Review of Qatar Airways flight from Kolkata to Doha in Economy

Background

With Malaysia Airlines returning to Kolkata in December 2024, there are three default options between CCU and PER: Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, and Malaysia Airlines (plus other combinations including LCCs or more stops). Generally they're all similar prices and times. Emirates and Qatar Airways are also one-stop options but Emirates is generally around twice the price of the default 3 with Qatar being even more. I'd looked at all of these, plus Vietnam Airlines from Delhi or Bangkok and the Malaysia Airlines free domestic sidetrip program.
One day I happened to check kayak.com from Delhi to Perth and an unexpected option which somehow I hadn't seen in all my previous searches came up for a similar price as the others, this being Qatar Airways via Doha. I checked QR from Kolkata and surprisingly it was actually the cheapest FSC option and close to a third of the standard QR price. One stop was a bit boring but stopping in Doha seemed more interesting than transiting a SE Asian capital again and nothing else seemed that great. The only time I'd flown Qatar before was for a repatriation flight from Kolkata to Melbourne in 2020 and of course at that time entering the country wasn't possible.
The ticket was around $400, expensive for the typical price on this route but reasonable compared to the other options. Two nights with the Qatar stopover program (the layover was 20 hours otherwise, but the dates lined up better with a stop. And multi-city didn't work.) which unfortunately requires getting a hotel pushed it over $500.

As you can see Doha is a little bit out of the way 😅. It adds around 7 hours of flying time which I'm not complaining about! Leaving on the 4th also meant that I could fly the A350 out of CCU rather than the more standard 787-8.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport

I've reviewed CCU a few times already in previous FRs. It was fairly quiet around this time internationally and even more quiet on the domestic side. There wasn't any line for check-in.

They actually weighed carry-ons which I was surprised about, full service carriers tend to not bother with that.
Immigration and security took much longer than check-in, especially security. There was a shortage of trays and for some reason in Indian airports cords and chargers all need to be taken out in security. They flagged my small bag, but it just sat on a chair for 5-10 minutes with most of the security staff disappearing and leaving one man alone there until finally someone came and gave my bag back.
Only two A320s, one of Thai AirAsia and one of Etihad departing around the time of our flight.

A7-ALL, an 8.7 year old A350-900 that has been with Qatar for its whole life, but out of service for a while during the paint issues, will fly us to Doha tonight this morning.

They tried to board by zone but it was a little chaotic with everyone getting in line immediately. Luckily it didn't take too long.

Cabin

I did take a couple of pictures of the business cabin but they were extremely blurry. I was able to get some of economy, though.

My seat, 40A, just a few rows from the back.

Nice colors and design.

The headrest was partially adjustable: it went up and down, but the sides didn't move.

There was a seatback screen at every seat, with a remote.

Note the OneWorld logo - the alliance was only mentioned once throughout the flight, at the beginning.

The remote was slow to respond but it worked, and the wi-fi which was meant to let you use a phone as a remote didn't work at all.
Seatback pocket had a safety card and sickness bag, no magazine.

Personal lights and, as I noticed later, air vents.

We were parked next to Etihad and Thai AirAsia A320s, heading to Abu Dhabi and Phuket (new route) respectively.

Back to our flight: there were headpones and a pillow and blanket (both comfortable) at each seat.

The tray table had a little hole in the middle, I'm not quite sure why, and was a bit dirty. As you can see it was foldable.

The screen could be angled upwards and had a USB-A port and headphone jack.

IFE & Departure

I had a look at the IFE while waiting for departure and it was honestly a bit underwhelming, the games catalogue was tiny and the movies and TV selection was quite limited. I'm sure it's won lots of awards but it doesn't come anywhere near Emirates' ice and genuinely felt more similar to what was available on my flight on Royal Jordanian or Kuwait Airways… ok, that might be an exxageration at least in Kuwait Airways' case, but it was quite disappointing and even on this flight I struggled to find something to watch, it would get pretty boring after a couple of long haul flights. I really need to have lower expectations.
But I'll let you see for yourself (this wasn't the entire selection, by the way).
As usual, the order of pictures gets messed up in galleries.

Now, one thing that was a bit better than Emirates was the safety video. It was longer than the Emirates one, but it helped that it was only in English (in fact I think there was just a single announcement in Arabic, shorly before descent into Doha) and not repeated. It was also a bit entertaining itself, featuring a somewhat frustrated and sarcastic black man. It was a little strange as it felt like a US carrier's safety video and every single person was American, while Emirates' was far more diverse.
There was also a very short Arabic prayer as the wait continued. The flight wasn't actually late, I'd just boarded early. Thai AirAsia and Etihad left us behind.

The crew handed out packets of wipes which were nice and cold.

We pushed back past a completely empty international area. There were just a few A320s and 737s from Indian domestic carriers that I didn't bother taking pictures of.

Orange and blue lighting was turned on.

And we're off, my first flight in about four months.

Breakfast

I wasn't sure if it would be breakfast or dinner on this flight, but they announced breakfast which makes more sense even for a (very) early morning flight. While waiting I browsed the IFE selection a bit more. One good thing was that you didn't have to sit through minutes of ads before watching anything, but on the other hand, unlike with Singapore Airlines, after closing something you'd need to navigate all the way back to it.
Lighting changed before breakfast:

Meal service began around 40 minutes after departure, so about 4:30 AM Indian time. They served kids' meals first, which I can't remember seeing on any other airline. It was a nice touch but a bit innefficient and I didn't get my meal until around 5:00. This was over an hour after departure and while it was fine for me since I didn't sleep, many people were trying to get some rest and this would have been fairly disruptive for them.
Special meals were served with regular meals. Along with my meal I got a mango juice.

I liked the little design on the paper on the napkin with the cutlery. It's a small thing but it does make a difference.

This is the meal, pretty decent portions.

The main course was idli, a South Indian dish, and some kind of noddles? Or rice?

There were sides of fruit and chia seed pudding.

And bread with butter and fruit jam.

Metal cutlery with the oryx-head logo.

The meal was okay, the main dish was decent if nothing amazing and the fruits were good. The bread was quite dry and not too tasty and the chia seed pudding was unfortunately barely edible and I could only have a few bites. I don't dislike chia seed pudding in general but this one was just pretty bad.
There was a bit of turbulence a few times during mealtime, but a bumb-free flight otherwise.

The trays sat uncollected for quite a while and it was over an hour and a half from when the meal service began to when the trays were cleared.

In-flight & Arrival

I used the bathroom after the meal service, it was small but clean. I asked an FA if they had toothbrushes or any other amenities available, she said the flight was too short but was nice about it. Other than that the FAs weren't very friendly, they were polite but just didn't make an effort to be extra hospitable.
On the amenities, Singapore Airlines had them available on request on their 4 hour flight from Singapore, and Thai on their 2 hour flight from Bangkok, but what to do…
Cabin view as I returned to my seat:

Later the lighting switched to Thai colors.

Getting closer…

There was a very quick beverage run just with some cups on a tray a little over an hour before arrival. This was good, I wish it happened more often on flights. I got orange juice.

I used the bathroom again, and took another picture of the cabin.

Lighting got turned on again…

…and changed

First break in the water as we approach Qatar.

The seatbelt had the QR oryx logo, I hadn't noticed that before.

A video promoting Hamad airport was played from every screen.

Followed by a video promoting tourist destinations across the State of Qatar.

Getting really close…

The winglet looks elegant and beautiful especially over the water.

Land!

Hamad International Airport, with the city of Doha to the northwest.

A little resort which I later learned is called Banana Island.

We looped around to the north past Doha.

Some great views of the capital city.

I saw four planes from the air, all following the same southbound path into Hamad airport. They're very blurry here but you should be able to make them out.

We finally turned around and started heading toward the airport.

Yet another lighting change.

Some fancy buildings on little artificial islands.

Some more interesting buildings we passed over just before landing.

Welcome to Qatar!

Hamad International Airport

Air India and Oman Air as the first foreign representatives in Hamad airport.

Qatar Airways was unsurprisingly dominant otherwise.
Qatars…

Oh look, Turkish Airlines! (sorry for the blurry pictures, I had to zoom in)

Malaysia Airlines coming in from Kuala Lumpur, with a bunch of Qatars.

More Qatars.

Parking next to a (Qatar, of course) A320 at a very remote stand.

Deplaning was from the rear exit for economy, sadly I couldn't get a proper picture of our plane.

Last shot of A7-ALL.

Then began an extremely long bus ride to the terminal (maybe 20 minutes or so). Along the way, an A320, among many larger Qatar aircraft.

Qatar planes everywhere.

Japan Airlines!

Right next to the Malaysia Airlines A330.

Finally we were deposited at the terminal. On the way up on an escalator, I saw a more unique airline: Shenzhen Airlines which had come from (you'd never guess) Shenzhen.

The airport was decent, clean and modern, better than where I arrived in DXB.
I'm not sure what the significance of this guy is. Different souvenirs with this on it were available in the gift shop of the National Museum as well.

There was a water display but not much else.

Immigration was quite slow, the lines weren't too long but they didn't move very quickly. Of course, that meant that bags arrived faster.

Arrivals at this time. The only actual non-Qatar flights seem to be Pakistan International Airlines from Peshawar, Egyptair from Cairo, Air India Express from Trivandrum/Thiruvananthapuram, Saudia from Riyadh, AirArabia from Sharjah, Kuwait Airways from Kuwait, Oman Air from Muscat… oh there are actually quite a few. 

Time to head to the Qatar stopover hotel for just under two days in Doha, before the flight to Perth.
Of course passing some more Qatar planes on the way!

Thanks for reading!