Qatar Airways receives its first A350-1000, inaugural flight on 24 February 2018

Inaugural flight on 24 February 2018 to London Heathrow.

Just yesterday evening, Qatar Airways received its first A350-1000 aircraft, making them the first in the world to operate it. Back in 2014, Qatar Airways was also the first to operate the A350-900. I’ve personally flown on the A350-900 from Singapore to Doha back in 2015 and I can tell you it’s a fantastic aircraft, even in economy class I was loving every moment on the plane.

Photo Credits : Airbus

2 Class Configuration : QSuites and Economy

Similar to the rest of their fleet (with the A380 being the exception), Qatar has configured its A350-1000 in a 2-class configuration with a total of 327 seats onboard. As with their newer 777-300ERs, QSuites would be installed across their A350-1000 fleet as well.

Business class is configured in a 1-2-1 layout where alternate rows have their seats facing backwards and economy is in a 3-3-3 configuration. Lucky has tried the backward facing seats and has found them to be spectacular.

 

London Heathrow launch destination for A350-1000

When Qatar received its A350-900 in 2014, its inaugural flight was to Frankfurt. This time round, London Heathrow would be getting some love from Qatar Airways with the A350-100 being deployed on the QR15 flight from Doha to London and potentially returning as QR16. It’s interesting to see that Europe is getting much love for launch destinations for QRs new aircraft (as well as products). If you recall, the Boeing 777-300ER equipped QSuites was also sent to London Heathrow when it first launched.

Currently, Qatar has not updated their booking engine to reflect the A350-1000 on QR15, but as per Flightglobal, QR15 will be the inaugural flight.

Photo Credits : Qatar Airways

Cost and redemption options

Currently, Qatar is offering decent fares to London Heathrow starting from approximately S$1,086.50 in Economy (as of 21 Feb 2018). In business class, revenue fares start at S$7000 ex-SIN on QR15 and QR16 to Heathrow. Unless you’re truly desperate to fly the QSuites and don’t mind splurging, it’s best to hold off until award space becomes available for business class.

Price to Heathrow in Economy for QR15/QR16
Photo Credits : Qatar Airways

For us here who only accrue miles from credit card spend, Asia Miles or British Airways Executive Club is where you should turn to for seats. As QR hasn’t updated their inventory to reflect the A350-1000, I’m unable to utilize KVS to hunt for award seats. The miles required for a one-way business class redemption in Asia Miles and BAEC for a flight from DOH to LHR would set you back 45,000AM and 60,000 Avios respectively.

Photo Credits : British Airways

 

Concluding thoughts

It’s great to see a spanking new aircraft out in the market, especially one from the A350 family which I truly adore. As per their press conference yesterday, His Excellency Mr Al Baker said that QSuites is already the gold standard and that the bar cannot go higher (I love how proud he is with his fleet products). Hopefully one day I’ll be able to find my way onboard the A350-1000 and provide a review for it. Until then, it’s back to my books.

 

Matthew Chong
Matthew Chong
Addicted to luxury travel while trying not to go broke, Matthew is always on the prowl for the best deals in the travel industry. When he's not busy studying, he can be found trawling the internet and reading up on credit cards, airlines and hotels. He also wouldn't mind taking you out on a date.

Similar Articles

Comments

5 COMMENTS

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Citiuser

hi i’m using Citibank cards. Should I transfer my thank u points directly to Qmiles? Why did you suggest to use Asia miles, is there any advantage doing so?

Citiuser

I tried searching SIN-LHR return and it’s 150k qmiles for J
Did I just searched wrongly?

AM at 90k for return looks a good deal I’ll check it out thanks

[…] good news! As per Gulf Times, Qatar Airways will be flying their Airbus A350-1000 which features their flagship QSuites Business Class product on the Singapore – Doha route from 1 November […]

CREDIT CARD SIGN UP BONUSES

Advertisment

Featured Deals

Advertisment

Follow us

7,110FansLike
10,382FollowersFollow

TAGS