For our trip to Madrid – we went with Qatar Airways which meant that I got to travel on a 787 (Cathay doesn’t have a 787) and a short stop at the Al Mourjan Business Lounge in Doha – both were impressive!
So after a short break at the lounge, it was time to head to the gate for the next leg of our journey – the airport itself is like any other airport in that there are shops everywhere.
One thing about the QR147 flight though is that whilst the pilot and the crew are Qatar Airways – the equipment itself is borrowed from LATAM airlines – so the livery is LATAM’s – the good thing is that the plane is an A350 – raccoon face.
We weren’t too concerned about queues as we were heading to the gate because Business Class normally includes priority boarding – but that kind of went out the window when we arrived and boarding started – the “queue” was pretty much a crowd – and whilst they turned people away at the priority lane – it took a bit of pushing to get through the crowd.
Once on the flight though – the environment was quite nice – the LATAM Business Class is a 2-2-2 configuration – and actually offered a lot of space, especially when I’m just 5’7.
Once on the flight – we were quickly handed with Menus – once again, you can decide when you want breakfast – given that we’ll be arriving into Madrid at about 8am – I asked for breakfast at about 6am (2 hrs before landing) – Ms. Buddha did the same.
Once comfortably on the flight – and also after the flight is in the air (take-off was smooth) – it was about 2:30am Doha time which meant that I could grab about 3.5 hours rest before breakfast – the flight was quite smooth so by the time I woke up – it was starting to get bright.
Similar to the HKG to DOH flight, flight crew came around and started setting the table along with a tempting bread basket – all the breads were delicious!
To kick-start the breakfast – I went for a dates and cinnamon smoothie (highly recommended) along with some fruit. The fruit were really sweet (but not in that soaked in sugar water way) – nice start to the meal.
Ms. Buddha on the other hand went for a Cucumber, Apple and Mint Energiser (the green drink) plus a serving of the Greek Yoghurt – she was very impressed with the quality!
For the mains, I went for the lighter option with Lentil Pancakes with Paneer Masala – I was very pleasantly surprised and it re-enforces the notion that you should also have more traditional foods because the sourcing and the quality assurance is normally higher. The highlight is the fact that the masala had a nice strong spiciness to it.
Ms. Buddha on the other hand? I don’t actually know what came over her or why she was THAT hungry – but she went for scrambled eggs with a fillet of beef. It must’ve tasted great because she looked very happy polishing off everything while she watched TV…
After the meal it was pretty bright out already and it wasn’t long until we were approaching into Madrid already – the great thing about flying the window seat is the ability to have an aerial view of the city – especially when the weather is perfect!
Landing was super smooth and immigration and luggage actually came quite quickly (thanks to priority luggage) – and we were packing things into our car in next to no time!
Buddha Explores 