Disappointed at Qatar Airways not honoring their word

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Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • Stephen
    Participant

    I redeemed a ticket in February 2018 using my miles through Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

    At the time I asked the customer service officer if I could change the dates of my booking because I have not confirmed the dates of my trip, the customer service officer at Qatar Airways reassured me that I can change the dates of the award ticket with a fee.

    However, recently I tried to change the dates of my ticket and Qatar Airways refuse to change the dates of my booking because as per the new enhancement terms and conditions that were updated on 27 May 2018, date change is not permitted in fully unutilized award bookings.

    Qatar Airways offered to cancel my flight but because 48,286 Qmiles of my miles have expired on 30 June 2018, they can only refund 1,714 Qmiles and tax, effectively I have lost 48,286 miles.

    I was not informed of the change in the terms and conditions and was not given any notice of it as well as how it affected my rights for this particular redemption. Surely the terms and conditions for this ticket should be as that of the time when I redeemed the ticket, as at the time of the redemption the new terms and conditions has not come into effect and therefore do not apply.

    I have been sending emails to Qatar Airways trying to find a solution to resolve this matter but they continue to insist they cannot change the dates of the booking or refund the full amount of the mileage.

    I am very disappointed at Qatar Airways and in that they would not honour their word.

    In all my experience with different frequent flyer programs and redeeming tickets I have not encountered a situation where the airline will not allow their frequent flyer members to change a booking on a redeem flight ticket.

    Now that I can’t fly on the original date and can’t use the ticket, I feel cheated by the airline into using my hard earned mileage.

    I hope people are aware of the changes at Qatar Airways and not fall into the same trap as I did.


    BPP
    Participant

    Am I surprised – not really!
    Have flown in J for many years LHR-BKK and used Q-miles for leisure simply by ringing the ‘office’.
    Now that everything has to be done ONLY on-line this is almost impossible and trying to get two seats using two different accounts – forget it!
    It’s all changed from their being very helpful to downright difficult.
    Have started moving my Q-miles out and booked my next trip with EVA!
    Their loss.

    BPP


    Gunit
    Participant

    Hi there.

    You are not the only one who has been badly treated by Qatar Airways Qclub.

    I lost my Qcredits and some miles as well as I upgraded a seat but was not given the upgrade even I was platinum member….

    Now i have not flown with them long, but still have nearly 99,000 points/miles and I am waiting to spend them on an offer and then bye bye qmiles crap program…

    But Qatar airways crew n and most services are good…. They just need to provide a better customer service at qmiles – they simply send universal messages instead of personal messages even to there platinum member as i was.

    I am really disappointed with their bad and unreliable and no service program.

    Now they will lose 16 members, I will assure them that, as what they did to me.

    All my family members say bye bye to them.


    Stephen
    Participant

    Yes, I have been trying to call and speak to someone but they would only communicate via email.


    rferguson
    Participant

    Hi Stephen it’s the double edged sword with flying QR i’ve found. Superb in the air but when things go wrong or change they are extremely inflexible.

    I had a situation a couple years ago which I was not happy with. It didn’t involve Qmiles but instead a cancelled flight (that happened months in advance of my booked date) which resulted in a rebooking. I wasn’t happy at all with the options they provided and some of them were just not logical. I tried contacting them numerous times with better alternatives and they just wouldn’t budge. It was simply a case of ‘computer says ….’.

    I posted in the Qatar Airways forum of a well know frequent flyer chat site about how displeased I was with their service. A few days later I had a private message sent from someone at QR providing their direct email address and asked me to contact them. I did, and they resolved the re-route to my satisfaction. Could be worth a try.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Fury
    Participant

    I totally agree.

    While Qatar provides excellent business class seats, service and food – communication is very poor and there is no flexibility at all.

    Recently Qatar changed the schedule of my flights and it appeared I will have 3,5 hr stopover in Doha very early morning ( 5 am ) – instead of 1,45min. I tried to change the flights or even cancel the ticket which was bought with money not redeemed. I wasn’t allowed without paying penalty.

    I do not like idea if airline decides when and how I will travel. I do understand they can change the aircraft, schedule etc for whatever reason – but the passanger should be allowed to accept it or not. I was told the change was minimal so I should not complain. When I asked what I could do at the airport for 3,5 hrs at 5 am there was the same answer – the schedule in minimally different.

    It’s not end of the world – however I pay for business class ticket to travel with comfort and not to be tired. Otherwise can’t see the point. In the future I will choose different airline.


    StephenLondon
    Participant

    Sadly, due to the mega micro-managing of the CEO, QR are becoming an increasingly difficult carrier to deal with, either when revenue ticket issues arise, or now under the ‘enhanced’ QMiles programme.

    When the PSA-AKL intro fare deal was around, I was booked to fly on a date that fell before the revised launch date. QR re-routed me via HKG and down to AKL with CX, which was fine, until I noticed a charge on my credit card of several hundred €uros. When queried, it was the ‘taxes/charges/fee’ portion of a new ticket. When challenged, QR said I had requested the re-route. Huh? It took ages to make someone understand the problem, and despite repeated promises to credit, they did not. I eventually did a charge-back with the CC company to get my money back. QR ended up being useless to help out. I genuinely think they believed they were owed the money due to THEIR inability to launch the DOH-AKL route on the originally advertised dates.

    A chap on a well-known site had a huge issue with QR not honouring their quoted promise to re-route due to the embargo of GCC states. They did with one ticket, but flatly refused the other…this was a revenue F ticket. They ended up having quite an online barney about it all that continues. Meanwhile, just how many customers has QR lost due to these petty instances? The OP is a prime example…some flexibility is needed when rules change.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    BPP
    Participant

    Hi Stephen
    If you are in the UK you might try 0330 024 0127 – office bours UK time. The queue wait can be long but you do get to talk to somebody – eventually.

    BPP

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Stephen
    Participant

    Hi BPP,

    Thank you. I will give the number a try.

    Best,

    Stephen

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