Trip Report: Home QSuite Home
This trip report will cover my Qatar Airways itinerary that I flew during our trip this summer. Our objective was to visit various cities in the Netherlands and Belgium, and I booked flights on Qatar Airways specifically to try out the new QSuite, which they introduced in 2017.
Qatar Airways Boeing 777 QSuite Business Class
Booking The Flights
In December, Qatar Airways did a fare sale where they were selling flights to Europe at around ~HK$18,000 in business class. Qatar Airways often has incredible fare sales, and December’s fares were great (we’ve seen prices driven down to ~HK$14,000, though, which is insane).
Originally we wanted to just fly to Amsterdam and travel around the Netherlands, though we eventually decided to visit Belgium as well, so we booked an open jaw ticket that would fly us into Amsterdam and out of Brussels. This ticket was slightly pricier at HK$21,760 per person, though I didn’t think it was a bad deal for Qatar Airways business class.
The entire flight distance spanned just short of 14,000 miles, and the itinerary was as follows (all in business class):
03/08 Qatar Airways 815 Hong Kong to Doha dep. 01:20 arr. 04:45
03/08 Qatar Airways 273 Doha to Amsterdam dep. 07:50 arr. 13:45
11/08 Qatar Airways 194 Brussels to Doha dep. 17:20 arr. 00:35
12/08 Qatar Airways 818 Doha to Hong Kong dep. 02:30 arr. 16:05
While we were booked in QSuites the entire way to Amsterdam and from Doha to Hong Kong, the Brussels to Doha segment featured Qatar Airways’ older 777 business class product, which is eventually going to be phased out in favour of the QSuite. The product continues to operate many mid- to longhaul flights, even on 16-hour flights during equipment swaps.
Qatar Airways Boeing 777 Business Class Cabin
Qatar Airways is notorious for swapping out QSuite flights and replacing them with 777s featuring their older business class product, though fortunately we didn’t have a single equipment swap throughout our entire itinerary. I credited these flights to American AAdvantage – I’m trying to work my way up to two roundtrip business class tickets between Hong Kong and Europe (since I realised there were probably better programmes to credit my loyalty to), and after this trip I’m only a few miles short.
In terms of other transport, we initially considered booking train tickets through Thalys, though realised we’d have to make it back out to Amsterdam first (we were staying in The Hague) and backtrack to Brussels, which we didn’t think was worth it. We ended up booking through Blacklane, where we received a promotion code from a friend that brought our ride down to €303, down from €404 – we thought it was spectacular value, and the transfer was really smooth.
If you don’t have a Blacklane account yet, you can use promo code WKE2EIHZB during the booking process to get a 10% discount on your first ride, which you can use after entering your credit card information – we get a future discount too, so we’d really appreciate your help!
Booking The Hotels
We decided to split our time between the Netherlands and Belgium, and eventually decided to spend four nights in each country. While Amsterdam has nice enough hotels, it’s a bit of a pricey district, not to mention that many of the city’s most populated areas are a little…weed-heavy. I wanted to have a chance to get to know Amsterdam, as one of the world’s largest cities – though we were taking day trips a lot anyway, and domestic train travel is easy in the Netherlands.
The Hague seemed like a bustling city without being as pricey as Amsterdam, and my friends knew the area very well (unfortunately most of my friends living in the Netherlands were out of the area during this time, so I didn’t get to visit them). We were deciding between the Hotel Indigo and the Marriott, though eventually I found a Family Suite at the Hilton The Hague that was able to accommodate all of us. The Family Suite was charged at €289 (HK$2513) per night at the time of booking, which was very reasonable. The rate was definitely cheaper than booking two separate rooms, which we’d otherwise have to get at either of the hotels we were initially considering.
Hilton The Hague Family Suite
In Belgium we just decided to stay in Brussels. My dad really wanted to stay at The Hotel Brussels, and we decided to splurge for a Panorama Suite for my mom and my sister. Unfortunately the Panorama Suite wasn’t able to accommodate all four of us, so my dad and I booked a separate standard twin room. The Panorama Suite went for HK$2,300 per night (which is very reasonable, considering it’s essentially a junior suite in the middle of Brussels), whereas our standard twin room cost HK$1,200 per night.
The Hotel Brussels Panorama Suite
The Hotel Brussels Standard Twin Room
Lounges I’ll Be Reviewing
I’ve reviewed Qatar Airways’ Al Mourjan lounge before, though will briefly touch upon it in this trip report, as the experience has (unfortunately) gone pretty far downhill. I’ll also touch upon the British Airways Galleries Lounge Brussels, which we had access to as part of our Qatar Airways ticket.
Mainly, though, I’ll be reviewing the Plaza Premium First lounge at Hong Kong Airport, which Qatar Airways offers access to their business class passengers. This is Plaza Premium’s flagship lounge, and the first of Plaza Premium’s first class lounges (they’ve since opened a second one in Kuala Lumpur). This is Plaza Premium’s attempt to catch up with the best first (and even business!) class lounges out there.
Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Bottom Line
I last reviewed Qatar Airways in 2017 and am excited to review them again, in particular the QSuite. Out of the four flights I took, one was disappointing (no spoilers here), two were great, and one was spectacular.
This is the last trip I’ll take where I’m solidly based in Hong Kong, since I might seek work elsewhere after I’m done with university in London. It was quite bittersweet to say the least – in particular the landing in Hong Kong. Unfortunately situations turned purely bitter after that, as the protests went awry, leading to an airport closure less than an hour after my flight landed. It’s also going to be a while before I take my next trip with my family, which is sad for me as well.
Despite that, I enjoyed this trip, and can’t wait to roll out this report.
Read more from this trip:
Stay tuned – which installment are you looking forward to most?