QSuite Business Class. Our unique and patented design is a world first in many ways and challenges industry norms by offering passengers more privacy, more choice and more personalisation. With these innovations, Qatar Airways has revolutionised the way we serve our Business Class travellers, enabling our passengers to enjoy a First Class experience in Business Class. This is truly Business Class as never seen before and is entirely in keeping with our Premium product and service philosophy. On Qatar Airways, you choose when you dine, and the menu options are varied, with something for everyone. You choose when you rest, and when you want entertainment; we offer more choices than any other airline. It only makes sense to give you the choice to make your own cabin-within-a-cabin, creating double QSuites or quadrants.
Bottom Line
As a oneworld flyer and as someone who has taken to flying Qatar Airways a lot of late (I’m flying with them tomorrow) I’m more than a little pleased to see the product innovation continue. The retrofits cannot come quick enough as, having sampled the airline’s 787 and A340 products in the past week (the A340 product is similar to the 777 product) the chasm in comfort levels between the two different cabins is almost embarrassing (reviews of both will be published within the next 10 days).
Qatar Airways already provides some of the best service you’ll find in a Business Class cabin and, now that the airline is looking to align the quality of its hard product across its fleet, passengers should soon be able to book a Qatar Airways flight without having to worry which aircraft they’ll be flying.
All images of the Qatar Airways QSuite courtesy of Qatar Airways
