FFlyer189

If you check your facts you will discover that replacement debit cards are being issued with DIFFERENT numbers now by British banks albeit the last digit only, is changed.

I did not lose my card it was a replacement card (which is understandable since I booked my ticket online well in advance).

If you read my previous posts above, you will see that I DID start contacting Qatar Airlines BEFORE my trip and they were unhelpful and never called me back with advice when they said they would.

I am sure Qatar Airlines WILL refund me in full. They haven't got a leg to stand on; it is called bad faith: I have paid for a service and they have refused to provide the service.

Their website advice about showing a C/C at check-in will not hold up in a court of law because it must be accepted as impossible that all people will be able to do this if there are mitigating circumstances; ie. Loss of card/changed card etc. etc.

Also, let me assure you that I CAN 'Wait it out' I am probably one of the few people who have successfully taken legal action against Ryanair: (They settled out of court for a substantial sum, however part of that settlement was a confidentiality agreement so I am unable to give details). ^

Guy Betsy

Court will probably show that many airlines also require this. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...-boarding.html
So I see that you're just out to milk whatever airline you can out there.

Good fortune, bad karma?

Best of luck then..

FFlyer189

I have never and indeed will never try to "Milk" an airline. I resent that glib remark; 'Guy Betsy'.

I will bring Qatar Airways to justice, I paid my flight fare online, seven months before the actual flight. The fact that they denied me boarding is a pure extortion and no more than a scam.

Keep you sarcastic remarks about 'karma' and 'luck' for your other helpless victims of Airline disservice. Just because you cannot respond with a civil written opinion upon my post above, does not give you the right to rubbish my claims and my bad treatment by an Airline.

tegwj

He's not rubbishing your claims. By your own admission, you were aware of QR's policy:

Yet when they enforced said policy, you decided instead that you disagreed with the policy and felt they should waive it in your case. This is not extortion; had you met their conditions of carriage they would have happily allowed you to board.

If you don't like the policy, don't fly with the airline. Personally I am of the opinion that you are entitled to nothing more than the original rules of your purchased fare -- whether that's a refund, or a credit, or a loss of the value altogether, since none of the mitigating factors which led to your inability to board at LHR were either undocumented or inconsistently applied.

Thus your piss and vinegar about lawsuits and the like comes across as 'protesting too much'. QR haven't done anything unjust to you. Get over it.

twj

eyeballer

I really have to empathize with the OP in this case. You are all right, OP was well aware of the restrictions of the fare and the rules. And IMHO OP made every effort to contact QR and explain his card has expired and he has been issued a new one with a new number. He went above the requirement to show the bank statement showing the full payment, as well as a similar (current card).

QRs policy is definitely the problem here, as mentioned earlier in the thread many airlines have similar policies but are more flexible. My personal example is with CX, I had booked a ticket for my gf (couple of years ago) using my CC. I had seen the "CC holder is required to show card" warning and it wasn't a problem as I'd planned to drop her off anyway, but then I ended up having to fly out to London the same day she was traveling so couldn't get to the CX term in NYC. CX refused to let her check-in; fine, that's policy, complete different person's CC on file. However, they told her to go to the ticketing desk where they refunded my payment to my card, and then charged the same amount back to my gf's CC. Problem solved (other than I lost the points!). I'm not sure if this is normal CX policy but it's a lot more reasonable than making the pax buy a whole new second ticket.

Guy Betsy and tegwj, what would have done in a similar situation? CCs expire all the time, or what if you'd lost your CC and had a new one issued? Would you be happy having to buy a new ticket on the day of travel, presumably at a walk-up fare cost? What if that was a paid J or F ticket?

tegwj

I faced the exact same situation, per another thread in this forum. In between when I bought my ticket and boarded my flight, my original CC was canceled and a new number was re-issued by the bank. As it was explained to me, QR's procedure in such circumstances is as follows:

1) If the customer has a documentation trail (i.e. an explicit letter mentioning both old and new card numbers) then QR will mark an exception on the record and issue boarding passes
2) If the customer doesn't have such documentation in their possession but can arrange for it to be sent to the airport, QR will accept it by fax. (This was what I ended up doing @ JFK)
3) If the customer cannot provide documentation, QR will charge them the fare against a card in their possession; if the original account successfully remits funds to them at the *conclusion* of the final leg of the itinerary, QR will refund the second card.

Even though the OP (and I) had both been charged by our banks, the CC issuers don't release funds to QR until the itineraries are flown, so the risk QR faces is that a bogus card was used, and by the time they can irrefutably confirm card fraud, the customer has already flown the flights.

Again, given that their policy and its attendant requirements are well-documented (and used by multiple carriers in similar forms), I fail to see evidence of either extortion or inconsistent behaviour.

twj

FFlyer189

How can you explain the fact that Qatar Airways received in full my payment directly from my bank account seven months before my flight and yet still refused me boarding without showing the original debit card?

The alternatives I offered; being a bank statement showing the flight ticket cash debit: (Not accepted because my bank statement does not print the complete debit card number just the last four digits) and my new debit card (same number with one digit changed) were not acceptable according to the QR check-in staff.

I put it to you both; tegwy and Guy Betsy that Qatar Airlines policy is unfair and inflexible. Their check-in staff are poorly trained to deal with the problem of lost/forgotten/changed cards (They shouldn't even be asking for debit cards).

I expect that they will lose customers in the long run and will also receive negative publicity for their punitive policies. I will pursue this case through the courts and will not rest until I achieve justice.

capetonian

Their policy is not unfair and inflexible IMHO. It's there to see for everybody booking a flight with a credit card. Other airlines have similar policies. If you don't like them for whatever reason you don't need to book via their website - you could go through other channels, for example Expedia, where the credit cards don't seem to be a problem. Alternatively, choose another carrier.

I agree, however, that their ground staff lacks proper training to handle unusual situations (not only in regards with credit cards).

shirley1

hii booked 3 months ago through netflights.com and was told i would not need to show my credit card details as i had booked through them, can anyone confirm this is right as i am starting to get a bit worried now that i have been reading this post as part of the cost was done with my daughters card as way of a gift . any addvise would be helpfull.
thanks shirley

MH017

Shirley,

Expedia.com or netflights.com is the same, as you pay to them and not directly to QR; so, you should be save

FFlyer189

You have nothing to worry about Shirley. The card must only be shown at check-in by passengers who have booked their tickets on the Qatar Airways website.

UPDATE: From November 1st 2009, probably due to my pending legal action against the airline and the upcoming article in a British Sunday newspaper, Qatar Airways now accept bank/credit card statements showing the transaction. They have relaxed the punitive rule about entire debit/credit card number appearing on the statement and now accept that the matching ticket cost tallies.

Some progress has been made.^

Mr. Bean

Jet Airways (9W) have a similar policy. They require that the card be produced at check-in. If pax =/= cardholder, then they require a copy of both sides of the card, with a signed statement from the cardholder authorizing use for travel on those specific 9W sectors.

This is a rational policy that allows unsophisticated pax (like elderly or the very young who may not have their own CC/DCs) to travel on "gifted" tickets.

The QR policy that the physical card MUST be produced is... dum dum dum dum dum It could benefit from some flexibility, as FFlyer189's latest post indicates. However, I can't find this change in the Terms of use of their website, under the Paying by Credit Card section:

http://www.qatarairways.com/global/e...ngByCreditCard

FFlyer189

The Qatar airways internet pages are slowly changing: Now it says on 'At the Airport advice page':

Internet Booking

Please ensure that you bring the credit card used to purchase your ticket or your credit card statement as proof of purchase. This is done for fraud protection. Failure to produce your credit card or statement might lead to you being prevented from travelling on your flight.

Here is the link: http://www.qatarairways.com/my/en/at-the-airport.html

^

goldy

^
i see no comments from the airline apologists like Guy Betsy et al though..

Guy Betsy

So? What about it?