Update: Qatar Airways confirms that caviar service will be introduced on 15 routes starting August 15, though they may expand this to more routes in the future. Initial caviar routes are Boston, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, and Washington Dulles.
Business class caviar service will offer smaller portions and fewer accompaniments than its first class counterpart.
They were the first airline to fly with doors on business class suites. And while the QSuite product, which even allows walls to come down in order to turn two seats into a double bed or four center seats into a family room, remains one of the leading business class seats they are introducing an improvement on the product.
Their soft product is equally impressive. For instance, flying their Airbus A380 I’ve walked back from first class to the business class bar where I was served Krug champagne.
Now it appears they’re taking the soft product up a notch further, teasing in a story on their Instagram account that business class will feature caviar and salmon.
Stay tuned for something that will enhance your onboard dining experience. Can you guess what will make the Qsuite experience better?
One Mile at a Time flags this and suggests that it will mean “caviar and balik salmon service might be on the horizon, just like the airline offers in its long haul first class (whether on the Airbus A380 or select Boeing 777s).”
Clearly they’re presenting salmon along with caviar accompaniments so obviously the obscured portion of the photo is caviar.
I admit to being first introduced to Caviar and Balik salmon Tsar Nicolaj as a pairing in Cathay Pacific first class fourteen years ago. If memory serves they scaled this back to caviar alone in 2014.
What we do not know is what quality of caviar and salmon will be served in business class. The per passenger budget will surely be lower than first class. There’s ‘caviar’ you can buy for under $4, but you can also add several zeros. Balik salmon Tsar Nikolaj easily runs $200 per pound, but balik salmon can also cost less than a quarter of that.
Lufthansa was at one point reported to be the world’s largest buyer of caviar, based on service in its first class cabin. Offering caviar across the board on Qatar Airways long haul business class would surely make them the world’s largest caviar buyer, regardless of the particular quality and price point. Still, I wonder if this will be a permanent addition or a temporary promotion.
Great update Gary. Thank you.
Since I abandoned AA (even as a 25+ year, six million miler, Exec Plat at the end of 2022 for all international flights), I now fly either Qatar (about 60-65% of the time) or EVA to Asia. Both are truly superb. The Q-Suite product is truly first rate, and their “soft product” is second to none.
I got tired of the poor food, even poorer service, and late flights on AA (or its partner JAL). Qatar and EVA are far advanced over AA (and UA, too).
EdSparks58
Spot the trend here; US & UK airlines doing all they can to cut costs on the soft-product, whereas Qatar and other middle east & Asian carriers continue to step up. Leasure travelers and more and more willing to pay for premium travel; it’s filling the gap left behind by business travel, yet the US airlines have virtually thrown in the towel on offering anything more than a ‘basic’ business and first product. For my wife and I, the vacation starts at the airport, and I’m more than happy to pay more for a good product.
Their salmon and caviar looks fishy to me .
Looks pretty good. If only the US airlines would up their food game. People are tired of playing “Guess the slop on my plate” 🙁
I simply do not understand why the ME or Asian airlines are able to spend the $$$ to offer the soft product they do. Are US airline airfares SO cheap that there is no possibility of offering anything better? Or are the fares on the other (ME or Asian) lines SO much higher that “the sky is the limit”? Why can’t an American airline offer something which truly competes? I’m just a regular passenger (literally never up front…), but I cannot “do the math” that makes any of this make sense.
@Richard, I think it’s mostly because of the wage difference.
In Asia, $30K per year is a very decent amount of income. You can hire someone with a bachelor’s degree, capable of multiple languages and who is willing to learn and work hard at that wage in Asia.
However, in the US, you’d have to live on food stamp with $30K salary. The motivation is very low as well.
Pilots in the US earn 3 to 4 times more, and all the office workers earn a couple times more than in Asia, however, the airfare isn’t very higher. How’d US airlines cut the cost, then? Underpay the flight attendants, cut cost in food and inflight service.. It’s all because of the wage.
@SLee … Solution is to stop employing FAs , and stop food and inflight service . If the pax complain, divert half-way and allow them to deplane and arrange their onward journey themselves .
Re why the soft product sucks at US airlines: unions.
I sure wish QR had a Fifth freedom to Eurpe, like EK to MXP .
I like caviar and salmon, but I have no idea why this would make me buy a ticket on Qatar that I wouldn’t otherwise buy. They’re an airline, not a restaurant, and spending a few more bucks on food wouldn’t move the needle.
The salmon in the photo reminds me of what SAS offers as part of its standard main meal in premium economy on its westbound long-haul flights.
Airlines providing presumably higher-priced caviar and higher-end alcoholic beverages doesn’t do anything for me. But the social media “influencer” crowd really seems to like this kind of stuff, as do a lot of OPM travelers.
They served us Beluga for lunch at the Farnborough Airshow last month ….
Gutsy move if true and done properly.
In the meantime flight attendants on AA anre angrily throwing lukewarm beer cheese soup down onto the broken tray tables in flagship first.
The old Continental BusinessFirst playbook taken to another level
@slee
Hate to throw champagne on your economic theory. High quality soft products are available in Europe too. Flying very frequently on Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss, their top notch soft product is served up daily throughout Europe and on intercontinental flights. So, not just in Middle East or Asia.
And compensation for their crews is higher than in U.S.
What we are really talking about is a mindset. Truly excellent airlines offer this type of product because it attracts customers, and at competitive prices. And they make a profit. And their quality also shines in economy as well. Within North America all I hear about is poor quality food and drink dragged through aisles by lousy service.
Give me a budget to increase food service for F and J, adding caviar is pretty far down the list.
Sorry, I realize I left it open to misunderstanding. I think we are talking a high price for something that will impress more in concept than in satisfaction.