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Taken December 2004 from Dubai - DXB to London, England (Heathrow Airport) - LHR

Another long, laborious check in at Dubai and my seat request again not met (they have no online check-in either). Boarding was a free for all, but crew onboard A330-200 were friendly and worked hard to help settle everyone on board. I noticed my IFE screen and that of passenger next to me was not working, but for a 45 min flight this was not an issue (but it would be later...!). Flight swift and unevenful and again a swift, pain free transit at Doha.

Flight to LHR left 45 minutes late due to "technical" problem. Realised we were on same plane as Dubai-Doha, but this time I was seated in row 39, middle-middle. Plane, A330-200 had more legroom and comfortable seats, however, I noticed that our row's screens were not working. Called cabin purser who said she'd reboot once airborne, but I realised that none of the power (lights, call button) were working on our middle row. Flight was full and 30 min into flight we were told that our row was without power and so we had no form of entertainment for 7 hours. They swapped 1 passenger with a mother and screaming baby! I complained - it was hardly fair to do this to us when we couldn't listen to music or watch a film. Also they had no onboard dvd players, and all we received was a courteous apology and a complaint form. 4 hours into flight, we also were given a motley selection of magazines.

Having had similar problems with non-functioning IFE on BA and Virgin, these airlines at least offer portable machines or a bottle of champagne or duty free voucher by way of apology. In this case, nothing was done and instead we were ignored.

Flight arrived into LHR 45 min late but i was relieved to be free of the screaming kid (who managed to knock a cup of tea and a bottle of wine over me). As a frequent flyer (2+ long haul flights a month) I am disappointed by the service of Qatar Airways and certainly do not rate them as a top-tier airline. Will I fly them again? Nope.