QR175 Hamad International Airport to Oslo (Business Class)
Summer Premium Adventures
In this Summer Premium Adventure (Warning: Long!)
- In the Summertime when the weather is hot…
- Off to Heathrow, British Airways Galleries North Lounge
- BA762 London Heathrow to Oslo – A321neo (EuroTraveller)
- Oslo Airport, OSL Lounge
- AY914 Oslo to Helsinki, Business Class
- Helsinki Airport lounging
- QR302 Helsinki to Doha (Business Class)
- Doha Lounge Stop Part 1
- QR946 Doha to Singapore (QSuites)
- Hotel Indigo, Katong, Singapore
- Exploring Hawker Markets
- Intercontinental, Bugis, Singapore
- Orchids Everywhere – The National Orchid Garden
- Off to Changi featuring the Singapore Pokemon Centre
- Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok
- Dream Hotel, Bangkok
- Exploring the Wats
- Food Mistakes in Bangkok (Or Regrets. I have a more than a few)
- Back to Suvarnabhumi, Qatar Airways Lounge, Bangkok Airport
- QR833 Bangkok to Doha (QSuites)
- Another long Doha Layover
- QR175 Doha to Oslo
- Back at Oslo Airport
- BA767 Oslo to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
- Homeward bound
- Always Curious
QR175 Hamad International Airport Doha to Oslo Gardermoen Airport
Qatar Airways, Boeing 787-8
Business Class, Seat 5A/1F,
3,082 Miles flown, 140 Tier Points Earned, 3,081 Avios earned + 770 Avios Cabin Bonus
Whilst the bus I was going to be on wasn’t a premium bus (used for their business class passengers), it wasn’t overloaded – showing other airports in the world that playing sardines in a bus is entirely optional – and having room for people to be comfortable in actually a thing.
LATAM A350 subbing for Qatar Airways aircraft.
Shocking I know – but there you have it. Airports can under-load buses too.
Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER
The mighty Qatar Airways A380. Shame these will be gone by 2022…
LATAM A350-900 again.
With the short bus ride complete, it parked next to the waiting Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that would take me to Oslo.
I climbed aboard the waiting Boeing 787 and turned left for my window seat of 5A.
Boarding.
Tug approaching.
Big engines are the best.
When you use only one door.
Seat 5A is near the main entrance to the cabin, with only one window – far in front of the seat. Behind me, the cabin was boarding.
Oh well. It’s a seat at this point of the game. I’m not going to argue much.
The view from Row 5
A long way to the window…
A cabin crew member came to greet me, checked if I was ok. In addition, they asked if I could switch seat, so a family could sit together.
With the crew member confirming the seat would be 1F (I just wanted a window seat with… an actual window). I was more than happy to make the seat-swap.
Seat 5A was not turning to be a good option on this Boeing 787. That, and I have a love of Row 1 on a premium ticket.
With the crew aware of the swap, I settled into the new seat (noting where the small room was). That done, the plane continued to fill up for the “short” hop to Oslo.
The seat on this Boeing 787-8 is the older Collins SuperDiamond Seat – and not QSuites. That’s no bad thing – as the SuperDiamond is still one of the better business class seats out there in terms of comfort and control.
1F
Underpowered USB Socket with a eXConnect Port. Has anyone used an eXConnect port the past few years in all seriousness?
SuperDiamond Seat Controls
Although I do like this style of the open cabin – if you don’t like small spaces, it can be claustrophobic. This cabin felt airy and wide.
Welcome drinks were offered. I went for bubbly one last time this trip. With a cold towel to match.
I couldn’t resist one last glass.
With a pretty full plane, the doors closed up – and it was time for the safety demonstration. This one features the Qatar Airways 787 specific demo – so, no sign of the Akbar Al Baker enforcers.
Hang on… Crew that are happy to see you and not report you to Akbar Al Barker if you ask questions about their product? What is this madness? Welcome madness though.
Safety Card.
The aircraft began its pushback and taxi for a short tour of Hamad International Airport.
Qatar Airways A350s.
Qatar Airways Airbus A330s.
Don’t you just love how the sharkets curl in on the A350?
Qatar Airways Airbus A320.
Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8
Qatar Airways Boeing 777
Pro-spotting tip. Good luck finding other liveries that Qatar Airways sometimes at Doha. It can be a true fortress hub some times of the day.
There were a few aircraft lining up to depart on the morning wave of departures – but after a short while, our Boeing 787s General Electric GEnx engines spooled up and QR175 into the air for the journey to Oslo.
Thankfully, the crews are getting less aggressive than they used to be with the automatic window blinds – and these were not auto dimmed at all during the fight (well, the parts I was awake for it) – a welcome thing to see.
With climb out on the way, breakfast and arrivals orders were taken. I was in the mood to try a little food to 1) try and keep going and 2) see how my body would do.
I started the IFE up – again, the Thales Avant IFE system – however, this seems to be the original hardware fitted to the aircraft, with only software upgraded as opposed to hardware and software. As a result, the touch interface was slow to non-functioning, and the remote wasn’t playing ball some of the time.
I went for some comedy to keep the brain amused
Bobs Burgers qualifies as comedy.
Breakfast was thankfully served quickly by the crew. I went for the Omelette plate and picked at it as best I can.
Table set up
Omelette
It looked a great breakfast, and I picked what bits of it my body could stomach… mainly as my eyes were bigger than my stomach.
It was a vain attempt – with some parts of the plate left untouched. I didn’t order anything else the menu either.
I also briefly checked out the In-flight Connectivity on this aircraft
Interesting. There’s an Access point named after the aircraft.
The Wi-Fi system aboard this Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is an L-Band based IFE system – in other words, it was going to be dog slow. And expensive per Mb.
Thankfully, Qatar Airways offer a free 1-hour messaging plan
This covers Whatsapp, Instagram, FaceBook Messager, iMessage and so on. But good luck with attachments. If you want that – open your wallet
Prices from 5USD right up to 20 USB depending how much data you consume. On an L Band connection… well. Good luck with that.
The Crew hidden from sight. A good thing to note was that I could not hear that much noise from what my sleep could tell.
With breakfast done and me semi-comfortable, I put the seat into the bed mode – and promptly passed out. A mixture of poor sleep at Hamad Airport and my body trying to fix itself was in play I would suspect.
A crew member kindly woke me up for the pre-arrival snack that I ordered. Well, a chance to have mini hamburgers in the air is never a bad thing.
They are indeed mini.
And coffee too.
They were… a little dry, but quite pleasing… especially the chips at 35,000ft (and the last time I had chips on a plane… they were… interesting to say the least).
With food in me and my body more happy that it had the rest it wanted, I checked I hadn’t left anything behind, and packed my bags.
It was almost time for the premium experience to end, and back to reality.
The crew secured the cabin as the QR175 descended through the clouds and towards its destination of Oslo
Norway from above.
With the aircraft secured for landing, QR175 lined up for its final approach to Oslo. With ease, it touched down, bringing this part of the adventure to an end.
With the aircraft on the ground, the aircraft had a fair bit of a taxi to make it to the F Gates.
Parked Norwegian Boeing 737 MAX aircraft
This is vaguely interesting – a West Atlantic Boeing 737-800BCF (Boeing Converted Freighter) – the first of its type. Expect to see more BCF’s if the MAX series gets back in the air, and older -800s are put out to pasture.
UPS Boeing 767-300F.
Towards the domestic end of the terminal.
Views
Norwegian Boeing 737-800
SAS Bombardier CRJ-900
SAS Boeing 737
With the captain finally happy the aircraft had been assigned a gate, QR175 turned and headed for its temporary home – before it turned around for the return sector to Doha later.
With the seat belt release bong went off, it was time for everyone to get up – and for me to finish my premium experience.
With the doors opened and economy class held back – I thanked the crew and left the aircraft, ready to face the next part of the trip.
Overall: The SuperDiamond seat always worked. for me as a product – both as a seat and a bed. And when you’re not feeling great, a thing like this is to be welcomed. The crew were attentive and welcoming – a consitant thing this trip. To be honest, I could had done with another hour in the air to get more sleep… but that’s the thing with <3000 mile segments – it’s about balancing your requirements to the need to rest.
And listening to your body when it tells you to pass out.
Next: Welcome back to Kenya. I mean Norway.
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