Qatar Airways B787 Launch London Gatwick to Doha - Business Traveller
Qatar Airways B787 Launch London Gatwick to Doha with Tom Otley, Editor of Business Traveller magazine.
Full review here:
Video transcript:
- - 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... 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.