[esselle]

I sit on a JV board in Qatar and make 4-6 trips a year on QA.

Over the 5 years I’ve been flying there, I don’t remember a bad experience. I have on several occasions flown on from DOH to MEL to see a daughter and, before the blockade, regularly made visits from DOH to DXB.

Being OWE doesn’t seem to make any difference; the only negative was flying the A330 from MAN, but that stopped a while ago.

Other posters have commented that some of the downroute lounges are pretty poor, but that applies to any airline that doesn’t operate their own at a particular station; they then have to use what’s available there. MAN is a case in point.

Had I suffered any mishap that needed care on the ground, perhaps my view would be different, but my experience means I cannot say a bad word about QA.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sami

[EU_Flyer]

[quote quote=934960]I am curious EUFlyer – why should one not feel entitled when one is paying $10,000 for a ticket in business class?[/quote]

While I understand your point, a flight may be filled with 40 passengers paying $10,000 for their tickets. Of course every airline must have an effective customer service procedure but surely that can’t involve the Country Manager being involved every time an issue arises? As previously mentioned, if the issue is sufficiently serious to require immediate management attention I can understand, but the OP has not suggested that was the case. Even if it was, a call to the numbers I found on google would have been a good first step.

I am not having a go at the OP, but rather suggesting that we frequent flyers can be guilty of feeling over entitled to immediate attention and pampering at the highest level outside the realms of what can be reasonably supplied. I’ve been guilty of it as have many others. Doesn’t mean it’s right?

[Mister C]

Greetings,

This is my first post after many years of being a BT junkie and it is a pleasure for me to contribute.

Having flown regularly on business and personal travel for in excess of 25 years in all classes across a multitude of airlines I sometimes feel that we all take this travel malarkey too seriously.

I always try to see the best in life and from a flight perspective that means the airline, the inflight team and ground crew, as well as fellow passengers. It is not always easy for them or us but we, as frequent flyers do not always help.

Flying long haul at the front of the aircraft is always a privilege and from my perspective, a pleasant greeting upon boarding or being seated, goes so far in terms of how I am treated and how the flight pans out. Maybe a little more appreciation would not go amiss.

I have been on some tremendous flights in C on the likes of AR, GF or DL – none of them top airlines and So what if the seats are not all that, or the entertainment is not the best?

Finally, IMHO, QR in C is superb. Ground services are not always the best but it is OK that they are not – enjoy flight and most importantly enjoy the experience!

4 users thanked author for this post.

Ahmad, Sami, MarkCymru

[MarkCymru]

Re:@pointymark — there is only one business class lounge in Male (and it takes up about quarter of the miniscule airport). Short of building a new airport, I’m not quite sure what Qatar could do about it. (For the record, I remember the lounge being quite comfortable and the selection of Seychelles rum being a particular high point)

I fly QR all the time from Cardiff. It’s consistently brilliant. I can’t remember a bad flight, nasty crew, lost luggage, a missed special meal or, indeed, anything else bad at all. However, I dread to think what some readers might make of the executive lounge at Cardiff, albeit that CWL did renovate it with much fanfare before the QR flight started.

Overall, it definitely seems like a five star airline

[PointyMark]

@MarkCymru yes there’s only 1 shared lounge airside at MLE, but it didn’t serve alcohol; they told me it was against local laws. I would imagine QR (and the other airlines which share the lounge) could put pressure (and money) on the provider to up the quality of what it offers. I should also note QR’s website says the lounge has showers, but it doesn’t.
I do agree that QR are excellent to fly with, and they warrant 5 stars. Just sometimes it’s not as good as it could be.

[stevescoots]

It Has been probably 2.5 years since i last QR, i had previously been flying them in J about 4-5 times a year from LHR to HKG or CAN and was top tier for many years, now i am back don to basic. In the air I always found them probably the best airline i had flown but their pricing since then has always been too high. I only ever had one issue with them when they lost my bag and when it eventually turned up refused to deliver to my place in China, only to the nearest train station, about an hour away. i complained and the reply i had was in essence this is the policy of their 3rd party ground agent in CAN and that was that, no apology, no reimbursement of my costs to go and collect the bag. i did get some points from them but no explanation behind them turning up. I would still fly them if they became competative.

[Sami]

Honestly Skyhigh, your frustrating experience with QR’s ground service in the UK is a reflection of how bad this kind of service is in the UK generally. It’s a reflection of the market you’re in. I’m sure other airlines suffer from the same level of service or lack of in the UK. But also, one has to be realistic. What you experienced might be rightly frustrating but what I still find hard to swallow is you’re questioning an airline’s full rating from one experience. Try calling any airline’s call center in the US and experience rudeness incarnate.

1 user thanked author for this post.

PointyMark

[capetonianm]

Try calling any airline’s call center in the US and experience rudeness incarnate.

Strangely enough my experience has been quite the opposite. I often make a point when I need to call an airline of calling a US call centre as I generally find them to be more helpful and professional than Europe.

It is gratifying to note how many call centres are now in ZA, and the standard is generally very high.

[Sami]

Capetonianm, on a lighter note your experiences are always the opposite on everything, lol. BTW I wish the forum administrator (is that what he’s called) would allow participants to put their pix in their profiles. Interesting to see the faces behind some of the troublemakers, LOL

[capetonianm]

Interesting to see the faces behind some of the troublemakers,

So that you could judge by appearances, something we are not supposed to do!

[rferguson]

I have flown Qatar many times in J and think they are very deserving of their five stars. Their onboard J product is excellent, the service is consistently very good, i’ve seldom encountered delays and even when there are DOH seems a pretty well oiled machine.

Saying that, no airline is perfect.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Al Morjan lounge in DOH. It seems to have two levels of crowding – mobbed or dead. Aesthetically it is really beautiful but sometimes the simple things like going to the bathroom can be an issue when it’s busy. And the food in the upstairs restaurant is predictable and the hot food of pretty poor quality.

The other issue I find is not necessarily unique to QR but seems pretty commonplace with airlines in the ME or Asia. Their staff do not seem empowered to make decisions. Most seem to read from a script and even if you can offer a more simple/non cost alternative to QR say in the case of irrops they won’t budge. Supervisors and ‘Duty Managers’ seem bound by the same. And their ‘Customer Relations Team’ over the phone whilst absolutely lovely could be chat bots for all I know.

I had a situation a couple years ago when they first launched ADL as a daily flight. A couple months before I was due to fly they reduced ADL to five times a week and the day I was travelling was canx. They offered me a re-route. ARN-DOH-HKG-ADL. Which seemed a bit around the houses to me especially when QR themselves fly to SYD, MEL, PER. Why not fly me there and stick me on a QF hour hop to ADL? No. I tried every publicly available channel EVEN visiting their ticket desk at LHR. I actually posted about my situation on Flyertalk and a few days letter received a mysterious PM from a FT user with an email address of someone senior. And that worked.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Sami, Ekond222

[SimonS1]

I think standards are dropping generally. I was in EK J last week and it was very average….average food, broken IFE, mixed service.

These days I don’t find any stand out airlines. All the more reason to take whichever is most convenient.

[Sami]

Capetonianm,your face is probably the last one I wanna see lol. Anyywayssssss, my conclusion is that Qatar Airways is a 5 star airline in the sky and its UK Regional Manager did not respond to Skyhigh’s email.

[Sergio]

I have flown QR a number of times and have never had a 5 star experience. The company frequently changes the aircraft without prior notice ( obviously with a lower quality product / seating), food and drinks in the Doha lounge have been clearly the subject of serious cost cutting, the old business class with no divider between seats makes it impossible to work with any privacy. Besides, I find these seats very uncomfortable since the foot rest is not retractable. I am not even sure it should be considered a fully flat seat.
You must pray not to have a problem because if you have one, Customer service is non-existent. It is hard to reach and the replies are always cut and paste from the same standard responses trying to justify their mistakes and saying that they can not do anything.
I also find unfair and discriminatory that even being One World Diamond one can not access the first class lounge in Doha. I think other airlines should reciprocate and now allow QR top frequent flyers to go to their lounges. and if you One World Emerald flying Economy you have to go a sub standard,crowded lounge that they call deceptively ‘ first class”. Even in the main lounge, I have faced long queues for a shower
On board, the food is good and the crew is attentive, but if you take into account that the connection in Doha most of the times requires one or two uncomfortable bus rides to and/or from the terminal plus the additional travel time required by the connection itself, only reason I find to fly QR is that they price business class as a low cost carrier. This is their main competitive advantage.

2 users thanked author for this post.

kammm85, PointyMark

[AndyF252]

Hi SkyHigh,

I have been on a similar journey to you, involving some issues with Qatar airlines, and have been struggling to make contact with Gary Kershaw.

My brother had his flight to NZ cancelled by Qatar airlines yesterday, and I am trying to email Gary to see if he can help.

If you are able to provide his email address so I can contact him directly I would be incredibly grateful. My email is [email protected]

Many thanks, Andy

[Author]

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