This Qatar 777-300ER Business Class Review from Atlanta ATL to Doha DOH is part of a new trip report including Qatar Business Class, Qatar QSuites, Cathay Pacific First Class, Hawaiian First Class, and luxury resort stays in the Maldives, Los Angeles and Hawaii. For the prior posts, see:
Review: The Club at ATL, Atlanta
Review: Mandarin Oriental Doha
Qatar Business Class 777-300ER Cabin and Best Seats
There are several variations of Qatar's 777-300ER, with the older seat in a 2-2-2 configuration. Ours had 24 seats across 4 rows, so I chose seats 2J and 2K for my son and me, and 2F across the aisle from me for my husband.
I recommend avoiding rows 1 and 4, the first and last rows of the cabin, on account of light and noise from the galleys.
Due to the 2-2-2 configuration of the seats, I also only recommend a window seat if you don't expect to need to get out of your seat much, and are fine with hopping over your seatmate. That's because when the beds are fully extended, it's awkward to get over them to get to the aisle. For this reason, if you don't want to either disturb a seatmate or be disturbed by one, it's best to choose 2E, 2F, 3E or 3F, since these seats have direct aisle access, without being in the first or last rows, and without a seatmate having to climb over you.
Here's my Qatar Business Class 777-300ER YouTube Video:
Qatar Business Class Seat, 777-300ER
As is clear from my video and the Qatar Business Class cabin layout, these older seats are a far cry from the privacy afforded in Qatar QSuites Business Class, with the walls around the seats and closing suite doors. For those traveling with a partner, these paired seats are a good option when one of you wants a window seat, since that's not well accommodated in QSuites, where window seats are all solo seats. The seat itself is 22 inches wide, with decent padding, fairly comfortable to sit in even when fully upright during take-off and landing.
The seat control panel on the arm rest has three pre-sets, for take-off/landing, reclined, and flat bed, along with the ability to manually fine tune the lumbar support, seat, and leg rest:
IFE screens are in the seat back, and lower down are in the seat back were compartments that held the mattress pad for the bed:
There were also storage compartments for magazines/newspapers and below those, for shoes:
There's additional small item storage on the side of the arm rest divider between paired seats:
Qatar Business Class Menu and Dining, ATL-DOH
Once on board, we were offered a pre-flight drink and a choice of a hot or cold towel. We chose orange juice, and my son chose a cold towel, while I chose a hot towel. On some carriers' business class, especially U.S. airlines', flight attendants use tongs to hand you a towel directly; I like that Qatar puts towels on a towel holder, so that you don't have to drop whatever you're doing to accept a towel.
Here's the dinner menu and light meal options for our Atlanta to Doha flight:
While it could be seen as cheesy, I actually like the little “candles” that Qatar provides when setting the table for dinner service–it's an effort to provide a little more atmosphere in a place, a business class cabin, that compared to good restaurants, is pretty devoid of any. And on a practical note, I also really like the pepper grinder–so much better than the pre-ground mini pepper shakers that accompany many other business class meals.
It's also a nice touch presentation-wise that each person is given their own bread basket, although probably on the wasteful side for passengers similar to me, since I rarely have more than half a roll.
The amuse bouche of shrimp cocktail was simple but tasty:
Of the savory items all of us tried for dinner, the hot smoked salmon appetizer and my husband's cauliflower soup were the best.
My husband ordered the Beef Tenderloin, which unfortunately contradicted its name–it was pretty dry and tough. The green beans on the side were the best thing on the plate, and thankfully weren't overcooked.
Our son's spinach ravioli were the best of the entrees, probably helped by the fact that they're easier to heat up successfully.
My “seared” crab cakes were disappointing, no only because there was no sear or exterior crunch, but also because there seemed to be too much filler to them, and the weird sauce didn't complement the crab cakes well. Not recommended.
The mixed nut tart dessert was quite good, although missing the mascarpone mentioned in the menu description.
In the morning, prior to our arrival in Doha, we were served breakfast. In addition to the small yogurt parfait and juice, I usually ask for the berry dessert as part of my breakfast, since I prefer berries to the breakfast fruit plate. I'd learned my lesson from our prior QSuites DOH-JFK flight, and asked for yogurt to be saved for us, since Qatar seems to regularly under-cater their business class given how full the cabins often fly.
Both of our egg dishes were not impressive. I had the steamed eggs with brioche, and the eggs were equivalent to hard boiled. My son had scrambled eggs, which were rubbery; the button mushrooms were the best thing on his plate.
Qatar 777-300ER Business Class Bed and Sleep Quality
The soft product side of Qatar Long Haul Business Class is good. I'm only aware of two airlines that provide pajamas in business class, and Qatar is one of them (the other is EVA Business Class); the current pajama set is a soft grey cotton long sleeved t-shirt and dark grey pajama pants, made by The White Company:
Slippers are also provided:
The amenity kit contains standard items such as socks, earplugs, sleep mask, moisturizer and lip balm, but also facial mist to combat the dryness. See the above video for the Monte Vibiano amenities it contains.
For Qatar's regular (non QSuites) 777-300ER Business Class, the seat, when reclined into a flat bed, is 78 inches, vs. 79 inches in QSuites, and there's a very slight angle downwards towards the foot of the bed. That said, I actually preferred this bed to QSuites because it's not so cramped around the foot of the bed (in QSuites, the tray table stowage above your legs in this area meant that I was constantly knocking my knees and legs when moving around).
As with Qatar's other long haul international flights, a quilted mattress pad covers the seat. It's thin and doesn't provide much padding, but being given linens at all is a rarity for business class–normally business class gets a blanket and pillow, and you sleep directly on the uncovered seat.
I also like that you're given a pillow case to cover the seat pillow–usually the pillow is already at your seat for other business class products, but providing a clean pillow case at turndown service seems a more hygienic solution to a pillow that may have accidentally been dropped on the floor or gotten crumbs on it during the meal service.
The Verdict
This will be an unpopular opinion, but I actually preferred the bed in this older Qatar Business Class to the newer QSuites bed, because the foot of the bed wasn't cramped the way it is in QSuites (or in SWISS Business Class, Brussels Business Class, etc.) It still isn't as comfortable a bed, however, as JAL Sky Suite Business Class, which has a great memory foam-like airweave mattress pad. Qatar deserves credit, however, for providing pajamas in business class, and the quilted mattress pad covering the bed (typically business class products only provide a blanket and pillow, no linen).
Food was inconsistent on the flight, with the best items the cauliflower soup, hot smoked salmon appetizer, my son's spinach ravioli, and the nut tart dessert. My husband's beef tenderloin, my crab cakes and the overcooked breakfast eggs were all disappointing. I did appreciate the Fiji bottled water already at the seat, and while I didn't have it this time, the Karak Chai with cardamom is a great hot drink.
Service from the flight crew was good, friendly and responsive when I asked for turndown service and assistance for items my son needed.
Certainly I prefer the privacy of Qatar's QSuites Business Class, but for an older business class product, it was a good flight apart from the food.
Recommended Posts
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The catering kitchen in ATL is awful! Probably the worst… I did a KE flight out of ATL and the food was the worst I’ve ever had in my life…Dessert was a hostess cup cake for first class, I kid you not…
Sorry to hear our flight from ATL wasn’t an aberration in terms of food! I honestly think it could have been better catered with items from Trader Joe’s grocery store.