The 5 star award is by Skytrax, an outside global organisation, and I believe Qatar Airways are not the only airline to have it. It applies only to First and Business, not economy, of course.
I have been on lots of their flights which are not even a third full; it is not a money-making operation. Who needs to make money? There is enough natural gas underground to put 5000 empty planes in the air every day!
I find their prices uncompetitive. I had a chuckle last year when I contacted their groups travel dept and asked for a large group quote (around 50 passengers) to Europe. Their 'special' discount price for middle of the night flights was more expensive than what I found on a basic websearch with Expedia for a direct flight on a similar (and also very good) airline. Haha. I told them as much.
The really sad thing is the staff. They are lured to Qatar thinking the job is good, which, to a certain extent, it is. They assume it will be similar to working at Emirates (where the staff smile because they're happy, well-treated employees). When they find out that the organisation is run on Fear and Loathing by a cruel maniac, and they can't leave to work in Emirates because it's written in their contract, they all get really rather depressed.
Just a plea on behalf of them - please, if you are travelling by Qatar Airways and one of the crew seems tired or sad or less than a perfect 5 star human being, PLEASE avoid complaining - what the airline will do to them is merciless. They won't even give them a chance to explain. Just let it pass! Be a compassionate human being. Some people have larger and heavier crosses to bear than we do and they have to put up with a lot of arrogant / drunken idiots with rather inflated expectations.
The 5 star award is by Skytrax, an outside global organisation, and I believe Qatar Airways are not the only airline to have it. It applies only to First and Business, not economy, of course.
I have been on lots of their flights which are not even a third full; it is not a money-making operation. Who needs to make money? There is enough natural gas underground to put 5000 empty planes in the air every day!
I find their prices uncompetitive. I had a chuckle last year when I contacted their groups travel dept and asked for a large group quote (around 50 passengers) to Europe. Their 'special' discount price for middle of the night flights was more expensive than what I found on a basic websearch with Expedia for a direct flight on a similar (and also very good) airline. Haha. I told them as much.
The really sad thing is the staff. They are lured to Qatar thinking the job is good, which, to a certain extent, it is. They assume it will be similar to working at Emirates (where the staff smile because they're happy, well-treated employees). When they find out that the organisation is run on Fear and Loathing by a cruel maniac, and they can't leave to work in Emirates because it's written in their contract, they all get really rather depressed.
Just a plea on behalf of them - please, if you are travelling by Qatar Airways and one of the crew seems tired or sad or less than a perfect 5 star human being, PLEASE avoid complaining - what the airline will do to them is merciless. They won't even give them a chance to explain. Just let it pass! Be a compassionate human being. Some people have larger and heavier crosses to bear than we do and they have to put up with a lot of arrogant / drunken idiots with rather inflated expectations.