My flight was with American Airlines 120. The flight was delayed 3 hours and I missed my connection. When I arrived in Doha, the AA staff told me to call an 800 number to rebook a different flight, which was unacceptable. Eventually a Qatar Air staff member helped rebook me on a flight to Manila, that was 12 hours later. They offered me a hotel and meal voucher which I declined, because I didn’t want to leave the airport. Long story short, I spent 12 hours in the Doha airport waiting for my next flight.
The staff was great and probably that's the single most thing that distinguished this particular Qatar flight from my average typical experience. They genuinely wanted to please you and do their best.
The Achilles heel of the experience with Qatar Airways is the Doha Airport, especially for travellers arriving into Doha and not transiting. This airport suffers from being ambitiously big and the immigration into Qatar being overly time taking. At the end of my particular flight in which my travel was ending in Doha, the plane parked at a very remote terminal, from where it took me 30 minutes to arrive just at the immigration counter, with fast paced walking and the time on a train inside the airport. Then, at the immigration counter it takes up to a minute or more to process each tourist visitor,due to time taking face and finger scanning processes and langugage barriers if there are questions or information to be exchanged verbally with the officers. If several planes have landed at the same time, it is not unusual that one has to wait 45 to 60 minutes in the immigration queue. In short, the frustration of arriving at Doha takes away all positive vibe of the airline, as the airline and the airport are heavily intertwined and are marketed together.
It was ok, not much more can be said, as long as airlines/aircraft manufacturers insist on cramming in as many seats as possible....best of a bad situations, seats are simply too uncomfortable to sit in for more than a few hours. Lack of flexible headrests not a help on long overnight flights either.
Liked some flight attendants. 1 was rude I'll not say her name I don't want to get her jn trouble on my flight back to Dallas from Doha. Very rude to some races of people clearly. She needs a better attitude and bedside manners. Asking her questions and she responds "WHAT" twice rudely like I was bothering her and "is it going to be cranberry or mango juice with an attitude".
They didn't board by zones and it was a free for all. The 16 hour flight was the most excruciating experience of my life and the seats were TINY... with no leg space and my feet were swollen immediately. The food was so bad it was inedible.
riding in first class, you don't expect every time you order your dinner or breakfast that the first thing the stewardess says is Let me see if we have any left. Also, the food selection was not great: 3 of 4 entrees had mushrooms and I dont eat mushrooms, the 4th item was 'let me see if we have any left' and this was within 30 mins of entering the flight! Same experience level, it didn't feel first class this round.
Qatar Airways in-flight first/business class service is superior to any US airline; excellent meals are served on short haul flights such as between DXB and DOH.
Was downgraded from business to economy due to a faulty seat in business class. However when I boarded the plane there were no less than 5 free business class seats. Will never fly Qatar Airways again
Doha airport is huge , takes long time to reach gate .
