Anyone who travels a lot for work will build up a healthy stash of frequent flyer miles. Plenty of people who are smart with their credit cards and put some thought into “hacking” them will also amass enough points to get up the front end of the cabin at least once in their lifetime.

I got up there recently on a flight from Doha to Sydney after Qatar Airways put me on their space-available upgrade list so that (as an already privileged travel writer, let’s face it) I could check out their product at the front of the plane. And it was my lucky day – space was available.

So let’s talk about what’s happening in Qatar business class, which was rated the best in the world by Skytrax this year (an award it has won 11 times).

You have the QSuite, which is a seat with a sliding door, creating total privacy for the traveller. If you and your travel buddy grab the two centre seats, the QSuites can be converted into a double bed, with a sliding door on each side. That’s outrageously luxurious.

You get a huge TV screen in your suite. You get the standards such as a glass of champagne when you sit down, and a very fancy drinks selection once the plane has taken off.

And, since August this year, on selected routes, the airline serves caviar to business-class passengers.

That caviar comes with blinis, minced shallots, chopped egg and the like. But I gotta tell you, if you’re going to do this you have to do it right: scoop out a big wodge of fish eggs and just eat it straight off the spoon.

Qatar might be the leader, but it’s not the only airline offering crazy luxury in its business-class cabin. Delta Air Lines – weirdly, for an American carrier – has a cracking business class seat that also has a sliding door, ensuring total privacy.

Emirates has no doors, but it does have plush leather seats, minibars and tablets for each passenger. The company’s A380s also have stand-up bar lounges at the back of the aircraft.

Singapore Airlines, meanwhile, has the option to convert certain pairs of business-class seats into large double beds, and it also offers – in my opinion at least – the best food in the skies. And even British Airways has Club Suites on its business class, which have sliding doors to privatise each seat.

How does our home carrier stack up? I haven’t been in the Qantas business cabin for a while now but by most accounts it’s still a very comfortable experience featuring all sorts of perks you probably wouldn’t be expecting, and a few you definitely would (the famous Qantas pyjamas).

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It’s wild to think that not so long ago, business class cabins didn’t even have lie-flat beds. Indeed, I flew another leg with Qatar recently, from Doha to Tbilisi, in an old-school business class cabin that didn’t even have personal entertainment screens. The days of that being normal are not so long gone.

So is business class worth it these days? Would you actually pay for these incredible luxuries? Can you ignore the extra carbon emissions to swan about at the front of the plane?

If you have the money, do it once. Lucky you. If you don’t, hack your credit cards, build up your miles, send grovelling emails to airline representatives, and do whatever you can to get up to the front of the plane.

And get in early on the caviar.