travellingjake

Flew with QR for the first time since before the pandemic and they were as excellent as I remember.

We enjoyed 2 flights in F and 2 in J, and were very well looked after. Humans aren’t perfect and sometimes misstep. I didn’t get a dessert on one flight and on another, I didn’t get a drink or food menu, was given bread with dinner when I’d asked specifically for none and the hot breakfast was cold, but on the whole, I was very happy with the service onboard and in the lounges.

The service from the CS team pre-departure was painful and infuriating. QR absolutely have to fix that, but they’re as spectacular whilst travelling as I remember.

bundubasher

I had a bit of a shocker at the Gold Lounge in Doha 3/19. Arrived with a guest, and tried to 'check-in'. Didn't really happen. But got the tour, without giving any names or showing our BPs or ... Guest asked how to get a shower and was accommodated by immediately getting on the list. Then we went for the champagne. After reading all the difficulties others have had, is this the new Qatar?

Dr. HFH

Some of the folks who complain here about occasional minor imperfections in service would do well to keep that in mind. Granted some of the service misses are non-trivial, but some of the posts I read here about imperfections are just picking at nits, almost as if the poster wanted to complain and then needed to look for something to complain about.

And, yes, I've had my share of problems on QR, from mishandled checked bags, to cancelled flights, to flight delays causing missed connections, and I can honestly say that the assistance I've received from Customer Service in those problem situations has never been anything below the level of the great service in the air to which we've become accustomed. I don't doubt that many here have had genuine problems, but I've never experienced anything close to that.

DirektornSE

What "gold" lounge are you referring to?
Didn't understand the "check-in" part, what were you checking in to? Lounge?

DirektornSE

I have flown QR A380 in F about 6 times now,(DOH<->BKK) never paid a dime for it, always a complimentary upgrade from J (and always at the gate, getting used to the "you been upgraded" and the red flag trying to scan boarding pass)

I would never pay for F on QR as they CC are normally assigned F, they might not get the first class training. Almost every time have they been almost rude when I have said I didn't had a change to look at the menu, just as this is something you should spend your immediate attention to.

Twice, perhaps due to the above have I never got a main course. They seems to only have 2-3 meals each of their mains and if I'm late that one is gone, so they have asked me for a option, and both times that meant I didn't get a meal at all.
More than twice they have forgot to ask me if I want to drink anything, and I had to tell them, even after that they just "forgot" to bring a glass of wine..

I would be forgiving in business class on the A380, they have 60 or so seats, but come on, there are 8 passengers in first.... I have flown QR J perhaps 50 times, and the percentage of having a bad experience there is far less from the 6 times I have flown First. Once when I was upgraded to F (the third time, where my seat was broken the 2th time) I actually was thinking, no, I wont fly first.

It seems that what you were experiencing was not human errors, instead this is the norm in how QR treat first class passengers. For me I'm crazy in caviar (being from scandinavia) so that part is the sole reason why I fly QR F, noting else.

Dr. HFH

This is exactly the type of hyperbolic nonsense I was talking about. DirektornSE has flown six times in QR F and has extrapolated his experience to it being the norm for QR F. I have flown many more than six times in QR F, and have had a very positive experience each time. And I'm only one out of the thousands of passengers who have flown QR F.

DirektornSE has had unsatisfactory experiences. I don't doubt him and I'm sorry to hear that. But to say, based on six flights, that this is the norm for QR F is absurd.

KingCanute

I'm confused

DirektornSE

I would argue that this is still valid. Are you saying that one who pays $10k and beyond should now get the best experience? It like saying that it's ok to get a bad bottle of champagne for $500 a bottle from time to time, we are all humans, just pay, right? Well I guess you're a millionaire already and dont care so much about the price,

You need to account the timeframe as well, I have made all 6 flights post-pandemic and in fact all have been the last two years, and the last 3 flight was during the last 7 months.
This commend was just arrogant, not sure how this will help at all, but I'm glad I won't see any comments from Dr. HFH any time soon about bad flight experiences.

Dr. HFH

I have written in the past on FT about disappointing experiences. (See, e.g., this post.) Same as the home plate umpire, I call 'em like I see 'em. Nor am I a millionaire who doesn't care about price. And I'm not at all saying that a $500 bottle of wine that's gone bad is acceptable. (On a side note, I've always wondered why there are so many comments on FT about the cost of champagne served on flights, but so few comments about its taste.) If that's what you took from my post either I wasn't clear or you misinterpreted what I wrote.

What I said was that to extrapolate from your six F flights that a substandard F experience is now the norm is [statistically] invalid. That's a fact. It is statistically unsound and an invalid extrapolation based on a very small sample of anecdotal evidence. Note, too, please, that I'm not disputing the accuracy of what you wrote about your disappointing experiences. Nor am I saying that QR hasn't lowered its F standards. QR operates, what, maybe 300 or more A380 flights/month with F? So in the last seven months, you've had three substandard experiences. All I'm saying is that your disappointing experiences, without more, do not demonstrate any change in QR corporate policy towards F standards. A small amount of anecdotal evidence is unreliable as proof. You might have had the misfortune to hit a bunch of poor crews. It happens.

lost_in_translation

Perhaps consider the fact that if the majority of passengers in F are either free upgrades such as yourself or there through paying with miles (which I believe is basically the case now on every QR F route except LHR), it doesn't exactly give QR the strongest incentive to invest in the product. The two are partially linked to me.

QR absolutely has lowered its onboard soft product standards in longhaul F, it undebatable to me as someone that has watched the soft product gradually decline (no separate F pajamas or amenity kits any longer, often no longer flowers in bathroom, decline in quality of Al Safwa catering, etc.). In addition, all of my best A380 F flights for service happened pre-COVID and the crew often now do the minimum required, exactly the same as in Qsuites. Otherwise, agree with your posts. I've never had a really bad QR longhaul F flight across around 40 flights, but the crew sometimes do feel a bit like they are just going through the motions.

stargold

I thought I was the only one - I share your confusion.

Dr. HFH

Just wondering out loud, here . . . . The lower service standards that many have observed and posted about seem to have coincided somewhat with Akbar Al Baker's departure. Maybe there actually was something to his autocratic style, about which there were numerous negative comments and complaints, particularly from cabin crew (anonymously). It's true that he set very exacting standards and any employee who couldn't or wouldn't meet them was gone pretty quickly. Reminds me a little of Bob Crandall at AA. The employees, particularly flight attendants, couldn't stand him when he ran the company. They ridiculed him, called him names, etc. Yet he built AA into the power player that it is today by his vision and the force of his personality, same as Al Baker was to do with QR decades later. Then, after Crandall left, things started going downhill and they wished that he would return.

IntrepidAfrican2

This thread was started in March 2023, and his departure was announced in November 2023.

I wish he’d applied some of that vision and “power play” to QR’s on-ground customer service when he was around! It was crap then, and it’s crap now!

IAN-UK

A slow drop in service began to be noted long before the martinet CEO left the building. I put it down to cost-cutting as his masters became alarmed at the losses they were funding: it certainly coincided with a not-so-slow increase in fares and a new focus on the generation of ancillary revenues. Across competitor carriers, the product still stands up pretty well .... but it's not what is was.

The initial bling-on-the-cheap strategy was unsustainable, and eventually the game plan eroded from both ends: quality drifted and prices went up. I've no idea if that was a carefully thought out master plan, or the result of investor pressure.


AA flight attendants praying for the return of Bob Crandall? That's a new one

As an AA frequent flyer you might wish for his return, but that sounds like self interest at the cost of the well-being of the workforce.

sdm1985

One thing for sure, the ground/support service is absolutely appalling, you get nowhere with them and their copy/paste replies is infuriating.