Qatar Airways claim to be the "World's First Five Star Airline". In economy class this airline is comparable with Etihad or Emirates. The staff is friendly, meals are good, inflight entertainment is excellent, seats are lousy everywhere :)

What I noticed was that Qatar Airways use plastic silverware for meals, whereas Etihad and Emirates use stainless steel. The plastic is easy to break, let alone a little demeaning.

My biggest gripe with Qatar Airways is that they do not allow alcohol purchases at the airport Duty Free Shops when flying into Doha. I wanted to purchase some exotic spirits at JFK, those that are not available in the Gulf, but I was denied upon producing a Qatar Airways boarding pass.

I contact Qatar Airways Customer Service and first I was told that I was misinformed. Only after several back-and-forth e-mails they admitted that in fact "... our investigation regrettably confirmed that the State of Qatar does not accept the transit of liquor purchased in any USA duty free."

So if exotic liquor is your thing, put it in your checked luggage.