homme73

Mel -DOH - Dub originally R fare business class, offered paid upgrade to first for $1268pp on A380 to DOH, guaranteed access to first lounge in DOH and F miles and credits by Qatar check in Melbourne so went why the hell not and paid for the upgrade ( 2 pax ) Get to DOH and refused entry to Al Safwa despite been told by cabin crew on our flight and by ground staff we were eligible as flying into DOH in first class, furthermore my points have only been credited at the R fare level.
Al Safwa lounge staff totally uninterested we were provided incorrect information.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Wonder whats my chance of at least getting the F class Qpoints and miles. It was Qatar ground staff who offered us the paid upgrade with the selling points of the above benifits so they should honour their commitment but Im not holding my breath, Thanks guys

remdk

homme73
1) Upgrades only earn Qmiles and Qpoints for the ticket class of the original ticket class not for upgrades. Simply put the PC rules do not allow extra Qmiles or Qpoints for upgrades.

2) If your onward flight was QR17 then you were incorrectly denied access to Al Safwa but it your onward flight was QR19 then you were not entitled to Al Safwa access. The access rules were changed earlier this year such that arriving on longhaul F and departing in J or Y and have a transit time of under 8 hours you will have access. If your transit time is over 8 hours then access is no longer permitted.

Do have a look at the Wiki on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar...ss-lounge.html

Ausriver

It seems the ground staff was not trained well or maybe intentionally providing false information. I would assume she/he provided nothing in written.

homme73

Onward flight was QR 17. Transit less than 2 hours. If the paid upgrade not eligible for F points then we should not have been informed so. It's not like we paid $100 for the upgrade. Almost $1300 pp for one flight on top of biz fare isn't insignificant. From reading post on here there seems to be a lot of confusion from their ground staff. Cannot fault their cabin crew. They are always in my opinion fantastic.

msm2000uk

But you did pay less than $100 per hour for F, and at 14 hours, that is a lot of F service to enjoy.

M

Dr. HFH

One interesting note to add here, -- if you're on another carrier but crediting to QRPC, then the miles you get will depend on how it's reported to QR by the other carrier.

For example, I fly UL a lot between BKK and CMB. UL has a bid-for-upgrade program; so I always buy the cheapest economy fare and then bid the minimum that the system will accept for an upgrade. When I get it, I'm credited by QRPC as if I had purchased a full fare business class ticket.

homme73

absolutely agree I got a great deal, however thats irrelevant as I was sold the upgrade with the benefits I have outlined and not all were not delivered!

hotwingz

homme73 you will not receive Qpoints and Qmiles for F class as those paid upgrades QR offers are, in that context, essentially identical to upgrades with Qmiles. They give you access to the higher cabin, lounges (!) and premium check-in (if upgrading from Y to J), but you will receive Qpoints and Qmiles according to the fare class you purchased.

However, I still believe you should follow up on this with QR and express your disappointment as you should have been allowed to enter Al Safwa. QR takes a lot of pride in their lounges. I believe it's not too far to argue that part of why you purchased the upgrade was the access to Al Safwa.

I hope QR finds a way of offering you some form of compensation for not delivering on their promised services (although I have no idea how that could look like).

Also it would be nice if QR could clearly clarify who gets access to Al Mourjan and Al Safwa. When transiting at DOH, I repeatedly overhear conversations of people who are confused by the access rules. I guess the term 'Business Class Lounge' and 'First Class Lounge' for essentially travelers in Y with status doesn't help either.

makrom

Indeed you shouldn't have, but I honestly don't expect that there is that much you can do about it. Maybe you'll eventually reach some sales rep who will fork out some Qmiles, but even on a good day, I wouldn't expect more than a few k. If you don't credit to QRPC, I wouldn't expect anything at all.
Unfortunately, QR ground staff that is unaware of the rules is just part of reality.

homme73

interesting you mentioned QR need to clarify who has access to the lounge as while we were at entrance 3 different people were denied access, one gentleman had been to 3 different lounges trying to find the correct one so perhaps this is an area that QR needs to make more clear. I credit to QRPC so the extra points and miles are important to me, I will contact QR to at address the inconsistency so the same doesn't happen to next pax, We were basically disappointed not to experience the Al Safwa lounge and the time wasted cut down the already short transit, ended up having to shower in the OW first class lounge as nothing available in Al Mouran, so visited 3 lounges in our 2 hour transit. To be fair I will also compliment the amazing crew member who looked after us from Mel-DOH, she was everything you could ask for when travelling in a premium cabin, everyones feedback is appreciated, Thanks!

lachster

FYI - transactions in Australia are protected by Australian Consumer Law and if you specifically asked if you would get access to Al Safwa and F points or the agent told you that you would as part of the transaction they are consumer guarantees and you're legally entitled to rely on them (Qatar can't point to Ts and Cs).

Enforcing your rights is a whole other chestnut however.

orbitmic

Whilst you were denied in mistake and had a full case to be there, I think the experience of the other people you mention hardly makes a case: with every airline, people either make mistakes or just try their luck either hoping that they have a lounge access or even sometimes hoping to be let in whilst they know they are not entitled ("no harm in trying" etc). For QR what makes this even worse than the norm is not that they explain things worse but that they have so many different lounges each with different entitlements.

Grace B

QR are definitely sticklers for the rules, and their default reaction to any request for entry would appear to err towards denial.

I recently had an interesting experience with al Safwa. I was ticketed (revenue) ADL-DOH (J) - BEY (F), and the incoming flight was a couple of hours late, thus misconnecting with the flight to BEY.

On arrival at DOH, I was met by a QR employee who handed me a boarding pass for the next DOH-BEY flight (about 5 hours later). I indicated that I did not want to take this flight as it would misconnect with an A3 flight I had booked from BEY to ATH, and asked (nicely) if QR could possibly see their way to re-ticketing me directly to ATH from DOH (more in hope than anything else).

The QR agent took it on board to try and make this happen (had to consult her supervisor, etc, etc) and then escorted me to al Safwa, where I arranged for a quiet room while QR was sorting out my ticket. No problems at all.

Several hours later, the QR agent came along and said they had managed to change my ticket to DOH-ATH in J, with the flight leaving in about 90 minutes. I happily accepted this, and then was told I had to immediately leave al Safwa and go to al Mourjan, as I was no longer travelling in F.

Not really a big deal, but I was a little surprised that they wouldn't let me stay in al Safwa for another 45 minutes or so.

Dr. HFH

I wonder if the default is really denial, or if that just seems to be the case because we're so accustomed to travel providers making exceptions. After all, as FTers, we probably know better than any other group of travelers how these things work and where there may be soft spots in the system which may give under a little pressure. Maybe we just perceive it as denial, but the default is really that QR just adheres to the rules and makes no exceptions.


Although that may feel like an unnecessarily harsh and somewhat illogical outcome to us, it strikes me as entirely logical if the marching orders are to follow the rules without exception. Of course we can have a separate conversation about whether that's a good business decision for QR. AAB apparently thinks that it is.

Johnnieboy

They could have just told you were only allowed to drink the Billecart for the rest of your stay...no more La Grande Dame for you!!