Flying from Doha to London aboard Qatar Airways, first class

Photo / Supplied

Christopher Walsh flies Qatar Airways QR3 from Doha to London Heathrow

The plane: An A380-800. Qatar Airways doesn't have nearly as many as Emirates (10 v 110) and they don't have showers or suites, but still have a certain bling factor and use them for their high-value routes, such as London, Paris and Frankfurt.

Airport experience: Doha Airport is about five years old and easy to walk around. First Class passengers have access to the Al-Safwa lounge, an enormous palace-like space, teeming with staff but low on guests. It has a spa, eight or so bedrooms, a games room, cinema rooms, a bar, restaurant, a high-end duty-free shop, a giant fountain and seating for hundreds. I would estimate 10 guests were in it.

My seat: 1A. Qatar sets up first class in a 1-2-1 and there are two rows. It's nicely fitted with 180-degree recline, electric window shades, table lamp, seating for a friend to join you for dinner and a giant TV screen.

Class: First.

How full: Me and a someone sort-of-famous. Six empty seats.

Fellow travellers: I headed down to the bar, which was lacking drinkers. I had a wine and met some Doha expats shuttling to and from London. Very few Qatari.

Flight time: About seven hours, and we left on time at 8am. The route is reasonably direct heading north over Iran and then west over Iraq and Turkey. Some nasty clear-sky gales over Iran rocked our giant A380 around for a bit.

Food and drink: Qatar's First Class catering is very similar to its (excellent) Business Class offering, with two additions — caviar and Krug, and some larger sized dishes. And, like Business Class, it's dine-on-demand. I make no apologies for ordering two caviar plates, but I made sure there were enough so the other guy wouldn't miss out. They said they load eight per flight — so much waste.

Toilets: Because there were only two of us, we had one each. It's enormous and full of red roses for no apparent reason. Every time you wash your hands you have to move roses out of the basin. There's also a makeshift sofa in the bathroom that you can relax on should you feel so inclined.

The service: Fantastic crew head from Morocco, and two lovely young women from India and Serbia. Behind First Class is the food prep area for First and Business — very labour intensive, but the Moroccan guy and I talked a lot.

Entertainment: I watched two movies, The Disaster Artist and Game Night.

Final word: Excellent.