Dr. HFH

I would have to say that it is, based on being one of the few routes with 380 and F cabin.

tartempion

Rant upgrade update:
72h before trip received paid upgrade proposal 2x450€ for BKK-DOH-BRU.
Mailed PC support I had 40 Q Credits to spend rather than pay.
Got the "we will do our best reply"
30h before trip went to BKK QR downton office, "No seats available, try at airport"
At airport upgraded BKK-DOH at cost of 30 QC thus invalidating remaining 10 QC's.
At DOH upgraded DOH-BRU for 30K miles.
At Al Mourjan received mail to upgrade return flight DOH-BKK segment for 450€. No seats available on BRU-DOH due to aircraft swap from A359 to A333.
On both legs BKK-DOH-BRU 5 J seats remained unoccupied.

Conclusion: If QR would have honoured my upgrade request a few hours before trip I stll would have 30K miles to upgrade the return DOH-BKK segment.

Expert flyer and QR seat map shows plenty of available seats on both flights, the A388 to BKK almost empty with several sections zero reserved seats.

Most probably I will enjoy some empty seat row, thus will not pay 450€.
Costs me enough hassles so far to dislike Qatar way of handling upgrade requests.

Next trip BKK-BRU or AMS, CDG, FRA waiting for a 2for1 J deal any good airline.
Someone wants my remaining 20k miles?

FlyerTalker37

Feedback due. At least 5 Op-up on the flight.....

ph-ndr

A data point on QRs concept of customer service, from my trip in April:

- Was told QR in BKK would contact me soon regarding compensation for 2,5-3 days delayed luggage. Never materialised. Queried twice with no reply.

- Regarding the whole tiketing snafu they did on that trip: on curt reply after 6 weeks, nothing for three months and queried them again on this a month ago, not a single peep back.

...and that's being a platinum.

Now on my fifth trip going with CX in place of QR.

-A

jjjohn

not able to log in QR online booking management.

kingcole974

So here is my issue.

On Thursday I choose to join friends who had already booked an itinary from LHR to BKK via DOH and back, leaving at the end of November.

I grabbed a decent fare (£1800 ish) in the sale.

But I made a terrible mistake.

I thought I had booked my outbound flight on the 1415 departure. But I had booked the 0900.

I noticed this immediately and called QR within minutes of making the booking. After a long hold and call (totalling 70 mins) to a Doha number (over £40 call cost) I was given another number to call as it was an internet booking and they could not assist.

They said it should not be an issue and confirmed the same pricing was available for my preferred departure.

On calling the other number all I was told would be that they would send of a request that a change could be made without a change fee but as it was late Thursday night in Qatar I should not expect a reply until Sunday.

I explained that the sale was ending, so even if a change fee was waived it would be too late to grab the available sale fare.

I was told them that the only option was to call the UK number on Friday morning. I did so bang on 0900.

After a 20 minute hold, even though I was through at 09:00 05s I was told that all they could do was offer to cancel my existing booking and invite me to rebook.

This is what I did as i was totally stuck even though I paid nearly £300 more than had it been sorted the evening before.

The agent was good and was very sympatheic but told me her hands were tied, which i believe. She advised me to email and suggested a refund of the difference was possible.

I shall do this. Or am i just wasting my time?

To rub further salt in, when I rebooked I had to pay for the whole new fare and await a refund for the inital one which I was told could take up to 28 days.

Due to this, I didn't have available credit on my card so we paid with my wife's card.

This insitagted an email for card verification (I was warned this would happen by the selling agent). I replied instnatly via the link with all the info requested and got an auto email back confirming it was received and would be reviewed.

Then, yesterday I got an email telling me off for not supplying the information and that my flight would be cancelled today!

I've been on hold since 0945 and am still holding now.

I'm BA Gold (Emerald) and am really regretting now not taking the circa £1200 fare from AMS and earning the bonus Avios!

Any guidance for a better outcome would be greatly received.

EDIT: Just got through. As the person I was speaking to was in Oland and any docs I sent was to Doha I am to call back tomorrow to check.

I don't have time to make what could be another 1 hour call tomorrow. They can't ring me.

What does one do? Is this normal

kingcole974

Wow. I can see how your atitude seems perfectly suited to this airline!

I was surprised there was no facility for a 24h cooling off. Actually, a 1 min cooling off period would have sufficed if they cared to answer their phones.

As for the phone system, I used what I had available. For me, speed of contact was of the essence. Had I known it would have been an hour plus call I maybe would have considered other options.

I do get it was my mistake and I can live with the extra it cost me. Please note, as explained it was the agent who suggested I should write and ask for the difference to be refunded. It was this (and the other aforementioned issue regarding the payment) that I was seeking advice on).

I was not seeking advice on how much care I should take with my next booking or on phone services to use!

ft101

Maybe I'll sugar coat it next time, but the message will be the same.

IAN-UK

No-one flies with QR for its customer service. It's bling-on-the-cheap that brings punters in - plus great service once you get onboard.

Customer service is clunky at best. Head-bangingily frustrating is about the best you can expect when things go wrong. Hanging up and calling again often works, although you might need to do a lot of it before you find a good agent willing and able to take "ownership" of your problem.

amnicoll

there is a contradiction here many people I am sure fly with Qatar for the excellence of it's on board customer service. many will fly without any problems and therefore will not experience Qatar's response (or lack of) to problems.

I have to say that they are not alone amongst airlines in this respect - unfortunately

IAN-UK

You are absolutely right: the onboard/in flight service is generally top-notch. It's a point I acknowledged in my post.

Qatar's clear wish is that those of us attracted by quality service at low fares will stick with the high-quality service even as fares creep up. I'm not sure that's happening as sales are still regular features, albeit edging upwards in the prices offered.

kingcole974

It's good to hear that their off board service is clunky or rather it's not jst me.

Having experienced their onboard service before I was delighted but like many companies in a range of industries, they are tested when things go wrong. In this case the initial wrong was caused by myself. I know had this been with BA it would have been solved swiftly at no expense to myself.

Does anyone have any advice on the 2nd part of my issue? The bit regarding the providing of proof of card details with the threat of ticket cancellation?

The details were sent on Friday with an immedaite auto confirmation of receipt. Another email Satuday asking why I have not sent them and telling me I only have 24h do to do.

A call on Sunday after another long wait and I was told it will be sorted by Monday and I would be emailed. No email. I can still log in and manage my booking and I have a ticket number.

Am I in the clear?

Final thought. Did I cause myself undue stress by not booking the same itinary via the BA website? I understand there is a joint partnership or something meaning similar? As well as less stress I'm thinking I would have earned double base miles due to my BA gold?

Hey ho.......

sid7122

I was trying to book their 5x miles offer and i was booking SOF-BKK for next month. After entering my credit card details the page kept loading for 3 minutes and ended up being "page not found" while my CC was charged. No confirmation email etc. So i had to call QR customer care, who told me to call technical support and 50 euros later they still couldn't solve the problem. After 48 stressful hours and numerous calls, they finally sent me my PNR this morning and apologised for the problem.

Dr. HFH

So the rezzie was actually made. That's my experience, too. There have been a couple of occasions when my screen did not respond and I got the page loading message for too long. Eventually I stop it. But when I go to check, the reservation is there as it should be. so I looks like the back end is working, but there may be a problem somewhere else.

sid7122

They rezzie was made but i don't get any number to check, just a blank page saying "this page doesn;t exist". If the rezzie was made then the question arises that why don't i get an email confirmation? Yesterday morning they told me, the booking is on hold and was adamant that my payment hasn't gone through (although i received the SMS from my bank that i have been charged the full amount (from my CC). Then yesterday afternoon i sent the bank statement to them showing the transaction ID, showing QR charged my CC and has been taken out of my account and then no response for 24 hours. This morning they apologised saying there was a mistake on their end and its all good to go.

Seriously, it cannot be that hard to check! i always travel with QR i am now a gold member, but this is the first time i had problems with their online reservation system.