Completing the second-longest leg of our journey today with this flight from Qatar to the Great Southern Land aboard the A350-900. Adelaide is one of four Australian cities served by the Qatari flag carrier, along with Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. All of these cities are served with Boeing 777 (777-300ER; the 777-200LR was replaced on the DOH-ADL route this year by the A350-900), Airbus A350 and A380 aircraft, although recently service has tended to focus more around the former two as QR shuffles its long-haul fleet around. This flight will be our third time in the QSuites and the first one going to the Southern Hemisphere instead of leaving it.
Server: Solo
Airline: Qatar Airways
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Hamad International Airport, Doha, Qatar (DOH)
Destination: Adelaide Airport, Adelaide, Australia (ADL)
Flight Number: QR914
Route: OTHH-YPAD
Seat: 8J (QSuites)
Time En Route: 12 Hours 50 Minutes
Waiting to board our aircraft on a cloudy night in Doha after a 1-day layover here. Qatar Airways, as the launch customer for both the A350-900 and A350-1000, operate a total of 59 aircraft of both variants (34x A359s and 25x A35Ks, with another 17x of the latter model on order). Our particular aircraft, A7-ALK, is a 9.5-year-old A350-900 that has been with Qatar Airways since September 2016.
Pushing back from the terminal as we settle into our opulent QSuite seat. It’s comfy enough that we don’t know how long we’ll stay awake for after takeoff.
Hamad International is a hive of activity as we taxi out to the runway. We’ve got a Qatar Airways A380-800 that’ll be departing to Sydney soon getting ready, a Qatar Airways 777-300ER taxiing in after arriving from São Paulo, and an A350-1000 pushing back for departure to Bengaluru.
Away we go to Adelaide! We’re sinking back into our almost beyond-description comfortable seat as we get airborne from 34R.
Leaving the Omani coast as we begin to head across the Arabian Sea. We had dinner earlier as we approached the United Arab Emirates earlier once we leveled off at our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Dinner was as good as any Michelin-star restaurant, consisting of slow-cooked beef cheek with herb jus, with a delectable raspberry and white chocolate mousse cake for desert. As for the seat, it’s private, extremely comfy, like the bed at an ultra-luxurious resort, and spacious, feeling more like a suite at said resort than an airline seat, something very few other carriers can say they come close to, let alone actually accomplishing it. However, the temptation to check for light leaks is too great, and we effortlessly drifted off to sleep shortly after this picture was taken.
After getting a full night’s sleep, we’ve woken up in the middle of the day over the Western Australian Outback. We’ve ordered a toasted cinnamon brioche with vanilla mascarpone to tide us over until arrival, which was predictably delicious. Time to get check out the movies and TV shows available on the advanced, modern IFE system, since we have about 2 and a half hours before our wheels touch the ground in Adelaide.
Approaching ADL as we near the western shore of St. Vincent Gulf. That IFE system and selection was respectively easy to use and up to date, allowing for us to pass the time as we cruise over the Great Australian Bight just south of the barren, almost featureless Nullarbor Plain.
Afternoon arrival in Adelaide!
Taxiing to the terminal past the airport fire station and emergency vehicle depot
Parked at Gate 20R before we go to get our bags for our layover in Adelaide. Flying in the QSuites is an amazing, almost otherworldly experience, and is pretty much the best way to connect from Australia to many destinations abroad, unless you’re transiting through Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo-Haneda, or Singapore to destinations that both Emirates, Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, or Singapore Airlines also serve, which makes the question of who to fly with come down to personal taste. However, due to the diversity of Qatar Airways’s route network, one can fly to every inhabited continent and only fly in the palatial seat that is the QSuite. Definitely will fly with them again!