Review of Qatar Airways flight from Singapore to Jakarta in Business

Here is a flight I did on Qatar Airways flight QR 626 SIN-CGK.
We had a fantastic 3 days in Singapore. I love the City/State of Singapore even if it is rather expensive.
We left the Novotel Clark Quay with deep regrets as it is well located and very comfortable. We are at the main entrance of the hotel ready to catch our taxi for Changi.
The taxi took us to the international airport, the roads are clean and green !

The taxi will drop us off in front of the terminal, we'll look for the counters to check-in for our flight.
The counters and information boards are looking old but they serve their purpose and at the very top our flight to Jakarta.

It is a little early and the counters are not open yet so we decide to visit the terminal a little bit. As most south east asian terminals it is full of stunning orchids.

It is while we walk about the terminal that we'll notice that the check-in for Business Class is done in an area dedicated to Premium customers. No one told us that and we were waiting for the regular counters to open. Bad point for Qatar Airways !
We are welcomed by an agent who asked us which airline we were travelling on. We tell him that we are travelling on Qatar Airways on the flight to Jakarta, the agent will ask us to have a seat in the small lounge area while they set up the counters.

After a short wait we are invited to get to the counter and check-in. All is rather fast, the agent gives us our boarding cards, the invitation to the SATS lounge and tag our bags.

After immigration we went to the SATS lounge where a few foreign airlines send their customers and of course the Qatar Airways customers.

Here is the SATS lounge.

Before I settle in for a snack I request to use the showers. My wish was granted straight away !

Drinks and snacks.

After I had a snack and had a few pineapple juice and surfed on the net I went to gate D54 to check if our aircraft is here… nothing ! It is a fact we are going to be late !
I go back to the lounge to wait a little. The aircraft finally arrives and we finally get the information that our flight to Jakarta will be delayed !
We wait another half hour before going to the gate. There we go through security and we wait some more before being allowed on board.
Our Airbus A330-200 A7-AFO inbound from Doha, still with the old colors.

We finally board the aircraft and are welcomed at the door by Monica, the cabin attendant that will look after us. She will show us towards our seats 2A and 2B.

The cabin seen from our seats. It is not full, only 16 passengers in Business Class on this flight. The seat was OK for a short flight but spending the Doha-Singapore on this toboggans would have been a nightmare !

Monica will offer a welcome drink, I go for the lassi and my partener will choose the orange juice.

Our neighbour, Jetstar

Monica will hand out the menus and wine lists.

We leave our gate D54 for the runway and of course Indonesia.

Our aircraft continues its climb towards Jakarta.

Shortly after take-off, Lubna the purser (ex Malaysia Airlines crew) and Monica start the service, Monica took the order on the ground, the flight being short in time, they start the service early.
My partner chose the grilled beef tournedos, onion marmalade, grilled vegetables and potato roesti.

For the it will be sauteed chicken with vegetables and oyster sauce, singapore noodles. Both dishes were OK, nothing to write home about, it is a shame that Qatar is lacking so much imagination !

We chose to drink a glass of white wine with our meal, a Sauvignon Blanc Puilly Fumé 2005 Domaine Chatelain.
Lubna will clear our salad plates and will drop the dessert in its place. A passion fruit mousse with orange crème anglaise. A very poor dessert not worth a Business Class menu.

She will then come back to collect the trays and will offer a hot drink. I ask for a tea with milk.

Scenes from my window.

The cabin after the meal. I find the decor to be very gaudy, too bling bling. To me Etihad is by far the only airline from the middle east that has good taste for its cabin decor. The faux marble table, the burgundy and grey… nothing good !

We start our descent towards Jakarta and Monica will come through the cabin to tidy up and invite passengers to fasten their belts.

We continue our approach to Jakarta and fly over a few islands before reaching the main land.

We land at Jakarta Soekarno Hatta airport after this short journey from Singapore.

We disembark rather fast as we were in Business Class. Jakarta Airport is not as practical as Denpasar where you buy your visa just before reaching immigration. In Jakarta the counters for the visas are on the side and further from the immigration counters. We had to backtrack to get the visas and when we were back a small queue was already in place.
We were also amazed at the attitude of indonesian women coming back from work in the Gulf. 4 of them cut the line in front of us, I didn't say a thing, the 5th one saw that there was no way she was going to cut in front of us and went back to the end of the line.