Qatar Airways gets personal
by Luke Clark
Before I flew with them, I had a pretty good sense that Qatar Airways was being rated as an airline to watch in the aviation world, tagged by some as the “next Emirates”.
It must be a bummer for Qatar folks sometimes. Every achievement they make seems to draw comparisons to their illustrious next-door neighbour.
Either way, I had seen the lengthy advertorial segments, timed for the Asian Games in Doha, that Qatar Airways had posted on CNN. I recall being impressed especially by the notion that First Class service should extend even to Economy.
Even if were just an idea, it was something nice to hear in these times of shrinking leg-room in Economy. On too many longhaul flights these days, there are way too mad cows in “Cattle Class”.
I admit though to having a chuckle at the carrier’s tagline, “Taking You More Personally”. I imagined a bunch of over sensitive staff, in tears at the drop of a hat.
However, on booking Singapore-London on holiday earlier this year, I decided to test the air with Qatar. At the time the Ramadan-timed flight was cheaper than other comparable airlines, given that the travel time made the flight relatively direct.
Overall, I was impressed. I had occasion to change my flight time twice – once by visiting their office in Singapore and once by phone in London. Each time, I found the service reasonably quick and attentive. Not once was I given a number or put on hold.
And my seat request for a bulkhead seat – given I’m a little tall and my travel companion is pregnant – was dealt with nicely. “No promises, but we’ll try” soon became a decent seat home. On London-Doha in each direction the food was great, the in-flight play-and-pause movies pretty good (not KrisWorld, but decent), and overall the service was friendly and smart.
Even on the less-impressive (and lower yield) Singapore-Doha legs, the service was good. For instance, a repeated request for a bottle of water eventually yielded a 1.5 litre bottle. Great news to parched travellers. And no robotic replies either.
Perhaps surprising was the service at Doha Airport. While the air-bridges seem to be not quite plentiful yet by the looks, the manpower inside the airport was excellent. It seems tourism training has had an effect on Doha. And I was particularly impressed during a re-seating that I was voluntarily given good seats, rather than the standard response of there being “nothing I can do”. Which was the response I’m more used to, especially in Economy.
Having flown one of their rivals Singapore Airlines to and from Shanghai during the same month, I had to say that SQ wins in terms of its mechanics such as the online systems and its points system. For inflight hardware, it’s a close run. But in terms of personal and intelligent service, and not being treated like a Economy class number in the machine, Qatar was well ahead, and living up to its mantra.
I could happily be taken more personally again.
This article first appeared in The Trransit Cafe – www.thetransitcafe.com/
Ian Jarrett
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