Review of Qatar Airways flight from Chicago to Doha in Business

Hi everyone, welcome back to another review. Not the usual optimism and positivity today, as this was arguably one of the most disappointing flight I've taken in terms of soft product and crew. It's unfortunate that it's occurred on an airline with the world's best business class, Qsuites. Notably, this occurred on one of Qatar's highly prioritized routes, over from the US to Doha. I've experienced Qsuites in the past between Doha and the US and never did I experience such poor service, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt and claim this as an outlier. However, I have seen recent Qatar Airways travellers experience similar negativity when it comes to crew, so maybe it has become a minor trend for the worse. There are slightly less photos of this trip compared to my other reviews, as my mood was impacted quite heavily as things escalated, my apologies. Anyways, let's get going. 

We start our trip in ORD, just coming off a short United hp from St. Louis. Luckily, Qatar operates out of the new ORD Terminal 5, which is much nicer than all the other terminals. Checkin was quite quick as there was only one group (family of 6) ahead of me. A funny side note was that my full itenerary would take me from ORD to Doha then Doha over to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The checkin gentleman, clearly a younger lad, stared at my final destination and asked "my brotha I ain't never heard of this Tash somethin before". I then spent a minute or two giving him unlimited guesses as to where Tashkent was, to which he never even came close. Eventually he gave in and I mentioned Uzbekistan, then he responded with "no idea where that is bro". You love to see a lively checkin king. 

Security took 20 minutes or so, and I headed off to locate the lounge. Although the flight experience was subpar, the lounge one was arguably worse. I didn't have the highest of expectations since this was as inbound flight, but still hoped for a somewhat decent lounge considering Qatar is operating. First, there was no guidance as to where to go. I ended up entering the LOT lounge, which seemed quite nice, and asked the receptionist who directed me to the Swissport lounge. Now, this was my first time going to any lounge at T5, I had no idea what I was in for. I didn't end up taking any photos of the lounge, but One Mile at a Time has an awesome page depicting what I was in for: https://onemileatatime.com/insights/swissport-lounge-chicago/

If you take few minutes to read it, you can get the idea. If you want a TLDR, No food (other than cheap packaged stuff), no service, and worst of all (in my opinion), NO WINDOWS. This was absolutely terrible. Not only was the actual lounge unimaginably bad, I had to wait 30 MINUTES in line to even get it. There were at least 10 people lining up with only one agent checking tickets, and believe me he seemed absolutely disinterested in his job. With still 5 more people in line, a second agent came around and called for any Qatar business class fliers to move up in line. After I did so, he and his colleague spent 15 minutes calling the airline and doing various admin checks before letting me inside. You can only imagine the disappointment after going in. I kid you not, I took one look, grabbed a water, and left. Qatar needs to do something about this, T5 is such a beautiful terminal and with the exception of perhaps Emirates, Qatar probably has the best reputation out of all the international carriers. Terrible. 

After leaving, I headed down the long hallway over to my gate at the far end of the terminal. Luckily, the glass panels and fresh Terminal allowed for some solid planespotting. 

Caught a glimpse of Swiss and BA in one shot, and you can briefly see the SAS wing on the right.

Turkish

Considering I primarily fly through ORD purely to transit between St. Louis and larger airports, seeing these international carriers was awesome.

It seemed all gates along the hallway were EU carriers, and the gates near the end were reserved for Middle Eastern flights. Parked next to our jet was an EK 777-300ER with the newer flag tail. Chicago is the only US destination where EK uses their newer game changer F seats, hopefully more will expand in the future.

What caught my attention was a black tail design I hadn't seen before. As I headed over, my word what a gorgeous plane. This was the first time I've seen a Royal Jordanian 787 in person, and how stunning is this design! Definitely one of the coolest looking liveries out there.

Unfortunately, our gate didn't allow for scenic planespotting shots. I managed to snap this one on the jetbridge. 

Boarding for Business was quite quick, but massive lines (and some linecutters) formed in the economy section up to 20 minutes before boarding. It seemed lots of passengers were experiencing adminstrative issues and so long lines were also formed near the help desk. Everything was quite chaotic.

I had an incredible experience aboard Qsuites when I flew it in 2024, so I was extremely excited to step foot on our jet. Unfortunately, as described in the intro, it was far from that.

Here was our seat for today, 9J. Nothing more can be said, Qsuites hard product is unparalled in all areas. The ample space, utmost privacy, and elegant finishes, still the best business hard product out there. 

Waiting at my seat were pyjamaas, the amenity kit, and menus for food and drink. My apologies I didn't take pictures of the menus, as I took this before really discovering flight-report. There were also two pillows, and Qatar's lovely blanket. If you look at the bottom right corner of this picture you can see a little brown furry thing, that was a pretty huge Jellycat lion and this was the first Business seat which could fully fit him. Again, ample space here. 

The IFE screen remains one of the largest in Business, and nothing to complain really about the beautiful design. You really feel the privacy here, more than lots of F products have to offer.

Welcome drinks were offered, and I went with the Rose champagne, one of my favorite pre-departure drinks. Starlux had mentioned they couldn't serve pre-departure alcohol due to customs regulations, so it was nice to see Qatar provided alcohol. I also went with a glass of water, and Qatar's signature packaged towel was also provided. 

Now, I also realized there was a champagne cocktail on offer, and I asked if I could receive one of those too. My purser informed me that it wasn't possible, which is fine, but it didn't feel like she was very happy I asked for one. Not exactly the best way to start the journey. She then came by to take. my order. When I asked if she had anything to recommend, again it just felt that she was rather uninterested in responding. Already I wasn't the biggest fan of her.

Anyways, we began taxxing out and took off from ORD at 19:27, 7 minutes behind schedule. Thus began our 13 hour 13 minute trip to Doha.  Despite my frustrations, the beautiful Chicago sunset does help sooth things.

Shortly after takeoff, food service began. Qatar claims to offer a la carte dine on demand, which suggests you can order anything, whenever you want. This was definitely the case with my previous flights. When she came around to set the table, I kindly asked whether I could also have the corn soup appetizer along with my original beef carpaccio. I recall on my trip last year, my purser strongly recommended I try all the appetizers at some point in the flight, and the couple sitting next to me ordered 2 entrees each. So I was rather shocked when my purser responded to my request with a very cold "No, you have to wait until everyone else has finished." 

Seriously? Even if that was the new rule, which I doubt it is, she could have easily answered in a better tone. I literally asked whether it was possible to do so, and she straight up dismissed me and walked away. Fun. When serving drinks, she just plopped my diet coke down and said nothing. In contrast, all other carriers (including Qatar previously) ask if lemon or ice is requested. Obviously, as you can see in my lemonless and iceless diet coke, that wasn't an option.

When I first fly Qsuites last year, I was unaware that Qatar had various olive oils on offer. This was only brought to my attention when my then purser brought all 3 options around and asked which, or all, I wanted to try. Again, didn't happen here. I had to ask her if they had the spicy olive oil, to which she replied "yes" left and came back to plop it down for me.

The beef carpaccio was also pretty bad, it lacked flavor. Honestly it might've not been as bad as I'm suggesting but the purser had ruined my appetite quite a bit.

The main course then came around, the lobster was quite tasty, no complaints there. But as you can probably tell, I was rather hungry after these two courses with the smaller portions. But I was genuinely not bothered to ask for more food, I didn't want another stone-faced lecture from her.

To my surprise, she actually came around with the corn soup I asked for earlier. It was decent. Never did she inquire on how things tasted, or show real interest in offering top ups or different drinks. I swear I've had more attention in economy. I just wanted to get this over with and go to bed.

Dessert was actually really good, this chocolate cake sweetened up the bitter taste in my mouth. Definitely the highlight. 

I went to the restroom to freshen up before bed, and took a quick picture of the logo. 

Turndown service was offered. Again, nothing to complain about Qsuite's wonderful hard product. I also appreciated the sliding doors and imminent long sleep meaning I wouldn't have to interact with my purser for a few hours.

I woke up and ordered a midnight snack. I don't really remember what this was I think they were some cold cuts with bread. It doesn't look very appetizing but I'm personally a big fan of charcuterie boards in general, so this was decent.

After a few hours sleep. lights came on again so signal breakfast service. I got some nuts with the americano I ordered.

Breakfast was an omelette, one sausage, beans, tomatoes, and spinach. It was alright. I'm not a big fan of baked beans but having the omelette mixed with the sauce worked quite feel for the otherwise bland eggs. I should have been able to order something else, considering dine on demand, but honestly I just wanted to land as soon as possible.

Light started to come through the windows as we descended into Doha. A quick look to the middle seats which is the perfect way to travel as a couple since a double bed can be made. 

The sand and deserts meant landing was imminent.

I don't think I have been more excited to get off a plane before. I did get a chance to overindulge in the lounge before my next flight over to Tashkent. I'm not going to make a separate review on that flight since the experience here didn't put me in a great mood, but I will highlight a real lowlight from that one. There was a full meal service, and orders were taken prior to takeoff. I had ordered a lobster salad. During meal service, when everyone else was being served their appetizers, I received nothing. I was then presented my entree with everyone else. I asked about my appetizer to which the crew responded "sir you did not order an appetizer". Honestly, I probably would've been more upset under different circumstances, but I just kind shrugged my shoulders and laughed it off like what else should I expect from Qatar? Considering this was on a narrowbody A320, there were only around 7 business passengers. They told me all the other appetizers were gone and only the same corn soup from my last flight was available. I just couldn't wait to get off at that point.