hile Our Business Class experience to Chennai continued with a connecting flight from Doha. While Qatar doesn’t officially operate QSuites on this route, it does offer a refreshed premium cabin on the 787. Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class is a high quality premium product, if not quite QSuites good.
Note: this post is part of my trip report series covering our family’s trip to India and Korea in July, 2025. Click here for the trip report index and introductory post.
Qatar Airways (QR) Flight 528
- Sunday, July 6, 2025
- Depart: Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH), Concourse C, Gate C24, 19:53, 3m late
- Arrive: Chennai Anna International Airport (MAA), Terminal 2, 02:44 (+1), 6m early
- Duration: 4 hours 21 minutes
- Seats: 2A, 2E, 2F
- Equipment: Boeing 787-9
Check-In and Boarding
After a refreshing couple of hours in the Al Mourjan Garden Lounge, we headed to the gate about 45 minutes before boarding to meet back up with the family. And I immediately realized I left our boarding passes back in the lounge. I first backtracked to the lounge to see if they let us back in to retrieve them. Downstairs, the lounge attendant then suggested we ask the gate agent to reprint them for us. Oops…I blame jet lag for not thinking of the obvious. Back at the gate, the agent quickly helped us and reprinted our passes – much to the relief of my mother.
Anyway, boarding began about 10 minutes late, but in the reverse order of what you might expect. Economy boarded first, followed by Business about 15 minutes later. A bit weird, but whatever…we made it on board soon enough to wrap up our marathon journey to India.
Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class – Seating and Interior
Qatar’s 789 Business Class Cabin consists of 30 Adient Ascent suites in a 1-2-1 configuration. The seats feature 21″ of width, fold into a 77″ flat bed, and include a 48″ high door. At present, the 789 is the only non-QSuites Business Class configuration that includes a door. Frankly, I just can’t get excited about doors. But if they’re important to you, look for the 789 on your route. The overall design looks and feels a lot like QSuites, though without the “quads” in the center section. It’s very nicely done, in other words.
In this reverse herringbone configuration, window seats angle towards the window, providing a clear view out. This also gives you a little more privacy from the aisle.
My son Ashok certainly approved of the setup.
Seat controls are by the window-side armrest, and are relatively easy to use. Note that if you turn on the “DND” light, the FAs won’t provide service to your seat.
So as for the door, this setup works better than most, in my opinion. The door is 48 inches tall, which gives you better coverage than some designs. Indeed, when closed, you do get a genuine illusion of separation from the aisle.
In addition, due to the angle of the seat towards the window, the window seat at least does appear quite secluded. It’s rather hard to see in when walking by due to the angle. On the other hand, it’s a somewhat different story in the center seats, which angle towards the aisle.
If I have one primary complaint about the configuration, it’s that there’s no real good options if you want to talk to your neighbor. Though the partition between center seats lowers, the seats are angled away from each other. This makes it difficult to converse. Or for that matter, keep an eye on what the kid is doing…
The other demerit is a general lack of storage space. Unlike many newer Business Class seat designs, there’s not much of a storage shelf by the window. Just a smallish counter below the headphone storage unit. At least the placement is helpful if you’re trying to work. The shelf is large enough to hold a laptop, and since it’s behind you, allows you to easily keep it out of the way while eating.
Besides that, storage consists of a cubby that holds the headphones, and a small compartment below the armrest.
I didn’t plan to sleep on this flight, but briefly reclined to bed mode to put the seat to the test. You can request a mattress pad if desired, but it’s plenty comfy just with the blanket and pillow.
I did enjoy watching TV for a little bit from the bed. And eventually ended up dozing off for about half an hour.
As for the cabin, with the mood lighting turned on, the cabin design really pops in my opinion.
There’s also a very elegant bezeled oryx bulkhead at the front of the cabin.
Overall, I really like the seat and cabin configuration. The design is clean and elegant, the seat is quite comfortable, and this is one example of where the door actually seems to work. The only real negative is the lack of options for those who want to share time together. For that, there’s really no substitute for QSuites. But apart from that, this is a very nice cabin overall – call it “QSuites Lite”, maybe.
In-Flight Entertainment
As with most modern Business Class seats, Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class contains all the usual IFE bells and whistles. This starts with an 18″ HD IFE screen. I won’t spend any time on the selection, as it’s identical to my flight in QSuites earlier. Suffice to say, though, I enjoyed watching the nose cam for a bit.
As on other Qatar Airways aircraft, a large IFE controller is provided, and you can simultaneously watch different programs on the screen and the controller.
Next to the controller is a 110V power port with built-in USB-C port. I believe there is a USB-A port inside the headphone storage cubby if you need one.
Meanwhile, next to the speaker storage cubby is a phone holder with wireless charging pad. The wireless charger worked, sort of. It did charge my phone, but extremely slowly. I suspect it may have been only intermittently charging. I ended up just plugging it in to the USB port.
Food & Beverage
As we boarded, the FAs handed out menus for the flight. Note that these photos include only the food and non-alcoholic beverage menu. WI don’t recall receiving a wine/liquor list for this flight, though these were available after takeoff. I also found it a bit surprising that there were no South Indian selections, given our route to Chennai.
I forgot to take a picture of the pre-departure beverage, but it included a choice of plain water, mint-lime water, or orange juice. Then, about 45 minutes after departure, the FAs finally began drink service. For this meal, I ordered a white wine, the same Riesling offered on our flight from Dallas to Doha.
About 15 minutes later, the FAs brought assorted breads, including cornbread, rye, and a walnut and cranberry roll. One thing I always appreciate about Qatar is the extra effort put into presentation. Unnecessary, perhaps, but it adds a touch of class to the service.
About 10 minutes later, we then received a choice of appetizer, the mezze platter in my case. (You can order whatever you want, but I wasn’t all that hungry.) Qatar’s standard hummus is really, really delicious. I could eat this all day long given the chance. My main complaint remains the skimpy portion of pita bread served with the platter. Yes, you can always ask for more, but in an airplane environment, that takes a good bit of time.
Finally, about 20 minutes after the appetizer came the main course. I ordered the khubani ka murgh (apricot chicken) this time.
This dish hails from the Indian state of Kashmir, featuring boneless chicken marinated in yogurt and dried apricots. I found it…ok, with some quite decent curry flavor but an unfortunately dry chicken breast. And the rice was overcooked. While I keep hearing others insist that Indian food is a “safe” choice in the air, I’ve rarely found it executed successfully. Except, ironically enough, in United Economy Class, which pulled off a butter chicken well enough for my son to eat the whole thing.
Overall, it’s the food that I’ve found continually disappointing on Qatar. Other bloggers rave about it, but I’ve found it average at best. Not bad by any means, but it’s never matched the hype. My other complaint here is the slow pace of service. It took nearly 45 minutes just to bring drinks, with the flight almost half done before trays were cleared. That’s just too long on these flights that get to India at 2 am. But as I’ve consistently found on Qatar, the FAs were kind and personable, despite the slow pace.
With a fully night flight, there was no time for flightseeing on this leg. But I did grab a photo of an Ethiopian 737-MAX 8 parked next door. I actually didn’t know ET flew to Chennai. This does of course mean I’m going to have to find a way to work a stopover in Ethiopia the next time I go to India…
Final Thoughts
Simply put, this is a top-notch hard product for these short regional flights to India. Though I wish the service flow were more efficient, I’d say it’s far and away the best way to get to India, especially combined with QSuites.