1/26/2018
Luxury flying with Qatar Airways
Our journey is broken into three days. First we travel from UCSB to LAX, and from LAX to Doha, Qatar via a 19 hour flight on Qatar Airways.
My first impression was clouded by having a seat completely soaked by a miscellaneous fluid, a fluid that quickly absorbed itself into my pants. But then we realized that we were going to have whole rows completely to ourselves. I moved to the window, tucked myself in among my supply of pillows and blankets, and was ready for the long haul. Then a flight attendant brought a freshette towel, headphones, and mini toiletry pouch (with an impossibly adorable tiny toothbrush and toothpaste) to aid our journey’s comfort. I discovered quickly we had access to a wide range of interesting movies and television shows for in-flight entertainment. We were served a reasonly delicious supper not long after reaching altitude, a mere 42,000 feet. Much of the flight was a movie marathon between regular offerings of water or juice by the flight attendants. They all seemed so calm and happy to make us comfortable. There was a snack time in there for those awake during the night, for which I was of course binging into my fourth film by then. And toward morning, we received an assorted meal somewhere between breakfast and lunch. My favorite part was that every meal included dessert and ended with a round of tea with milk.
Qatar Airways is advertised as a luxury airline, and Hamad International Airport aims to become the highest rated airport. Our second day ended with a package deal to stay overnight in Doha. We had a 15 hour layover, with no option for an earlier flight, so took the Qatar Airways bargain to get out of the airport a bit. They arranged the entrance Visa, hotel with shuttle, supper voucher, and luggage transfer for an arguably small price of $125.
We stayed at the Oryx Rotana Doha hotel. It is a super modern hotel with several restaurants, including hookah bar and live jazz. We ate at The Cellar for a two course meal with unlimited wine. Unfortunately customs took a long time and then we walked out right as a shuttle left, requiring an additional wait for the next one. Resulting in us having no real amount of time to actually go out and see much of Doha. By the time we ate and showered, I was well past my bedtime. Melissa stepped out a minute for a phone call home and by the time she returned, I had peacefully closed my eyes while propped up in front of the television, wearing a cozy bathrobe. Melissa said I looked like a model for a spa advertisement. At some point I finished crawling the rest of the way into bed. It was an amazing night’s sleep.
Elizabeth Erickson 