Qatar removes Qsuite from Italy, world's best business class seat disappears from Italian skies
There is a business class seat that is, by far, the best of all, it is a product that routs the [...]
Qatar Airways
Oneworld
MXP
Recommended by TFC
There is one business class seat that is, by far, the best of all, it is a product that beats the competition. The company that invented it decided to eliminate first class so much so that it is convinced that its business offering is the best possible compromise. This chair is called the QSuite and has been honored every year since it was introduced as the The best business class seat in the world.
Qsuite is cross and delight for Qatar and for the passengers of the second best airline in the world.
Delight because when traveling, whether alone, as a couple or with a family, there is no seat in the world that makes passengers happier. Cross because unfortunately this cabin is not present on the entire fleet of the Doha-based company and indeed Is installed on only a small patrol of long-range aircraft among those in the QR fleet and car changes are the thing most dreaded by all passengers about to head to the airport with a QR ticket in hand.
No guarantee for the passenger
One thing I have explained over and over again is that machine changes can always happen and that the passenger has no kind of guarantee. You are buying a flight class, not a product. This means as you have seen in my recent mishap aboard ITA Airways that nothing is due if you travel on an airplane, old instead of a new one. Conversely you will receive a refund if booked in business you are downgraded to a lower cabin.
The bad surprise
In the past few days I received an email from Qatar about a change in an operating schedule of a flight I have scheduled for the end of the year. It was nothing, a time change of a few minutes.
So I went to check through the app whether the chosen places were always confirmed and here discovered that the flight, previously operated with QSuite will instead be operated with an A350 outfitted with a different cabin, the seat on these planes is comfortable and very popular, but unfortunately it is not the QSuite, it does not have the door that isolates from the aisle, and it also does not have the option of becoming a double bed.
Changing machines in the winter months
So I started poking around in the flights and discovered how October 21 in Milan and October 30 in Rome, that is, at the same time as the start of the winter season for the aviation world, the QSuite disappears from 5 daily flights that QR operates from the two major Italian intercontinental airports. There are virtually no more scheduled routes with aircraft outfitted with the QSuite.
Going through the entire calendar I found only a handful of flights from Rome sold as QSuite, but really little or nothing until the end of January. Since February things seem to be improving with a significantly higher frequency of Qsuite routes, but only from the Capital not from Milan where QSuite is only available via Frankfurt until late spring.
In contrast from Milan in October there is at least one flight departing with a plane outfitted with the award-winning cabin on 2,3,4,8,10,11,13,14 and 19 and more nothing after that date. To see if a flight will be operated, or not, with this cabin just see if when you search for a route it shows Qsuite in the search results.
This is definitely a cold shower for Italian passengers, on par with when we discovered the removal of Emirates' A380 on the Milan/New York route.
When questioned by TFC Qatar clarified that.: " Qsuite is not available on all routes and we would like to specify this through our communication. Depends on aircraft rotation and whether already configured ( only on the 350 and 777). We have different products depending on the aircraft used and we believe that they still meet our customers' expectations. Possible then that they may find for example the configuration on the onward flight connecting from Doha or sometimes not have the possibility to find it on both routes."
In conclusion
The diatribe between Qatar and Airbus has been resolved and this should speed up the return to service of the A350s stopped in the desert because of paint problems. Sooner or later, it should also restart the delivery of the new A350s and so more and more planes outfitted with the QSuite will return to flight, in the meantime all that's left is to make do with a regular seat, but still always better than what many other companies offer to Italian and European passengers.
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