Emirates v Qatar. An Economy Comparaison.

Andrew Woodrow writes....

I was recently the lucky winner of a  business week in Cape Town, travelling in Economy and via the Gulf as follows:

Copenhagen – Doha, Qatar Airways 787-8

Doha – Cape Town, Qatar Airways 777-300ER

Cape Town – Dubai, Emirates 777-300ER

Dubai – Copenhagen, Emirates A380

Back in the 1980's a Malaysian newspaper cartoon parodied their national carrier's advertising. An Economy passenger was asked the familiar question "Chicken or Beef?" "Lobster" he replied, gaining a sympathetic smirk in reply. "I'm sure I saw it in their ads" was his thought.

Fast forward thirty years and it's still happening. The Gulfies make a great deal about their business class, often to the point where economy class passengers can feel a little duped. On my previous EK A380 flight, I overheard a fellow economy class passenger asking where the famous bar was. ‘Well it’s a very full flight,’ said the stewardess tactfully, ‘so we are asking everyone to stay in their own area of the aircraft today’. And every other day, she might have added.

Anyway on this trip I got to compare the less-highly advertised economy class of each airline, and a few different aircraft types. Here's how it looked.

-          As a window seat man (see other articles), the 787 wins hands down. What windows! They are huge and, if on the sunny side of the aircraft (something I try to avoid), you can dim them electronically, as if the entire window had sunglasses on. Great! This contrasts particularly with the A380, where I have an overwing window seat on the lower deck. Next time you see an A380, take a look at the wing root. Designed for a potentially much stretched model, it is massive – both in terms of a much longer chord than any other airliner, and an initial steep dihedral. So the broad wing sticks up as well as out, and flattens out towards the engines. Add to that the thickness of the hull, which is at least twice as deep as on a ‘normal’ aircraft and the window feels like a bigger version of the time you were 6 and made a toilet roll telescope. Anyway I can pretty much see wing only from seat 62A. Every now and then a tantalizing sliver of mountain is visible between the leading edge and the horizon but that’s about it. And no, it’s not the same looking at the outside camera view on TV.

-          Seat next. You have more space on Emirates, and the seats are more comfortable. Even the 3 – 4 – 3 configured 777 beats the 3 – 3 - 3 787. Seats are also wider on the A380 than the 777, and on both the Emirates aircraft you get more legroom that the Qatar ones,– and better IFE.

-          Service – Emirates wins on that too. Both airlines are pretty good, with multi-national cabin crew delivering a pleasant service, but Qatar’s just feels a little more forced, and Emirates seem to come round a little more often in the gaps between meals with drinks and nibbles.

-          General note ,– the A380 is massive, and proportionately stable. Both the A380 and 787 are noticeably quieter than the 777, the A380 in particular. The A380 is let down by its tunnel-like windows (everywhere) and massive wing (if you are a window seat person sitting near the wing). The 787 has great windows and a very impressive, curving wing that doesn't  block the view too much. Overall though I like the 777 best. It’s big enough to iron out the bumps, you can see out nicely, and maybe it’s just because I have spent so many days in the back of one, they just feel right.

-          Internet ,– pretty slow on both, even if you pay the US$1 for an upgrade on Emirates. Just as well all I had to do was send a single, text only email.

-          Hub. Both Dubai and Doha are modern, well equipped, fairly soul-less terminals (It is rare to find a modern airport terminal with soul) with loads of shopping and few places to eat. Of the two, Doha gets my vote, although its layout is moderately confusing. Dubai has a simple layout, being effectively long and thin once you are airside, and if you don’t mind taking the efficient shuttles between zones it’s fine. But the walkways are too narrow for the volume of passengers, and there are too many seemingly conflicting flows of people. You are forever bumping into migration-like crowds going the other way. And as at any airport where there is consistently a queue for the gents,  a few more of them would be more than welcome.

-          Schedule. Copenhagen is one of Emirates’ relatively few ‘single daily service’ destinations, while Qatar does a double daily. That means Emirates’ downside is the connection in Dubai always being at an anti-social time. Southbound it’s about midnight and northbound you need to be in Dubai by 6am. On Qatar the double daily does at least give a choice of schedules and transfer times, depending on the final destination.

So who wins? Overall Emirates, though Qatar has a better hub, a better schedule from Copenhagen, – though this doesn’t apply to many of their common  destinations where Emirates has the frequency.  For window gazers Qatar’s 787s are the best. 

-ANDREW WOODROW-