Johnnieboy

Sorry to hear about your problem ms101, I can't offer any solace other than to suggest always to book rewards as one ways in future to give you greater flexibility in situations just as this. Sometimes the taxes are lower that way too.

That doesn't help you right now, but if you were prepared to pay x2 for a new ticket, that doesn't sound any worse than taking the outbound and binning the return, IF you can find another way to get back... Have you looked at all other oneworld airlines for the one way back to somewhere in Europe? Maybe somewhere in Scandinavia might be more fruitful for redemptions, or cheaper as a revenue one way (or return)

ms101

Thank you so much, I appreciate your sentiments!
oh that was another suggestion I put forward to her/him, but I HAVE to return to CDG. March 2nd 2019 had NRT open to a few places AMM, ATH, etc but CS made it clear that I had to go back to CDG for my return. I guess why I'm more willing to pay x2 is that i'll actually be on a flight I want whereas burning the miles saddens me cos it's a waste? Sorry if I don't make sense Couldn't find any cheap fares to Tokyo on the date with okay~ transit times (best I found was Asiana for £790) so at this point I think I'll be going the FRA-ICN route, the whole journey will take something like 33 hours (excluding LON-FRA) but I guess a silver lining is I get to try qsuites, and I'm young enough that it shouldn't take too much of a toll on me I hope! (although no QR F and al safwa now GRR)

thank you for your advice again, lesson learnt - always book one way!

Sarah2018

Hello

This is my first time here. I am ever so sorry to jump post. However I couldn't figure out how to create a new one.
I had flights booked from 31st march Glasgow to Birmingham (Flybe), 1st april Birmingham to Doha and Doha to Multan ((both Qatar). I had already paid for a hotel nights stay in birmingham.
However when I emailed my agent (carlton leisure to confirm) I was told my second frlight on 1st april Birmingham to Doha and Doha to Multan ((both Qatar) flights had been cancelled. My hotel is non changeable and non refundable. The price of the hotel stay now is extortionate. (I have now been given replacement flights leaving 30th march Glasgow to Birmingham (Flybe) 31st april Birmingham to Doha and Doha to Multan ((both Qatar).
Please can you advise should the airline be compensating at all? I have had brief conversation with carlton leisure and also with qatar both seem to point to each other. If there would be compensation due what is the best method of contact?

Please any reply would be appreciated.

Thankyou
Sarah

Johnnieboy

Hello Sarah2018. Sorry to hear about the change to your travel plans.

Unfortunately, because you were advised of the change more than 14 days in advance, you are not entitled to any compensation for the flight change through the EU261 compensation legislation. In any case, EU261 does not cover consequential losses such as prepaid hotels.

You might try contacting QR directly and explaining your situation but I suspect you won't get any joy there. Likewise with appealing to the better nature if the hotel. I have had some success changing non changeable hotel bookings where the change was out of my control, but this was usually on the day and again your chances may be slim. In both cases it's probably best to approach them in a "is there any way you might possibly be able to help me, I know I'm not entitled to this" sort of way, rather than as a complaint. You "might" get lucky...

If not then unfortunately you are left with taking the hit and making a new reservation. I can see hotels at BHX for around £100 those dates, not insignificant but cheaper than if were looking at say LHR. It's unfortunate, but situations like this are pretty much what your travel insurance is for, hopefully you can reclaim the hotel cost from that.

Matt4

Sarah2018 : I don't know if there was a flight schedule change or what but QR has a daily flight from BHX to DOH so you should have asked them to rebook you on QR34 BHX 16:00 - DOH 00:40 on 1st April. Then you would have had a 25 hours 55 minutes connecting time in DOH to get the next flight to MUX as there's no DOH-MUX flight on 2nd April but you should have qualified for a 24 hours free hotel room in DOH (with +qatar free hotel program). You could also have (and maybe still can, but it's not sure as you already agreed a change of flights) ask QR to replace for free your BHX-DOH flight by any flight leaving anywhere less than 500 miles from BHX, like EDI, which is close to GLA.

Alfredbali

Called Qatar Airways priority line (dedicated line for QRPC Gold and Plat members) in Doha today in order to check on a waitlisted seat status (flight is tomorrow).
After getting the waiting music and message for 16mn i just hung up...
C'mon Qatar Airways, can't you show some consideration to your best customers??

Alfredbali

On a more positive note i called again QRPC priority line just now and this time my call was answered immediately :-)

Dr. HFH

Possibly, there was increased call volume due to weather issues in the northeast U.S.?

There you go!

energydj

I suppose I have been lucky with my QR travels over the last few years. For the most part I am up the front and the service has been excellent. But what started with an excellent all round airline has turned into some very different almost akin to Ryanair in its heyday!!!

When did the customer service on the ground start to break down? Or when did the the process of dealing with passengers at out stations turn so bad.

Not just this thread but the barrage of abuse on the QR facebook about every post and issues that passengers have.

RonFog

As a frequent flyer, I hope to make other travellers on this forum aware of one of the worst check-in experiences I have ever experienced with Qatar Airways.

I frequently travel long haul usually in Business Class. I have preference for three airlines, each of whom have a generous checked-in baggage allowance:
· British Airways (2 x 32 Kgs)
· Virgin Atlantic (3 x 32 Kgs)
· Cathay Pacific (3x23 Kgs)

I don’t always read the small print, but as a business class passenger I expect a measure of tolerance and I definitely expect to be treated with dignity and respect.

This January, for the first time I was encouraged to book with Qatar, a long haul flight from LHR to Cape Town via Doha, and a return flight from Sydney back to LHR. My check in at LHR T4 was nothing short of the worst I have ever experienced. I must admit to not checking my baggage allowance, but I did not consider that having two suitcases one of 23 Kgs and the other of 24 Kgs was excessive. However, it seems that Qatar has the smallest Business Class baggage allowance of a total of 40 Kgs.

As I was being checked in I was told by the male check in staff that I would have to remove the additional weight. I asked to speak to the manager and someone called Rocky appeared, I said that I would not be able to carry the excess as hand luggage as I had a bad back, but he stood firm either I repacked or I couldn’t check in. I refused to repack in front of everyone so he walked me to a quieter area and the check in staff and other passengers watched while a 62 year old woman with a bad back scrambled on her hands and knees trying to redistribute the weight of her cases. I ended up with four large and heavy pieces of hand luggage which I had to carry around three airports LHR, Doha and Cape Town.

This was a humiliating, belittling and disrespectful experience aimed to strip me, a white western woman of a certain age, of any dignity whatsoever. As I crawled around on the floor I caught one of the check-in staff laughing as he watched me. I was not given the option of paying for the additional weight.

I started my long awaited trip with a bad back and ‘lost’ several items in the chaos. After spending in the region of £2500 on this ticket it was outrageous to be treated worse than a Ryanair passenger. As far as I know having excess hold luggage is not a crime, therefore, it should not be a punishable offence. I made my representations to Qatar, but the customer services were just not interested and could not care less.

My return flights home were a complete fiasco as the controller operating my in-flight entertainment did not work, not just on one leg of the journey but on both. The first flight supervisor, apologised profusely and promised chocolates and WiFi, but nothing materialised. Doha airport the hub where you will always be transferred to and from, is a huge sprawling disorganised mess. It can take an hour just walking from one gate to another!

Having an ‘award winning airline’ is not just about good in-flight service, it is the whole package. Others do it better, I would not fly with this airline again if they paid me!

jckl

Cathay is also 40kg in total, except for North American flights where it is 2x32kg. You are 6kg over, check-in staff only have 3kg leeway.

how does your race and age have to do with anything? white privilege much? does that mean you're above everyone else? Only people of colour should be made to adhere to rules?

You know full well you can pay for the excess weight, then why not ask to pay instead of re-pack?

If you don't want to walk during transit, next time fly BA direct.

It seems the problem is not QR, it's the passenger.

Not reading and adhering to baggage allowance, which is printed clearly on eticket itinerary, manage booking and online checkin is not the airline's problem. If you think 40kg is insufficient, fly someone else. For your info, Cathay was only 30kg for business class pax prior to 2016.

If you could carry all your bags all the way to the airport, you can carry it for longer. If you have a medical issue that makes you unfit to fly, then don't.

Walking during a transit is very much expected, as it's an airport. I don't know what you expected. Wheelchair for everyone upon landing at Doha?

Phil the Flyer

makrom

Time for some ranting, searching for awards drives me completely insane. No, this isn't another rant about the lack of availability, just about the complete nonsense one has to put up with when using that user interface.


I don't think there's any room for interpretation what that checkbox should mean.
___

___


So what do we get when we click "Search"?
___

___
We can find the dreaded Q2 availability in C for Feb 20. But as visible on the weekly overview on top, each day has availability for 45125 Qmiles. Unfortunately, these are all Y prices. This is obviously totally useless for finding awards in C or F.


But let's click on the calendar in the top right corner.
___

__
So days with availability in other classes should have a yellow background, right? Should: probably; does: obviously not.
I see a whole month of low rate availability, alas, it's all in Y. So the whole month should have yellow background for the rates that are shown. My problem isn't he missing yellow background, but the fact that those Y rates are superimposed over C and F rates. The Y rates are obviously not just shown for days with no C or F availability, e.g. Feb 20. It looks like they are simply shown as they are the lowest rates for these days.
What days have C or F availability you might ask. I certainly do, as made clear by initially selecting that checkbox.

The only way I am aware how I can search for availability is by browsing every single day individually, and scroll down to see all flights that day, to see if there's any with C or F availability.
And here I could actually make the connection to the general lack of availability, this means having to click through A LOT of days. I have actually given up now, I browsed like 100 days which was far from trivial as the system is pretty sluggish.

RonFog

Anyone reading some of these replies would think that it was me being inflexible and disrespectful! However, please bear in mind when using a forum like this that airlines pay bloggers and users, and often have staff to counter any poor publicity and will always make out they know best and try to discredit the OP. So, when Jckl picks out a quote from my posting takes it out of context, seemingly to imply that I am a racist please take it with a pinch of salt. For any genuine user of this forum I will go on to say that the reason I wrote it is because I felt actively discriminated against, being the only white western woman at the check-in desk amongst queues of people with far bigger cases than I had. If I wasn’t being discriminated against, why wasn’t I offered the option to pay for the additional weight?

My aim is show others that IMHO there are far better airlines with far better customer services that Qatar Airlines which should be avoided, and I have done that. I have also posted this on eight other travel forums and will send links on Twitter. Those working for Qatar here will have a busy old time trying to find that lot!

RonFog

If Qatar was ever good, I agree with the OP here it is absolutely awful now!