Qatar Airways Boeing B777 300ER 358pax seat review by Tony Richards #37083

My wife and I travelled with Quatar for the first time between London Heathrow and Doha, the first and longest leg of our journey to India.
I was generally happy with the flight experience and on the whole found the cabin crew to be helpful, courteous, very well presented and professional. Unfortunately I discovered shortly after take off that the entertainment unit for my seat position was not functioning. I brought this to the attention of members of the crew on two or three occasions, trying hard not to do so when crew were distributing meals and drinks. My wife also mentioned the issue on my behalf to crew one time further. I believe on each occasion crew undertook to reset the unit remotely which I'm sure they did however they did not return to check that the reset was successful which of course it was not. I anticipate that operation of the unit was not identified during checks in between flights otherwise crew would have been aware and reassigned the seat (there seemed to be plenty vacant) or at least have mentioned the shortcoming, I would have thought. In the end I figured that the crew were unable to deal with the issue, however I think you'll agree that someone should have come back to explain, and by current standards, this is a long journey to be without entertainment. I am sure that for an airline such as Quatar this can only be an unfortunate blip in an otherwise very classy operation. Note that my wife disagrees, her view being that the crew did not seem as available throughout the flight as she experienced on a long haul flight with another top carrier earlier this year. We are returning to the UK on 10th December and I hope the flight will be memorable for the excellent service rather than any problems and that I'll be in a position to award 5 stars for service and entertainment as well as the other categories. If you require further information regarding this issue my email address is: 2014anthony.richards@gmail.com.