On most global airline rankings, a few elite airlines reign supreme. In recent years, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines have duked it out for the top spot. That pair of long-haul carriers are on top of their game, especially in premium cabins where they can dial the experience up to the max.
I’ve enjoyed writing occasional airline comparison stories like Air France vs KLM (2020) and a battle royale between five Star Alliance carriers (2018). This past year I was fortunate to fly long haul itineraries on both Qatar and Singapore. And to follow up the individual stories on each experience (Singapore JFK-SIN, Qatar JFK-DOH) it felt right to pit these two heavyweights against each other.
In this story I compare Singapore and Qatar on the basis of seats, service, food, drink, entertainment, amenities, and the ground experience at their respective hubs. And at the end, I do my best to crown a champion. That last task was tough, because it ended up being a VERY close fight.
Whether you’re a seasoned road warrior, an aspirational fancy flyer, or you just like pictures of pretty planes, you’ll enjoy this story. So click / scroll below and read on!
Rules for a fair fight
Before launching into the heart of the story, a few ground rules and disclaimers. First, I’m not pretending to be a super-frequent flyer on these airlines. (Side note: if you know how I can become that kind of person, please let me know). But I did fly multiple long-haul routes on each airline — enough to make a meaningful comparison.
For the sake of a fair comparison, wherever possible I focused on the longest-haul flight I took on each airline. In Qatar’s case it was a 777-300ER Qsuite flight from New York to Doha, clocking in at 12 hours. And for Singapore, it was actually the world’s longest flight: 19 hours on an A350-900ULR from New York JFK to Changi International.
Another caveat: these are two massive airlines that each offer a variety of onboard products, plane types, and destinations. What I experienced on my flights may not apply to your experience flying the same airlines. And it goes without saying that this sort of comparison is highly subjective. I’d honestly love to hear all the ways you may disagree with me (the comments section awaits!).
Finally, I recognize that stories nitpicking and judging premium cabin flying can seem obnoxious. Feel free to roll your eyes and skip this story if it’s not your sort of thing. That said, I think we AvGeeks are extra appreciative of the incredible experiences airlines manage to deliver within the confines of a pressurized tube miles above the ground. Flying in such style is like watching a seasoned orchestra perform. It never ceases to amaze.
Ok, without further ado, it’s time for the battle to begin!
The seat
Qatar’s reputation leans heavily on its long-haul Qsuite business class design. As a fully enclosed seat with a door, the product offers plenty of room and privacy.
The cabin finishes are tastefully done, with lots of subdued browns/greys and burgundy accents. Even eight years after its initial rollout, this seat design still holds its own against the best of ’em.
The seat goes fully flat and is comfortable as a bed.
Qsuite boasts the ability for certain clusters of four seats to open up and become a shared “quad.” I’m not sure how often people take advantage of that, but it at least represents some creative design thinking.
There are just a few Qsuite downsides. Thanks to high walls, the doors, and Qatar’s decision to keep overhead bins in the center section, Qsuite may strike you as more confined. Also, half of the cabin’s seats face rearward. There’s a novelty factor in facing the tail while flying, but once the novelty wears off you may find that you’re not a fan.
In our other corner, Singapore Airlines hasn’t (yet) adopted suite-style seats, but it’s product is roomy, luxurious, and has a proven track record.
Singapore offers a similar style of seat across much of its long-haul fleet — generally in a 1-2-1-across configuration. The product looked especially nice on the A350-900ULR I flew on.
The seatback itself measures an impressive 28 inches wide — significantly wider than Qsuite’s.
One odd thing about the seat is that you can’t convert it to fully-flat mode yourself. The entire seat flips forward to open up the bed, a process that requires a flight attendant’s involvement. That design allows the airline to optimize the seat surfaces for each phase of flight, with a soft bed surface and firmer upright seat surface. But that benefit comes at the expense of your ability to independently switch between the two modes.
The winner: Qatar
It’s a close call, but Qsuite is just too good. Suites with doors have become a mainstay of the business class seat elite. And in addition to their doors, Qatar’s seats excel across the board in layout, decor, and functionality.
As great as Singapore’s seats are, there’s no getting around the fact that they’re much more exposed.
Last year Singapore hinted that it’s working on a next-gen business class seat with doors, so the seat design category is going to be even more competitive in the future.
Dining
Switching over from hard product to soft product, food is one of the main ways an airline can make or break your premium cabin inflight experience. And both of our competing airlines do a stellar job with dining overall. They both serve food directly onto your table, instead of bringing over trays or serving off a cart.
Qatar offers a fully on-demand dining structure, meaning you aren’t constrained by predetermined mealtimes. The flexibility is great, though in practice most people end up eating an after-takeoff meal just like you would on other airlines. You can also pre-select your preferred entree option online in advance.
Qatar’s meal service is ambitious, in terms of both the dine-on-demand model and the menu of dishes on offer. In reality, at least based on my personal experiences, the execution can be hit-or-miss. For example, the lobster I got after takeoff was plated beautifully but was overcooked to the point of being hard as a rock.
But then my second meal later in the flight was absolute perfection, in both presentation and taste.
Qatar made waves last year when it started rolling out caviar service on many of its long-haul departures from Doha. It’s an impressive feature for business class, since you more commonly see caviar as a first class perk.
I’m not going to pretend to be a caviar connoisseur, but it sure was fun to try.
On Singapore’s side, they serve up some amazing in-flight cuisine as well. They’re well known for their Book the Cook service that allows you to pre-select entrees from an expanded list of options. The selection is broadest if you’re on a flight departing Singapore, but departures from many other destinations have access to some additional Book the Cook meal options as well.
Even premium economy passengers can book the cook — I pre-reserved the very tasty meal below on a long-haul premium economy flight.
But back to biz class: Singapore runs cool catering partnerships like this salad supplied by the innovative indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms.
And then later in the flight I tried Moroccan grilled lamb chops that were a collaboration with California’s Golden Door spa and wellness retreat.
The airline serves up pretty great cheese and dessert options too.
Singapore doesn’t offer a fully on-demand dining model, though there is some flexibility. At our flight’s halfway point, the crew turned on the cabin lights for a second meal. But for anyone who kept sleeping, there were still hearty food options available throughout the second half of the flight.
One strange menu design choice on our 19-hour Singapore flight was the lack of a real breakfast dish.
Winner: It’s a tie
I really wanted to avoid ties in this story, but this category felt like it had to be a draw.
Qatar’s fully on-demand meal service and caviar service are incredible. But the occasional misfires on execution dragged the experience down a bit.
Singapore didn’t have as much wow factor with any individual dish, and its service style isn’t as flexible as Qatar’s dine-on-demand model. But Singapore’s execution was more consistent, and Book the Cook provides an impressive variety of choices.
Even drawing in data points from my other flights with both airlines, I really couldn’t fairly name a winner either way. We’ll call it a tasty tie, and move on to the next category.
Drinks
Why do drinks get their own category? For one, a wine list is a concrete way to quantify an airline’s investment in its onboard experience. Also, many airlines get creative with their beverage offerings, showcasing unique flavors from their home countries.
Traditionally champagne is the highest-profile prestige item on the menu. Singapore was serving 2018 Piper-Heidsieck when I flew them. That’s an impressive choice even compared with what’s offered on the world’s other best business classes.
The cocktail list features a hometown favorite, the Singapore Sling. The airline’s version is on the sweeter side, but tasty.
Singapore also gets kudos for a thoughtful mocktail list. There’s a growing sober-curious movement out there. And even for people who drink, there’s a strong case to be made for avoiding alcohol during flights (less dehydration, improved sleep). So it’s nice to see the airline providing some thoughtful non-alcoholic options.
Singapore also stands out for a possibly best-in-class tea menu.
It also offers up multiple choices of Illy drip coffee.
Switching over to Qatar, the airline also offers a competitive drink menu.
The Billecart-Salmon champagne it served was impressive, though maybe a half-step less elite than what Singapore was pouring. To its credit, Qatar’s menu had a separate rosé champagne option.
Qatar offers a competitive cocktail list and an impressive list of mocktails and other non-alcoholic options.
The Winner: Singapore
Raise a glass to Singapore Airlines, because it’s the winner here. It has a slightly better headline champagne, a bit more local flavor to its cocktail list, and also impresses with its diverse coffee and tea selection.
Amenities
Time to talk creature comforts. Along with a packaged towel, Qatar leaves an amenity kit at each seat. Since 2022 its kits are from French luxury brand Diptyque.
The kits cover the basics and then some. In terms of quality, my wife (who’s better qualified to comment) loved the lotion and fragrance.
Singapore Airlines does amenities differently. For a while they didn’t offer amenity kits at all, though in 2020 they began offering basic kits and last year switched to Le Labo as the supplier. The contents are high-quality but more limited in the number of items as compared with Qatar.
It’s not that Singapore is stingy, but rather that it does things differently. Instead of a fuller amenity kit, Singapore opts to keep the lavatories well stocked with toiletries like combs, shaving supplies, and dental kits that you can take as needed.
Winner: Qatar
First, I have to recognize that Singapore’s help-yourself strategy is less wasteful than standard amenity kits are. Eco-conscious flyers may prefer Singapore’s approach.
But I think many passengers expect that if you’re investing in a premium cabin flight you get a real kit, and in that regard Qatar satisfies expectations better.
Crewmember service
Tangible items like food, drink, and amenities are important. But service is the glue that holds the inflight experience together. Both airlines’ flight attendant crews generally operate at a high level, though there will always be some person-to-person variability.
On Qatar there were a few instances when crewmembers were trying their best but were showing some strain. To be fair, the dine-on-demand model puts a ton of pressure on them. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to deliver a meal like the one below I had on the A350 flight from Cape Town to Doha, and to do it for a cabin full of passengers eating at different times.
Anyone who has flown Singapore Airlines knows that their flight attendants are the most polished in the business, handling even the busiest moments of flights without breaking a sweat. The dinner I had on an A380 flight from Melbourne to Singapore (below) was possibly the most smoothly executed inflight meal I’ve ever had.
Winner: Singapore
On either airline you’re getting treated very well. But there was a bit more consistency to our Singapore crews overall, and they were especially good at making hard work look easy. You go, [Singapore] girl.
Inflight entertainment
On a long-haul flight, an airline’s inflight entertainment system has a huge impact on your overall experience.
On their ultra-long-range A350s, Singapore’s business class seats include a massive screen. The airline features one of the broadest menus of movies and TV out there.
Strangely, the display isn’t a touch screen. I kept tapping the screen before remembering to use the remote instead. But you can also connect your smartphone to the system via bluetooth and use it as your remote, which worked well for me.
Especially since it was the world’s longest flight I used the moving map a lot. And Singapore’s was excellent. Zooming out to the view below really put in perspective how insanely long SQ23’s route is.
Singapore’s noise cancelling headphones are pretty good.
Qatar’s entertainment system on Qsuite also uses a large high-res screen. And its content library is MASSIVE.
Qsuite passengers also get noise-cancelling headphones.
One area where Qatar let me down was the inflight map. The system felt at least a decade out of date and didn’t offer much passenger control.
Winner: Singapore
This win was an especially close call. Singapore’s library of content seemed to offer more complete seasons, though Qatar’s was slightly larger. The screens and interfaces are both pretty good.
For me, Singapore’s free WiFi and better flight tracker map earned it the win, though in fairness some of Qatar’s newer aircraft offer a better map system than their 777s do.
Singapore’s win in the entertainment + connectivity category may be short lived, since Qatar is installing lightning-fast and free StarLink WiFi across the fleet.
The ground experience
Though Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways are happy to have you visit their home countries, the airlines primarily focus on long-haul connecting itineraries where you never leave the airport. That makes the ground experience at those hubs a major factor in your overall passenger experience. So the last round of our battle pits their home airports head to head.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport consists of one massive terminal building. A walk from curbside to the farthest extent of the terminal extends exactly one mile. The current terminal opened barely ten years ago and it still feels fresh and new. It’s full of everything you’d expect out of a Middle Eastern mega hub: high-end shopping, multiple lounges, and some impressive art pieces. Whether you count the multimillion dollar Lamp Bear in the “impressive” category is a matter of personal taste. I never knew the line between creepy and cute could get so blurry… but I’ll admit the big bear grew on me.
This story is a business class battle, and so the airlines’ lounges factor heavily in the ground category. Qatar’s Al Mourjan business class lounges are considered among the best in the business. The decor is sleek, modern, and overall stunning at both the original South lounge and the newer Garden lounge.
There are multiple self-serve food stations at each lounge.
The South lounge also offers restaurant-style à la carte dining. You may need to wait a bit for a table here during peak times, but the food is excellent.
In terms of services and amenities the Al Mourjan lounges are top notch. There are plenty of shower suites if you need a mid-trip refresh.
Both lounges also offer nap rooms, though the demand far outmatches the supply. Between three passes through Doha I only managed to get a nap room once, but I’ll admit the wait was worth it.
Over in Singapore, Changi International is about as strong a challenger to Hamad International as you can find. It’s a perennial favorite on global airport rankings. It handles a greater number of passengers, and is segmented into more distinct terminals compared with Hamad’s single mega-terminal.
At the airport’s center is the Changi Jewel — a six-year-old $1.7 billion retail and entertainment complex with the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at its center.
While no other part of the airport can beat the Jewel, there are multiple other features that make Changi the wonderland of the airport world. There’s a butterfly garden, indoor climbing wall, and intricate play spaces, among a zillion other features.
As you’d expect, Singapore Airlines offers a pretty great lounge experience for its premium cabin passengers. It has multiple lounges across the airport’s terminals, with plenty of seating and tasty self-serve food options.
We found a nice nap area at one of the lounges, though space was first-come first-serve and hard to snag during peak times.
As you can imagine, every part of Changi Airport is kept spotlessly clear, Singapore-style.
Winner: Qatar
First, I have to acknowledge that Changi is my personal favorite airport in the world. For AvGeeks, SIN might as well be an amusement park. Why, then, do I give Qatar the win?
For premium cabin passengers, the experience at Doha feels a little more luxe. The main terminal is newer and airier. And Qatar’s Al Mourjan lounges beat Singapore’s flagship business class lounges hands down, in terms of design, dining, and amenities.
By comparison, as fun as Changi is, it’s an older facility. Many parts of the airport feel less spacious. And the design choice of placing security checkpoints at each gate instead of a central facility can be annoying.
Changi’s Jewel is absolutely stunning, but notably it’s landside (AKA pre-security) and therefore harder to visit during a layover. By comparison, Doha’s “Orchard” (in the photo below) is airside and accessible to all transiting travelers.
If I was traveling in economy I’d pick Changi for all the fun publicly-accessible features that can make even a lengthy layover fly by. But in this business class battle, Doha is the winning hub.
Crowning a champion
If you’ve made it this far, you can appreciate how impressive both of these airlines are. Picking a winner wasn’t easy.
Based on the entirety of my experiences on each airline over the past year, Qatar Airways earns the overall win. Thanks to its strong Qsuite seat, its ambitious inflight dining menus, and amazing home airport, it deserves to come out on top.
But there are two major caveats here. First: even if you agreed with my verdicts in each category of the competition, you might pick a different overall winner depending on how important each category is for you. After all, there were some areas like cabin service or beverage selection where Singapore was the better player. And if one of those areas matter most to you, then I couldn’t fault you for siding with Singapore.
Secondly, it’s important to point out that Singapore has plans to address most of the areas where Qatar currently beats it. Just this year the airline teased some partial images of a new suite-style business class seat (with privacy doors) that it will start installing on its A350 long-haul fleet next year.
Changi Airport is also starting work on a MASSIVE terminal 5 that looks incredible, though we’ll have to wait until the next decade to see the finished product.
In the end, any airline’s win in the rankings is only a temporary one. And that’s a good thing! As long as airlines continue fiercely competing, we as passengers end up as the real winners.
And now for my favorite part of the story: where you get to share your take on this comparison. Feel free to disagree with me — honestly it’s more fun that way! Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
