Review: Qatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class Daytime Flight (KUL-DOH)

By
Ziggy
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a large white airplane with blue writing on it
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My flight to Doha from Kuala Lumpur was on a Qatar Airways 777-300ER and this would be the third new Qatar Airways aircraft I was going to experience on this trip. Before visiting Kuala Lumpur I hadn’t reviewed the airline’s 787 Dreamliner or A340 Business Class cabins and now I was about to see what the 777-300ERs Business Class cabin was like and what kind of service you get flying between Kuala Lumpur and Doha in the daytime.

Check-In

I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare as I wanted to give myself time to check out whatever lounge the airline offered in Kuala Lumpur (it turned out to be the Plaza Premium Lounge).

The lines for Business Class check-in were almost non-existent…..

people in an airportQatar Airways Check-In Kuala Lumpur

….but I was glad I left plenty of time when I saw the lines heading down to passport control and security.

a group of people in an airportKuala Lumpur Airport Lines

It turned out the lines were being caused by the fact that there was just one escalator heading down to passport control and just one security agent checking passports and boarding passes at the top of the escalator (I’m not sure why you need your passport checked before you enter “passport control” but that’s something for another day).

Still, the wait gave me time to enjoy some of the rather ominous passenger information messages the airport displays:

a sign with text on itKuala Lumpur Airport Warnings

Eventually, after about 35 minutes, I was through passport control and airport security and heading to the first of two lounges I would visit before my flight back to Doha.

Qatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

There is no First Class cabin on Qatar’s 777-300ER so, at 08:40 I was one of the first to board.

Just like the 777-200LR aircraft I reviewed on my Auckland to Doha flight earlier in the year, the Qatar Airways 777-300ER has an old-fashioned Business Class cabin arranged in a 2-2-2 layout:

a plane with seats and a man standing in the backgroundQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class Cabin

Fortunately these cabins will soon begin to be replaced by the amazing-looking QSuite cabins (which I discuss here & here).

Unfortunately occasionally I don’t think straight and, in a moment of stupidity the night before, I’d forgotten all about my previous experience on a Qatar Airways 777 aircraft and changed my seat from 2F to 1B.

At the time I had thought that I was doing something clever as, having forgotten all about my Auckland – Doha experience, I guessed that Qatar’s 777s would have more legroom in the bulkhead row just like on the A340 I had flown in just a few days before….but that’s simply not the case.

By swapping seats all I managed to do was to limit the amount of storage space I had ahead of me.

This is what a non-bulkhead row seat pair looks like…..

a seat with two monitorsQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

And this is what I had swapped myself into…..

a close up of a bedQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

I had swapped a seat with reasonable storage ahead of it for one with next to none.

Sometimes I just have to hold my hands up and admit that I’ve been an idiot and this was definitely one of those times! 🙂

For reference, this is what a non-bulkhead centre pair of seats looks like on Qatar’s 777-300ER:

a row of seats in a planeQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

And this is what a non-bulkhead window pair of seats looks like:

a seat in an airplaneQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

Anyway, on with the review…..

Boarding + 4  mins: A smiling flight attendant offered me a choice from a whole series of beverages including but not limited to champagne, orange juice, sparking water, and fresh lemon juice.

I was also given a choice of a hot or cold towels.

Boarding + 8 mins:  My champagne arrived along with the food and drinks menus and the cold towel I had requested.

a glass of champagne on a tray in a planeQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

A flight attendant also offered me one of the men’s Armani amenity kits but, as I already have more than enough of these, I asked if I could swap it for a ladies amenity kit to give to Joanna. The flight attendant was more than happy to oblige.

a black pouch with a silver logo on itQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

It’s worth noting that both the men’s and women’s amenity kits come with exactly same contents – it’s just the bag itself which looks different.

a black towel and a black towel with a white label on itQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

Here’s the drinks menu for the flight (alcoholic and non-alcoholic):

 

A blanket and pillow was already on my seat when I boarded……

a pillow and blanket on a seatQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

…..and a pair of standard issue Qatar Airways headphones were in the small storage area under the central armrest:

a pair of headphones on a couchQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

Boarding + 24 mins: An announcement was made asking all ground personnel to leave the plane.

Boarding + 25 mins: The jet bridge withdraws.

Boarding + 26 mins:  A flight attendant took my food order and I choose to have my meal on demand – I love that option on Qatar Airways – the flight asked if I would give her 10-15 mins notice before I wanted my meal to give her time to get it ready.

Boarding + 27 mins: The Captain came on the address system to welcome passengers onboard and to give a flight time update – apparently we would be departing a little early (the flight was scheduled to depart at 09:15)

Boarding + 29 mins: The crew armed the doors and the safety video was cued.

At this point I started having a further look around my seat.

a seat with pillows and a drink in itQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

a seat with a pillow and a blanket in itQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

As I have already mentioned, there isn’t much storage around these seats – just small area under centre armrest…..

a shelf in a planeQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

…and a small area where the water bottle is housed in the centre divider between the seats.

a bottle in a machineQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

You’re not going to store too much in the magazine rack ahead of you!

a grey container on a wallQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

The headphone socket and USB socket are in the storage area under the centre armrest…..

a close up of a plug in a wallQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

……..while the universal power port is in the central divider, by the passenger’s feet, right next to where the seat meets the floor.

a wall outlet with green lightQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

The seat controls are on the opposite armrest to the centre section….

a close up of a control panelQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

…..and there is a moveable reading light just behind the central armrest.

a group of silver objectsQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

The table comes out of the centre section between the seats……

a close up of a handleQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

……and is a pretty good size…

a person sitting on a chair with a tabletQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

It’s biggest positive feature is that it has a good range of lateral movement meaning you can move it closer or further away.

Boarding + 34 mins: 1 minute from our scheduled departure time a very small baby who had been screaming for at least 20 minutes at the gate starts up again….only this time it’s at the opposite end of my row.

I hadn’t noticed the parents board but there was no missing them now – the baby screamed/cried for approximately 50% of the flight and was a big reason I wrote a blog post suggesting a minimum age limit for Business and First Class cabins.

At this point, as if the baby’s noise wasn’t enough, the guy in the seat next to me decides that watching something loudly on his phone (involving machine gun fire and explosions) without headphones is a good idea!

What is wrong with people?! What ever happened to common courtesy and consideration for those around you?

Grrrrrrr…..

Boarding + 35 mins: The cabin crew collected the empty glassware.

Boarding + 37 mins: We push back 2 minutes late….despite what the captain had said about an early departure about half an hour earlier.

Boarding + 40 mins: The cabin services director came around with a tablet, introduced himself, address me by name (which he got from the tablet) wished me a pleasant flight and says to just ask if I need anything.

Boarding + 44 mins: Cabin crew are asked to take their seats for take off

At this point I’m blasting music through my headphones to drown out the still screaming baby and I begin to wonder if there’s a precedent for a lawsuit if I damage my hearing – can I sue the baby’s parents if this causes irreparable damage? 🙂 

I go back to thinking about the 777-300ERs cabin to take my mind off the noise.

This particular cabin actually looked more outdated than the A340 Business Class cabin…and that’s funny as I think the 777’s is a better cabin. It’s nowhere near the standard of the Dreamliner Business Class cabin but I think it’s better than the A340.

a row of seats in a planeQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

The cabin is bright and doesn’t feel claustrophobic or confining. Yes it doesn’t have all-aisle-access (which isn’t good in 2017) but passengers do have a reasonable amount of room (just not a lot of storage space).

Still, the gulf in standards to the 787-8 Dreamliner is enormous and the new QSuites cannot be retrofitted to these aircraft quickly enough.

There’s also no wifi on this aircraft (that will probably come with the retrofit too) but for me that’s no big loss as I don’t like the way Qatar Airways charges for WiFi on flights equipped to offer it (they charge by the megabyte rather than duration).

Boarding + 54 mins:  After 10 minutes of cruising around Kuala Lumpur airport we turn on to the runway, the engines power up, we build up speed…..and we’re in the air.

Take Off + 30 mins:  I couldn’t help but notice that other passengers had been offered nuts and post departure drinks (and had already had them a while) but seats 1A and 1B hadn’t been served. Even seat 1E who was asleep had nuts!

I decided to wait.

At this point crew appeared to be serving breakfast to those who hadn’t chosen to defer it to later so…..

Take off + 44 mins: I gave up waiting and asked passing flight attendant for a glass of champagne and some nuts.

I think that was the first time I’ve had to prompt a Qatar Airways crew into doing something they should have already done.

Take off + 45 mins: After a prolonged period of minor turbulence (which we had been experiencing since take off but which hadn’t stopped the cabin crew from working) the seat belt sign was extinguished.

Take off + 56 mins:  Nuts and champagne arrive……

a person pouring wine into a glassQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

…and for the very first time I was asked a question I always hope I’m not asked.

One of the flight attendants had noticed me taking pictures of everything in sight and proceeded to ask if I’m am blogger.

Hmmmmm…..

I try quite hard to fly under the radar so that I can provide truly impartial reviews of whatever it is I’m reviewing….but I’m also not a big fan of lying if I really don’t need to.

I chose not to lie and told the flight attendant about Traveling For Miles.

Considering this was the first Qatar Airways cabin crew that had forgotten to offer me a rudimentary part of their service and considering they had seemed a little slow up until now I was interested to see if this news would have any noticeable effect on service.

At this point in the flight I had my seat partly reclined and the curtains between the Business Class cabin and the front galley were closed.  I noticed that, as the crew pass back and forth through the curtain, occasionally it brushes against my legs and, while this is not a big issue on this daytime flight, I suspect it would get annoying if I was trying to sleep – another reason to possibly avoid the bulkhead seats.

Take off + 1 hr 24 mins:  The flight attendants brought around some hot towels

Take off + 1 hr 31 mins: Everyone who had chosen to have breakfast shortly after take off had now finished so the cabin settled down with most (but not all) window shades down.

No sleep suits are passed out as Qatar’s policy is to only hand them out on overnight flights….and this applies to First Class too (as I found out on a separate Qatar Airways flight which I’ll be reviewing at some point)

I dropped off to sleep at this point (I had been awake since 4:30am) and at Take off + 6 hrs 14 mins I woke up.

Seeing that I was awake, one of the flight attendants asked if I would like my meal as apparently we had just one hour left.

I said yes.

Here’s the food menu for the flight:

a menu of a restaurantQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

 

Take off + 6 hrs 22 mins: My breakfast began to arrive.

I had ordered the fresh orange juice and “Greek yoghurt with raspberry compote, toasted granola and nuts” to start:

a bowl of cereal on a tableQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

The orange juice was delicious and the granola with yoghurt was pretty good too.

I was also given a pastry/bread basket with a choice of conserves (I went for strawberry):

a bowl of bread and buns on a tableQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

Take off + 6 hrs 30 mins: One flight attendant took away the remnants of my breakfast starter while a second served my main course with my second drink –  I had ordered a “melon and ginger healthy energiser“…..

a glass of orange liquid on a tableQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

……and “chive scrambled eggs with grilled herb chicken breast”:

a plate of food on a tableQatar Airways 777-300ER Business Class

I really didn’t like any of it….and this was partly my fault.

I’ve long-held the belief that you can’t get decent eggs on an aircraft but, for some reason, I ordered them anyway and they were terrible!

The food was lukewarm at best, had an unpleasant texture and not much taste at all.

I generally don’t like too much ginger but the drink sounded interesting when I saw it on the menu so I ordered it….but I didn’t like it either.

This was a combination of poor choosing on my part and just plain bad food on the airlines part.

Take off + 6 hrs 38 mins:  My plates (with still quite a lot of food on them) were  taken away and Captain announced we would be landing in Doha in 35 minutes.

Take off + 6 hrs 41 mins: The cabin light come up, the seatbelt sign was illuminated and the usual (if you’re visiting Doha) “welcome to Hamad International Airport” video was played.

Take off + 6 hrs 57 mins:  The Captain asked the cabin crew to take their seats for landing

Take off + 7 hrs 15 mins: We landed in Doha

Take of + 7 hrs 22 mins:  We pulled into the gate

Thoughts

This was probably the least polished Qatar Airways flight I’ve been on.

The cabin, although old, isn’t actually too bad at all and I fond the seats to be pretty comfortable….but a lot of the remainder of the experience wasn’t up the usual Qatar Airways standards.

This particular cabin crew seemed slightly disinterested (very unusual for Qatar Airways in my experience) and the food was…well….pretty atrocious.

Luckily I’ve had quite a few other experiences with this airline which tell me that this is far from the norm but, if I was judging Qatar Airways on this flight alone, I may be wondering what all the excitement is about.

Note: The next part of my trip involved another stay in the excellent Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge in Doha and a second Qatar Airways 787 Business Class flight (this time from Doha back to Rome) but, as I’ve reviewed both the lounge and the 787 Business Class product already in this series, the final part will be a review of the Alitalia A320 Economy Class cabin on a flight between Rome and London.

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