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Review: the flagship Qatar Airways Al Mourjan business class lounge, Doha

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This is my review of the Al Mourjan business class lounge at Hamad International airport in Doha.

It is the final part of our current Qatar Airways series. Our previous article reviewing the Qatar Airways Premium Lounge at London Heathrow Terminal 4, is here.  Our two articles reviewing the Qsuite business class seat start here.  Our article on Qatar Airways business class food and drink is here.  Our look at the Al Maha VIP arrivals and departures service is here.

As a reminder, Qatar Airways gave me a return Business Class flight from London Heathrow to Doha.  Head for Points paid for all of its other expenses including hotel, transfers and meals.

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

I love this bear.  It takes a certain genius / madness to commit to buying this and making it the central marker point of the longest building on earth.

Inside the Al Mourjan lounge at Doha Airport

This page of the Qatar Airways website describes the Al Mourjan lounge in more detail.  This is one of the official publicity photographs of the stairs to the upper level of the Al Mourjan lounge, which stretches over two floors and covers 10,000 square metres:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

The reality, of course, is never as glamorous.  Especially when you arrive early in the morning.

It is five years since I last reviewed this lounge.  Whilst it remains impressive to look at, commercial realities have clearly started to bite and there are noticeable reductions in various areas.  Don’t be too concerned about this, however, as it remains an impressive space.

The lounge is broken down into a number of zones.  The key thing to know is that the main dining area is upstairs – this is not very clear from the ground level.

Let’s start downstairs though.  At the far end is the second smaller restaurant, which focusses more on casual snacks.

I did not arrive at a great time.  It was around 10am when I entered and all traces of breakfast had been removed, to be replaced by lunch.

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

There is nothing especially flash about this, especially as you are sat on stools.  You do get to order food off a small menu, however, whilst the main restaurant is just a buffet.

Just off from this area are two rooms.  One is a rather neglected childrens playroom:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

Directly opposite the childrens playroom is the grown-up playroom!  Unfortunately, this was substantially emptier of equipment than it was five years ago – gone was the table football, gone were the pinball machines.  The couple of video games remaining looked a bit sad in what is a large room.

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

Moving out of the dining area, you come to the h-u-g-e central zone which is made up of small groups of seating.  There are numerous coffee and snack stations scattered around.  Here is an official PR photo which is far better than anything I could manage:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

Last time I was here, I was impressed to see that (at 6.30am local time, 4.30am London time) the lounge was offering computer-printed copies of the UK newspapers.  In 2019 (at 10am local time, 8am London time) there was nothing except local newspapers.

As I wrote in my Qatar Airways Qsuite review, you could get same-day UK newspapers on the aircraft – so why not in the lounge?

To the left of this area is another separate mini-lounge with another bar.  The seats here are totally different, each with an in-built iPad.

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

and

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

The same area also comprises a business centre.  This is genuinely huge.  You could run a decent sized company from this space without any difficulty. This photo shows less than half the space:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

If you want a rest, there are also a few of these (showers are also available):

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

By this point I was ready for some hot food and a proper drink, so I ascended the spiral staircase which straddles a huge ‘lake’.

The days when you could get a glass of Krug with your breakfast – and this was from a business class lounge, remember – are long gone.  Champagne is still available, of course, but one that costs the airline 80% less.  I ended up having curry off the buffet for breakfast, as the lounge was already in lunch mode:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

There is another full bar up here along with two different food stations:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

Behind the upstairs dining area is a special family zone.  This is impressive – you basically get a cubicle area for your group, with plenty of space for changing or playing:

Review Qatar AIrways business class lounge al mourjan doha hamad airport

Conclusion

Whilst it isn’t as impressive at is used to be, I still enjoyed my visit to the Al Mourjan lounge.  Architecturally it is very outstanding, with a good mix of eating, drinking, working and relaxing areas.  Some inspiration has clearly been taken from a Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse.

If it lacks anything, it is a ‘cosy corner’ – you are constantly aware of the scale of the lounge, and indeed the airport.  It remains well worth a visit if you are passing through Doha Airport, however.

This the final part of my Qatar Airways review series, since my initial flight review last week was a mix of both the outbound and inbound trip.  If I needed to sum up the entire trip, from the London lounge to departing the aircraft back at Heathrow, I would say ‘quality’.  Qatar Airways sets the bar very high at every stage.

Some of the ‘flash’ has gone from the operation in recent years, but make no mistake that what is left is, in almost every regard, exceptionally well done.  The icing on the cake is the fact that:

Qatar Airways tickets can often be had at exceptionally good prices in Business Class (£1,200-ish to Asia if you are prepared to start your trip outside the UK) and

You earn British Airways Avios and tier points on every trip, with one return to Asia getting you 90% of what you need for a BA Executive Club Silver card (4 x 140 tier points = 560 tier points)

It’s difficult to ask for more, especially if spending your own money on a Business Class ticket.  Try to give Qsuite a try if you can.

Thanks to the Qatar Airways team in London for arranging my trip, and to the loyalty and press team in Doha who hosted me for an afternoon.


Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (October 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,500 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here.

You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £290 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A good package, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Comments (50)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • David says:

    And those blue and red chairs look lovely but really aren’t comfortable!

  • SWWT says:

    Qatar still my go-to for Asia/Australasia. But, given that country’s pariah status within the region not surprising we are seeing economies within the airline. There are better lounges around (than Al-Mourjan), for me SYD’s first and HKG’s Pier vie for tops. Not Al-Safwa which is like spending time in a mausoleum, -except if overnighting for which the ‘hotel’ is a bonus.
    In my admittedly limited experience the major airlines seem to be engaged in a stroll -or in some cases a race to the bottom. Not on every aspect, but across too many to ignore. As my other half points out, now you can start thinking about air travel as a means of getting from A to B instead of some exclusive experience. A dagger to the heart of this frequent flyer but have to admit there is some wisdom in that….

    • Dev says:

      Based on my experience in BA F last week, I would say that it is on the way up. So don’t despair just yet!

  • BJ says:

    It was soon after your first review that I made my only visit to this lounge to date. I really disliked it, mostly because it just felt like a terminal building, not a lounge at all. The ambiance was all wrong. I also thought the food and service were poor. From this review it seems that things have gone downhill since then. I don’t know if it remains the same today but the one thing I really liked about DOH was that it was very open without those awful barriers to control and manage queues that dominate LHR and many other airports.

    • Froggee says:

      +1

      Lat time I flew through Doha, I just went straight to the gate and spent a pleasant enough hour sitting on a normal chair in a quiet corner reading the FT.

      • Andrew says:

        I think the DOH lounge stands out as being so bad because the onboard experience is so good. The lounge really is quite dire, but if you were flying with BA, you’d probably be quite impressed, but after 9 hours in QSuite being well looked after, you end up in that place, it damages your overall experience and impression of the airline.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          Compared to the two main terminal business lounges its brilliant.

          Seriously when are these 2 Heathrow lounges getting a refurb, rubbish compared to some outstations.

  • Andrew says:

    Surprisingly for BA, they manage the showers thing well in T5 arrivals – they seem to have 100s and whilst not very stylish, are functional and you never need to wait. Basically QR need to turn that huge business centre that no one uses into another shower facility.

  • Genghis says:

    Agreed. I transited through Dubai on Sat morning with Emirates and had to wait around 40 minutes for a shower. Only 10 male showers at the A gates. Not ideal when all you want to do is get some more sleep.

  • Michael F says:

    I went through Doha for the first time a few weeks ago. On the way out, at about 6 am there was a huge queue for the showers with a lot of irate passengers: wait time of 40-50 minutes. One passenger was complaining that it’s been like it for years.
    Had a shower on the way back at about 2am when it was quieter. I think they may only have one working shower room because of plumbing problems.

  • Nigel says:

    You sit, or are seated on stools; not ‘are sat’.

  • rams1981 says:

    OT – anyone been charged interest for using Creation IHG card to top up Revolut? I have some interest charges in my last statement having not had any before.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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