First Look: Qatar Airways Qsuite Business Class
There's a new top contender for the world's leading business-class product — Qatar Airways' Qsuite has finally arrived! CEO Akbar Al Baker unveiled the airline's fantastic new biz class with much fanfare at the Paris Air Show today — there was even a live band.
After a short presentation, journalists were invited to tour the rear biz cabin of the new plane as Al Baker conducted live interviews in the forward cabin.
Qatar Qsuite Center Seats
The showstopper here is the airline's new "double bed," which you'll find at the center "honeymoon" seats — that is, the two center seats positioned closest together; in this case we're talking about 8E and 8F.
These seats face the rear — you also have the option of moving the displays to the sides to connect these two center seats with the two in the row behind, to create what's called a "quad." You can take a 360-degree tour of a quad in the photo below.
I'm a big fan of the double bed concept — previously, you'd only be able to find such a thing in first class, such as in Singapore Suites or Etihad's A380 Apartment. Being able to experience this in business class is pretty neat.
Be careful which seats you book if you're after a quad, though — for example, seats in row 11 face backwards, but don't form a quad, since they're in the far back of the cabin.
Qatar Qsuite Window Seat
If you're a solo traveller, you'll be best off with a window seat — we're talking seats A, B, K and J.
In the forward cabin, window seats in odd-numbered are positioned closer to the window, while that applies to even-numbered rows in the rear cabin. The reverse is true for seats located closest to the aisle.
You'll have plenty of privacy regardless of which seat you book, though — there's a center partition between middle seats and all seats have sliding doors.
There's plenty of tech to take advantage of, too, from a large touchscreen display to a side control panel with intuitive seat controls, a universal power outlet, two USB ports, a headphone jack, HDMI port and a handheld touchscreen controller.
Bottom Line
Of course I'll need to spend some serious time (on a flight) in order to fully evaluate Qatar's new biz, but I sat in a couple seats and spent a few (nervous) seconds in the double bed, and it's safe to say this is a very impressive product.
Qsuites officially debuts this Saturday, on Qatar Flight 7 from Doha to London, followed by Paris, New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. I'll be on board the first flight, and I'll share my review shortly after.
See these posts for more on the 2017 Paris Air Show:
- 5 Things I'm Most Excited About Seeing at the 2017 Paris Air Show
- Flying Above Paris on One of the Coolest 757s I've Ever Seen
- Paris Air Show (hub page)
I'll be sharing more posts on this site throughout the week, and you can catch the action in realtime via my Instagram and Twitter feeds as well.
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