Qatar Airways vs Virgin Atlantic

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: level

  10/10 on the 777-300ER / A350 (Qsuite) against 10/10 on the A330neo (Upper Class Suite).

• IFE: level

  Screens, connectivity and power: 8/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: level

  What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Qatar Airways: Qsuite is fitted to roughly 40 of 48 777-300ERs and 10 of 33 A350-900s. The non-Qsuite cabins were not verified to a standard worth recording, so they are flagged rather than scored.

Virgin Atlantic: Still 1-2-1 with direct aisle access, but no closing door: the A350 uses a privacy panel and an 82-inch bed, the 787-9 an older herringbone with manual bed conversion.

Common questions

Is Qatar Airways or Virgin Atlantic better to Europe?

Qatar Airways scores 9.3/10 against Virgin Atlantic at 7/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Qatar Airways wins 0 and Virgin Atlantic wins 0. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. Virgin Atlantic scores 10/10 on the A330neo (Upper Class Suite) and 8/10 on the A350-1000 / 787-9. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Qatar Airways, in business on a Europe route. Virgin Atlantic has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.