My Favorite Part of the Qatar Airways A380 Flight Was the First Class Lavatories
On my recent Round-the-World trip I was fortunate to be able to fly two 7-hour flights in First Class on Qatar Airways new A380 service from Doha to Paris and back again. It was such a great experience through and through.
I still get excited about traveling—sometimes very excited. I’m not completely a grump.
But it’s true that when it comes to travel, there aren’t many things I haven’t seen or experienced in one way or another. It’s easy to overlook the privilege of flying ten hours to another continent, all in a nice seat with good food.
I joke about this with my friends: “Oh my God, travel is so hard. Sometimes the Business Class flights attendant brings still water instead of sparkling! Sometimes the hotel forgets the chocolates on the pillow during turn-down service!”
That’s why I was so excited about the A380 on Qatar Airways. As soon as I boarded the flight, I was impressed right away. The cabin is gorgeous, the seat is fantastic, and from the way I was greeted I could tell that the service would be flawless.
And it was. Still, though, I’ve had many experiences like that. These days I’m earning and spending more than one million miles a year (more than 2 million last year, actually), so if I’m flying more than three hours, I’m almost never in the back of the plane anymore.
Much of the time, I go through life jaded. But not on this flight—and you know my favorite part? The washrooms.
That’s right, the lavatories. When I walked into one for the first time, I thought I’d taken a wrong turn and ended up in a walk-in closet from Real Housewives of Atlanta. There was a place to hang your clothes (because you always need to hang up your clothes when visiting the lavatory?) and a long bench that was essentially a daybed.
My first thought was whoa! My second thought was, uh, where is the toilet? It turns out it’s hidden under part of the bench. If you visit an airline bathroom and can’t find the toilet, you know the bathroom is pretty spacious.
It was just a small thing, I suppose. But I felt so grateful and fortunate to be able to experience this.
Oh, there’s also an onboard bar, which can be visited by passengers in both First and Business Class. I went back and had a cup of tea at some point, before returning to my seat in 2A. The whole rest of the flight, I kept thinking: OMG! Can you believe those bathrooms?
This was definitely on my units of momentary happiness.
I was glad to travel and look forward to much more.
(Still on my list: the Emirates on-board shower. I hope to accomplish this important goal sometime in the next couple of months!) **UPDATE: Mission accomplished!**
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