Review of Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Budapest in Economy

Welcome to the second flight report of the Balkans series. In this flight report, I cover the rebooked flight from Doha to Budapest, over our original flight to Belgrade.

Connection missed

As there was no jetbridge for our incoming QR945 flight from Singapore, we had to wait for one. By the time we alighted, it was 6.55am and our QR231 flight to Belgrade was due to depart at 7.20am.
Qatar Airways sent a ground crew to attempt to help us connect to the next flight. The sent representative held a placard with 'Belgrade' on it and we hurriedly identified ourselves to him.
He sent us through the premium passenger security lane and we were through at 7.05am. As we walked further through the airport, the representative received an order at 7.08am to stop sending us to the flight since the flight had to depart.
We surrendered to our fate as the representative took our passports to evaluate the options to get to Belgrade.
During the 15 minutes wait, I conjectured that the following will happen:
1) QR will rebook us to the flight the next day and give us a night in Doha.
2) QR will rebook us to random flights to get to Belgrade somehow.
I explained these to my parents and it reassured them since this was the first time it happened to them.

The representative came back and offered exactly what I told my parents, and we decided to accept the rebooking to Belgrade via Budapest. This was the most cost effective option since we had non-refundable hotels booked in Belgrade. Anyway, this gave me the opportunity to try QR's B787.

We were issued new boarding passes after rebooking and my precious QR945 boarding pass was taken and destroyed. I spent a moment grieving since I wanted to keep that along with my other boarding passes.

The representative then sweet talked us to thinking that QR will offer us compensation after we email them. He told us that we would either get a refund of the SIN-DOH-BEG segment or a possible business class upgrade to ZAG-DOH-SIN.
As of this moment in writing, QR customer service has only sent an automated response acknowledging my email and nothing since.
I'm very doubtful we'll get any compensation from this since we're mere economy class peasants not worthy of their precious time.

Does anybody in this community have a similar experience with QR? I've seen many highly negative pissed reviews on their customer service and I see why now.

Therefore, my conjecture is that QR is betting on the 99.9% chance that customers will enjoy the onboard experience and not have anything to complain about, while neglecting the 0.1% chance that something bad will happen.

Inflight experience

I did not take any pictures of Hamad airport since we were all recovering from the shock of missing our connection. We immediately went to the gate for QR199 and sat there until boarding.
Boarding was called and we boarded the flight to Budapest. Operating our flight is A7-BCC, a 12.2 year old B787-8.

The seat pitch is again 31 inches but it didn't feel that tight for the 1.77m me. As this is an older aircraft, there is an entertainment box below the aisle seats, restricting legroom of passengers.
Having roamed flightreport.com for some time, I can also tell that this aircraft has been refurbished once since the B787-8 screens did not look like this back in 2014.
Each row of 3 seats share 2 power ports between them.
The seat pocket contains a safety card and a vomit bag.
A pillow and blanket was placed on each seat. No amenity kit this time.

Cabin view after all passengers boarded. The flight to Budapest was pretty full.

After takeoff, crew pushed the beverage cart and distributed snacks to passengers.
We got a packet of sea salt rice crackers which tasted fine.
I like that QR openly displays all forms of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available on their drinks cart. This allows passengers to make an informed choice for drinks.
I went with a gin and tonic and a cup of water. I enjoyed the size of QR's cups. They feel bigger than most airline cups and can hold a greater volume of beverage.

30 minutes later, crew pushed the meal carts to distribute meals. Lunch was served on this flight.
I still find it remarkable that QR is so generous to give passengers 3 meal choices.
The choices for main course that day were chilli beef con carne with rice, tomato sauce chicken pasta or some vegetarian dish which none of us picked.
The starter was Halloumi carrot and pea salad, which tasted great despite me disliking cheese.
The dessert was pineapple cheesecake which tasted great despite me disliking cheese.
There was also an 'infused bread' which didn't seem to have any butter infused, and also a bottle of water.
QR uses metal cutlery for economy class, which is nice.

I picked the chilli beef con carne with rice and enjoyed my food. The chilli beef con carne was not spicy and it would taste good with pasta.
My mother enjoyed her tomato sauce chicken pasta.

I got vodka ginger ale and orange juice for my drinks.

The generosity of QR didn't stop for the main meal service.
In order to satisfy incredibly peckish or hungry passengers, QR set up a movie snack bar in the galley and passengers were allowed to help themselves to the stash.

I took a bag of potato chips, which tasted amazing.
I then returned to my seat to enjoy some movies on the touchscreen. QR's inflight entertainment is decent but not in the league of Emirates.

I then proceeded to intoxicate myself with Bailey's and a cup of water.

The flight landed punctually in Budapest. I caught a glimpse of Hungary's tourism slogan: Family-friendly Hungary. Maybe I'll visit Hungary with my wife next time.

To conclude, an excellent onboard experience with QR. I enjoyed my flight to Budapest.

Budapest Airport is a horrible airport for transfers. It gave us a nerve-wrecking transfer experience for our short 2h transfer to fly Air Serbia to Belgrade. This will be elaborated in the next report.