Review of Qatar Airways flight London → Doha in Economy

Marketing @ Portobello
















Afternoon visit to Hitchin Lavender farm, an hour's drive north of London central.












And now for the foodies!

Loved the Classic Breakfast at Liz's Café, across from my hotel.




Tasty quiche from Liz's Café.




Breakfast at The Muffin Man at Kensington.




Their scones with clotted cream and jam is simply divine!




Excellent fish n chips at a non-touristy chain, Kerbisher & Malt.




Going healthy once a while.




And the Battle of the London Roast Ducks!

Four Seasons @ Bayswater



vs

Goldmine @ Bayswater




Verdict? Goldmine wins! Preferred the roast duck at Goldmine as it is slightly more tender, more meaty, tastier sauce and of course slightly cheaper as well!


5 nights in London ended within a blink of an eye and I am on my way back to Singapore via Doha. Departure was from Terminal 4 and after a horribly long wait for tax refund, I checked in at the near empty counters of QR. The whole stretch of Row A was dedicated to QR and I guessed there must be at least 14 counters opened for our A380 flight and the slightly later all-J A319 flight.




Boarding pass.




Departures for the evening.




Security was not too long this evening and soon we were at the departure hall with the usual duty-free shopping.




At the gate holding area, with most passengers being from our QR flight.




MH A380 being towed into the gate for its flight to KUL.




Departing from Gate 5.





10 August 2015
Qatar Airways
QR 2
London Heathrow (LHR) - Doha (DOH)
A380-800
A7-APE
Economy Class

QR's newest A380 aircraft, which is barely 2 months old, would be operating the flight. Always nice to get a brand new aircraft.




Boarding commenced almost an hour before scheduled departure time. Boarding was orderly again. Entered the aircraft via door 1 as I was seated right at the front cabin. QR configures its A380 with a dense Economy layout, having the entire lower deck and a small section of upper deck configured with 461 Economy seats. Combined with 8F and 48J, there is a total of 517 seats onboard this whale!

Stairways to Heaven. Unfortunately, I would not be going up this evening.




Pillow, blanket an amenity kit already placed on each seat.




At first glance, the seats on the A380 looked similar to the ones on the A350. However, upon sitting on it, it is slightly noticeable that the seat has a slightly smaller frame and width, slight lower height of the seat back, about half to an inch less pitch and also a slightly smaller IFE monitor. Aisle seats also have a small IFE box that takes up a small portion of the legroom. However, it was still perfectly acceptable and comfortable for economy seats.






Boarding in progress. Reddish mood lightings were turned on throughout the boarding process and first meal service.




Unlike the A350 with 3 different camera views, the A380 is only fitted with the tailcam view. Resolution is also not as clear as on the A350.




Amenity kit for the overnight flight and headphones.




Amenity kit is well stocked, with socks, toothbrush set, ear plugs and eyeshades.




August issue of the inflight magazine and safety card. Pics were taken from later inflight.






Flight was totally full again, at least in economy. Boarding was completed by 2120hrs for our 2130hrs departure. However due to congestion of airspace, the captain informed that we could expect a 20min delay in pushback. However flight time would only be a short 6h15m. Continued with my unfinished movie from the previous flight in the meantime.




Finally pushed back with the safety video played.




MH A380 being prepped for departure.




We made a really slow and lengthy taxi to Rwy27R, following an Etihad A380. Passing a Kuwait Airways Govt B744! Guess either Kuwaiti government officials or royal family were in London at the moment.




Passed by the new Terminal 2, with an SQ A380 pushing back and taxi for departure as well. The SQ A380 eventually departed a slot ahead of us even though it was scheduled for a 25min later departure than our flight.




Finally after a delay of almost 40min, we took off from Rwy27R, bound for Doha. As expected, the A380 was really quiet, especially when seated ahead of the engines.




Lights over London.




Seatbelt signs switched off and dinner was being prepared. As this was a late departure, a beverage run was not conducted so as to speed up the meal service. As usual, the menu was cycled twice on screen. This time, they got the menu correct (which was the wrong menu shown on the DOH-LHR sector).








In the mean time, I started on another movie The Cobbler, which I felt was a rather boring show…




Dinner service in progress. Crew as usual were polite, professional and efficient.




Meal tray. I had a mango juice to go along.







Starter of sun blushed tomato, red onions, spinach and orzo pasta salad, and Chocolate and cherry delice for dessert. Both the starter and dessert were delicious!




I has the Braised beef in pizzaiola sauce, sautéed onions, potatoes and broccoli. Very tender and flavourful beef cubes! Wished portion could be larger.




Roll with butter, cheese and a Valrhona chocolate.




Nice salt/pepper package and metal cutlery.






The Chicken picadillo and pasta option was very tasty as well!




Economy lavatory of the A380. Rather nicely appointed.




Midflight, snacks of chips and chocolate bars, and drinks were offered.




A couple more hours to go.




Flying into the sunrise.






Cabin lights were switched on dimly slightly more than an hour before arrival to signal the start of the morning refreshment service.




A warm breakfast snack was offered, which consists of a Scrambled eggs and tomato wrap, and a Cinnamon and custard danish. Both were actually rather tasty! I had a coffee and water to go along.








Sun is fully out. Descend started, blankets collected and cabin prepped for landing.








Video of descend.




Shadow of our A380 as we land on Doha Hamad Intl Rwy34L, almost 20min late due to the uncontrollable late departure from Heathrow.




Video of the landing into Doha.




Land of QR, with the occasional visitor.




Parked beside another QR A380.




After the aircraft was parked, we Singapore-bound pax barely had 15min to make our connection. Seated at the front cabin, we were one of the first to disembark. It was followed by a mad rush out into the terminal (no transfer security this time round, straight into the departure hall after exit) where there were ground staff holding signs with connecting flights and directing passengers to the relevant gates. It was then a mad rush through the Doha terminal from the 'A' gates to our SIN-bound flight at the 'B' gates. Our SIN-bound flight was held for all the passengers connecting from LHR (think there were at least 20 of us) and our baggage made it too!