alexss

Hi everyone

I was due to fly on QR909 from SYD last night, which was cancelled after we boarded due to a technical problem. Last night we were told we'd be called or emailed about rebooking but we heard nothing. I found from manage my booking that we had been booked on a Qantas flight via Beijing but by the time we found this out check in had closed. We now can't get hold of anyone at Qatar - there's nobody at the airport, it's impossible to get through to the Australia call centre, and all other call centres seem to be closed. Can any of you suggest what to do?

Thanks

toastedcafe

try this number +974 4023 0000 or contacting them via twitter

alexss

Thanks for your help. We're now rebooked on QF1 to London.

As an aside Qatar's handling of this incident was chaotic - I appreciate it is difficult if an A380 has a technical problem late at night, but the staff at the airport seemed completely overwhelmed, it's almost impossible to get through to a contact centre, and rebooking people without telling them is not ideal.

Tokyoite

Welcome to the ME3 airline's "customer support". As you will see in this forum and elsewhere, the ME3 airlines (Qatar, Emirates, Etihad) are great as long as things go well. The ugly side comes up when there are issues that need customer support.
Just be glad you got rebooked to a good flight (one stop) with minimal delay.
In worse scenarios, they could have asked you to wait 48 hours, or just dumped you onto Jetstar/Qantas to Melbourne/Perth/Auckland/Jakarta/Singapore/Bali/Hong Kong to connect with their own flights to Doha and onwards, resulting in a lengthy 2 stop itinerary!

JasperT

Don't think it's only/just an ME3 problem. There was a topic on the BA forum yesterday about someone ex-uk being stranded in LHR for 48 hours on a connection to TLV..

WorldLux

There. Fixed it. Bad customer support can be observed throughout the industry and not just with the ME3.

haroon145

Are Qantas now accepting Qatar tickets? They weren’t during the Middle East crisis...

msm2000uk

Phoning a Call Centre in these situations, is usually of no benefit unless you know the precise re-booking option you want.

Reason being, your booking will be under Airport Control - so for the 24 hours prior to your flight, the call centre can't do very much.

Glad to hear that you were routed onto QF, and hopefully not too terrible a delay.

As you appreciate, IRROPS on an A380 at an outstation are challenging at best, but it sounds like you've been offered a pretty good route home...certainly better than flying via China!

Safe travels,

M

mogadishoo

So very true! ^

delfindo

Been caught out by this myself. You have to be the "team leader" for the passengers to get any momentum, but still every decision is made "by Doha" so useless if you're at an outstation.

- this lady wouldn't have any luck either!

JudeS

I was also due to fly on the cancelled flight from Sydney on Sunday and agree absolutely with the OP that the handling of this situation was shambolic to say the least. Qatar airways said that they would contact passengers to inform them of the situation and with information about rebooking. To date I have heard nothing from them but purely by chance, while on hold for over 40 minutes having finally after about 30 attempts actually got a line rather than an engaged tone, I decided to check MMB on line and found that I had been rebooked on QF001 to LHR. I took myself and my baggage back to the airport and checked in with QF with no problems and had a very pleasant flight home. I still have had no communication from Qatar and could still be sitting waiting to hear from them in Sydney. Skytrax No 1 airline 2017??? You must be joking!! I certainly will not be parting with my hard earned cash to fly with them again and will revert to Emirates/Singapore/Qantas.

Frequent flyer 101

I had the opposite experience a few months ago. This happened to me with LH in BUD. There were only 2 agents trying to rebook an entire A321. I called LH and the agent was able to rebook me immediately and even suggested 2/3 alternatives. Ultimately, all options meant I'd miss my appointment so had to cancel my flight, but the option was certainly there. I think it beats waiting in a very long line at the airport so definitely worth a try if you aren't paying a fortune for roaming. Or at least wait in the queue while you are on the phone

remdk

Frequent flyer 101 thank you for your insight as to how LH handle this sort of situation. That shows how different airlines deal with such a situation - Differently!
In post 8 msm2000uk does make it clear that a call centre option is available but only if you know what you want to do.
There are also differences in the situation. Such as A380 v A321, even though the number of passengers could be similar, and service frequency. I am sure that LH have many more flights per day from BUD than QR do from SYD.
I find your post refreshingly different and I am not criticising you in any way, just trying to put both into perspective.

Dr. HFH

Interestingly, communications with pax for rebooking cancelled flights is not the sole Skytrax criterion for ranking airlines. Just out of curiosity, how many QR flights have you been booked on in the past, say, two years that have been cancelled? Speaking only for myself, I'm much more interested in how they handle day-to-day ops than something which occurs rarely (and never to me; although I fly QR a lot).

JudeS

Actually I consider customer service to be a very important part of operations for any airline and particularly so when there is a problem or alteration to the original booking. This was my first flight with Qatar and sadly not an experience that I wish to repeat - even more so when one has paid the price for premium class - I expect premium service for my money and this was sadly lacking. Had the situation been handled differently then I would have been quite happy with the hard product.