Qatar Airways 787-9 Economy Review - Athens to Doha, QR212
- Sam
- Jul 8
- 8 min read
This flight was part of my six flight, 72 hours, all booked using points odyssey. This is flight four, taking me from Athens to Doha, where I’ll be reviewing Qatar Airways 787-9 economy cabin. Although this is my only economy flight of the trip, that doesn't mean I wasn't looking forward to it. Earlier in the year we flew Emirates economy from Singapore to Gatwick, via Dubai, so I was looking forward to compare the two carriers. Will Qatar Airways economy be as disappointing as Emirates’ Boeing 777, or as impressive as the Emirates A380?
How did I book?
As I mentioned, this flight was part of an all points odyssey, to show you how to redeem your points on a multitude of airlines. Whereas the other flights have been straight up full points flight redemptions, this one was a little bit different.
When booking this flight I had looked up the price of the flight in points to be 80,000 Avios one way, from Athens to Riyadh, booked as one itinerary via Doha. 80,000 Avios was a lot in my book for five hours of flying time. So what I did instead was book this journey as a cash fare, which cost only €229.42. I paid this using my Hilton Honors plus debit card, which has an earning rate of 3 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent, earning me 594 Hilton Honors points for this transaction.
Apply for the Hilton Honors Plus debit card before 14th August to get an uplifted bonus of 30,000 Hilton Honors points instead of the usual 10,000. Click here to find out more.
I then looked to upgrade the second leg. Qatar operate a very transparent pricing policy when using Avios to upgrade. So to upgrade this leg cost me only 16,000 Avios. Why the second leg? Well, I have a three hour layover in Doha, and by upgrading the second leg means I will have access to all the great lounges in Doha.
Before the flight I decided that I’d do a bit of lounge hopping, to bring you some more reviews. These will be coming separately, but I visited the Goldair lounge using my Priority Pass, a perk of my American Express Platinum Card. This is the lounge that Emirates uses at Athens, and was a great space to spend an hour. The second lounge I visited was the Servair lounge, which is the lounge that Qatar Airways and British Airways use at Athens. This lounge wasn’t quite as impressive as the Goldair. With an overall aesthetic that was more Ikea than plush like the Goldair lounge.
So, the flight?
This flight had a departure time of 10:55am, with the gate being called one hour before. Now, this is my first time flying through Athens, so I didn’t know that this was a bus gate until I saw the arrow pointing me down the escalators, “sigh”. I needn’t have judged so soon though, as this flight was barely even a quarter full with only 78 passengers in total out of a maximum of 311, meaning no mad scrum into the buses. I was the last group to board, group four, and this was the last bus to leave the gate for the plane. This bus was wonderfully quiet, with only a dozen passengers onboard. Taking a bus to the plane does give some great opportunities to see some aircraft I wouldn’t have necessarily seen up close before.
About ten minutes later we parked up next to the plane to board via the one set of stairs in front of the left engine. I was the last person to board the plane, something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I’m a “would rather be one hour early, than one minute late” sort of person.
I found my seat for today’s flight , 11K, an extra legroom bulkhead economy seat. Even though this flight was only a quarter full, Sod’s Law would say that I would still have a seat mate. Worry not though.
At the seat was your standard fleece blanket, and a small Qatar Airways branded pillow. The amount of legroom offered in this seat was impressive, not allowing me to stretch out fully because of the solid bulkhead, but enough to get easily comfortable.
I did for comparison also try a standard economy seat and was pleased with the space on offer for my 6ft2 frame, as well as the small features in the seat back such as the drinks holder, and the half fold in the table.
And herein lies the biggest flaw with these extra legroom seats, the way the tray table and video screen are stored. Popping out from the armrest for the table, and swinging from in between the seat divide for the screen, this offers no scope to move out of your seat if these are deployed, so good luck trying to escape during meal service!
This leads to the next problem, the width. This plane’s full name is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has been given the nickname “Squeezeliner”. The 787 was designed for 2-4-2 seating in economy, but Boeing left just enough room that airlines could fit an extra line of economy seats if airlines wished to make it 3-3-3, so guess which one the airlines chose? You guessed it, the one that would make them more money! So in addition to already having shoved an extra seat in, the extra mechanisms needed for the table and the screen result in more width being taken up. Obviously the trade off is that no one can recline into you, and I found the tray table perfectly suitable to work from, but I would bear this in mind when picking your seat.
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When the screen pops up in front of you, the normal controls you would usually find above you, such as the reading light or call bell, are instead all managed via the screen. A downside if you wanted to turn your light on when you're screen isn't deployed.
For couples, I would recommend the rear two seats near the galley. Whilst they won’t be the quietest of seats, you will be on your own. Where the fuselage bends in, whilst leaving no room for a third seat, it does gives space for one passenger to place a bag.
Once on board, I made myself comfortable, and as I was the last passenger onboard it didn't take long for the service to start. Within two minutes of sitting down a member of the crew came round offering everyone a cold towel, not something I'm accustomed to in economy. Headphones were then offered to all passengers, which I declined as I had my own, which I would always recommend. We pushed back just four minutes behind schedule, and it was a short taxi to the runway with this flight in the air just ten minutes later at 11:09am.
How was the food?
Food service began 40 minutes after take off at 11:50am. A little early perhaps, but on a four hour flight it helps to get things over and done with sooner for the crew. The menu was available before the flight via the Qatar Airways app, or if you were onboard then it could be found by logging on to the WiFi.
I opted for the "chicken, tomato, and thyme orzo casserole", with a glass of the 3 Suns Sauvignon Blanc. This was accompanied with a starter of "bulgar wheat and quinoa salad with beetroot and yoghurt mousse", with the desert being a white chocolate bavaroise with granola crumble, served with a bottle of water, bread roll, and metal cutlery.
The bulgar wheat and quinoa salad was flavourful, with a nice blend of textures. The orzo casserole was excellent. Despite needing a bit of mixing, the orzo and the chicken weren't overcooked, with the level of seasoning perfect. The desert was an excellent end to the meal. Exceedingly creamy, with a nice tropical coulis, hiding a great chocolate biscuit base.
This meal easily beat a recent meal of mine in British Airways' Club Europe coming back from Corfu (make sure you subscribe so you don't miss when we post that piece), so kudos to Qatar Airways serving such good food in economy. This food was definitely on par with our recent flight on Emirates, so its good to see such a high standard of food for flights on these two airlines.
The clearing of food was disappointingly slow considering how few passengers were onboard, being taken away 45 minutes after first being served. This was a bit more frustrating for me considering the seat I was in, trapped in by my tray table. After the meal service was cleared away the crew offered tea and coffee, served with a Biscoff cookie.
A note on the crew, they were clinical in their dealings with passengers. Calm, and efficient when working, but to the point of being a bit cold. I don't think this is a reflection on those people who made up the crew today, but more the service expectation set to them by Qatar Airways. This is in line with previous flights I've had in business class with Qatar Airways, where the crew are so busy they don't have time for small talk.
After meal service I wanted to get a little bit of work done, so logged on to the WiFi. On offer was one hour complimentary WiFi for members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club, or WiFi for the full flight for just $10. Download speeds were acceptable, just strong enough to stream some video if you so wished.
Toilets were kept clean throughout the flight, with Qatar also providing a rose scented eau de toilette.
And with that, the cabin was told to prepare for landing with 40 minutes to go. Usually this would be the cue to go use the toilets for one last time, but no, on this flight that meant seatbelts on, and seats upright, fine. Except, for me that also meant that my screen had to be stowed away rendering it useless. A tad annoying as I had only a small amount of what I was watching left.
A small bit of context, this flight was taken during the Israel-Iran conflict, so maybe that had something to do with the thorough preparation for landing.
We landed in Doha just over four hours since leaving Athens, and I was looking forward to the next flight, Qatar Airways First Class. So stay tuned for that.
Sam, that was an economy flight, are you feeling okay?
How rude, whoever wrote that...
Economy class flights can be good. It's just all too often that economy is where major corners are cut by airlines leaving passengers to feel like nothing more than deadweight with a seat. This flight was as good as my flight in Emirates economy on the A380.
Would I pick the bulkhead seat again? Probably not. The seat is just so slim that you barely have enough room to wriggle around.
But would I fly Qatar Airways economy again? Absolutely. In fact, I'd be love to bring you more reviews in economy for you in other Qatar Airways planes, for instance the A380.
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