Airline changing already booked flights

Sam_S3

Hi everyone,

We have booked 2 return flights from Bangkok to Manchester with Qatar Airways. I've just had an email informing me that the initial flight from Bangkok to Doha has been moved from 7pm in the evening to 6.50am same day, with the ongoing flight being at the same time as previous. The total transit time is now 27 hours and 45 minutes, from 15 hours before. As you can imagine we are very unhappy about this, because we already had flights to get to Bangkok which are non refundable, and we also wouldn't have booked a total transit time of 28 hours. And also the complete lack of communication about this- no apology, nothing.

Does anyone have advice for us moving forward please? Is it a case of getting a refund and booking another flight, complaining to the airline, contacting a watchdog??

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

comeandgo

Are you based in Bangkok if returns from Bangkok to Manchester?  Or do you mean you are returning to Manchester, not the flights are returns.

Sam_S3

comeandgo said:

Are you based in Bangkok if returns from Bangkok to Manchester?  Or do you mean you are returning to Manchester, not the flights are returns.

The tickets are for my wife's parents, that are traveling from Bangkok to Manchester(and back). But we bought the tickets here in the UK. Booked directly with the airline through Skyscanner

bagand96

Airlines can and do change flights because schedules change, the rebooking will have been done by a computer when the original flight was cancelled.  You don't necessarily have to accept the reschedule though, depending on their policies they may move you to a better connection or offer a refund.  Have a look on the Qatar Airways website for your dates and see if there's a more suitable itinerary, then ring them and ask if they'll move you.

Westin

bagand96 said:

Airlines can and do change flights because schedules change, the rebooking will have been done by a computer when the original flight was cancelled.  You don't necessarily have to accept the reschedule though, depending on their policies they may move you to a better connection or offer a refund.  Have a look on the Qatar Airways website for your dates and see if there's a more suitable itinerary, then ring them and ask if they'll move you.

+1 on above.

Sam_S3

Thanks folks. As an update I think I have it sorted now.

I contacted Qatar who told me to contact the agent, which was news to me as I thought I'd been directed to the airline website direct from skyscanner. After a while I discovered the agent was 'Etraveli AB' also known as GoToGate. After a long time on hold I was given a more suitable flight to book, a couple of hours after the original flight, which I accepted. Since then Qatar have sent an email apologising and reinstating the original flight. So hopefully we are now good to go but I'll update if anything changes.

bagand96

In future be very careful with the comparison sites. They're a great tool but always go yourself to the airline website if you want to book direct. The comparison sites often direct you to an agent to earn commission as you've found out. 

Some of the agents have pretty poor service but glad you got yours sorted out with minimal fuss. Because there's been a few changes it will be worth logging into your booking on the Qatar website just to make sure everything looks as you expect it to. 

skycatcher

bagand96 said:

In future be very careful with the comparison sites. They're a great tool but always go yourself to the airline website if you want to book direct. The comparison sites often direct you to an agent to earn commission as you've found out. 

Some of the agents have pretty poor service but glad you got yours sorted out with minimal fuss. Because there's been a few changes it will be worth logging into your booking gin the Qatar website just to make sure everything looks as you expect it to. 

Agree with this 100%! We booked flight to Oz through Skyscanner with Cathay Pas cific (we thought) but it was actually through one of those agents. Only that we kept checking the flight details we were able to pickup 2 flight alterations that the agent never bothered to inform us of. We did get sorted but only through our diligence! 
Have booked directly with Japan Airlines for as trip to Tokyo and they rang last week to tell us if about as change.....much more reassuring!

CKhalvashi

bagand96 said:

In future be very careful with the comparison sites. They're a great tool but always go yourself to the airline website if you want to book direct. The comparison sites often direct you to an agent to earn commission as you've found out. 

Some of the agents have pretty poor service but glad you got yours sorted out with minimal fuss. Because there's been a few changes it will be worth logging into your booking on the Qatar website just to make sure everything looks as you expect it to. 

Just to note, I do this a lot but have never failed to book on the airline website itself. This is even more important when points/discounts (I have Miles and More/WDC memberships for example, both of which come with benefits are on offer.

As above, I'd propose attempting to have them booked on the same flight 24 hours later for a 3 hour connection. You will need your chosen booking agent to do this though.