Welcome to a new series of flight reports! This series will cover my recent family trip to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia!
Note:
I apologize for the cancellation of the previous series covering my trip to Bangladesh. The series was cancelled due to lack of sufficient amount of pictures to make complete reports. I wasn't aware of flight-report at that time which is the reason of the lack of pictures.
Background:
My father had always wanted to visit Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore ever since he lived in Bangladesh (approximately 30 years ago). He had many plans for this trip before but it never happened. This year, he told me he would make sure he'd visit these countries after more than 30 years of waiting. The trip would take place during my summer holidays (June-August). The plan was to visit Thailand first, followed by Malaysia and finally Singapore. Soon we started looking at fares and QR was by far the cheapest option. EK was the second cheapest option but the price difference was greater than USD 760. We waited a while for the fares to drop but that never happened, which meant QR would be our airline of choice. The itinerary was as follow, ARN-DOH-BKK and SIN-DOH-ARN. I made sure we booked the A380 flight on the DOH-BKK sector, which was QR836. The return flight from Singapore to Doha would be operated by an A350-900 which I was very excited about! The regional flights between these countries were booked later, and turned out to be DMK-KUL on Air Asia and KUL-SIN on Singapore Airlines.
NOTE:
Some shots are taken with my phone and some are taken with my camera.
WARNING:
This FR might be long!
Part 1 - ARN-DOH (QR168 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCT) You are here
Part 2 - DOH-BKK (QR836 Qatar Airways Airbus A380-861 A7-APB) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11376.html
Part 3 - DMK-KUL (AK891 Air Asia Airbus A320-216 9M-AFI Semangat Harimau Muda livery) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11478.html
Part 4 - KUL-SIN (SQ107 Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-343 9V-STG) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11564.html
Part 5 - SIN-DOH (QR945 Qatar Airways Airbus A350-941 A7-ALD) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11625.html
Part 6 - DOH-ARN (QR171 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCM) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11693.html
Loading up the bags in our car at 12:50 local time, we had a total of four bags. Two small-sized handbags and two medium-sized bags.
Entering the E4 motorway towards Arlanda Airport.
Closing in on Arlanda.
Taking the exit to Arlanda.
The trip from our home to Arlanda Airport takes approximately 20-25 minutes.
We parked our car at the BETA long-term parking.
There weren't many spots available at first glance but we managed to find one in a few minutes.
There are free yellow shuttle buses that take you from the car park to the various Terminals and some other places around Arlanda Airport. Here's one of the bus stations located around the car park.
On our way to Terminal 5.
We arrived at Terminal 5 in about 7 minutes.
Our check-in was made the night before online so we lined up at the bag drop line. The normal check-in line was almost empty at this time.
The Qatar Airways check-in desks.
My family made our way to security shortly after we left our bags.
SAS bag-drop desks, left our bags here when I flew with Lufthansa.
Security was efficient as usual.
Duty-free shopping after clearing security.
Time for some spotting shots from Arlanda Airport! Here's a Thai B77W getting ready for a flight to BKK.
A few more shots of this TG B77W.
Your usual SAS B736 at Arlanda.
More SAS action.
Norwegian B738 taxiing.
Articulated bus.
Novair A321 arriving at T5.
TAP Portugal A320 arriving from Lisbon.
SAS B738 taxiing to its gate at T5.
SAS B738 (Star Alliance livery).
Airbaltic Q400 arriving from Riga.
Lufthansa A321 completing flight LH2416 from Munich.
Finnair A319 coming in from Helsinki.
Icelandair B752 taxiing out for a departure to KEF.
Thai Airways B77W pushback for BKK.
Taxiing out as TG961 heavy to Bangkok.
Well, I guess that's it for the spotting! We walked towards our gate shortly after my spotting session. There is a passport control before entering the area with the gates.
Let's have a light snack before going to the gate!
Walking towards our gate.
The assigned gate for this flight was gate F66. Boarding was scheduled to begin one hour prior to departure.
Here's my ride to Doha! A Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Registered as A7-BCT, this frame was delivered in January earlier this year. This would be my third time flying on a 787.
Boarding was scheduled to begin one hour before the STD (Scheduled time of departure).
A Norwegian 787-8 taxiing out for departure.
Another Norwegian 787-8 taxiing to its gate.
Boarding began 20 minutes late for business class passengers as well as Oneworld Emerald & Sapphire members. Economy passengers got to board at approximately 15:35.
The IFE onboard this 787.
The cabin was starting to fill up, economy load was estimated at 75% while business class was almost full (only about 2 empty seats).
The seat pitch was decent, worked for me on this 6 hour flight.
The handset.
Wing view from seat 11K.
Language selection.
The GEnx engine.
Here's a better shot of the IFE. This particular PTV offered a good amount of movies, tv-programs etc. The screen wasn't the best in terms of responsiveness but it worked if you paid attention. There was also a USB port which meant you could charge your mobile phone. There was also a power outlet behind every seat.
The adjustable headrest.
Refreshing towels were distributed after boarding was completed.
Pushback was made at 16:09, 1 minute prior to our scheduled time of departure.
TUIfly Nordic 767-300ER.
Taxiing towards runway 26.
SAS hangar.
An old DC-8.
Old MD-80 in Swedavia livery. Swedavia is the airport operator.
There's a normal spotting location at Arlanda, usually for 26 arrivals and 08 departures. I spot there quite frequently.
Takeoff from runway 26.
Climbing out of runway 26 with destination set as Doha.
My good friend from Germany managed to track my flight! We departed at 16:32 as you can see on the screenshot. Thank you for tracking my flight (he'll probably read my FR).
The headphones, already located in the seat pocket when we boarded the plane.
I usually don't watch any movies or anything on planes. I like to listen to music and look out the window. One interesting thing I noticed is that they had a few more albums last year when I flew with them to DAC via DOH. However, they had a lot of fixed playlists with 'the best' songs of a particular year which wasn't available on last year's flight.
Another legroom shot, I was around 5'10/178cm tall during this flight.
The IFE box and my camera bag.
I really like the 787 wingtip.
Overhead bins.
Charging my phone in the air.
Screenshots from my friend, he was tracking the flight as I mentioned earlier.
The first drink service began 30 minutes after departure, I went with water and OJ.
Wi-Fi was available on this flight.
You could control the PTV, play games, watch the map and a few more things on this controller.
The Oryx in-flight magazine.
QR is currently the world's best airline according to Skytrax.
The windows on the 787 are dimmable as many of you probably already know. There are 5 different tones which can be set with a button below the window.
Here's the button.
You may have noticed that the arrival time is set to 20:07, which is wrong as our scheduled time of arrival is 23:10. I think they might have forgot to change the time zone to UTC +3, as it was set to GMT (+0) on this flight.
My sister didn't want her pineapple juice and offered to hand it to me so I had three drinks at my disposal.
I wanted to watch this Top Gear episode but decided to listen to music instead.
It's pretty handy to watch the moving map on this controller while doing something else on the PTV.
Really nice to have Stockholm on the list!
And here comes the meal! The dinner service began 90 minutes after takeoff.
There were two options for this dinner service, chicken or beef. I went with the chicken option. The meal consisted of chicken picadillo with pasta and beans in bbq sauce, a dessert, a salad and a bread bun. They had metal cutlery with this meal which is really nice! The main was great! The chicken pieces were really tasty and juicy, the pasta was also very testy. The beans were also very juicy with a lot of taste. Everything was perfectly cooked. Catering out of ARN is usually very good and this was no exception. It was probably one of the best airline meals I've ever had! The dessert was decent, a bit too sweet for my taste. The salad was very sour. Overall, a really well-rounded meal. I wish the portion of the main was larger, it was so good!
Butter, cream cheese and a piece of Daim chocolate.
The sour salad (had the same one last year on QR170 ARN-DOH).
The dessert.
Provided by my friend in Germany.
Sun is starting to go down.
Haven't talked about the crew yet, which is a very important part of the flight experience. The flight attendants on this flight were friendly and did their job in an efficient way. A great crew overall.
Some coffee after the meal.
Made sure to visit the lavatory, here are some shots of it.
It started to get dark three hours after departure.
Almost forgot to take a picture of the blanket, which was already located on our seats when we boarded.
Shopping Extravaganza and Oryx in-flight magazine.
The Qatar Airways fleet.
It got completely dark 3,5h after takeoff. I could only see the wing whenever the anti-collision beacon lights were flashing.
Qatar Airways destination map.
The crew came with a snack basket 1 hour and 30 minutes prior to arrival. I just grabbed a bag of chips/crisps.
This was followed by a drink service, I chose water.
Information of our arrival into Doha.
Soon we started our descent into Doha-Hamad International Airport and landed on runway 34R.
Picture by my friend.
Vacating runway 34R.
Picture by my friend.
Qatar Qargo A330-200F.
The flight deck of the 787! I was allowed to enter the cockpit upon request. I'm a very shy person and never ask things like this so it felt very special to me!
Disembarking by stairs.
We were taken by buses to the terminal.
Emirates A330-200.
FIDS.
Security was very efficient.
My next flight would be QR836 to Bangkok onboard an A380, I guess that's it for this FR :).
Hope you enjoyed this FR!
Note:
Can't comment on access and parking at DOH, just left a 7,5.
Great flight report!
Your report was detailed, so it felt like I'm 'in' the plane and I really liked it. Can't wait to read your other flight reports! :)
Thank you for your nice comment! I really appreciate it!
Glad it felt like that :).
Thanks for another beautiful and detailed report! Nice shot of the FI bird; it's my favorite livery. QR seems to consistently get high marks in Economy. Based on what I've seen in this report and others, if I had a choice between a 787 and A350 on QR, I would chose the A350 for the better seat width, otherwise it's a very similar product. Tack!
Thank you for your nice comment :). Really appreciate it!
Thanks! It's indeed a nice livery.
After flying on both I can clearly say the A350 is much more comfortable with a nicer hard product, not only seat width but seat pitch is also much better on their A350! The 787 is pretty okay but the A350 is a more comfortable ride :).
Thank you for sharing this report with us!
Great spotting at ARN, planes always look great on sunny days. Novair is a new one for me!
Cabin looks good visually. Seat pitch looks acceptable, but the entertainment box is a letdown! The IFE looks really good.
The portion size of the QR meals do look to be on the smaller size, but it sounds like the taste was good! I've noticed this in other reports, but the tray that the main comes in does not look very large. The snack basket before arrival is also a bit lacking, I would expect an actual snack (sandwich) on a flight of this length, but I guess they can get away with it given the time that flight departs/lands.
You are lucky about the cockpit picture, last time I asked on EY, I was denied photography. They didn't want any photo evidence that they allowed someone in the cockpit for legal reasons.
Sounds like an overall good experience with QR, looking forward to the rest of the series!
Thank you for your nice comment!
Thank you! Glad you learned something new from my FR :).
The cabin was pretty clean and fresh as it was a fairly new bird, even though it was slightly cramped. I found the seat pitch on this 787 to be similar to many A330s I've flown on, which means it was okay. The IFE box was indeed a disappointment, especially that it's found on a plane like this.
The portion was my only real complaint of this meal, the meal would've got a 10 if the portion of the main was larger. I had also expected a snack like a sandwich as the pre-arrival snack but was disappointed to know we would only get chips/crisps or a few chocolate bars, at least it was better than last year where we received nothing as a pre-arrival snack.
Tbh I never expected them to say yes when I asked them about the picture. However, both the pilots said it was completely fine to my surprise.
Can't wait to share the other flights with you guys!
This is a good trip report . I am a collector of boardingpass . If you have the boarding pass online in pdf and appreciate you want to send me by mail a copy of this route because I will not be able to get because whenever my departure airport is madrid.
Regards. thank you and apologize for any inconvenience
My email is arturosegovia95@gmail.com
Thank you for your nice comment!
I'm so sorry but unfortunately I'm unable to send it to you, I'm sorry :(.