Flying with Qatar Airways to Italy

We booked our tickets to Italy early this year via Qatar Airways partly using some frequent flyer points since we have mostly used that airline since it first started flights from Melbourne. Although the quality of service is very high in every respect there have recently been grumblings about the airline treats its international female crew (and none of them look like native Qataris : see The truth about the luxury of Qatar Airways and the airline's response to the critics. We can only observe the crew behaving professionally on board, and assume that most of them willingly accept the restrictive terms imposed because of the attractiveness of the job. We noticed that the airline encourages passengers to contribute to a disadvantaged childrens' education charity and will match such donations dollar for dollar for one year.

We connected flights at the brand new Doha Hamad International Airport, some parts of which are still being finished. This vast hub brings Doha standards up to those of other major international airports, though we still needed to be bussed from the gate to the aircraft for the onward flight.
Actually the business transit lounge in the new airport is a step down from the absolute luxury and aesthetic appeal of the interior of the old temporary transit lounge. On the other hand the lounge is haven of quiet of a depth only otherwise experienced in a reading library.

The walk from lounge to gate took about 12 minutes, and since boarding cut-offs are rigorously enforced without any p.a. appeal to recalcitrant passengers it wouldn't be a good idea not to keep watch on the boarding board or to dawdle.
There is still not much sign of other international airlines on the ground, though tripadvisor claims that 42 airlines fly there.
The new tarmac is by the Gulf waters, and on take -off there is a very good view of the Doha metropolis, which caught us unawares as it was not a sight from the old airport, so we are using an image from Flickr:

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