Qatar Airways Platinum and Gold Lounge – North at Hamad International Airport in Doha [Review]

Red-eye flights at 2 a.m. are killer, and my March 2025 girls trip was scheduled on a budget carrier with no meal service. In a late-night stupor, my friend and I were looking forward to hitting a lounge for comfortable chairs and fizzy drinks ahead of a long morning of travel from Doha, Qatar, to Helsinki, Finland.

Priority Pass members have access to 1 primary lounge at DOH — Al Maha Lounge — but only the South location is mentioned on the Priority Pass website. Insiders know that the North location also accepts Priority Pass, and I’ve had a great streak of being upgraded out of this lounge into other lounges due to space constraints. Such was the case during this visit, and I was excited to try out a new-to-me lounge, the Platinum and Gold Lounge – North.

Platinum and Gold Lounge – North Location

The lounge is in the Duty Free North & Garden area. From the Untitled (Lamp/Bear) statue, you can walk about 5 to 10 minutes through the lower C gates using a travelator or take the in-terminal train 1 stop from the south area to the north area.

After walking around the open atrium area in the north, follow the signs to the Platinum & Gold Lounge North, just past gate C14.

The lounge is on level 2, and you need to identify the escalators to reach the entrance. These are typically staffed to verify that you have the proper access to enter. As we were being transferred from Al Maha Lounge, our boarding passes had a specific stamp on them that granted us access to this lounge.

The lounge entrance has a white marble exterior, and you pass through automatic glass doors to the check-in area.

Gaining Entry to the Platinum and Gold Lounge – North

The lounge is open 24 hours daily and can be accessed by Qatar Airways Privilege Club Gold and Platinum elites, Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire elites, and their eligible guests. The lounge’s website states that Oneworld Ruby elites can purchase access, but does not disclose the cost.

Hot Tip:

The aforementioned elites are also eligible to access the much smaller Gold Lounge – South, which I’ve reviewed previously. For a more exclusive experience, Platinum and Emerald elites can consider the Qatar Airways Platinum Lounge – South.

While first and business class passengers (excluding Business Lite) also have access, Al Safwa First Class Lounge, Al Mourjan Business Lounge – The Garden, or Al Mourjan Business Lounge – South would be far superior options.

First Impressions

Considering that we were bumped to this lounge, I expected quite a queue, but one of several available agents quickly accommodated us at check-in.

The size and capacity of this lounge are impressive. Despite a calm check-in, the lounge was considerably full. Fortunately, a huge variety of seating areas and chairs help spread the crowd around, and the lounge is spacious enough that walking areas and food service areas are not congested.

Seating

The lounge’s distinct seating zones are loosely divided. Near the entrance, several recliner chairs are grouped with low divider walls.

Pairs of yellow leather chairs are grouped with small side tables along the railing to the atrium. Across from these are clusters of burgundy club chairs and side tables.

To say the view from these chairs is anything less than spectacular would be a lie. While the lounge doesn’t have typical windows or direct views out to the apron, amazing people-watching is to be had across the 3 levels of this atrium.

For a midnight visit, high and low lamps throughout kept the space well-lit. Seating for solo travelers, pairs, and groups is available throughout the space.

Both sides of the lounge have a high-top long table with bar-style seating.

My friend and I anchored ourselves in these camel-colored leather chairs. Even though they were right on a main walking artery near the bar, we never felt intruded upon.

These seats have a side table, illuminated from underneath, with outlets, a recessed area for drinks and plates, and a wireless charging space. Unfortunately, these wireless charging areas have never worked at any of the Doha lounges where I’ve tried them.

The table has a universal outlet (no adapter needed) and 2 USB-A outlets per side. However, one of the USB outlets was nonfunctional during our visit.

Finally, a long desk area with small privacy dividers and swivel chairs is near the bathrooms and departure boards.

Food and Beverages

Compared to Al Maha Lounge, the variety and quality of the food offered at the Platinum and Gold Lounge – North pleasantly surprised me.

Buffet

The meat-based dishes included roasted chicken with cheese, walnut, and mushroom sauce, and Qatari chicken madroubah, which is traditional pounded barley with Arabic-spiced slow-cooked chicken.

The pasta on offer was penne with chunky tomato sauce, feta, and fried basil.

Vegetable jalfrezi with rice rounded out the mains. The buffet also included a variety of breads, chicken and sweet corn soup, and carrot and coconut soup.

A staffed cold case held small bowls of hummus, tabbouleh, Mediterranean quinoa salad, Asian sesame noodles with smoked salmon salad, chicken Caesar salad, and 2 kinds of wrapped sandwiches (chicken and cream cheese with cucumber and tomato). Guests had to ask an attendant to hand them whatever they desired (including poured beverages).

The noodle salad with smoked salmon was phenomenal and didn’t skimp on the salmon. I helped myself to 2 bowls.

The dessert station had Arabic sweets, carrot cake, tiramisu, berry tarts, katayef kashta with pistachios (a Ramadan treat similar to a cream-filled pancake), coconut-passion fruit cake, and cut fruit.

Whole apples and individually wrapped dates were also available. The Qinwan date brand is a favorite of mine, and I always toss a few in my carry-on bag.

While the right side of the lounge (after entering) has the larger buffet, a secondary smaller buffet with identical offerings is on the left side of the lounge.

À la Carte

The dining tables nearest to each hot buffet were mainly occupied by diners ordering from the à la carte menu (available via a QR code on each table). This menu was not significantly different from what was readily available on the buffet, but it was available if you fancied something from it.

Beverages

Lemon water and iced tea dispensers are at the front of the lounge, but the majority of beverages are not self-service.

A large bar anchors the center of the lounge, where you can order nonalcoholic or alcoholic beverages. I usually like to toss a canned soda in my carry-on bag for the flight or my next stop, but that wasn’t possible in this lounge as all beverages were served in glasses.

Hot Tip:

Note that even though my visit was during Ramadan, when alcohol sales in Qatar were prohibited, alcohol was readily available in the lounge.

Stations throughout the lounge have bottles of still and sparkling water and self-service coffee and tea.

Amenities

Nanny Room and Parents Room

It is common for families living in the Middle East to have domestic workers, so I was not surprised to see a room for nannies, which had a few seats and a restroom.

The adjacent parents room has a kitchen with a sink, microwave, and changing area.

A secondary room within, behind a door, has a chair, a side table, a changing table, and a small refrigerator. This entire setup is ideal for nursing or pumping moms.

Wi-Fi

I utilized the airport’s main Wi-Fi network and received speeds of 28.4 Mbps download and 35.5 Mbps upload.

Bathrooms

I was really impressed with the size of the women’s restroom. Even with a full lounge, there were plenty of stalls, and the space was kept impeccably clean.

For whatever reason, the DOH airport does not seem to want to provide disposable hand towels in its lounges (across the 5 lounges I’ve visited), but this lounge did have small cotton hand towels in addition to facial tissues.

The stalls are spacious, and the toilets have a bidet hose.

Showers

Showers are available for use and feature a toilet and shower stall with a towel.

The vanity area has a place to hang your clothes, a ledge for your suitcase, a makeup mirror, and a hair dryer. Bath amenities are from Diptyque.

Prayer Rooms

Many of Hamad’s lounges have a reflection pool or fountain, but a floral display occupies that feature here. Just behind it are entrances to the prayer rooms.

Smoking Room

The lounge has a smoking room, and no smell lingered nearby.

Staff and Service

This lounge has many moving parts, so it needs enough staff to service the bars, cold food areas, hot food areas, and à la carte dining, in addition to having tables consistently cleaned. For my middle-of-the-night visit, this team did their jobs well. Food was consistently restocked, and while the plates and trash in my space weren’t cleared the moment I finished with them, they were eventually cleared discreetly.

Final Thoughts

My visit to the Platinum and Gold Lounge – North was a lovely surprise, as I would not normally have access to this space through my Priority Pass membership. It was busy during my visit, but turnover in the expansive space was consistent, so there were always seats opening up.

Since Al Maha Lounge – North is not listed on the Priority Pass website but does accept Priority Pass, it’s worth making the trek to see if you might have overflow access to the Oryx Lounge – North or the Platinum and Gold Lounge – North. I consider both of those lounge upgrades to be well worth the extra effort to try out.