Review of Qatar Airways flight Doha Singapore in Economy

Airline Qatar Airways
Flight QR942
Class Economy
Seat 34A
Aircraft Airbus A350-1000
Flight time 08:00
Take-off 20 Jun 19, 20:05
Arrival at 21 Jun 19, 09:05
QR   #10 out of 97 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 621 reviews
Matthevv
By 5656
Published on 20th May 2020

Welcome


Routing


Hi Everyone :)

I'm glad you're joining me on this trip report, the continuation of my journey from Warsaw to Singapore, which I took last year with my two beloved friends: Agata & Asia. The return flight WAW-SIN-WAW was very reasonably priced, especially for the quality we received from Qatar. The total price was 2500 PLN/590 EUR/500 GBP.  

I'll begin this report with our connection in Doha Hamad and then go on to show you what the flight was like. There is a little bonus at the end with my Top 10 of Singapore, an amazing city where we spent 9 days.

 With this background I think we're ready for takeoff! 


Flight details


Flight number: QR942
Route: Doha Hamad - Singapore Changi (T1)
Flight date: 20th June 2019* (2005-0905)
Scheduled flight time: 8:00
Aircraft model: Airbus A350-1000
Aircraft registration: A7-AND
Seating configuration:
C46Y281(with QSuites)
Aircraft age (at time of flight): 0.8 years
Seat number: 34A
Departure gate: A7 (jet bridge)
Arrival gate: Jet bridge gate


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A usual Qatar's mobile boarding pass for Apple Wallet. Interestingly, I could not get a mobile boarding pass for the return flight from Singapore…


Connection at doha hamad


Let's begin, where I left you previous time, namely in Doha, Qatar. We had a 4 hour connection there. After we passed through security & took a quick look around the airport, we decided to have a little snack. We ended up in Qataf cafe, which turned out to have terrible food and be expensive at the same time (although looking very nice from the outside). Fortunately this was the only bad thing about this airport, which really is one of the best airports in the world, I believe. Everything is very efficient, the airport is well-equipped with facilities and is easy to navigate around. The design is also very modern and stylish in my opinion. There is adequate amount of shops and there didn't seem to be too many people at 4pm-8pm on Thursday.



Great facilities and design of DOH as you can see. Those places with where you can use Macs for free as a passenger are just incredible (plus behind the Macs there is a quiet area to get some rest). Amazing spacious central area of the airport as well… but the teddy bear… is it only scary for me?!


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I managed to buy an A350-900 model in one of the shops. This Airbus served us on the previous flight WAW-DOH. Now it's time for its bigger brother.


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This is how it looks in my room :)


Boarding and departure


Our flight to Singapore was scheduled to depart at 2005. However the incoming flight operated by our aircraft was delayed and so our departure was also slightly behind schedule. From my observation Qatar has very short turnaround times for quite a few of their routes (like the one for SIN). In my opinion slightly above 1 hour (which was the case) is a turnaround time not long enough for an aircraft this big! And this really causes a lot of delays - our return flight QR947 was delayed nearly everyday by at least 30 mins the week before and after our journey. But anyway, delay was not an issue for us this time because we had plenty of days to spend in Singapore!

The ground staff started pre-boarding into a small room quite a while before the aircraft was ready for boarding. But it turned out there is not enough space in there for us all so we decided to wait in front of gate where we still had access to the toilet. Poor people who had to wait 30 mins in the suffocating area without a toilet even… I personally find the pre-boarding practice quite annoying :(

Once the "real" boarding started everything went fine and smoothly. We were greeted by a friendly crew member who directed us to our seats. The A350-1000 looked very stylish inside and fresh as well. However I found the interior of the "older" A350-900, we flew into DOH with, more welcoming. Apologies for no photos of the cabin but it was very dark and we boarded as one of the last passengers. 

I think, Qatar's boarding music, composed by Dana al-Fardan, deserves its own paragraph! Thanks to it, once you step on board the aircraft, you can really feel warmth and spirit of Qatar. And even now when listening to it, lots of good memories conjure up. I wish, more airlines played boarding music on their airplanes, as it really is something very valuable for overall flight comfort but often neglected… especially on intra-European flights.


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Our departure gate A7, at the very end of concourse A at DOH.


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A really well-designed wall as you enter the aircraft. Makes you feel "luxurious" straightaway in my opinion.


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At the seat we had usual Qatar's Economy amenity kits waiting for us (toothbrush, toothpaste, eyeshades, socks, earplugs and a very good quality lip balm) alongside with a pillow, a blanket and headphones.


We departed from Doha just before 9pm, around 40 minutes behind schedule (we'll land just 10-15 mins after our scheduled arrival time). Right after departure we made a sharp right turn and flew towards Iran. Unfortunately due to Qatar's ban from UAE airspace, all the routes to Asia are a bit longer. Instead of flying above Dubai, the route leads over Oman or Strait of Hormuz.


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A shot of Doha after departure.


Inflight, food&drinks, IFE


Shortly after take off the lovely crew distributed us the menus. Again, our seats in row 34 allowed us to be served in the very beginning so all of the options were still available.
The order of service on this flight:
- The crew started with a round of beverages of choice (we all went for mango juice in my row!)
- About 1 hour after departure a warm dinner was served, accompanied by another drink service, the dinner included a dessert
- After dinner the crew offered us "freshly brewed" black or green tea
- At night, crew passed through the cabin multiple times with a tray full of "pre-poured" juices and water
- In the rear galley there was also a variety of drinks poured into cups and ready for all passengers to help themselves
- Approximately 1.5 hours before landing there was another food service with warm savoury pastry (some kind of potato puff with curry) and a warm cake (chocolate or coconut muffin), which was great. I appreciated a warm "breakfast". This service was also accompanied by drinks.

All in all, I would rate the food very high, although I would appreciate if some snacks were left in the rear galley for passengers that weren't sleeping at night. 


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Menu for QR942. I opted for the Thai Chicken curry. The dish was good, although in my opinion a bit too hot and lacked some vegetables.


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Very aesthetic meal tray. I can clearly see that Qatar pays attention to details, which do matter to people like me!


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The appetiser was absolutely amazing! Btw. in the background you can see my mango juice ;)


At this point pf my report I should perhaps say a few words about the crew, who did their job really well. Very kind and helpful, professional at the same time. On this "relatively short" flight to SIN, they were not allowed to get rest (sleep) but as I couldn't sleep as well, I had a friendly chat with one member of the crew. I found out she was from Iran. After this flight she would have 1 day break in Singapore, then come back and afterwards fly to Milan MXP to spend a few days there… nice, isn't it?!

Now to the IFE. Very, very, very extensive programme on Oryx one entertainment with lots of films, TV series, games, music and other things. They even had Holy Quran to read. What's even better, you can search the whole availability of stuff before departure, in the Oryx One app. The screen was very responsive and of good size. At first I wanted to watch "The Devil Wears Prada" but it turned out that the quality of sound was very poor and there were no subtitles! :( So I ended up watching "The Star is Born", a very good movie by the way.


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My IFE screen. We'll be shortly approaching Singapore. As you can probably see, at the bottom there is an NFC reader. Does anyone know what Qatar uses it for?


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The seats in newer A350s from Qatar are fairly comfortable, yet the legroom is not perfect to be honest. Personally, I find the seat design in older A350s (A350-900s) better and more ergonomic (the legroom is also much better)


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As the sun starts to rise, we are getting closer to our dream destination.


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Landing into changi


Around 0830 Singapore time we started our descent into SIN and the cabin crew commenced final cabin preparation for landing. I have to say, this landing is really scenic, especially if you sit on the left hand side and land "from the south". You can then see the merchant vessels, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands hotel and much more!



After landing we docked into our gate and quite quickly disembarked our lovely A350. In the air bridge there was a temperature check going on (I assume that's a standard policy at Changi). Altogether with reclaiming our luggage and getting the visa stamp, it took us no more than 40 minutes from the plane to exit the airport. We managed to take a few photos of Jewel, the new part of Changi airport, which was right in front of the exit from baggage reclaim.


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There it is, Jewel Changi Airport. There is no words than can describe how incredible this part of the airport is. Really, you just have to see it!


Alright, that was our journey to the Asian world. Very comfortable, exciting and quite quick :) Below you can find my Top 10 attractions of Singapore. Thanks for joining me in this report and of course I'll be glad if you leave your comments below.

Thanks,
Matthevv.


Bonus : Click here display
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Verdict

Qatar Airways

8.5/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew9.5
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Meal/catering8.0

Doha - DOH

9.1/10
Efficiency8.0
Access10.0
Services8.5
Cleanliness10.0

Singapore - SIN

9.2/10
Efficiency8.5
Access9.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness9.5

Conclusion

Qatar shows a consistent and a very good quality product, which is a value for money. Their A350 is definitely a comfortable way to fly around world, although the bigger #1000 version is a slight downgrade in comparison to #900 in economy class, seats are a bit less comfortable, have poorer legroom and in my opinion worse design. However, lots of things deserve the praise on this flight: state-of-art IFE, good quality amenity kit, pillow and blanket, nice and diverse food, very friendly crew and of course DOH airport which is perfect to have a connection at. A few areas for improvement would be: boarding organisation at DOH, some snacks available at night during the flight, longer turnaround times for aircrafts (although this is hard to achieve).
To summarise, I would choose Qatar again, with no doubt!

Information on the route Doha (DOH) Singapore (SIN)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 13 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Doha (DOH) → Singapore (SIN).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Qatar Airways avec 8.3/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 7 heures et 48 minutes.

  More information

8 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 554576 by
    pokcay 70 Comments
    A very well written report, enjoyed reading it from the beginning to the end!
  • Comment 554596 by
    nicobcn TEAM GOLD 7462 Comments
    Hi thanks for the report :)

    Qatar Airways offers one of the best value for money, in brand new aircrafts :)

    Thanks for the nice bonus of Singapore :) Have you been to Mac Ritchie? One of my best spots, as well as Pulau Ubin (better than Sentosa),

    See you soon for another report !
  • Comment 554598 by
    loukas 341 Comments
    Cześć, thanks for another great report! I like Hamad too, it never seems crowded (maybe beacuse it's so big!) and it offers so much for a transit passenger that it is for sure one of the best aiports in the world. Great shot of Doha after take off!
  • Comment 556503 by
    jish.b 283 Comments
    From one fantastic airport to another - this is what air travel is all about. Thank you so much for sharing this report with us! My only qualm about DOH is the lack of planespotting opportunities, the same DXB. I guess they like most of their passengers to be shopping around so there's that! Cannot go wrong with Qatar Airways: looks like you had a great flight as expected, which is always good to see. I was only able to fly on their 787s, which have far inferior IFE. Hope to try out their A350s at some point.
    • Comment 556536 by
      Matthevv AUTHOR 163 Comments
      Hey Jish.b, many thanks for your comment!

      It’s true the only chance to get a nice aircraft pic at DOH is when you have a bus gate ?, otherwise just food and shopping.

      Their A350 is absolutely a must-try, so I keep my fingers crossed you’ll be able to try it out soon.

      Take care.

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