Flyn

Download the QR app and log into your PC account. It has an electronic version of your card which updates at renewal anniversary. I've used the app card a couple of times with AA and BA whilst waiting for my new card to arrive in the post and didn't have any issues at all.

DYKWIA

Sorry, but that's completely wrong.

QR/UA/VS/SQ etc. Premium Passengers have access to the Priority Lane. This is stamped on your BP. The Priority Lane is supposed to be more "exclusive" than FastTrack (which anybody can purchase).

PS... Just to add, this may have changed since I was last there at the back end of last year, so apologies if it has.

Myron JP Chiu

My worst ever flying experience with airlines of any kind.


I had 4 flights with Qatar airways from 03/2015-02/2016: LHR to Doha; Doha to Tokyo; BKK to Doha; Doha to London. Though the airline has good aircraft and relatively amicable cabin crews in general, I still had horrible experiences with them. As a gold/sapphire member of oneworld alliance, I even find it unacceptable for their treatment to me.

[1] LHR- Doha: my seat was broken and didnt recline so the whole journey was extremely uncomfortable. A cabin crew came over but couldn't fix the seat and she couldn't change a seat for me due to full capacity at economy, though there were seats in business and first. Later I wrote to customer care of Qatar. After a long wait, they replied to me which didn't acknowledge their faults and they simply said my chair was not broken and I did not know how to operate my seat. They apologised to me that the cabin crew didn't try to help me. This was perhaps the most ridiculous and awful response from the customer relation department of any company, for me. I worked for british airways before and am a frequent traveller, so how dare cou,d they make such comments amd assumption to me? I found it not only unprofessional but also insulting. They only offered me 3000 Qmiles which isn't even enough for a short haul one way flight.

[2] I was promised by the duty manager in Doha airport for a seat upgrade but this promise has never come to be fulfilled.

[3] on the return leg of my flights, Qatar wrongly charged me for 9 kilos which they said they would charge me for 3 kilos. One kilos was charged for unbelievable sky high £40 (around 1800 thai baht). This charge is currently on dispute, as 02/2016.

In general, I found Qatar customer care is condescending to me and their attitude is not with the customers. Though they may show the sympathy, they do not do anything concrete to compensate me. As a oneworld gold member, I will never fly with disappointing Qatar airways ever again.

delfindo

sorry about the bad experience, but it all comes down to attitude and acceptance. I think perhaps you were a little maligned in one, and unwilling in the other. Good luck with future travel palans.

gav0106

I have had similar. They are great in the air but customer service is awful

It took me months of arguments with them, they simply do not care, that is the feeling I get

If you are based in London, take a trip to their Harrods Office, or indeed London Office on the A4 out by Earls Court, they seemed to get upset when I told them I was coming to visit

Abyssin

Are you a Privilege club member?

msm2000uk

Welcome to Flyertalk Myron JP Chiu and indeed to the QR Forum.

Sorry to hear of your recent poor experience with QR.

Just to give my thoughts, I think the fact that you are a Sapphire member with OneWorld, is irrelevant. The issues should not have occurred, but they did, and irrespective of your FF status, you should have been treated better.

With regards to Point 1, the fact that the cabin was full, is quite important here, as evidently QR could not move you to a comparable seat. You did not pay for a Business or First seat, so expecting them to move you is unrealistic - not even BA would do this (and I have had 6 or 7 broken seat issues with them over the past 4 years...and have been GGL for all of those years). I mention BA, purely because you have stated that you worked for them. To that degree, might I ask what you would expect BA to offer a passenger with a broken seat? If you are unsure, I can tell you that the Avios offered (for a comparable broken seat in Economy), are also not enough for a flight.

What I can tell you however, is that 3,000 QMiles is what would be awarded for a full DOH-LHR in discount economy (for a OneWorld Sapphire member), so do not feel too harshly treated on that front.

The tone of the letter you received, does sound like a Copy & Paste letter, so I think you have the right to feel aggrieved, but of course these things are open to interpretation.

With regards to Point 2, who promised you this? The Duty Manager for Doha Airport is not responsible for handling your issue, as that person is nothing to do with QR. If you were assured someone from QR would meet you, then I am surprised they did not show - but expecting the Duty Manager of a major airport to meet you, is only going to lead to disappointment.

In terms of Point 3, how over-weight were your bags? If they were over by 9 Kilos, and you have been charged for 9 Kilos, then that's perfectly fair. The baggage rules are pretty clear-cut, and BKK do not tend to show much leeway. If you were only 3 Kilos over, and were charged for 9, then that would be cause for concern of course.

With regards to their Customer Care, I have never had an issue with them, and have found them quite amicable - although you do have to negotiate a little with them! That being said, they are not concrete in their responses, and can play with the level of compensation.

I appreciate you wont ever be flying with QR again, but those are famous last words here on FT. May I ask how your other legs were?

Safe travels, and I hope your next experience with QR is better.

M

capin

I'm a big QR fan, You can tell from my previous posts about them. I fly J with them and in the air, I think they are about as good as airlines get.

I'm not exactly sure who "customer care" are, Are they the people who just look after complaints? I have had dealings with QR's telephone and email customer service people and I found it hard to believe that they are actually working for the same company. On numerous occasions they have been unhelpful and curt with me.

In my experience, this is how I would rate QR out of 10 -

booking/internet 7/10
Airport and checkin 6/10
Lounges 10/10
In the air 10/10
Telephone and internet customer service 1/10

jgl51

I van only confirm some of the comments made above. I have been flying Qatar Airways the last few months and am Platinum Privilege member.
+The 787 is very nice. Other aircrafts not better than competition
+ Service is good on board.
That's it!

- Customer service stinks. They do not differentiate between customer segments such as frequent travelers or Elite members. All replies are standard templates.
- Qatar Airways ignores letters by never replying
- They never excuse themselves when there us a problem
- There is not the minimum amount of recognizion for Elite numberd (judt a thank you for flying with us)
- Since I became Platinum I have not seen any advantage compared to Gold
- Their Qcredits are useless. Who needs vouchers for extra luggage (I can already take 40kg!), passes to the lounge (I can take guests already) and upgrades are so cumbersome to obtain and most of the time the ticket ends up more expensive than using standard discounted rates

I am flying ahain with European and Asian airlines.

Matt4

I wonder if you ever tried A380 or A350...

Qcredits are useful for upgrades but upgrade availability is scarce except when you request airport upgrade, in which case they offer almost any available seat for upgrade.

Platinum status gives more Qcredits and more Qmiles than gold : 100% flown miles bonus instead of 75%.

I wonder how you can get better value for your money flying European or Asian airlines.

Dr. HFH

I have the same experience. I dealt with someone in Customer Care when they cancelled the tickets on the SGN/HAN fare mistake. He was a complete gentleman; and we came to a mutually acceptable compromise to settle the problem. I know that others did not have the same experience. I assume that the stridency which was evident in their FT posts was also apparent to QR staff. That type of approach is unlikely to be successful in this culture.

Not saying that that's why you were unsuccessful, Myron JP Chiu, just that Customer Care can, indeed, be very solicitous and make the customers feel appreciated. YMMV, I guess.

capin

Customer care gave me the runaround about my credit card and verification of identity. I didn't mind that they wanted to verify it, quite understandable. It was the lack and quality of communication that I had great difficulty with. As I stated above, I really like QR and have no axe to grind with them, as you say YMMV.

flyyme

It could also be pot luck regarding the language ability of the customer care staff.

FlyingScientist

Positive experience with their Polish call centre here: On spotting the details of my German passport in the booking (rather than my British one), the friendly and helpful agent (to my surprise) started speaking German instead of English.

Myron JP Chiu

Thanks for all useful comments.

Answers to Qs.

The customer care I meant is "customer service people on the Internet and telephone", not the cabin crews or ground staff.

I am a Qatar privilege club member but I dont general credit my flights to it.

Customer care -1/10. I agree with some people's experiences above that the customer care team just ignore the emails by completely not replying or reply with the template with little sympathy and frequently excusing themselves from problems.

Qatar airline brands themselves a 5-star airline and the pride themselves as the best airline in the world. In my opinion, they are far from it and this is not the attitude that a 5-star airline should have.