Qatar Airways

[DavePanda]

Flying with Qatar to the Maldives in 3 weeks for our honeymoon

First time flying east of Europe. We've got seats on the top deck of the A380 in a small economy section at the rear of the plane. On checking the seat map, the plane is almost empty still, is this normal? Normally when i fly to the US the plan is full months in advance but at the minute only 20ish seats are taken in economy.

Any tips? What is it like for covid testing etc now? Nothing is required for Maldives or Doha as far as i can tell, i'm assuming that goes for leaving Heathrow too

[Somebody]

I suspect that the seats have not yet been allocated as other travellers are leaving it to 24 hours prior to check in to save a few quid on pre-bookings?

[Mark V GTD]

Indeed as Somebody said - it’s not a very good indicator of how full the aircraft will be in economy for the reason stated. It gives a better indicator in business and first where the seats can be reserved for no extra cost (unless you have the misfortune to be flying BA of course).

[Mr Pointy]

DavePanda said:

Flying with Qatar to the Maldives in 3 weeks for our honeymoon

First time flying east of Europe. We've got seats on the top deck of the A380 in a small economy section at the rear of the plane. On checking the seat map, the plane is almost empty still, is this normal? Normally when i fly to the US the plan is full months in advance but at the minute only 20ish seats are taken in economy.

Any tips? What is it like for covid testing etc now? Nothing is required for Maldives or Doha as far as i can tell, i'm assuming that goes for leaving Heathrow too

That's an excellent part of the aircraft to be in - I always booked my seat there when I was flying to Doha. One tip is that the window row seats have two quite large storage lockers between the window seat & the window so book those if you can. The last row (or maybe rows?) is also only two seats not three so I'd go for that row if you can.

[Mark V GTD]

Good point re the side lockers. It’s a ‘feature’ of A-380 upper deck economy sections - Emirates has that too.

Edited by Mark V GTD on Monday 5th September 12:30

[DavePanda]

Mr Pointy said:

That's an excellent part of the aircraft to be in - I always booked my seat there when I was flying to Doha. One tip is that the window row seats have two quite large storage lockers between the window seat & the window so book those if you can. The last row (or maybe rows?) is also only two seats not three so I'd go for that row if you can.

That’s what we went for, front row of economy, did quite a bit of research beforehand 😂

Understandable about not picking seats till check in, ours were nearly £500 for all legs of the trip but I prefer to be sorted in advance

[3454.5]

Mr Pointy said:

The last row (or maybe rows?) is also only two seats not three so I'd go for that row if you can.

Yes, probably the best economy seats in the world. We've had them a few times and the small upper economy cabin means good service.
Coupled with the delight that is the A380, it makes for a very reasonable long haul economy experience.