Emirates vs Etihad vs Qatar Airways: which one is the best?

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Friday newsletters always feature luxury travel contests, tips, or news.

Today: Emirates vs Etihad vs Qatar Airways: which one is the best?

The last two decades have seen the rise of the three Middle Eastern carriers: Emirates (with its hub in Dubai, UAE), Etihad Airways (with its hub in Abu Dhabi, UAE) and Qatar Airways (with its hub in Doha, Qatar). Not only did these airlines reshape the competitive landscape at 30.000 feet, they also raised the bar for their competitors with unmatched service in the skies and on the ground. All three carriers are regulars in my many of top 10 aviation and travel lists:

Indeed, flying onboard one of the three Middle Eastern carriers is quite an experience. Over the past years, I published several trip reports about my flights with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, in Business and First Class. You can read them here, or watch my videos on my popular Youtube channel:

When choosing one of the three Middle Eastern carriers, the big question is which one is offering the best flight experience? Well, here you have some facts & my opinion about their Business Class products (read here my opinion and comparison of their First Class products). You can share your opinion below in the comments section or take my poll.

  • Chauffeur service: Emirates offers complimentary chauffeur-driven airport transfers for its Business Class passengers across the globe, while Etihad Airways only offers chauffeur transfers to/from Abu Dhabi airport. Qatar Airways does not offer complimentary airport transfers (even not in First Class). A huge plus for Emirates!
  • Lounges: All three carriers offer an expansive lounge network, both at their hubs and at their international destinations.
    • Qatar Airways’ Al Mourjan lounges at Doha’s Hamad International Airport rank among the world’s best and visually most stunning Business Class lounge that I’ve ever encountered during all my travels. They simply outclass all the current competition out there. If you transit via the Middle East, Qatar will offer you the best lounge experience. Unfortunately, Qatar doesn’t have a lot of lounges outside of Doha (and mostly makes use of other airlines’ lounges at these destinations).
    • Emirates features a massive lounge with excellent facilities at Dubai, although the space is not as refined and architecturally overwhelming as Qatar’s Al Mourjan lounges. Emirates also operates its own lounges at many international destinations, offering a consistent product for its passengers.
    • Etihad’s lounge at Abu Dhabi International Airport is a lovely, modern space with a pleasing design, but the lounge can feel crowded at peak hours. Also, over the past years, the airline has dropped several facilities at the lounge (e. g. spa, barber) because of financial challenges.
  • Fleet-wide consistency of the Business class product: Unfortunately, the layout of the Business Class cabin and the seat type you’ll get depend on the aircraft type since none of the three major Middle East airlines offers a consistent Business Class product across their wide-body fleet. That said, Etihad is the only carrier that offers fully flatbed seats across its wide-body fleet (more on that below), while Emirates and Qatar still have wide-body planes flying around with (uncomfortable) angled flatbed seats, so I would say that Etihad is the winner here.
  • Cabin interior & design:
    • Etihad’s A380s, A350s & Dreamliner B787s feature an extremely elegant and refined decor in their Business Class cabins (which Etihad calls ‘Studios’). The stylish cabins feature a neutral color palette of different beige tones mixed with some gold and copper, creating a soothing ambience. Although the carrier’s B777’s Business Class cabin interiors once had an exclusive feel, they now feel a little dated and could use a refurbishment.
    • LED mood-lighting baths the Business Class cabins in Qatar Airways’ A350, A380 and B777 aircraft in the carrier’s signature burgundy light, a soothing color palette which is enhanced with elegant and warm rose gold detailing and and even with some marble-finish whites. However, if you don’t like pink, then you may not like Qatar’s cabin design.
    • Emirates features rather bombastic interiors in both its B777 and A380 planes, with lots of walnut veneer, gold trim and pearlised plastic, which is not entirely to my liking.
  • Cabin layout & seats: you need to take the aircraft type into account when booking a flight on one of the three Middle Eastern carriers, since that will largely determine your Business Class experience. But keep in mind that aircraft swaps may occur without advanced notice (especially with Qatar Airways, which has a bad reputation when it comes to last minute aircraft swaps). The best wide-body Business Class layout & seats are (in order from excellent to mediocre):
    1. Qatar B777, B787 & A350 (with Qsuites): this is the world’s best Business Class seat, with private doors and the possibility to convert some seats into a suite with double bed (for couples) or even a quad suite (for colleagues or friends).
    2. Etihad A350: Etihad has 44 Business Class seats with private doors on its Airbus A350s, spread across 11 rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.
    3. Etihad B787 & A380: configured 1-2-1 in a forward and aft ‘dovetail’, the Business Studios all have aisle access and the seats convert into fully flat beds.
    4. Qatar B787, A380 & A350 (without Qsuites): spacious seats in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layout offer direct aisle access for all passengers (but due to the open design, these cabins lack some privacy).
    5. Emirates A380 & Etihad B777: the staggered 1-2-1 layout of the seats onboard these aircraft guarantees direct aisle access to all passengers, but the seats are not as wide and long as compared to the seats described above, which can be problematic for tall passengers or passengers of size.
    6. Qatar B777 without Qsuites: a 2-2-2 configuration means that passengers seated in a window seat have no direct aisle access. This seat layout will gradually disappear as Qatar is refurbishing these planes with the new Qsuite.
    7. Emirates B777: the seats onboard these aircraft are still arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration, which implies that not everyone has direct aisle access: passengers in the center and window seats will have to scramble over their neighbor’s legs to reach the aisle. To make things worse, most B777s are still flying around with angled flatbed seats (although the newly delivered B777 and some refurbished ones come with fully flatbed seats).
    8. Qatar A330: Qatar offers several types of Business Class products on its A330 fleet, with some aircraft featuring the old seats (that don’t fully recline) and some other featuring the updated product (with fully flat-bed seats). Regardless of the seat type, the seats are always arranged in a suboptimal 2-2-2 layout.
  • Flat beds: Etihad Airways is the only carrier to offer flat beds (with 180 degree recline) across its wide-body fleet. Contrary to their A380s, Emirates’ B777s have angled lie flat-beds, although Emirates’ new B777 planes are delivered with full lie-flat seats. Qatar Airways is currently replacing the (very uncomfortable) angled flatbed seats on its Airbus A330 fleet by true lie-flat seats (after which the whole Qatar fleet will offer flat beds).
  • Private doors: The only aircraft types that feature Business Class seats with sliding doors (for enhanced privacy) are Qatar Airways’ B787-10, selected A350 and retrofitted B777S as well as Etihad’s A350s.
  • Amenity kit: Emirates has by the far the best amenity kit of the three airlines, with Etihad offering the least impressive Business Class amenity kit. Unfortunately, Emirates only offers them on longhaul flights, while Etihad and Qatar Airways offer amenity kits on both medium- and longhaul flights.
    • Emirates amenity kit is presented as a large toiletry bag and contains the usual necessities – albeit in luxe edition – such as toothbrush and toothpaste through to handkerchiefs and deodorant. The men’s amenity kit also provides Gilette shaving foam and a razor, as well as moisturizers and aftershaves by Bvlgari. The women’s one is different, offering a range of feminine toiletries.
    • Qatar’s softshell amenity kits are created by stylish Italian luggage brand BRIC’S. The kit provides standard items for longhaul travel, such as socks, eyeshades and ear plugs. It also contains lip balm, hydrating facial mist, and moisturizer from Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio, skincare products which are 100% natural and characterized by actives coming from olive extracts.
    • Etihad’s Business Class unisex wallet bag is developed in partnership with Italian fragrance brand Acqua di Parma and can be buttoned to create a stylish and useful valet tray. It contains a Colonia sampler and hand cream in addition to as essentials like socks, eyeshades, earplugs and dental kit.
  • Payamas: Qatar Airways offers pajamas on overnight medium- and long-haul flights, while Etihad and Emirates only offer them in First Class.
  • Duvets: Qatar Airways and Emirates offer duvets on medium-haul flights (to increase sleeping comfort), while Etihad only offers them on longhaul flights.
  • Food: meals are decent on all three carriers, but my best gastronomic experiences have always been on Qatar Airways, followed by Etihad, and then Emirates. In fact, Qatar Airways’ food offering in Business Class is as good as what you get in First Class or in a top-notch restaurant on the ground (with an amuse-bouche, soup and luxury chocolates accompanying every three course dinner). The Doha-based carrier even offers dine-on-demand service in its Business Class cabins: you can dine at any time of your choosing and order whatever you want from the menu. Qatar Airways is clearly the winner in the catering department.
  • Number of meal services: on longhaul flights, all three carriers offer two meal services (one after takeoff and one 90 minutes prior to landing). On medium-haul flights though (e.g. Europe to/from Middle East), Etihad and Emirates only offer one meal; Qatar Airways used to offer a second light meal before landing but has now skipped that in favor of a snack menu in case you get hungry again, so Qatar wins (again).
  • Inflight entertainment: all three Middle Eastern carriers offer a great inflight entertainment selection, and most passengers won’t notice any difference between them:
    • Emirates offers the best inflight entertainment product in the world (called ‘ICE’), with large screens and a phenomenal selection of films, television shows, and audio options. There’s no other airline in the world with a selection like that, so you will never get bored, even on ultra-longhaul flights.
    • Called ‘Oryx One’, Qatar Airways’ inflight entertainment system allows you to choose up to 3000 entertainment options, with a wide selection of movies, series, TV programs, music, games and reads. Oryx One is also compatible with your own media device: you can plug it into the HDMI port to play your own entertainment content. Qatar Airways newest planes even feature a contactless NFC reader which allows to transfer your preselected playlist from the Qatar Airways app to your screen with a tap.
    • Etihad’s inflight entertainment system is called ‘E-BOX’, and although it offers hundreds of hours of inflight entertainment on-screen or on your personal device as well as live sports and news on selected aircraft, it is not as impressive and extensive as the entertainment selection offered by Emirates and Qatar.
  • WiFi: onboard WiFi is offered by all three Middle Eastern carriers, but with a different price tag:
    • Emirates offers the cheapest WiFi. A recent enhancement to Emirates’ inflight connectivity means that all Emirates passengers in every class of travel can free app messaging once they sign up to Emirates’ loyalty program, Emirates Skywards. Additionally, First Class passengers will have unlimited free internet if they are Skywards members, enabling them to shop or work online while inflight, as will Silver, Gold and Platinum Skywards members travelling in Business Class. Platinum Skywards members have complimentary internet access in all classes.
    • Everyone flying on Etihad benefits from complimentary ‘chat’ messaging throughout their entire flight by signing in with Etihad Guest membership or simply enrolling online before flying to benefit immediately. The free chat feature includes access to popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and WeChat to name a few. Guests wishing to surf, catch up on social media and work while they fly, can also choose to purchase ‘Surf’ Wi-Fly plans available for a flat fee with unlimited data for the duration of the flight. Etihad Guest Platinum and Exclusive tier members as well as guests traveling in Etihad’s First Class cabins will benefit from complimentary Wi-Fly access throughout their flight.
    • Qatar Airways offers the fastest WiFi of the three Middle East carriers, but it’s not free and only some of the carrier’s Boeing 777 and A350 airplanes are equipped with this so called Super Wi-Fi (with a speed 10 times faster than the normal internet). Qatar passengers can avail the Super wifi for $8 or 10 USD: if pre-purchased, the service can be bought for $8 USD while it will cost you $10 USD when purchased after boarding the flight.
  • Onboard bar: an onboard bar, exclusively accessible for passengers flying the premium cabins, is only present on the Airbus A380 aircrafts. But your chances of flying an Airbus A380, and thus socializing with other passengers in a fantastic onboard bar, are highest with Emirates, which has more than 100 of these megaplanes in its fleet (Qatar Airways and Etihad both own 10 A380s).

CONCLUSION

IMHO, out of the 3 Middle East carriers, Qatar Airways offers the best Business Class product but only onboard its A350, B787 and B777 planes equipped with the Qsuites. Qatar also offers a great Business Class product onboard its Boeing 787s, Airbus A350s, and Airbus A380s, although it’s slightly inferior to Etihad’s Boeing A350s, 787s and Airbus A380s Business Class product. Emirates’ A380s also offer a great Business Class experience (I personally prefer Qatar and Etihad), although the carrier’s B777 feature a subpar product with a 2-3-2 seat configuration.

What’s your favorite Middle Eastern carrier? Leave a comment below or take my poll below.

ETIHAD AIRBUS A350 BUSINESS CLASS

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