Review: Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business Class Airbus A320 (DOH-SJJ)

DOH-SJJ

QR 293

Depart: 7:15AM

Arrive: 11:35AM

Duration: 5 hours 20 minutes

Seat: 1A

The first destination of my 2024 summer trip was Bosnia & Herzegovina. Coming from San Francisco, I wanted to fly the QSuites so I had to fly via Doha to get to Sarajevo. The layover was long, but I did book myself a night at the Hyatt Regency Oryx Doha and checked out the newer and beautiful Al Moujan – The Garden Business Lounge before departing for Sarajevo.

Qatar Airways has the lie-flat version or simply the recline version on the Airbus A320. I will make a separate post in how to reliably tell whether you’d get the lie-flat version or not since Qatar Airways is notorious for last-minute plane swaps. Fortunately, the 6 hour flight to Sarajevo had the lie-flat seat on the Airbus A320!

Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business A320- Booking

The DOH-SJJ segment was the final leg of my booking from San Francisco. In Business Class, I was able to book them with 103,000 Avios plus taxes and fees. Beforehand, I was able to fly the QSuites in the A350-1000.

Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business A320- Boarding

Boarding process was chaotic. Even though the screen shows DOH-SJJ route, they were in the middle of boarding for another flight which was bizarre.

The plane was far from the gate so everyone had to take a shuttle, and the process took a while. Business passengers and potentially Oneworld elite members get the first dib after passengers who pre-boarded.

The shuttle was not full for our boarding group, and so was the Business Class cabin.

The ride took around 10 minutes, and we were there in front of the plane.

Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business A320- Seats

I managed to snag Seat 1A (bulkhead) for this flight, and I got the row to myself! All seats in Business Class are set in 2-2, so on a full flight, the window seat will not get aisle access.

The seats are plush and comfortable with generously-sized footwell.

I spent most of the flight sleeping so I didn’t get the chance to watch any movies. But, expect censorship on mature-themed movies in Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business A320- Meal Service

Due to jetlag, I requested my meal service to be had some time 2 hours left to the flight to get some sleep. The meals are nice for this shorter flight, and to be frank, I enjoyed them more than the some of the meals I’ve had in 15+ hour flight in QSuites.

Qatar Airways Lie Flat Business A320- Lavatory

The Business Class lavatory near the cockpit comes with Diptyque toiletries and dental kits that can be taken and used. I noticed that the crew proactively set up toilet seat covers after each use, which is great.

Conclusion

The lie-flat seat version of the Airbus A320 from Qatar Airways is a good product that’s obviously better than the recline counterpart. The flight went smooth and comfortably, and I wouldn’t mind flying this product again.

Though it can be challenging to fly one of these due to specific routes you may have to take and Qatar Airways’ tendency to swap planes at last minutes. Though on a 5+ hour flight, you could somewhat expect to fly the lie flat version should the airline flies the Airbus A320.