Qatar Airways brings its Qsuites to Sydney, Canberra from July 2018

By David Flynn, June 12 2018
Qatar Airways brings its Qsuites to Sydney, Canberra from July 2018

Qatar Airways will begin flying its highly-regarded Qsuite business class to Sydney and Canberra from next month.

The airline has confirmed that its flights QR906/QR907 will be upgraded to the business class suites "up to four times a week" as of July 1, with Qsuites every day from August 1.

On the primary Doha-Sydney leg the Boeing 777-300ER will run alongside the airline's existing Airbus A380 service, which lacks the Qsuites but still sports excellent business class seats...

... along with an inflight lounge/bar where you can stretch your legs and socialise during the 15-hour trek to Doha.

Both flights include the airline's dine on demand concept, which allows business class travellers to order any item from the menu at any time during the flight.

PREVIOUS | Qatar Airways will begin flying its advanced Qsuite business class seats to Sydney and Canberra from June 2018 as the Gulf airline continued its push into the highly competitive Australian market with new and upgraded Boeing 777-300ER jets.

"From June you will receive a Qsuite every day, unless we have a technical issue with one of the airplanes," Qatar Airways CEO His Excellency Akbar Al Baker told Australian Business Traveller at a media event today for the launch of Qatar Airways’ daily Doha-Canberra flights.

The Qsuite made a fleeting and undeniably teasing appearance on Monday's inaugural flight between Doha and Canberra, but has been replaced by an older Boeing 777 fitted with an earlier model of business class seats (below) for all subsequent flights.

Although the older seat still converts into a lie-flat bed and boasts ample legroom, the 2-2-2 seating layout and relatively limited personal space around the seat is at least a generation behind the impressive Qsuites in every way.

But from an as-yet-unspecified date in June, business class flyers will be able to ensconce themselves in the Qsuite, which is widely regarded as the world's best business class seat, with its sliding first class-like doors, ample personal space around the seat and also high-speed WiFi.

Flying with a partner in the Qsuites opens up the option for not just sitting next to one another but sleeping next to one another...

... while two adjoining middle suites can open up to create a shared space for four passengers travelling together.

The new Canberra-Sydney-Doha route also provide Sydney travellers with a choice of two daily Qatar Airways flights.

David Flynn travelled to Canberra as a guest of Qatar Airways

David

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.

QFF

19 Sep 2013

Total posts 206

Are the Qsuites going to appear on their 380s?

24 Oct 2010

Total posts 2561

30 Aug 2013

Total posts 437

Hmmm... David in your other QR article on here today you quote Al-Baker as saying '14 77Ws have been fitted with QSuites'. According to Flyertalk which tracks the rego of each aircraft closely, only 7 aircraft have QSuites. Given the first QSuites flight was June 24 that means there's been less than 1 aircraft per month fitted with QSuites which suggests that having all 58 77Ws fitted within the next 18 months is extremely optimistic. I wouldnt have thought CBR was high on the list to receive QSuites!

07 Oct 2012

Total posts 1250

Canberra may not be. But Sydney might be.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

And on course getting the rights for the extra flight is the main reason they are flying to Canberra. I would have a bet if adding a secondary port was not a condition they wouldn’t bother.


I don’t think I I’ll ever use this service, though it would be good if it were possible to utilise the Qatar SYD-CBR flight to connect to/from international flights in Sydney so as to avoid customs and domestic transfer in Sydney.

13 Jun 2017

Total posts 10

David- Any update on when the A350-900 will get the QSuite like the one flown from ADL?

24 Oct 2010

Total posts 2561

If we had such, we'd have reported it.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

07 Jul 2015

Total posts 41

Interesting move by Qatar. At the launch of QSuites QR said that London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo would be the first destinations to be upgraded, the last city is the one I'm holding out for personally.


As it stands right now I believe only LHR and JFK have been upgraded, from the original list and now SYD/CBR seemingly have jumped the queue.

DGP
DGP

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

17 Jan 2012

Total posts 172

A little off topic....with the Australia/Qatar bilateral rights all filled by QR to ADL/MEL/SYD(CBR)/PER...does anyone think there is the chance they may go for the Gold Coast as an alternate destination seeing as they can't serve BNE until the bilateral rights are renegotiated? Whilst not a huge Business destination, it is a big tourist destination with a large population and QR are starting destinations like Pattaya, Mykonos etc

30 Aug 2013

Total posts 437

I'm surprised they don't make the ADL flight a tag from their PER flight. From what I understand ADL has one of the lowest loads of any flight in QRs entire network and I don't think pax would be that annoyed at having a brief stop in PER. That would free up another 'direct' flight option so they could send an a380 to BNE

12 Dec 2012

Total posts 1029

They no longer can.
The air service agreement allows 21 weekly flights between DOH and the 4 major AU cities (SYD/MEL/BNE/PER) with unlimited flights to other AU cities.
They are allowed another 7 weekly flights to the 4 limited ports, provided said flight is to/via an unlimited port. This is the reason they opened flights to CBR, so they could get a 2nd flight to SYD without having to cut MEL or PER.

With all the non stop slots used and the 7 additional now also taken, QR can only start non stop flights to AU to the unlimited ports. If they want to have flights to Brisbane, without cutting the existing PER, MEL or SYD non stops, or the air service agreement changing to increse the limits, they would have to start flights to OOL instead of BNE.

Emirates Airlines - Skywards

11 Mar 2015

Total posts 190

Just flew from Adelaide and really there was hardly any passengers at least economy,business was less than half full but that is good at least if you fly ,

PG1
PG1

17 May 2017

Total posts 18

Just flew to LHR and enjoyed QSuite. Quite something, even if I was seated backwards to enjoy the seat next to a window.! Much more preferrable to current A380 seats.
As an aside, QF should put some spies on board to see what service is all about. Qatar really pays attention to those little things, esp for meal service.....first time flyer with them, long time with QF ...... thoroughly impressed with QR, not so QF.

Emirates Airlines - Skywards

11 Mar 2015

Total posts 190

Just flew on the 350 business product and the seats are not that wide as beds so have to wriggle around to find the spot also connecting flights from Doha was on old 320,parking far on the Tarmac,had to wait at least half an hour for the bus while all the economy were shipped out ahead of us.Food was very good on first flight but mostly breakfast stuff on second leg.Doha lounge is much better than Dubai,food is a bit mediocre for breakfast time,all cold cut meats left uncovered,saw some folks sneezing all over them,that's not very hygienic,

11 Oct 2017

Total posts 2

This is excellent news! I have some travel to book in June and provided I can get what I need (SYD-LHR, 7/6-10/6) I will certainly be trying out what looks set to be the best J product ex-SYD.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

04 May 2014

Total posts 4

Hi David, do you know if there is any update to this article, with regards to the start date of the Qsuites on this route? Many thanks!

28 Apr 2015

Total posts 4

Other websites are reporting that there is a $100 surcharge for QR flights with the Qsuites - would that also be the case here?

Joe
Joe

03 May 2013

Total posts 680

Just as Qantas has surcharges of a few hundred dollars for departures from thurs - sat or on the 9pm EK codeshare flight out of SYD.

20 May 2015

Total posts 5

Just flew Doha/LHR on 350-900 with Qsuites.

Best business class I’ve been in on any airline.
Service was impeccable. But probably some of that’s due to new aircraft gee-up.

06 Dec 2017

Total posts 110

a lot varies on the time of year ex ADL on loads.This year is my first time on Qatar Airways ever and only my second trip to Europe on a non Asian Carrier,the last time I went was with Singapore Airlines in 2011 so will be keen to see given it is week before christmas how loads stack up both classes.

20 Sep 2011

Total posts 27

What BC seats are there on the existing Adelaide-Dohal leg? Q Suites or 'ordinary' BC? Thanks

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

25 Jun 2018

Total posts 2

Booked in J for Syd-Doh in Dec and was keen to check out the Q-Suite.

When pre-selecting seat, the older 2-2-2 configuration was provided. Advised by QR that Q-Suites "may" be configured from August onwards, and to check back then.

Given QR's over-promised, under-delivered delivery schedule, I am not hopeful. I should have stuck with the later departing A380 instead.

08 Mar 2018

Total posts 8

We flew CBR-DOH-LHR on 11 August. Q-suites were installed on our CBR-DOH leg. The config changed multiple times in the lead up to the flight so we were very pleased.


The install was 2 days old (we were told) and there were a couple of issues with the partitions not going down in two of the double centre pods. This was not able to be resolved; unhappy campers resulted because the double bed conversions couldn’t happen.

We chose individual pods and whilst this meant we couldn’t really chat to each other, it was a reasonable trade for what was the best J seat I’ve ever experienced. Once the screen door is shut it is a very private experience.

Service was also terrific and - bonus -they didn’t run out of champagne like they did last time I flew this route!

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

15 Aug 2018

Total posts 6

I am tossing up whether to give them a go when I head over to the UK on my next trip from CBR.Used SIA last year,unfortunately I had the old 777-200 with the regional Business class seat to Singapore(I did sleep though) A380 to LHR was fine though.What connection did you have @ Doha,Fossy? Was it the 6am flight to Lhr?This is what puts me off the very long layover time.Otherwise it’s off to Adelaide for an earlier connection in Doha.Cheers:):)

08 Mar 2018

Total posts 8

Hackney, QR 907 connects with QR 9 in Doha. QR 9 (A380) departs at 1:50, meaning roughly 2 hours on the ground. Just enough time for a shower and change. Arrives LHR at 7:05.

Hi All, Being the Best Business Class Airlines In The World, watch out!!!! We made a booking in Oct 2018 for our upcoming trip in May 2019, in QR website did not mention/show “Operated on LATAM” and it was only showed operated by Qatar Airways. We understood about the schedule time changes, but we did not receive any notification regarding this schedule changed and.......aircraft changed too!!!! We heard that QR changed the aircraft in Oct 2018 for their routing BCN-DOH but they are lacked/slacked to change in the website. Very misleading.

People were singing and dancing how wonderful QR is but people did not see the truth of QR. We flew 8 times J class all times from PER to Europe. But this time, for our return trip home from BCN, we don’t know what to expect. If we only know about this changes in their website, we would have booked to return home from CDG. We tried to change to later flight for real QR aircraft, we were told it would have costed us a lot money, typical hey, when they change something is ok for airlines but when you want to change something, forget it. What upset us, QR did not notify us and did not let us know this matter. Common courtesy and good business practice, don’t you agree???
Not happy QATAM!!!!!!!


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