Qatar Airways Privilege Club - Poor Gold recognition

I have cited previously how poor Qatar's recognition of Gold-status frequent fliers is, in my opinion. This was in the context of their dedicated lounge in LHR -- Golds are not allowed to use it if flying in Y.

Here are two more examples: In PVG the other day, I noticed three check-in queues: one for business class, one for "Gold/Silver/on-line check-in," and one for the rest of economy. I waited 20 minutes in the Gold/Silver/on-line check-in line. (I pity those in the normal economy line, as the line was huge and moving slowly.)

So Gold travelers deserve the same accommodation as those who merely check-in on-line? Gee, thanks. I have seen this at other stations, too, though never with such a stark difference in waiting times.

Also, QR has been pedaling to corporate customers a promotion for new enrollees to Privilege Club to get fast-track status to Gold with only 200 Qpoints, plus bonus miles on each flight. To those who are already Gold, zilch. Thanks for your loyalty, sucker.

In one dimension, QR is more generous than its main competitor, EK: Golds theoretically get to use first-class lounges and first-class check-in, instead of business. But in practice, this is nearly worthless as there are hardly any places with separate check-in and lounges for first and business. Golds do get first-class checked baggage tags, which I find somewhat useful (i.e., they usually come out early), though I can recall almost no cases of being recognized on-board and they rarely enforce priority boarding. Neither QR nor EK has any type of priority contact phone number or e-mail for elites. In other areas, EK has maintained the value of Gold: check-in in the business class side of the terminal at DXB, dedicated check-in for Golds everywhere else, legitimate lounges, and of course occasional op-ups.

I guess QR is speaking loudly and clearly about its business model -- either fly in J or you are one of the cattle. It's a shame, because there are other upscale airlines (e.g., SQ, CX) that manage to maintain the integrity of their premium cabins while still rewarding loyal frequent fliers.

I will have enough to qualify as Gold on EK and QR this year, but perhaps next year I will just stick to Silver on QR and focus the rest of my flying elsewhere, especially if EK adds a third elite tier. Maybe check out EY or GF.

I'd like to start by thanking you for sharing your views and providing specific details as to where we could improve. Your post is not taken lightly, and is being passed on to the relevant teams at Qatar Airways. We continue to welcome your views about our services, as it helps fuel our innovation, as we strive to be number one.

Please don't hesitate to contact us anytime you see room for further improvement.

All the best!
Michael @ The Qatar Airways Community

I absolutely agree mecabq the added benefits of being gold compared to silver on QR are laughable. I think except for the extra miles gained and the use of the Oryx Lounge in DOH it serves no other difference.

Indeed the hopes of the occasional OP-UP would be nice but clearly that is something that QR never does, or I have not heard of yet. At least EK does that and hence their gold is worth maintaining.

EY suffers from the same issue where being silver is generally good enough, or going the full hog for the Gold Elite which is definately very nice but generally not worth the business.

I've been Silver for 3 years and this year dwindled down to nothing. QR service only recognizes your status when you're in J class. If in economy, no one bats an eye cos there's just so many...!

Another great feature I just discovered: while Gold members are exempt from award change and cancellation fees, they are not exempt from fees if they are using their own miles to book an award for someone else. This seems peculiar to me, and I have never heard of a similar case on another airline.

By the way, you apparently can't change award tickets on-line, even if they were booked on-line to begin with, and even if you are a Gold member and the award is for yourself (and thus exempt from most fees). And, to add insult to injury, the only way to pay the fees is to go to a Qatar Airways office in person. There is also no facility to do this in the airport; there is a QR office near the DOH airport, but not within walking distance. There is a ticketing counter at the airport, at which one can buy tickets, but one can apparently not pay fees associated with award tickets there.

They can't even charge over the phone the same credit card originally used for the booking. (Though this is one of a number of transactions on QR that must be done in person -- I guess any time they collect an additional fee after ticketing for a transaction that is done over the phone, they require you to show up in person.)

Another example of how Qatar Airways is more lik "one-star" for any aspect other than the time between when you take your seat for a flight and when you get up from your seat at the end of the flight. I am really curious, and perhaps QatarAirwaysCommunity could shed some light, why so many of these processes -- like the question of why I can't change an award on-line or why I can't pay my award change fee over the phone or at the ticketing counter at the airport -- are so customer-unfriendly. Are different functions in the company so siloed? Are there an over-abundance of internal controls? Does no one actually think about things from the customer perspective? These examples seem like a simple ones.

I'd *UP* this post by mecabq.

Michael aka QatarAirwaysCommunity I do hope you do pass this on to the appropriate department.

I am also a Gold member and fully share the sentiments of mecabq.

I'd *UP* this post by mecabq.

Michael aka QatarAirwaysCommunity I do hope you do pass this on to the appropriate department.

I am also a Gold member and fully share the sentiments of mecabq.

It would be nice to see mecabq points transferred to the right department, however my fear is most of us have highlighted a number of problems in the past with little success. However we have to keep knocking on their door otherwise we might has well all give up and join Qatar's facebook page.

I've been Silver for 3 years and this year dwindled down to nothing. QR service only recognizes your status when you're in J class. If in economy, no one bats an eye cos there's just so many...!

Fully agree. I was gold for 2 years, realised it was just not worth it so used EK much more and am now nothing with QR except a huge bank of miles to get rid of somehow. EK gold is much better IMHO.

And, to add insult to injury, the only way to pay the fees is to go to a Qatar Airways office in person. . . .

Since I criticized this aspect, I will report on my experience. I went to the main ticketing office (where it's very difficult to park). They have one of those ubiquitous ticket machines, where you take a number and wait. This is a very efficient single-queue system, and there is a separate queue for "first/business/Gold members." So that's good. Not so good is that I waited about 23 minutes (I was third in line); once again, I pity the non-elite travelers, of which there were probably a dozen waiting and who didn't seem to move at all. I got to the counter, which was apparently dedicated to the first/business/Gold queue, and got good service.

The only down-side is that there is now no record of my award booking on the web site (perhaps because, though I initially booked it on-line, there was manual intervention at some point?). The agent in the office said she'd e-mail me the itinerary, but she didn't. I then called Privilege Club (although there is no dedicated line for elite members, there was no wait to get through) and a seemingly knowledgeable agent told me that he would e-mail me the itinerary and also cause it to show on the web site; over 24 hours later, still nothing.

I am like MarkLHR i have given up on Qatar this year and gone over to EK. EK even matched my tier status. I believe the tier issue was another question the community team failed to answer on this forum. Life is too short to have these kinds of problems and until I hear Qatar have started to listen to their customers I will continue to stick with EK. Shame Qatar for me always get 10 out of 10 when I am in my seat, but on the ground they get A big 0.

I am like MarkLHR i have given up on Qatar this year and gone over to EK. EK even matched my tier status. I believe the tier issue was another question the community team failed to answer on this forum. Life is too short to have these kinds of problems and until I hear Qatar have started to listen to their customers I will continue to stick with EK. Shame Qatar for me always get 10 out of 10 when I am in my seat, but on the ground they get A big 0.

How did you get them to match your tier status?

So far I've requalified gold with EK this year with a couple of F flights.
EK still gets much more of my money than QR does, simply because they are much more reliable when it comes to handling things on the ground. I do agree QR's on board service and product is great. But there are so many issues with QR that at times really aggravate me.
To date my miles are still sitting in my account cause I find it very hard to use them for upgrades.

Ultimately I will try to requalify gold with QR this year. But it is very hard as I have a few other trips booked with other carriers.
Perhaps I'll just stick to booking the global sale fares and maybe next year I'll just hit silver as well.

Oh and not to mention QR is not longer as competitive in terms of pricing as they were 6+ months ago. Why would I fly QR now when I can choose SQ for just about that pricing with a direct flight and not needing to touch DOH