Flame3601

First true interaction with Qatar today, as a EK Plat who has decided to truly try QR in J for next year at the cost of most likely losing Platinum status with EK , this was kinda a big move for me. Needed to get a STPC sorted, so after calling the JNB office was presented , after a good 10 minute wait , probably the most lacklustre and "i do not give a sh*t" agent i have ever encountered within my years. Not even a hello , but a a very welcoming, "yeah ?" instead. I get we all have bad days and may not like the place we work , however i was taken back at how unprofessional and rather rude this agent was ...

Having spent 1 min on hold with BA the other day - i know only 1 minute ! I really do not hope this is a sign of things to come , that agent really really needs to be retrained or let go - urgently

Brighterside

Flame3601 - Little confused about your BA reference - did you mean to reflect it as a positive experience compared to QR CS. BA agents have been very, very busy trying to sort out flights affecting the Caribbean and Florida due to Hurricane Irma so I think 1 minute is pretty good going.

Dr. HFH

Anyone here know how QR calls are distributed? On AA, or example, the EXP number goes to an EXP agent who only handles calls from EXP customers. Calls to the PLT line, OTOH, are answered from the regular agent pool but they answer "Platinum desk" or similar. Does QR have separate agents for QRPC PLT? Whenever I have needed something, I have called the QRPC PLT line (even when it wasn't a QRPC issue) and, without exception, have received excellent customer-oriented service.

And when one emails Customer Service, I wonder if the email is handled by different people depending on one's QRPC status, if any.

Flame3601

Yeah my BA reference was meant to reflect a really positive experience with BA , who usually are pretty slow to answer the phone , compared to QR CS in JNB. Does that clear things up ?

makrom

If good customer service over the phone is a priority for you, don't book QR. There are many good things I can say about them, but phone contact definitely isn't among them.
I'm not saying that your complaint isn't valid, but I guess most of those who fly QR frequently have just accepted it as a fact.

Flame3601

I actually thought QR had pretty good CS , well at least for premium pax. Only reading up in the last few hours have i discovered CS is not QR's forte so to say. I am not one to complain about CS after i stayed up until 3am about 8 times to wait for China Eastern's CS to open up in Hong Kong - with no luck. I just think it is rather ironic that QR have no general phone number for a worldwide contact centres , like most airlines do , instead everything gets done via a local airline office. Coming back to my original complaint, i do not ask for much nor do i expect much, all i expect is someone to have some form of pride in their work and to at the very least say hello to me when they pick up the phone and when ending the call to not end it with "okay awe" - awe being a very slangish word in South Africa.




Anyway, i see what you mean , but guess i will have to not expect much from the world best 5 star airline when it comes to CS

IAN-UK

They really do have 5-star agents: just they are hens' teeth. You might need to do an awful lot of hanging up and calling again to find one...

There again, you could stumble across one. I did: an agent actually oversaw a cancellation and refund process for me, calling me back to let me know what was happening and, finally, to check that the money came through.

DO NOT EXPECT SUCH TREATMENT . Just be heartened to know it can happen!

synd

I recently made an award booking that I put on hold for 24 hours on qatar airways. The miles were taken out of my accoutn immediately. Unfortunately I didnt confirm or cancel the award within the 24 hours and now a week later I am still not showing the miles to be recredited to my account.

Anyone else had this problem before? if so how long does it take for the miles to be recredited? I called earlier in the week and sent an email three days ago and still nothing for the moment...

downloads4me

Hi

really appropriate all you knowledge and experience on this matter. I have had two J bookings and have a further 3 J booking in the next 2 months. Recently on one of my trips QR changed the flight times. The impact to me was that I had to change two additional flights that connected to those flights, they were on OW but BA. I paid the extra £275 for the changes. I have now had the same thing happen for two further trips. The change fees for the connecting flights are over £400 each. I am sympathetic to QR having to change timing due to their issues at the moment however I wonder how best to bring this up with them?
Do you think they will say I am on my own with this issue? Would they offer anything?
MTIA

wheatbeer

If the change is over 2 hours I think Qatar may allow you to move to an earlier/later flight or a different destination.

Also, what is the reason for booking your BA flights on separate tickets? If it is to save money by starting exEU for example then I think you should be allowing yourself more time between flights. Some even go the night before an exEU in case of this happening and/or in case of a delay on your positioning flight.

How much time are you allowing between flights by the way?

It won't help this time as you have already bought your tickets, but for future flights could you not purchase your BA flights with Avios to allow you to cancel and rebook for a much smaller fee e.g. £35?

Pochama

Under 2 hours and you won't find any sympathy from them. I also got stung by a schedule change so my lesson learned is to put off arranging positioning flights as long as possible and/or give yourself plenty of connection time.

PinkFish

Qatar customer service is dire - they take forever to answer - and when they do answer they provide all sorts on contradictory information. I am not impressed with their loyalty programme, and like many others, find it impossible to upgrade using loyalty points.

I have hear they are better than the rest - but it really looks like a race to the bottom - and you left pick from the airline with the least negatives.

Dr. HFH

Just out of curiosity, on how many flights is your opinion based? Or is it just what you have heard?

And QRPC? I just did a one-way LAX-SIN in J, and due to the various promotions and offers, earned just over 75% (!!) of the miles I would need for a one-way award ticket in J between North American and SEAsia, my usual route. You can find that in another program? What's not to like?

intuition

I can't speak for anyone else, but you might find a clue in OP's post:
I think it is difficult to use the points for upgrades, as they simply open up very few seats for upgrade. Even when they are oversold in J, they won't take my points for an upgrade to F.

batmandds

I was just in the middle of booking CDG-DOH in F for next Sept with QMiles and my website froze up at the payment page. Now I went back to book and the seats seem to be locked up. So frustrating. Does anyone have any suggestions? I already called QR. Thank you.