Business class course at Qatar Airways from inside: the week, the wine exam, the QSuite choreography and what the assessors are actually watching

Qatar, from Adelaide, and I wrote the Doha summer and the staff travel threads. My business course was confirmed in the economy thread and I have now done it. Here is the week, because Layla's QSuite thread describes the cabin and the course itself is its own thing.

Day one

The product: the QSuite on the 777 and the A350, the quad configuration, the doors, the older business cabins on the other types, the differences by aircraft. The dining concept (dine on demand within a structure), the menu architecture, the service sequence from boarding to landing. A lot of slides and a mock cabin to walk through. The assessors introduce themselves and say what they will be watching, which is more than I expected.

Days two and three

The service choreography in the mock cabin: the welcome, the pre departure drinks, the order taking (kneeling, the tablet, the sequencing), the table setting (the linen, the exact placement), the courses, the wine presentation, the clearing, the bed set up, the wake up. Over and over, with the assessors as passengers who order the difficult combinations and change their minds. The galley sequencing for twelve orders is drilled until the pad is second nature, exactly as Layla advised in the economy thread.

The wine exam

The business class wine list: the grapes, the regions, the pairings with the menu, the service temperature, the presentation of the bottle, the opening. A written test and a practical where you present and pour for an assessor who asks questions. Nobody from Adelaide should fail this and I did not, but the Thai and Filipino crew on the course, from countries with no wine culture, worked hardest on it and all passed.

Day four

The difficult passenger module: the role plays with the 'household staff' passenger Priya described, the complaint about the seat, the passenger who wants something not on the menu, the one who will not stop talking. The assessors are watching for warm and firm, which is the Qatar business standard and the thing that took Layla a year. The course gives you the words; the line gives you the year.

Day five

The practical assessment: a full service in the mock cabin with the assessors as passengers, scored on the sequence, the standard and the composure, then the written exam on the product and the wine. Pass rate high; the filter was being selected.

What the assessors are actually watching

The order of the actions. The composure when the twelve orders arrive. Whether you kneel to take the order every time. Whether the linen is straight at hour ten of the simulation. And whether you are warm to the assessor who is being difficult on purpose, because that assessor is the passenger in 2A on your first business flight.

After

The first business flight is a 777 to London with a senior business crew member watching me, and I am told to write it up. The economy purser I learned from told me the boarding puzzle would transfer. It did. The wine did not need to.