Review of Qatar Airways flight Doha → Bangkok in Economy

Hello and welcome to the second part of a series that covers my recent trip to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. This part will cover my flight from Doha to Bangkok (QR836).






NOTE:
Some shots are taken with my phone and some with my camera.




Part 1 - ARN-DOH (QR168 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCT) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11209.html
Part 2 - DOH-BKK (QR836 Qatar Airways Airbus A380-861 A7-APB) You are here
Part 3 - DMK-KUL (AK891 Air Asia Airbus A320-216 9M-AFI Semangat Harimau Muda livery) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11478.html
Part 4 - KUL-SIN (SQ107 Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-343 9V-STG) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11564.html
Part 5 - SIN-DOH (QR945 Qatar Airways Airbus A350-941 A7-ALD) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11625.html
Part 6 - DOH-ARN (QR171 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCM) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11693.html



Security was quite efficient as expected, this would be my third time transferring through Doha-Hamad.


The local time was 23:50 when we had cleared security, which meant we had 2 hours to spare before our flight to BKK would depart. The boarding was scheduled to begin one hour earlier, at 00:50 local time.


Here are some shots from the airport, I'm getting quite bored of DOH tbh.
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The famous teddy bear, my third time seeing it.


My family decided to split up at the airport, my sister and mom would check if they'd find something interesting to buy while me and my dad went to the food court to see if I could get some decent shots from the large windows at the seating area. The results weren't quite good as you can see due to the amount of reflection. QR A346.


Time quickly flew by so we headed to our gate shortly after my failed spotting session.


Our gate according to the FIDS would be gate B3.


The walk from the heart of HIA (where the teddy bear is located) to gate B3 took approximately 7-8 minutes.


A lot of people had already got their BPs checked and were seated in the seating area prior to boarding. There were different zones at the seating area, probably to avoid chaos when boarding. We were seated in one of the priority zones for some reason which meant we would be allowed to board the plane quite early.


Roughly 80% of the passengers seemed to be Europeans which wasn't surprising. Technically we also count as Europeans if you check our passports and I'm even born in Sweden but we sure don't look as Europeans.


Flight info:

Airline: Qatar Airways (QR)

Flight number: QR836

Scheduled boarding time: 00:50

STD (Scheduled time of departure): 01:50

ATD (Actual time of departure): 02:33

STA (Scheduled time of arrival): 12:40

ATA (Actual time of arrival): 12:45

Scheduled flight time: 6h 50 minutes

Actual flight time: 6h 12 minutes

Origin: Doha-Hamad

Destination: Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi

Route: DOH-BKK

Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 (A380-861)

Registration: A7-APB

And here's the plane! This would be my first time on an A380.


Boarding was delayed by 30 minutes. First, business and Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire members were the first group of passengers to board. A minute later families with small children and wheelchair passengers were allowed to board. And finally, we were able to board the 380 a minute after that, given we were in the priority zone. The other 400+ economy passengers had to wait.


The adjustable headrest.


A look at the PTV.


The massive wing of the A380! This wing was huge.


The A380 cabin was huge compared to the 788 cabin! It was very clean and spacious inside. One thing I noticed is that the ceiling of the cabin was very high. The economy cabin was completely packed, and this was only one out of 4 daily flights!


The seat pitch on this A380 was pretty good. There was a good amount of legroom as well. The seat was by far the most comfortable economy seat I've flown on!


Another shot of the enormous wing.


There was a large amount of space between the window seat and the actual window.


The overhead bins with some mood lighting in action.


Some features of this state-of-the-art IFE, a plug for your provided headphones, a USB port and a power port.


This particular PTV onboard this QR A380 offered a good amount of movies, programs etc. This was the most responsive screen I've ever used on a plane. I wouldn't say the responsiveness is quite on par with the latest smartphones but it was way more responsive than other PTVs I've used (QR 788 for instance). The IFE also featured a camera view of some sort but it wasn't functioning on this flight.


Here's the handset/controller. You could do numerous things on this device, navigate through the IFE, play games, watch the moving map etc.


The tray table.


These basic headphones were located in the seat pocket prior to boarding.


I had a lot of space as you can see, I was 5'10/178cm tall at this time.


Boarding was completed at 02:05 AM, 15 minutes after our STD (Scheduled time of departure). The flight attendants quickly served these refreshing towels after boarding was completed.


Headphones again, unwrapped this time.


Pushback was done at 02:20 AM local time, we began our taxi to the active runway for departures shortly afterwards.


FZ B738.


The safety video was playing while we were taxiing to the runway.


QR A350.


TK A321.


Takeoff, I know you can barely see anything. I apologize for that. We departed 44 minutes late, at 02:33 AM local time.




A closer look at the handset.


Amenity kits were located in every seat pocket, it was a long time ago I received an amenity kit on a flight.


Amenity kit contents:
Tooth brush, tooth paste, eye mask, socks and a pair of ear plugs.


Blankets were available at every seat upon boarding.


Not a lot happened on this flight, most passengers including my parents were already asleep 10 minutes after takeoff. I became very bored so I decided to check out the moving map and its features.


Some basic flight information.


This moving map offered a good selection of views. I took pictures of every view as a result of being bored.


The first service began 45 minutes after departure. Most of the passengers were asleep so not a lot of them ate this snack. There was also a drink service and I went with OJ as usual.


The flight attendant told me it was a vegetarian snack but I don't know what the actual contents were. It consisted of a pierog (I think) and a dessert.


I couldn't figure out what the contents were of this pierog. It looked like meat but didn't taste like it. I didn't really like it, actual meat would have been nicer IMO. The dessert was decent, it was a bit too sweet for my taste.


It started getting a bit brighter outside at 03:48 AM (UTC +3).


I decided to visit the lavatory at 04:01 AM. Here are some shots of the 380 lavatory for you guys.


Some flight information.


Completely bright outside by 04:10.


The flight attendants came around with snack baskets, I grabbed a bag of crisps/chips and a Twix bar. The service was made 2 hours after departure.


Accompanied by OJ as always. This was the last picture I took before falling asleep for 1h 50 minutes.


I woke up 1h 50 minutes later, exactly before the meal service began. I quickly snapped this pic with completely red eyes. I was extremely tired. There were three options for the main according to the menu.


Unfortunately the only option left was the braised beef option, I would have preferred the chicken option. OJ was my drink of choice once again.


This patricular meal consisted of braised beef in chili asado sauce with lemon grass rice, sautéed pumpkin and mushroom. The meal also came with a dessert (peach mousse) and a bean salad. This meal was probably one of the worst airline meals I've had in my entire life which isn't quite surprising. I've never liked catering out of DOH, decent at its best. The beef had no taste and was full of fat, the rice was very dry. The dessert was okay, a bit too sweet for my taste. I didn't try the bean salad, I wasn't really hungry at this time and I had just woke up. The only good thing about this meal was the small piece of chocolate. Another positive point is metal cutlery.


I fell asleep again after the meal service and slept for 1h 10 minutes.


My good friend from Germany managed to track my flight once again! Thank you for tracking my second flight (he'll probably read this FR as well). I was sleeping when he took these screenshots.


I took this picture of the moving map after I woke up.


Safety card.


I fell asleep again after I took the pictures of the safety card. I was greeted with this view after 24 minutes of sleep. We had already started our final descent into BKK.


Landing at Bangkok.


Emirates A380, it arrived just before us.


Orient Thai B744 in the distance.


Korean Air A330.


Xiamen Airlines B738.


China Southern B738.


Emirates A380 taxiing to its gate.


I knew immigration would take forever, two fully loaded A380s arriving at the same time doesn't help!


Well, immigration wasn't so bad in the end. It was better than Dhaka at least.


We had to grab a big taxi to our hotel as we had quite a few bags.


Driving out of BKK.


Well, I think that's it for this FR. Thank you for taking your time to read it :).











TOURISM BONUS:

Some of these are just random shots I took here and there.


TK ads on a BTS Skytrain.



Managed to do some spotting at BKK, you can skip through this part if you're not interested.

Thai Airways A333.


EVA Air B77W coming in from TPE.


Transaero B763 arriving from VKO.


Shenzhen Airlines A320.


Another Thai Airways A333.


Well this was quite a sight, hadn't expected to spot a Bangladeshi carrier during my spotting session. Here's a United Airways MD-83 coming in from Dhaka. I would have preferred to see a Biman plane instead though.


Qatar Airways B77W coming in from DOH.


EVA Air Cargo Boeing 747-400BDSF.


China Southern B738.


Emirates A388 completing a flight from DXB.


Sichuan Airlines A321.


VietJet Air A320.


Korean Air B773 arriving from ICN.


Jetstar Pacific A320.


Emirates B77W.


Thai B772.


SriLankan A332 in from CMB.


Thai Smile A320.


Shenzhen Airlines B738.


Thai Airways A333 (Star Alliance livery).


Kenya Airways B788 arriving from NBO.


Garuda Indonesia B738 coming in from CGK.


Bangkok Airways A320.


Vietnam Airlines A321 arriving from SGN.


Qatar Airways A388 completing flight QR836 from Doha!


Ethiopian B763 completing a flight from ADD.


Malaysia Airlines B738 coming in from KUL.


Egyptair A333 arriving from CAI.


Jet Airways B738 completing a flight from DEL.


Tigerair A320.