(soft music)
- Well, welcome to Qatar Airway's 787.
I'm in Business Class in row five,
and this is actually the inaugural flight,
from London Gatwick to Doha.
A slightly late take off,
but that's no fault of
Qatar's or Gatwick's,
it's due to a strike in France.
But now we're on our way,
and we've got a day flight.
About six and a half hours,
and land in Doha
somewhere around midnight.
Thanks for all your comments
on previous reviews.
Very warmly appreciated, all the feedback.
I particularly like the fact,
that people say I'm really really dull,
so I'm gonna try and
liven this one up a bit.
Apparently one of the
things that you really need,
is a baseball cap, except
maybe not worn that way.
Maybe this is what will
make the difference,
and make this a more fun
review, plus a few fake smiles.
Meantime, let's tell you about the flight.
Qatar's had the 787 for quite a while.
This is a new flight, it's
going double daily on Gatwick,
from today, which is May 22nd.
There's some talk about whether
it's actually gonna stick
around beyond October.
We'll find out later, but in the meantime,
it's worthwhile having a look at the 787,
particularly in Business Class,
because it has a fantastic...
(cabin announcement)
We're about to take seats
because of turbulence.
It has a fantastic
layout of one, two, one,
and there's five rows.
As I say, I'm in row five,
and I'll show you around the cabin
when this turbulence ends.
One of the astonishing
things that they have
on this Qatar Airways
flight, is this large area,
by the door, that includes
not only magazines,
and then of course how we came in,
but on the other side, which
is where the main cabin is,
the main cabin for
Business Class, this table.
Where you can I guess, stretch your legs,
have some fruit, or have some snacks.
The layout of the cabin, as
you can see, is very spacious.
You've got a one, two, one configuration.
There are only five
rows of four seats here,
and then two seats behind,
so it's a total of 22 seats.
And it's very, very comfortable.
You can tell from the
darker windows there,
that people have got
control over the windows.
You just press a button
and the window darkens,
for those people who want to watch
the in-flight entertainment,
or maybe get some sleep.
This is a day flight so it's not too dark.
You can also see the mood
lighting that the 787 enables.
The seat has got lots of room.
I'm in a center seat here, 5F,
and although I've made
a complete mess of it,
and I've pulled the table partly out,
you can see how much room I've got.
The table will fold out even further.
Let me show you that firstly.
So you'd have it in that
position for dining I guess,
but then it will also get
completely out of the way.
There's plenty of storage.
You can see just down
there, there's the power,
where I've got my laptop plugged into,
and there's some storage there.
There's also storage here.
I think a few people miss this,
but there's a place for shoes just here.
Then you've got more space here.
That's obviously for water
bottle and headphones.
Then you've got room for magazines,
and all the mess that I've
put on the side table.
There's a reading light,
and extra power there for a USB.
Those are the seat controls.
It's a very easy seat to control.
So, what's so special about
Qatar Airways Business Class?
Well, on the 787 and the
A350 it's fairly similar.
The first thing is the
amount of space you get.
You're talking one, two,
one across the aircraft.
That gives you a huge amount of space.
The second thing is the
service, it's absolutely superb.
Just on a short delay, we
were asked several times
if there was anything they could do.
They kept refilling drinks,
everything was done,
to make the delay as
pleasurable as possible.
Thirdly there's the actual product itself.
There's the seat, how much room you get.
It's fully flat bed, and the
amount of space for working.
You've got power, you've
even got Wi-Fi on board.
You get the first eight
megabytes of Wi-Fi for free.
Then you've got the food and the drink.
This is the drinks menu,
first of all champagne.
We've got Pommery, Drappier Root Rose,
and moving on to the white wines.
Burgundy is an Albert
Bichot Pouilly-Fuisse 2015.
Sauvignon Blanc is a Villa
Maria from New Zealand,
that's cellar selection 2016 Marlborough.
The Discovery, which would be
a pleasant thing to discover,
would be the Chenin
Blanc from South Africa,
Swartland, Bush Vine 2016.
Then the Bordeaux is
Chateau Lynch-Moussas,
a Grand Cru Classe Pauillac 2012.
Let's just see, there's normally
a really good Port, Ooh no, there's more.
Shiraz, Killerman's Run,
Claire Valley Australia 2015,
and then the Discovery here,
is the Terre Del Grico
Primitivo 2012, Italy.
Oh my goodness me, then
there's a Dessert Wine,
Alvear Pedro Ximenez Solera 1927.
And then the Port, which is Gran Cruz,
Porto 1992 Douro Valley, Portugal.
Then you got the spirits, Glenfiddich,
I've been told to say, Chivas Regal,
Jack Daniels, Belvedere
Vodka, Bombay Sapphire.
Gin and Bacardi, Carte Blanca White Rum.
Beers are Peroni, Heineken, Hoegaarden,
and then of course some cocktails.
So this is the special menu.
Obviously this is just for the
inaugural of London Gatwick.
See here, A la carte menu.
Hopefully that's in focus.
Soup, roasted butternut squash soup.
Appetizers, Arabic mezze and
smoked tenderloin of salmon.
Mains, Chicken Machboos,
please excuse my pronunciation.
Chargrilled filet of beef,
and Paneer Tikka Masala.
Then there's a selection of breads,
desserts and some light
options for this...
It's a day flight, so
you're landing quite late.
Nearly midnight with the time difference.
That's the basic beverage menu.
They've got alcohol free
bubbly, some mocktails,
and some cold beverages,
then teas and coffees.
They've got everything
that you would want,
and expect in Business Class.
There are only 22 Business
Class seats in this cabin.
The two to avoid are actually
there, just on the other side.
They're normally used
for crew rest, I think.
But the main cabin here is
five rows of one, two, one,
so it's very exclusive,
and you get a lot of personal attention.
Right now, just looking down the cabin,
there are three flight
attendants coming round,
serving drinks, and serving appetizers
for the food, it is fairly amazing.
That is the Salmon and Wusabi Amooz Boosh,
and this is the Arabic Mezze.
We're just beginning
our descent into Doha.
The flights gone quite quickly actually,
it's bee five and a half, six hours.
It's been a very good flight,
very good food and wine.
The staff have been fantastic,
always up and down the aisles,
asking if we need anything
more during the flight.
There's enough room on this flight,
that you can work right the way through,
and power all your devices,
or you can get some sleep.
People have done both,
or they've just watched the
in-flight entertainment,
there's a good choice there.
It'll be really interesting to
see how this Business Class,
which is one of the best flying,
compares with the new Qatar
Airways Business Class,
which is the Business
Suite on the A350000.
I'm flying that back from Doha tomorrow.
In the meantime, that's
the end of this one.
I hope you found it useful,
and got some guidance on the cabin.
Any comments, please put them
on the bottom of this YouTube channel,
and of course subscribe, thanks very much.
(soft music)
