Advice - Ill treatment Qatar Airways

EmmaKevin17 · 7 January 2019 at 3:01AM

Hi,

I am sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I am looking for some advice after a truly horrifying experience with Qatar airways.

On my outbound flight Jakarta>Doha>London (total 20 hours with layover) I was given no food as I am a vegan and despite booking this flight in March and booking on a VGML, they forgot. On the first leg of the journey (9+hours) my screen didn't work and they couldn't move me as the flight was full.
On my layover, a madman in the airport screamed into the boarding lounge that my plane was going down, I was the only one around as I was early because I had come straight off of the 1st plane. When I told security staff they asked me to get out of the 1st class check-in area (it was empty and they were the closest staff).
I emailed all of this to Qatar and they sent me a standard copy and paste 'sorry'.

On the return flight London>Doha>Jakarta, my flight was delayed 3 hours meaning that I missed my layover. They gave me another flight with a 9 hour layover - I refused. They offered me a flight with Garuda Indonesia but told me that there would be no food because it was less than 48 hours notice (not my fault, obviously) I refused that too. I was then offered a flight the following morning which I took, only to get to the airport and be told there was still no food, so I might as well have got the Garuda flight.
I arrived 10 hours after I should have done.

There are a lot more details to this, such as:
- promises of call backs that didn't happen
- promises of booking on food, that didn't happen
- no customer service lines being open past 6pm
- being given an email address to write to that bounces back an email telling you your email 'has not been read' and to contact tellus@qatarairways.com which is the email address I got the copy and paste 'sorry' from.
Loads more too...but I don't want to go on.

Any advice on how to take this further? I have already emailed them a detailed account of what happened.

mgdavid · 7 January 2019 at 4:16AM

what class was the ticket, and how much did you pay?

EmmaKevin17 · 7 January 2019 at 4:37AM

mgdavid wrote: »

what class was the ticket, and how much did you pay?

It was Economy, I think I paid about 600GBP.

budgetflyer · 7 January 2019 at 7:17AM

In my experience, only their business class is 5star. Economy certainly isn't. Customer service is awful. Really, save your energy and sanity. You will get no satisfaction so just move on.

EmmaKevin17 · 7 January 2019 at 7:19AM

@budgetflyer Really? Ok.
Do you think I am entitled to compensation for the delayed flight and the fact that I landed 10+ hours after I was meant to. I know it isn't an EU airline, but it was from an EU airport.

Worth a try, right?

Westin · 7 January 2019 at 9:01AM

Had you taken the Garuda flight, what time would you have arrived back in Jakarta? Would this have been more than 3hrs after the original Qatar Airlines flight with the Doha stop?

This may influence any claim to Qatar against the initial delay for EU261 compensation.

EmmaKevin17 · 7 January 2019 at 9:12AM

Westin wrote: »

Had you taken the Garuda flight, what time would you have arrived back in Jakarta? Would this have been more than 3hrs after the original Qatar Airlines flight with the Doha stop?

This may influence any claim to Qatar against the initial delay for EU261 compensation.

Yes, the flight would have had had us in exactly 3 hours and 5 minutes later than the original flight.

elsien · 7 January 2019 at 9:18AM

If there was no food on board couid you not have eaten before boarding then bought something to take on with you, rather than refuse the flight?

Caz3121 · 7 January 2019 at 9:19AM

what was the reason for the delay from London?

EmmaKevin17 · 7 January 2019 at 9:24AM

elsien wrote: »

If there was no food on board couid you not have eaten before boarding then bought something to take on with you, rather than refuse the flight?

Yes, we could have done that. In the end, that is what we did.
We also refused the flight due to the fact that I am a very nervous flier and don't like to go more than 8 or 9 hours without a break. As the morning flight option was given to us at the same time and I was so worked up after the evenings events, we chose to go home for a little and take the morning flight.

soolin · 7 January 2019 at 9:24AM

elsien wrote: »

If there was no food on board couid you not have eaten before boarding then bought something to take on with you, rather than refuse the flight?

I wondered this, vegan is a life choice, there's usually bread rolls , biscuits or fruit available even in economy if you ask really nicely, no one needs to starve. Personally I don't rely on being fed, as a coeliac I *must* eat GF so most of the additional little snacks or spare bread rolls are no good for me- so I've got into the habit of always taking my own.

I am not sure that refusing a flight due to not having a specifically requested meal is a particularly valid reason, I know from other forums that airlines are under no obligation to feed a coeliac, so I can't see that a vegan is different.

Whatever OP can peruse for any sort of claim I think I'd drop the food part, maybe a brief mention, but certainly not something worth expecting additional compensation for.

Advice - Ill treatment Qatar Airways

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