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TRIP REPORT: Summer Premium Adventures – QR302 Helsinki to Doha (Business Class)

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QR302 Helsinki Vantaa to Hamad International Airport-Doha (Business Class)
Summer Premium Adventures

Singapore and Bangkok Trip Report

In this Summer Premium Adventure (Warning: Long!)

QR302 Helsinki Vantaa to Hamad International Airport
Qatar Airways, Airbus A350-900, Seat 2K
140 Tier Points Earned, 2,732 Base Avios + 683 Cabin Bonus

a group of people boarding an airplane
Everyone aboard QR302!

a plane with a logo on it
Looking to the nose… 

a large jet engine on a tarmac
I like big Trents and I cannot lie.

After another drive around the tarmac at Helsinki airport, and eventually, we pulled up against the waiting Airbus A350-900.  Also entertainingly, a Japan Airlines Boeing 787-9 was pushing back at the same time. It seems gate space at peak time is a major problem for Helsinki Airport.

Japan Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner at Helsinki Vantaa Airport - Image, Economy Class and Beyond

 

With a few pictures in hand of the Japan Airlines aircraft I climbed the stairs to the waiting business class experience

a circular ceiling with a sign
The grand entranceway

a plane with seats and windows
The business class cabin in-flight.

a vase with red roses
Roses are red. 

This Airbus A350-900 is configured with the original Collins Aerospace SuperDiamond open style seat and cabin.

 

a seat in a plane
Collins Aerospace SuperDiamond Business Class Seat 

a close up of a remote control
Seat controls.

a screen on a table
IFE Screen. 

a light in the ceiling
Overhad panel with air vents.

Whilst I may be in Qsuites later, there is no shame at all in the SuperDiamond. With over a 1000 installs, it is a pretty damn good business class seat, with room for storage, flat-bed, and straight-up comfort in most positions, as well as mains and USB outlets.

The cabin in this A350 only had overhead bins at the side – with none installed in the middle to create a very spacious cabin. I settled in and greeted by the cabin crew member who would be looking after me. I was offered drinks and a choice of towels.

The cabin crew member also pointed out where the headphones were hidden, the BRICS amenity kit and so on.

a small black and white bag on a table
Amenity kit

a black bag with a blue bag next to a white bag with a blue bag and other small white tubes on a wood surface
And the contents of it – this one went to a co-worker. To say they were ecstatic about it would be an understatement.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen – if you’ve never flown Qatar Airways before, you get a choice to towels – either a hot one or a cold one

It’s a small thing, but in hotter climbs or if you’ve been running around, a cold towel can be a wonderful thing to have.

a glass of champagne and a towel on a tray
Welcome drinks and towel.

The menus were also distributed, and the cabin manager came to say hello as well. It’s a well-rehearsed thing with Qatar Airways, and it shows with the attention to detail.

a hand holding a menu a menu of a restaurant a hand holding a menu
Menu

The meal service would be “dine any time.” As I have had a bit to eat so far, and I wanted to get some typing done – I held off on my man meal until two hours after takeoff. That and I wanted to do some typing before I had dinner in the air.

With the cabins loaded (and only 7 people in Business Class), the doors went to close, It was time to begin this part of the adventure.

But not before my favourite safety video. And that was said with tongue in cheek. Or as I call this pair – the Akbar Al Baker enforcer duo.

a screen shot of a television

Both of which are there for your safety, but will happily take you out of if you say a bad thing about Qatar Airways, or dare ask about Premium Economy Seating.

a hand holding a paper with instructions a hand holding a safety instructions
The safety card.

a close up of a seat belt
The safety belt buckle – it’s all in the details.

With that video performed twice (once in English, once in Arabic), the A350 begun a short taxi around Helsinki airport

a plane on the runway
A sight we won’t see much more of… Thomas Cook Airbus A321

a runway with a building in the background
Bye Vantaa! 

a couple of airplanes on a runway
Traffic everywhere

a plane on a runway
Finnair Airbus A330-300

an airplane wing on a runway
Looking backwards – with of course that Airbus Sharklet. 

With no other aircraft in the way, their pair o Rolls Royce Trent engines spooled up and propelled QR302 into the sky, starting the long journey to Doha.

a tv on a wall

clouds and clouds from an airplane

a window with a view of clouds and land

an aerial view of a city an aerial view of a city

an airplane wing in the air

an airplane wing with a view of the sky

the sun shining over clouds

a view of the ocean from an airplane window

With the aircraft in the air, I thought it would be fun to attempt to hit the Wi-Fi service. Last time I tried this, this was the old L Band service the airline used to offer.

a seat in an airplane
Cabin during cruise

However, it seems that the Inmarsat Global Express equipment had been switched on this bird. Which is good in theory. What wasn’t good was it took the aircraft a good two hours to find a satellite lock to give stable broadband connectivity aboard QR302.

 

a sign with text on it
That’s less than optimal.

a screenshot of a cell phone
So is this.

When it was up – it was plenty fast enough, and with a snappy response to make for a pleasant experience. Especially since the first hour of the connectivity was free.

a screen shot of a phone

Can’t argue with that.

Post departure drinks and hot nuts were offered too.

a glass of wine next to a bowl of nuts and a charger

I chose to dine on-demand as I wanted to get some typing done first, so I skipped the main wave of meals. This gave me time to explore the Thales IFE system. This had a remote control and touch interface on it – that made for a reasonably good browsing experience.

 

I headed to my default experience at 35,00ft – Comedy programing. Thankfully, there’s a fair bit of animated content, with Bobs Burgers and Futurama filling this gap nicely.

a power outlet with cords plugged into it
At least the IFE system had mains and USB Power. And that silly eXconnect plug that I used once in 2013.

a screen on a plane
Top Gear too .

a screen on a table
And Everybody loves Hypnotoad! (although it got a little weak in the 3rd season)

With a little bit of bad typing done (I was focusing on text entry rather than precision) and the flight nearly three hours in – this was the perfect time for dinner.

I had chosen the Beef bresaola and Lamb biryani, I was interested to see how Helsinki catering could handle Qatar Airways catering style.

an airplane window with a sunset in the background
And a sunset whilst dinner was in progress.

a bowl of bread and salt and pepper shakers on a table
Pieces of bread, butter, oil and grinders.

a plate of food with a fork
Amuse bouche

a table with food on it and a television on the screen

a plate of meat and tomatoes
Beef bresaola

a plate of food on a table
Lamb Biryani

a white towel on a table next to a television
Post dinner chocolates 

The answer was of course – pretty well.

First thing, let’s talk about the placing – and I’m going to refer to it as “Qatar Airways candle-lit suppers by Hyacinth Bucket.”  If you’re not aware of the reference, I’m referring to a classic British Comedy “Keeping up Appearances” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances, where a certain Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) attempts to climb the social ladder.

Badly.

Back to the table layout, where yes – there is a candle on the metal tray. Of course – it’s an LED battery powered candle and not the real thing. This is added to the table setting, along with an option of bread, butter and olive oils for your bread

a plate of food on a table with a television
the layout.

a glass of water and a candle on a table
And a bit of detail

The beef starter was an interesting take on the tomato and mozzarella starter, whilst the lamb byriani was full of flavour for an in-flight meal

With the meal cleared down, it was time to continue watch Futurama, as day turned to night at 35,000ft. Which is always a nice experience – but even nicer in a SuperDiamaond seat. It’s no wonder that 1000 of these are deployed out there – they offer an easy to control experience, which at a lot of angles is very comfortable

Certainly, a certain British airline made the right decision in purchasing these for their Airbus A350 fleet – even if they’ve gone full Beyonce and stuck a door on it.

And there are times like this it’s easy to lay back and watch the world go by… and not worry about virtual desktops, servers and the grind of the daily world.

Eventually, the captain came on the speaker, announcing it was 40 minutes to landing. This starts the bustle of pre-arrivals and tidying the cabin.

 

a sign on the ceiling of an airplane  a seat in a plane
In preparation for landing…

I took the opportunity to re-organise myself, rebag a few things (ensuring I took my amenity kit), and put the seat back into the upright position

Meanwhile, the attentive member of staff checked on me and thanked me for flying Qatar Airways.

If there’s something I like about flying the airline – its the attention to detail and interactions with the staff who know when to be approachable, and when to leave a passenger to rest.

a computer screen with a map and a plane on it
That way to Doha.

With the midnight sky of a Doha night, our aircraft weaved its way around the airspace as it headed to its home base.

an airplane with a bright light

an aerial view of a city at night
HAmad International Airport below

And with ease, QR302 landed at its home base of Hamad International Airport.

With QR302 peeling off the runway, the aircraft taxied around the tarmac for a while, before making a turn away from the terminal areas.

airplanes at night in an airport
On the ground

a screen with a picture of a road and lights
Let’s play “hunt a hard stand”.

Wonderful. We’re up to bus number 4 this trip. And yes, I’m still counting

a screen on a table
Onto the stand.

With the aircraft parked, the seatbelt signs were released.

a group of people standing in an airplane
The cabin during disembarkation

The seven business class passengers got up and prepared to get off the aircraft first to their waiting bus – whilst economy class passengers were held back.

a group of people standing in a room with a door open 
Open the doors HAL.

a plane at an airport
LATAM A350, and the premium bus.

Overall

A rather polished performance by Qatar Airways on QR302, with attention to detail and very little to fault apart from some oddities with the in-flight connectivity and of course, the undesirable boarding and disembarkation by bus. But otherwise, everything was on point, the cabin crew were attentive without being intrusive and the seat is still one of the best in the business as a flatbed solution.

Next: A Short Doha Transit.

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Comments

  1. CraigTPA says

    All Glory to the Hypnotoad!

    Sounds like an excellent flight, the food looks great. The buses…less so. As someone who’s done the majority of his flying in the US, I don’t understand the European/Middle Eastern thing of running wide-bodies out of remote stands, although as an aviation geek I love the resulting views of the plane!

    • Kevincm says

      ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

      And yes. I struggle with airports in Europe and the Middle East that extensively rely on buses.

      Don’t get me wrong – I love the tour… but not in the middle of the night, nor when I want to go to the small room …

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