travel-tips – Hooked On Points

Qatar Airways Business Class – Doha to Washington DC

July 7, 2025Tagged airline, airlines, business-class, travel, travel-tipsLeave a comment

After disembarking the aircraft, I headed over to the Al Safwa First Class lounge with the hope that I would be able to get a private room to get some proper sleep. Luck was not on my side as all rooms were booked and the earliest I would be able to get one was 7.30am but that was a non-starter since my flight was at 8am. After contemplating how terrible things were going for me, I decided to head over to the Al Mourjan Garden lounge in the hope that I would get a nap room there. Yet another swing and a miss as no rooms were available but one would be available around 4.30am. As the lounge was empty, I decided to crash on one of the couches until the room was ready. When I got a room, I could not sleep and was just doom scrolling until it was time to leave. Got a shower room to freshen up, had a light snack/drink and then headed to the gate.

Up the escalator to the Al Safwa lounge

Oooooooh – water fountain

Everyone crowding the bear from the front – I just went to the back where its nice and quiet.

Hopped on the train to get to the C concourse where the Garden lounge was located

Overlooking the Orchard – at night

Overlooking the Orchard – sunrise

Water pool structure thingy

Heading towards the E concourse

Morning bird watching

I assume the new E concourse is specifically for US flights as there are new sterilized areas for additional security and other checks before entering the gate area. Everything went by smoothly and dare I say the staff were much nicer than TSA staff. After 15 minutes of idling around, boarding was called with business class first but as usual, all gate lice decided to block J passengers from boarding and things got a bit testy. Eventually, I made it onboard.

The female cabin crew member working my side of the plane was nice and way better than the crew from the previous flight. She came by to introduce herself, offered a PDB and brought PJs.

Started with OJ.

The view

Safety video as we were taxi-ing

View while taxi-ing

Lining up on 16R …

Aaaaaand nothing happened. We started to move but no massive engine spool up – just continued to taxi off onto the other taxi way and towards 34L which was the opposite end of the runway. The captain came on the horn announcing a change in wind direction necessitating a take off from the other direction.

Ok, once more unto the breach

See ya later DOH.

After take off, the cabin crew got into action. Started off with a pipping hot cup of Karak Chai.

Breakfast showtime

Told the cabin crew to skip all the fluff stuff and just ordered the omlette. Was really good.

After that, asked the staff to add the stuff to make into a bed.

Thank goodness for Starlife WIFI – was able to doom scroll when I was bored watching stuff on the TV.

Got a burger mid flight and it was meh – was a bit cold.

The real showtime approximately 2 hours before landing.

Hooray for caviar in business class!

Chicken Maskhool – yum

Warm salted caramel and almond cheesecake – too sweet for my liking but good overall

Somewhere over the US close to IAD

IAD

It was at this point that the fun ended.

One last longing look.

Taking the people mover to the main terminal

Immigration was easy enough with Global Entry and bags came out shortly after arriving at the belt. Headed up to the departure hall to check in my bag on the connecting United flight back to YYZ.

Qatar Airways Lounge Bangkok

June 26, 2025Tagged asia, food, review, travel, travel-tipsLeave a comment

The flight to Doha was at 9pm and I could only secure a 2pm late check out from the WA. Dayuse to the rescue and booked 6 hours at the Divalux Resort near BKK for $42 CAD.

Booked the hotel shuttle service to take me to the airport which was efficient and after 20 minutes, made it curbside.

Found the QR desks. No F line, everyone in premium cabins were funneled through one line and was round robin to the F and J desks. I did however get checked in at one of the F desks.

The famous escalator as shown on social media as a sad reminder that the fun in Thailand was at an end. All premium passengers get to use the fast track lane for immigration and security which was on the other side of the check in hall. Happy to report that immigration is done via automated gates when exiting the country (hopefully they will introduce auto gates for entering the country soon).

After clearing all that, I headed over to the tax refund area and after 20 minutes, got my cash and made my way to the QR lounge. There is no separate section for F passengers but to be honest, the lounge was nice enough that you couldnt tell the difference. I had a small dinner in the dining area before heading to the other end of the lounge and found a quiet spot to myself.

As I entered, there were 3 staff members on hand to help me check in and one of them escorted me to the dining area and also gave a brief tour of the lounge.

Food items were all buffet style in the dining area. One item was not replenished and I asked if there was more. One of the staff members asked me to have a seat and brought a fresh bowl of the items directly to me – amazing service.

After dinner, I went to the other end of the lounge to find a quiet spot to relax.

As I sat down, a staff member came by and handed me another menu for a la carte items but I didn’t want to over indulge.

Service at the lounge was excellent and dare I say even better than the lounges at Doha. As an example – I was getting a terrible headache and I asked a staff member passing by if they have any tylenol or similar medication; he indicated no and that was the end of that. I went back to sit down and just tough it out till the flight was ready for boarding and then another staff member came by and gently inquired if I was feeling ok to which I replied that I was just closing my eyes to make sure my headache didnt get worse. After that, another staff member came by to let me know that there was a pharmacy close by in the terminal and that I could purchase medication there – she even came outside of the lounge with me and pointed me in the direction of the pharmacy. After buying the meds, I needed water to take the pills and when I came back to the lounge, the staff all asked if I managed to find the pharmacy and get the medication – to which I responded in the affirmative and just needed water to take the pills with. After that, boarding was called and one of the staff again came out with me and gave me directions on how to get to the new remote terminal where the plane would be departing from.

Up next – Qatar Airways First Class – Bangkok to Doha

Singapore Airlines First Class – Jakarta to Singapore

June 10, 2025Tagged airline, business-class, first-class, food, travel, travel-tipsLeave a comment

After being dropped off at the airport, I made my way to the SQ check in counters.

Requested the agent to tag my bag all the way to MLE and I would rough it out at the airport hotel overnight.

BPs were handed to me and I was informed that another agent would be escorting me to security. At security, she waved me through and I was on my own – seemed fairly counterintuitive for an F passenger but I wasn’t sweating it.

Departures screen

Into the PP lounge

SQ has its own lounge within the PP lounge and is located in the back of the PP lounge.

An agent scanned my BP and escorted me.

All the way to the back of the SQ lounge into the F lounge.

J section

F section

After enjoying the calm and serenity of the F lounge, I slowly made my way to the boarding gate.

Leaving the PP lounge.

Hello birdie

People were already neatly lined up when I got there and staff were making sure all passengers were waiting in the right line.

There was no F line, so I just decided to hover around in the area until boarding was called. An agent came by, looked at my BP and immediately escorted me to the plane before boarding even began. Snuck a quick peek at the PPS line up and all I got back was dagger stares LOL.