Qatar's Qsuites First Revenue Flight Appears Set for June 24
Although we've heard rumors about other dates, we have the best indication yet for when Qatar's Qsuite business class product is going to make its debut: June 24.
We still don't have official confirmation from Qatar that this will be the first revenue flight of its revolutionary new business class product. However, this morning Qatar loaded a new business class seating arrangement starting June 24 on QR Flight #7 from Doha (DOH) to London (LHR). Qatar had previously confirmed that this is the debut route of Qsuites.
ExpertFlyer shows the current 777-300ER 2-2-2 business class cabin on June 23, but June 24 shows the new 1-2-1 arrangement of the Qsuite:
The timing is no accident. This date would be immediately after the Paris Air Show, where Qatar is sure to want to show off its first aircraft with the new business class product.
TPG Editor-in-Chief Zach Honig will be in Paris to cover the air show, so we'll hope to get a chance to see it there first. But we'll get an even better look at the new product when Zach flies Qatar Flight #7 on June 24.
If you want to join him, a one-way on the nonstop from DOH-LHR on June 24 is running $4,238 (or $5,523 round-trip). However, if you don't mind positioning down to Sri Lanka, a one-way from Colombo (CMB) to London (LHR) via Doha costs just $1,632.
One curious part of the seat map: all of the four-person group seats are blocked. It'll be interesting to see if these can only be reserved by groups of four. We ran a test booking on Qatar's website but weren't able to get to seat selection before purchasing the tickets. During the booking process, it notes "Seat selection and special assistance services can be requested at the confirmation page or using the Manage Booking option."
If these seats are blocked for these groups, it'll also be interesting to see when/if the blocks are removed. If Qatar sells all of the single seats, will subsequent purchasers have unassigned seats until check-in?
Haven't seen the new Qsuites quad-design? Check out TPG's 360 tour of the product from ITB Berlin:
And here's TPG's take of the product after checking it out:
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