In truth, it was much worse than I have illustrated. The whole flight was a catalogue of errors. It was a disgrace.
I said to my travelling companion at the time that I would hate to be on one of Qatar's aircraft in the event of an emergency. The kids who were acting as cabin staff would have no idea how to handle things, there was no senior person in charge.
When I made enquiries, I was told that as the airline was expanding so rapidly, they could not afford to be choosy when recruiting staff.