Qatar Airways has a problem most airlines would envy: its business class is so good there was nowhere left to go. Qsuite has won Skytrax's World's Best Business Class award, including the best suite category in 2025, and the carrier's answer for its incoming Boeing 777-9s is Qsuite Next Gen — a product so far ahead of the original that it effectively forced the airline to build a new first-class-style tier above it.
The original Qsuite, flying since 2017 on the A350 and 777 fleets, rewrote the business class rulebook. Suites sit in a 1-2-1 layout with high privacy dividers, and the centre seats have movable panels so couples, families or colleagues can combine them into doubles or quads. Add dine-on-demand service — think braised beef short ribs with fondant potatoes, served course by course whenever you like — and it set the benchmark everyone else now chases.
Qsuite Next Gen keeps that philosophy but pushes it further. Dividers get higher and digitally controlled, adjustable from a touchscreen, so you choose between fortress-like privacy and a more open feel. A new Companion Suite brings the couples' concept to window seats, letting pairs dine facing each other. The famous Quad returns with a movable 4K OLED Panasonic Astrova screen that slides aside to open the space up for work or socialising. Every suite pairs with fast Starlink Wi-Fi, and you can request turndown service from the touchscreen — boutique hotel thinking, at 40,000 feet.
Space is the other big fix. The original Qsuite was never the widest seat out there — ANA leads at 38 inches, Singapore at 30 — and Next Gen widens the seat to 23 inches upright, with another four inches of hip and shoulder room in lie-flat mode. Pitch hits 100 inches, first-class territory, with the extra room going into generous storage.
Here's the catch: the whole thing was meant to debut in 2025 on the Boeing 777X, which is now delayed until at least 2027. Qatar's workaround may be launching Qsuite Next Gen on the Airbus A350-1000 instead, which shares several 777X cabin features and could carry the new suite this year. The airline has big stakes in the 777X programme regardless, including 30 of the type within a $96 billion Boeing order announced last year.
In the meantime, the current Qsuite remains one of the best ways to fly long-haul. Check the seat map when booking — a staggered 1-2-1 configuration means Qsuite. All A350-1000s have it, most 777-300ERs and 777-200LRs do, and 11 of 34 A350-900s. You won't find it on the 787, A380 or A330. If an aircraft swap ruins your plans, Qatar's Qsuite guarantee lets you rebook on the same route within 21 days of departure — a rare promise that says a lot about how central this seat is to the airline's identity.
