Where does Qatar Airways fly from in the UK and what business class will you get?
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The big news this week has been the launch of Avios as the currency of Privilege Club, the Qatar Airways frequent flyer programme.
This opens up a lot of opportunities, which we will be exploring in multiple articles over the coming weeks.
If you missed our coverage so far, take a look here:
Once you’ve read the three articles above, you’ll see that redeeming your Avios for flights on Qatar Airways is now very attractive.
Flying with Qatar Airways to Australia (multiple destinations) or New Zealand in business class, for example, requires 180,000 Avios and under £600 of taxes.
Compare this to BA, on the off chance you could find availability to Sydney, your only Australasian option. It would require 300,000 Avios and around £1,000 of taxes on peak dates. The Qatar Airways product is also far superior.
Qatar Airways can also offer you Avios access to places which British Airways does not fly, or where redemption seats are hard to get – the Maldives, Seychelles, Bali, Zanzibar, Colombo, Phuket, Manila etc etc.
With this in mind, I wanted to do a summary today of Qatar Airways departure points in the UK and what business class products are available.
Where does Qatar Airways fly from in the UK?
Qatar Airways has just announced that it is returning to London Gatwick from 5th June.
The flight will operate alongside the current daily Gatwick to Doha flight offered by British Airways, which has a joint venture with Qatar Airways on the route.
From 5th June, Qatar Airways will be offering the following flights from the UK:
- 35 flights per week from Heathrow
- 7 flights per week from Gatwick
- 18 flights per week from Manchester
- 7 flights per week from Edinburgh
This is a total of 67 departures per week. There are also regular flights from Dublin.
Will my Qatar Airways flight have Qsuite?
The Qatar Airways ‘halo product’ is Qsuite, the revolutionary ‘with a door’ business class seat which is generally regarded as the best business class product in the world.
Qsuite is not an ‘off the shelf’ product, unlike most business class seats, but was designed from scratch to meet Qatar Airways specifications. The most radical feature is that two adjacent suites can be merged to form a double bed:
…. whilst blocks of four suites can be fully merged to create a discrete space for a family:
Here is a seat on its own:
Links to our Qsuite reviews are below. Our report of the 2017 launch event in Berlin is here.
Qsuite won ‘Best Business Class’ – as voted by you, our readers – in the 2019 Head for Points Travel & Loyalty Awards – something we can hopefully bring back post-pandemic in 2022:
There is no easy way to guarantee Qsuite, although the Qatar Airways website does highlight it during the booking process if you book direct. We can tell you which aircraft types are most likely to have it, but even if your seat map shows Qsuite there is always a risk of a late aircraft change.
Of course, irrespective of which seat you get, you will receive the same high quality food and drink service. It’s also worth remembering that – whilst it does not have Qsuite – the A380 fleet does have a very attractive bar to make up for it:
Let’s run through the fleet.
Boeing 787-9
This is the newest aircraft in the Qatar Airways fleet, only introduced in 2022. It is not currently flying to London. It has an entirely new business class seat which, whilst also having a door, is fundamentally different to Qsuite due to the narrower Boeing 787-9 cabin:
Airbus A350-1000
All of these aircraft have Qsuite.
Airbus A350-900
Around 1/3rd of these aircraft are believed to have Qsuite. My review of Qatar Airways business class on the A350-900 is here.
Boeing 777-200/300
These aircraft are being progressively refurbished with Qsuite, with around 75% now believed to be complete. This is Jamie’s 2018 review of an non-refurbished Boeing 777-300ER which he flew from Bali.
Airbus A380
These aircraft do not have Qsuite. Here is my 2016 review of Qatar Airways A380 business class which has the reverse herringbone seat (no doors) used on the Boeing 787-8:
Boeing 787-8
These aircraft do not have Qsuite, using the impressive reverse herringbone seat above. My review of business class on a Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 is here. A more recent one by Jamie from 2018 is here.
It’s also worth sharing this review of ‘regional First Class’ (regional aircraft are two-class, Economy and First) which is what you would get if you flew from Doha to Dubai for example.
If you want to fly in Qatar Airways First Class on a long-haul flight, you are restricted to the A380 fleet. Here is my review of Qatar Airways A380 First Class and, erm, the First Class transit bus!
Great lounges too ….
Qatar Airways is well known for the quality of its airport lounges. Here is some of our coverage to give you a feel:
- The Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4 (this lounge was extended and refurbished during the pandemic which is not reflected in this review – we hope to take a look soon, a sneak peak is here)
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll continue to explore the new Qatar Airways / Avios partnership, showing you how to make the most of the new opportunities which have opened up.
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