Qatar Airways’ Confusing Regional First Class Explained

I just published a review of Qatar Airways’ Boeing 737 MAX “first class.” The way that Qatar Airways markets the forward cabin on short haul flights tends to confuse people, so I wanted to talk about that in a bit more detail in this post.

Qatar Airways’ first class on short haul flights

To start, it’s worth understanding that Qatar Airways offers first class on very few long haul flights, instead focusing on offering an excellent business class product. On long haul flights, the airline offers first class exclusively on all Airbus A380s and on select Boeing 777s (specifically, the half dozen former Cathay Pacific 777s that the airline flies). Qatar Airways has plans to eliminate long haul first class in the future.

On short haul flights it’s a different story. On many regional flights, Qatar Airways markets its forward cabin as first class rather than business class. Yes, the same seat that would be marketed as business class on another route could be marketed as first class on a regional route.

You can expect that Qatar Airways markets the forward cabin as first class rather than business class on many flights within the Middle East, as well as select flights to Northern Africa. However, that’s not consistently the case. To give a couple of examples:

• For service to Oman, flights to Muscat (MCT) have first class, while flights to Salalah (SLL) have business class
• For service to Egypt, flights to Cairo (CAI) have first class, while flights to Alexandria (HBE) have business class

Best I can tell, it seems like routes that are considered “premium” (in terms of demand, business, etc.) have first class, while other routes have business class.

What are the implications of this first class branding?

Often the distinction between first class and business class is silly. For example, in the United States, the forward cabin on domestic flights is generally marketed as first class, even though it’s worse quality than business class on international flights.

In the case of Qatar Airways, what are the implications of being on a regional flight in first class? As mentioned above, there’s no difference in terms of the seat, since you’ll be on a plane that has seats that could otherwise be marketed as business class on another route.

Nonetheless, there are some advantages to being in first class:

• First class passengers (including on regional flights) get access to Qatar Airways’ Al Safwa First Class Lounge in Doha, which is the carrier’s best lounge; so the lounge access implications of being in first class are awesome
• First class features somewhat elevated service compared to business class; for example, Qatar Airways offers pre-departure Arabic coffee and dates when a flight is marketed as first class, but not when it’s marketed as business class
• Nowadays there’s no difference in terms of catering otherwise, though I’d note that back in the day, Qatar Airways served Krug champagne in regional first class, which sure was a treat

Does Qatar Airways charge more when a regional flight has the cabin marketed as first class rather than business class? It depends.

If you’re paying cash for a ticket:

• If you have a multi-segment itinerary in business class, the short haul segment will automatically book into first class (pending availability), so you’re not paying a premium for first class
• When you’re flying point-to-point on a regional flight, pricing for first class isn’t noticeably higher than pricing for business class; for example, I’m seeing higher fares in Qatar Airways business class from Doha to Salalah than in Qatar Airways first class from Doha to Muscat

If you’re redeeming points for a ticket:

• Through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program you’d generally pay the higher first class cost for the short segment in first class
• Through some partner programs, like American AAdvantage, you can include a regional first class connection as part of a larger business class award at the business class award cost

So for many customers, being on a flight where the forward cabin is marketed as first class should work in your favor, as it probably won’t cost you extra, but you’ll get more included.

Why does Qatar Airways market these cabins as first class?

Why does Qatar Airways sell the forward cabin on so many regional flights as first class rather than business class? As you can see, this isn’t exclusively about marketing, but is also about offering a better experience to short haul passengers. Here’s what I suspect the logic is:

• Qatar Airways is a state-owned airline, and Qatari nationals are more likely to fly regionally, so the idea is to offer a better experience for those local passengers
• The Gulf carriers compete fiercely with one another, so this is a way that Qatar Airways can make it more attractive to choose it over a competitor, by offering better lounge access to passengers in Doha

This is also why when you’re in the Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Class Lounge, you’ll notice a much higher concentration of people from the region than in the Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge. After all, some of these regional flights have 40+ first class seats, so that’s also why the Al Safwa Lounge can get pretty crowded during peak hours, prior to short haul departures.

Bottom line

While Qatar Airways will eventually eliminate first class on long haul flights, the airline offers a huge network of first class flights regionally. In reality, certain routes just have business class seats instead marketed as first class. This also means that there’s slightly elevated inflight service, and most importantly, access is granted to the Al Safwa First Class Lounge in Doha.

Hopefully the above clears up any confusion about why Qatar Airways markets the forward cabin on some short haul flights as first class, and what it means for passengers.

What do you make of Qatar Airways’ regional first class concept?