refund problem
 

For years I flew with Qatar Airways, as well in Economy, as in Business and Qsuite and always
have had a pleasant experience in terms of service, food and comfort.
The following is therefore so annoying.
Booking reference (PNR) - XXXXXX
I booked these flights ( Amsterdam – Doha – Kuala Lumpur – Denpasar) with 56061 Avios points
and € 730 with credit card.
The 9th of October 2022 I received a mail from Qatar, saying :
“Dear valued customer,
We are reaching out to inform you that unfortunately, your booking has been cancelled due
to operational reasons and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
You can benefit from our flexible rebooking policy and change your travel date or
destination free of charge within the same booking class (fare difference may apply),
or request a refund for the value of your ticket to the original form
of payment with no penalties or refund fees.”(sic)
As I received only € 556,85 back in my account and no Avios Points at all, I was sending
October 19 a mail to the Trade Help Desk Team, with immediately the following respons :
“Dear Travel Partner,
Thank you for contacting Qatar Airways Trade Help Desk Team.
One of our team members will assess your query and respond back as soon as possible.”
But no respons at all, so that I November 17 I was sending a formal complaint to the Qatar Airways
Customer care, who reacted :
“Your Email has been received (case reference: CAS-2,
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting Qatar Airways Customer Care.
This automated response confirms receipt of your email. One of our team members will review your comments
and will revert to you in due course.”
And the mail continued :”Please be assured that we will respond to your message.”
Then follow a whole series of phone calls to various services, all of which were going to do the necessary, but
always without results afterwards.
On March 1 I decided to introduce a new formal complaint, immediately confirmed :
Your Email has been received (case reference: CAS-22
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting Qatar Airways Customer Care.
This automated response confirms receipt of your email. One of our team members will review your comments
and will revert to you in due course.
And the same as in the mail of November 17 :”Please be assured that we will respond to your message.”
Well, until now, nothing heard.
May I find this totally unworthy for a 5 Star airline ?
I was told Qatar is excellent in customer service but I have experienced otherwise.
I would not recommend (anymore) anyone to fly Qatar and for myself I find in Emirates at
least equivalent if not better service.

Who told you that?!
QR service aboard planes is usually very good. Outside the metal tube... not so much.

Your flight was meant to depart EU which means you have extra legal protection. Have you tried calling?

Probably a good idea that you remove your PNR from your post

It's quite hard to follow what you're saying because of the formatting (or lack thereof), but from what I gather: QR didn't refund the entire amount, and are unresponsive to emails?

If they still don't respond, you'll have to use other means to get their attention. Perhaps a credit card dispute? QR has to respond to that within a certain timeframe.

Despite all of the detail in the OPs post that perhaps shouldn't be public (PNR, case numbers etc), there also seems to be some details that may be relevant but are not included.

Why did you contact the trade help desk, rather than general customer services or Privilege Club? If this was not a trade booking they are unlikely to be able to help you.

Was this a one way ticket AMS-DOH-KUL-DPS, or the return portion of a bigger ticket? And was it a cash fare reduced with avios, or an avios ticket reduced with some cash? And who was operating KUL-DPS and was that a QR codeshare?

And very importantly, were any alternative flights offered and accepted prior to asking for a refund (however inadvertently)? I’m not sure how QR handled KUL flights being switched to being operated by MH but this may also be relevant if your QR flight number was cancelled but the new codeshare operated at the same times and you were automatically rebooked onto that.

The refund in each of these situations can vary, and depending on exactly what happened you may have been subject to the fare rules rather than involuntary cancellation rules, including for the operator of KUL-DPS.

I'm not suggesting QR haven't made a mistake here, but with a little more detail someone here may be able to work out what that was and which department to contact to have it put right.

To KingCanute ( sorry for the delay)
This was a return flight from Amsterdam to Doha to Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar and back from Denpasar to Doha to Amsterdam.
It was the flight back from Denpasar to Doha, QR 961, that was cancelled. This was a Qatar flight. The mail I received announcing that my booking was cancelled,
gave me the possibility to request a refund
FOR THE VALUE OF THE TICKET TO THE ORIGINAL FORM OF PAYMENT WITH NO PENALTIES OR RTEFUND FEES.
There were no alternative flights offered.
I contacted the customers services of Belgium, the Netherlands and even Qatar. They in essence said all they were there only to manage bookings ....

I booked a cash flight reduced with Avios, i.e. € 730 and 56061 Avios points.
Finally I received a refund for only € 556,85 and no Avios points ...

It is all the more disappointing that Qatar actually send an acknowledgment of receipt that literally says "please be assured that we will respond to your message" ..

Hi HFE

If this was a fully unutilsed ticket, AND after the cancellation was notified Manage My Booking didn't show any other flights instead that you may have inadvertently accepted, AND there was nothing at all in the fare rules about applicable cancellation penalties for cash or avios, then it would seem that you should probably expect a full refund.

If however you had flown the outbound, or unwittingly accepted some changes, or there were some separate cancellation conditions and penalties relating to the flight from KUL to DPS (which was presumably on a different carrier, and possibly a separate ticket within the PNR and not even a codeshare), then your situation could be slightly different and the fare rules may have been applied. The fare rules should have been attached with your original booking and eticket so you can check those.

From the QR website, these are some of the stated conditions for cash plus avios bookings:

• The Avios element of Cash + Avios used for purchasing tickets may be refundable for fully unutilized tickets subject to the applicable ticket fare rules at the time of booking.
• The Avios element of Cash + Avios is non-refundable for partially utilized tickets.
• Changes to tickets purchased using Cash + Avios are subject to the applicable ticket fare rules at the time of booking.

So if you did not fly any of the itinerary, and you are absolutely certain you did not inadvertently make or accept any changes (there's usually an "accept changes" button in a big yellow box at the top of Manage My Booking as soon as you go into it - it's easy to click it without thinking just to get it out of the way before scrolling down), and the fare rules do not indicate any relevant cancellation penalties for either the QR flights or the KUL-DPS operator, then you may need to push back again.

Some of the details are still a little hazy to me, so keep it very clear and simple:

Do not write to the trade team, unless this was actually a trade booking (in which case different rules and processes may apply).

In addition to Customer Services, you may also wish to contact QRPC about this as it is mainly the avios that are missing and QR may regard this as a redemption for refund purchases (see https://www.qatarairways.com/en/Priv...and-conditions ).

QR are not always good at forwarding things when sent to the wrong department. And in the past it has sometimes been the case that you have to specifcally ask for the cash to be repaid to the original form of payment AND for the points to returned to your QRPC account. Different departments may deal with each of those.

This could just be an administrative oversight or error re the avios and easily put right by QRPC.

But the reduced cash refund received suggests there may be something else going on here that has triggered a penalty in the fare rules, and that may be the reason why you received less cash and no avios. Make sure you have a good read of the fare rules first so you are clear where you stand.

Good luck anyway!