Review: Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class (MXP-DOH)

For my flight back to Singapore, I was planning to scratch two Qatar Airways products off my review list: their not-really-Qsuites on the B787-9, and their really-Qsuites on the A350-900 (or so I thought!)

The first leg from Milan to Doha was operated by the B787-9, which Qatar deploys on its medium-haul routes around Europe. 

Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class

Qatar Airways has a rather unique cabin product on its B787-9s. While it originally intended to fit them with Qsuites, it later realised the fuselage would not permit a four-across configuration.

Therefore, it went with a customised version of the Adient Ascent seat, adding yet another variant to its already fragmented Business Class line up!

💺 Qatar Airways Business Class Seats
Seat	Aircraft	Layout
Qsuites	A350-900 A350-1000 B777-200LR B777-300ER	1-2-1
Ascent	B787-9	1-2-1
Super Diamond	A350-900 A380-800 B777-300ER B787-8	1-2-1
Cirrus II*	B777-300ER	1-2-1
Diamond	A320 A330-300	2-2-2
MiniPod	B777-200LR B777-300ER	2-2-2
Recliner	A320	2-2-2
*These are ex-Cathay Pacific jets, and have likely undergone some cosmetic refurbishment to convert them into Qatar colours. The photo depicts the seats during the Cathay days.

A total of 30 Business Class seats can be found on the B787-9, laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration. 

I entered via the rear door to the Business Class cabin, where Qatar has built a beautiful textured feature wall with its Oryx logo in rose gold set against a burgundy backdrop. 

What’s interesting about this layout is that the A/K single seats by the windows are facing away from the aisle (reverse herringbone), the E/F seats in the middle face towards the aisle (regular herringbone). 

This makes it easier for couples in the E/F seats to communicate, especially when the privacy divider is lowered. Each passenger has a button, which needs to be pressed simultaneously to lower the partition. The partition can be raised by either passenger pressing the up button. 

Do note that the 1 E/F seats at the front of the cabin have a personal storage compartment (meant to compensate for the lack of an overhead bin, sacrificed to make room for a crew rest area), which pushes them back from the bulkhead. This means they’re more insulated from galley noise, which can be a problem for the 1 A/K seats. 

I assigned myself a window seat on the port side of the aircraft. These seats aren’t even close to Qsuites in terms of layout or features, but that didn’t stop the crew from referring to them as such! I had to bite my tongue every time they asked if I was familiar with the features of Qsuites…

I have to say, I’m a fan of the aesthetics. Qatar has always been a lot more subtle with its design choices than Emirates, and this seat sure is pleasing on the eye. The colour palette is simple, with burgundy, two shades of grey and some beige- no gold trim in sight!

Each seat had a storage cupboard, reading lamp, and wireless charging holder. Inside the storage cupboard was a small mirror. 

The coolest feature by far is the wireless charging holder. I love to see this kind of future-proofing, since anything that minimises the number of cables can only be a good thing. The slot was large enough to fit my Pixel 7 Pro (which at 162.9 x 76.6 x 8.9 mm is not exactly svelte), but charging speeds are obviously much slower than wired charging. 

Given how finnicky wireless charging can be, the designers have wisely built a retracting arm that holds the phone in place. I did have some concerns about screen scratches, however, given how snug the mechanism felt. 

Beneath the storage cupboard is an IFE remote, universal power outlet with a Type-A fast-charging USB port, and a three-pin headphone jack.

While the side table provides some storage space, it’s woefully inadequate. This is barely large enough to fit a 14″ laptop, leaving no space to put your blanket or anything else that won’t fit in the storage cupboard.

Seat controls were located below the side console, with pre-sets for full flat, lounging and full upright, as well as individual controls for the leg rest and a do-not-disturb button. Unfortunately, leg rest aside, there’s no way of controlling individual components of the seat.

Each seat is equipped with an 18″ high-definition touchscreen, which is fixed to the seatback. It does not tilt or swivel, which means you can’t tilt it downwards if fully reclined in bed mode. 

Next to the screen is a literature pocket, with the safety card and air sickness bag.

The tray table slides out from underneath the IFE screen, and pivots 90 degrees towards you. It can comfortably accommodate a 14″ laptop, though there’ll be no space remaining for drinks or snacks. 

If you need to enter or exit your seat and don’t want to clear your table, you can simply push it away from you. 

Apart from the lack of storage space, my main issue with the seat was how narrow it was. You can see it from the restrictive footwell area below. Back sleepers won’t be able to move about much when fully reclined.

Now, let’s talk about that privacy door, because I have mixed feelings about it. Doors are becoming the new hygiene factor for Business Class seats, and that’s a good thing- who doesn’t want more privacy? 

But not all doors are made equal, and this one’s a prime example. Each Business Class seat is equipped with a manually-operated privacy door, which is locked in the open position for taxi, take-off and landing. At cruising altitude, the crew will unlock the door, and you can close it as you please. 

You’ll notice in your typical Qatar publicity photos, the door will appear like this. 

In reality, it’s more like this:

That’s because the door and walls of the suite aren’t very high, so in reality you’re only shielded from children or Tom Cruise. A person of average height walking down the aisle can easily look into your suite, if they were so inclined. 

Also note that the door does not close completely, leaving a small gap at the edges.

So while these doors are good at providing privacy from a distance, they do a much worse job up close and personal. 

One final point: these seats use a three-point seatbelt, which can feel more restrictive than the traditional two-point seatbelt. Fortunately, the shoulder strap only needs to be worn during take-off and landing.

Amenities

A pillow and plastic-wrapped blanket were waiting at each seat on arrival. I have to say, I really like Qatar’s Business Class blankets. They’re warm and fuzzy, very unlike the scratchy stuff you get on other carriers. More importantly, they’re long- I find Singapore Airlines’ blankets to be too short for my 1.8 metre frame, but Qatar’s do nicely.

As cringey as I find Qatar Airway’s quote pillows (“they look like they were dreamed up by someone’s tacky aunt”, said one wag), I was still hoping to get one so I could display it around the house- ironically, of course. 

Unfortunately, instead of “today is a good day”, or “live, work, travel, repeat!”, I got a rather staid “Welcome to Qatar…cel________________________ebrate”. It was unclear whether I was expected to fill in the blank, but in any case the cabin crew informed us these were souvenirs we could take home. 

Even though this was a 6-hour daytime flight, amenities kits were still distributed. Qatar’s diptyque amenities kit features a pair of socks, lip balm, body lotion, face cream, and a small sample of perfume, either:

• Eau Rose’ Eau de Toilette – an infusion of the finest damascena and centifolia roses, or
• ‘34 Boulevard Saint Germain’ Eau de Toilette with notes of amber, patchouli, cinnamon and rose

Food & Beverage

The crew served pre-departure drinks on the ground in Milan, which consisted of orange juice or water. Champagne was available on request as well. Drinks were served with a pre-packaged diptyque wet towel. 

The crew also distributed menus and took meal orders on the ground. I love the textured feel of Qatar’s menus, as well as the use of colour printing for the wine list. I don’t know about you, but seeing the wines in colour makes it that much nicer for me.

More drinks were served about 30 minutes after take-off. Here’s the wine list for your reference. 

I was disappointed to see that Qatar Airways has replaced Billecart Salmon with Laurent-Perrier. I realise it’s a matter of personal preference, but I don’t find anything interesting in Laurent-Perrier. It’s a very one-note drop, the kind you might bring to a dinner party when the wife says “oh let’s bring some bubbly” but then the host has catered Pizza Hut. 

Lunch was served on this flight to Doha, with service commencing about one hour after take-off. 

The meal started with a small off-menu amuse bouche, consisting of a prawn and blistered cherry tomato.

Soup came next: minestrone with Sardinian gnocchi. 

Tuna tartare came next, arranged in a neat little circle with halved tomatoes and cucumber slices. 

For the main, I went with the pan seared cod, served with pea puree and caponata (a vegetable side featuring aubergine and other vegetables seasoned with olive oil). The cod was slightly dry around the edges—quite an accomplishment given cod is specifically chosen for airplane cabins because it’s hard to dry out — but still moist inside. 

Dessert was sfogliatella, an Italian cream-filled pastry that resembles a croissant, only with much denser layers. Pistachio gelato and ricotta cheese accompanied it. 

Meal service then concluded with a box of Läderach chocolates and a hot towel. 

A light refreshments area was set up at the back of the cabin, with a selection of potato chips, popcorn, chocolate bars and biscuits available throughout the flight.

Inflight Entertainment

Oryx One, Qatar’s inflight entertainment system, offers up to 3,000 on-demand options (you can preview the selection here).

There’s all the latest Hollywood releases, but also a lot of Arabic and Hindi options, in recognition of the airlines’ clientele. 

I wanted a movie that didn’t require any brain power at all, and settled on Moonfall, a timely reminder of just how far Halle Berry’s career has fallen. So suspended was my disbelief, I was half expecting them to shout “It’s cheese, Gromit! The moon is made of cheese!”

Qatar also offers external cameras, which make watching take-off rather fun on a clear day.

Business Class passengers receive noise-cancelling headphones, but these felt plasticky and flimsy. They also didn’t fit very well over my ears, resulting in some noise leakage. 

However, this system allows you to pair your own Bluetooth headphones, which is a really nifty trick. My Beats were easily paired, and I was able to pause and play just by pressing the side button. 

Wi-Fi

Qatar Airways offers “Super Wi-Fi” service on more than 100 A350-900/-1000, B777-200LR, B777-300ER and B787-8/9 aircraft, which it touts as “game-changing” for inflight connectivity. The system is provided by Inmarsat’s GX Aviation hardware, with claimed speeds of up to 50 Mbps. 

Qatar Privilege Club members enjoy one hour of free Super Wi-Fi, and the good news is that you don’t need to have your Privilege Club membership number on your boarding pass to qualify. You can simply login to your Privilege Club account via the inflight portal to get your free hour, allowing you to credit the flight to whichever frequent flyer programme you wish.

Passengers can also purchase additional Super Wi-Fi plans:

• If you purchase Super Wi-Fi before your flight, you pay US$8
• If you purchase Super Wi-Fi during your flight, you pay US$10

The cost is the same regardless of flight duration, which makes them great value for some of the ultra-long haul flights that Qatar operates. 

But do the speeds match up the claims? They certainly do. While it’s nowhere near the promised 50 Mbps, I got close to 19 Mbps download speeds, which made all my work tasks effortless. 

Sleep Experience

The seat reclines into a full flat bed measuring 1.95m long. The padding was comfortable, but as mentioned earlier, the restrictive footwell is not friendly towards back sleepers. I managed to get a one-hour nap, which was more than sufficient on a daytime flight. 

The centre seats can be converted into a “double bed”; I use that term lightly because only your heads are together. Your bodies will be angled away, so you’ll say goodnight and that’s about it. No spooning!

Toilets

The 30 Business Class passengers have access to two lavatories, both at the back of the cabin. These feature standard Dreamliner amenities like contactless taps and flushes, plus a window for a view. 

Both were well-stocked with toothbrush kits (kudos to Qatar for providing actual Colgate, and not one of the many imitation brands out there), as well as diptyque cologne and hand lotion.

Conclusion

Qatar Airways’ B787-9 Business Class has much to applaud. Privacy doors and double beds are always nice to see, even if the execution isn’t perfect, and the tech junkie in me loves the wireless charging and personal Bluetooth connectivity.

However, the seat feels claustrophobically narrow, and is severely lacking in storage space. Perhaps these issues won’t be so readily apparently on the medium-haul flights it’s meant to serve, but as the journey progresses you’ll definitely notice it. 

What do you make of Qatar Airways’ B787-9 Business Class?