How I Scored Qatar’s Qsuite Double Bed To Myself

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Imagine a double bed for you and a partner at 35,000 feet. Private doors from either side give you maximum privacy. Not bad, eh? Well, imagine the same double bed and the same privacy—but entirely for yourself. Yes, with a little luck and a not-completely-full cabin, it’s possible to book and fly Qatar’s incredible Qsuite product with two adjoined seats for one person.

Here’s how I took the world’s best business class to the next level with a Qsuite double bed.

Scoring The Qsuite Double Bed Seat — For One

The Qsuite double bed is obviously only available on Qsuite equipped aircraft. That includes all Airbus A350-1000s and retrofitted Boeing 777-300, 777-200, and Airbus A350-900 planes. For US routes, refer to this handy guide about where Qatar is operating planes with Qsuite.

Qsuites that have the double bed are all rear-facing, center seats (seats labeled E and F) with a closable door on each side. The two seats side-by-side create a double bed surface. We wrote more about the Qsuite cabin overall in this post.

For my Qsuite flight from New York (JFK),  I flew on the A350-1000 in row 11 — the last of the six coveted double beds onboard.

Red box indicates double bed seating.

Selecting The Double Bed Online Won’t Work As A Solo Traveler

If you’re traveling solo and trying to select seats on Qatar’s website, you’ll notice that the “quad” — the four middle seats with dividers that can be opened — is blocked off from selection. (An example of a quad above is seats 1E, 1F, 2D, and 2G.)

The official Qsuite seat selection policy from Qatar’s public relations team is this:

The double suites with the shared bed, or “quads” for groups of four are first offered to couples or groups of three or four. Solo travelers are allocated the seats surrounding the ‘quads’. In the likely event the number of solo travelers out-strips groups of four, single passengers will be assigned forward facing free seats within the “quad” first (the seats not assigned a double bed).

The Quad

Calling Qatar To Unlock The Quad

About two weeks from departure, I noticed the business cabin had only about half the seats selected. I decided to call up Qatar’s US reservations number, and asked if they could “unlock” the quad arrangement for me as a solo traveler. According to the agent, this is only possible when those with existing reservations that are in groups of two, three, or four have already assigned themselves a seat.

In this case, there was a leftover quad in row 11 and row 12 that didn’t have any assigned seats within it. The agent on the phone happily “unlocked” the quad for me and offered me whichever seat I wanted. I chose seat 11E with the hopes no one would sit next to me. (No one eventually did.)

In fact, after hanging up the phone, I went online and was able to then freely choose between any of the open quad seats in all rows. However, what isn’t clear is if I would have been booted from seat 11E if a group of two or more were to purchase a ticket last minute and wanted to be assigned seats within the quad that I was in.

Note: Obviously, this scenario only works if the cabin isn’t full so some luck and seat monitoring is required.

My Qsuite Double Bed Observations

Two screens: one for a movie and one for the airshow, obviously.

The seat width of Qsuites on the A350 is 21 inches. Multiply that by two and add in a few inches for the cushion between seats and you’re looking at almost FOUR ENTIRE FEET of seat width. As far as I know, this is the widest bed or seating surface on any airline for one person — either in first or business class. Maybe Etihad’s Residence has the Qsuite double bed beat. Or purchasing two Singapore Suites.

I was flying with a hand injury so I really, really appreciated the extra space from the double suite arrangement to sprawl out. Other notes:

• The partition between the seats can only be brought all the way down by the flight attendant.
• The gap in the bed between the two QSuites is completely covered by a cushion that the flight attendant installs.
• There are individual footwells with a barrier so you won’t be able to completely spread your legs out. Additionally, at head level when laying down, there is a slight notch between the two seats.
• There is a ton of space for your body to go sideways and/or have your arms be spread out from your torso.

Best Ways To Book Qatar Qsuite On Miles

1. American AAdvantage

One of the best (and also easiest) mileage redemption for Qsuites is using American AAdvantage miles. American miles can be easily earned with co-branded cards like the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard and the business variant, the CitiBusiness AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard. 

The absolute best part is that the 70,000 mile welcome bonus on the business version of this card is already enough for a one-way from North America to the Middle East or Indian subcontinent in Qatar’s Qsuite business class.

I booked my flight to Sri Lanka using 70,000 AAdvantage miles flying the Qsuite from New York (JFK) to Doha (DOH) and onwards to Colombo (CMB).

2. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Between North America and Doha, Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program charges just 75,000 miles one-way. Unfortunately, there are expensive fuel surcharges in the range of $500-600 USD that are tacked on.

However, Asia Miles is a transfer partner of multiple programs including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Venture Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Rewards. Asia Miles are therefore quite easy to earn.

Two of the best options to earn AMEX Membership Rewards are with the Platinum Card by American Express, which earns a whopping 5x rewards points per dollar spent on airfare and the American Express Gold Card, which earns a respectable 3x per dollar spent on airfare. For Venture Rewards, signing up for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a quick way to earn 50,000 bonus miles after $3,000 in spend.

3. British Airways Avios

20,000 Avios for Qsuite

While it is not advisable to book long-haul partner flights using the distance-based British Airways Avios program, it could make sense for shorter Qsuite flights. Any flight that is 2,000 miles or less will only set you back 20,000 Avios. This includes flights like Doha (DOH) to Mumbai (BOM) that are operated with Qsuite and fall within the 2,000 mile range.

British Airways Avios is a transfer partner of both American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. Earn Chase points by applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (50,000 point bonus), Chase Sapphire Preferred (increased sign up bonus of 60,000 points), or Ink Business Preferred (80,000 point bonus).

BA also has a co-branded card, the British Airways Visa Signature, that is available to US customers which earns up to 120,000 bonus Avios in the first year.