Monday, November 7, 2011

Aurora Hunting: Oslo to Doha

 _________________________________________________________________________________

We decided to wait it out in the airport even though we had about 6 hours to Doha since it costs about ~$60 USD for a round trip on the train to the city. There were no lines when we checked in so we were done with the formalities in less than 5 minutes. We did ask about paid upgrade to business class but was told that there was only one seat available. Obviously I didn't leave the wife back in economy. There are only 2 lounges in Oslo airport one for Star Alliance airlines and one for the rest. Both of the them were not associated with Priority Pass so we had to slum it out with the rest of the folks. We had one of the most expensive lunch at the Kontiki restaurant (was more like a cafeteria where you pick up your own food)  - ~$45 USD for a beer and chicken curry rice.


The boarding gate was pretty packed when we got there. The ground staff was paging for connecting passengers who flew in on SAS flights to approach the counter to get a Qatar boarding pass. There seemed to be a few that flew in and if that's any indication, looks like the route is doing pretty well for Qatar.



The load on this flight was pretty high but it still was comfortable for us due to the great seat pitch and the 2-4-2 or 2-3-2 seat configuration. We would recommend couples flying to choose the window side seats at the back of the plane as there seems to be more space with the middle row limited to just 3 seats due to the "curve" of the plane.



The in-flight service consists a sweets & towel run, drink service, hot towels, followed by lunch and a final snack service right before landing. I must say again that the service is top notch for economy class. Qatar certainly pays attention to the details like colorful napkins, cups and utensils in economy class which is way more fun than the typical white plastic cutlery and cups used by other airlines. 

There were no paper menus provided in economy but instead the menu was available via the IFE. Per the inflight announcement, this was done as an environment effort to save paper. Good job Qatar! Lunch was a choice between an Asian chicken pasta or beef dish which was decent. There might have been a vegetarian option but we being meat lovers didn't bother looking at that option.




2 comments:

  1. Reading your travel with interest. Will be heading to Oslo 5d/4n on Qatar in February next year. Do you have any recommendations or tips regarding airline or travel in oslo ? And how much does it cost for the paid upgrade to business class ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for reading!

    I'm not sure what the cost of the paid upgrade would be. Didn't bother following up when there was only one seat left.

    ReplyDelete