Over Booking in Qatar Airways Flights
I knew what over-booking in flights meant to passengers but got to know of their plight during my last trip to India.
As they over-booked the flight, anticipating a few cancellations or 'no shows', some of us, including a family, were declined boarding passes despite reporting nearly 2.5 hours before the flight time.
I was directed to Muscat by a QA carrier and handed over a FEM for my onward journey. In Muscat, Jet officials didn't honour the FEM finding out some mistakes in the ticket and called up the QA staff. They made me stay at the QA lounge for the next 12 hours and finally put me on an Oman Airways flight to Mumbai. Nobody knew where my luggage was!
In Mumbai, I demanded that my connecting flight to my home-town be arranged by QA as I had missed the morning flight. They said I had to pay for it as Mumbai staff had no authority to re-book for Jet. This had to be done by Doha. I met their manager and demanded QA to arrange for my travel at their expense and then he accepted reluctantly.
After some 2 hours, they could locate my luggage in Mumbai airport based on my luggage tag. I rushed to the domestic terminal, jumped the queue and finally got the boarding pass just about 20 minutes before the flight scheduled time.
And all this happened because I took my e-ticket for granted and didn't check-in online a few hours earlier.
How ethical is over-booking, as a matter of policy, by these companies? They certainly do not deserve to be having ISO 9000 accreditation.
Please do update us when QA responds. I am curious on their response time and how they handle complaints as my husband had a very bad experience with them during eid because of their negligence.
as GG said.... they might give you one or two free tickets…
It doesnt happen to Air India Passengers flying from Qatar as they are flying half full...lol
I will come back to the forum with QA's response as to what compensation would be provided to me for getting me delayed by 12 hours.
If QA doesn't accept to provide adequate compensation to me based on their internal procedures, it would amount to poor customer focus and thus non-conformance to ISO principle in question.
happygolucky, IATA general conditions are very basic and don't talk about the extent of compensation for deliberately causing delay in carrying a customer to his destination.
The previous post was a copy paste from a blog ( intended for some un-named airline). This was pasted here only to let people know there may be internal procedures that talk about specific compensations to customers in cases of 'boarding denied'.
In my case, I was delayed for 12 hours. Had I not seen the QA manager, I would have probably ended up paying for the flight to my hometown. I want to know from QA, what's the compensation they are to provide to such passengers and I am going to write to them on this.
Now that is interesting. Any links to read the fine print, if any, with respect to the conditions of carriage as linked below and if that has an overriding effect on it:
Found the Conditions of carriage of QA (see link below)...article 10.2 is relevant and article 16.IV is worth further reading.
http://www.qatarairways.com/hu/en/conditions-of-carriage.page
Interestingly, these are same as IATA General conditions of carriage article 10.2.
http://www.transportrecht.de/transportrecht_content/1145517747.pdf
By law, if the airline denies you a seat because of overbooking but arranges to put you on another flight that arrives within an hour of your original arrival time, the carrier is not obligated to compensate you at all.
If, however, you are bumped and the airline gets you on a flight that arrives within two hours of your original arrival time, the carrier must compensate you with 100% of the value of the ticket, up to a maximum of $400.
If the airline bumps you and can't get you on a flight that arrives within two hours of your original arrival time, the carrier must compensate you double the value of your original one-way fare, up to $800.
The rules vary for international flights.
Qatar Airways is only good to make money........ n cheat it`s passengers......... bad really bad service.....
It does happen on European or American airlines as well but normally they offer you compensation and rebooking on a later flight.
happygolucky, Its actually directed at myself. I would consider myself indifferent and timid if I blindly accepted this as right without probing into their documentation. I shall write an e-mail to QA and ask for their procedures on ISO clauses dealing with 'customer focus'. An impartial debate is all that is required at a higher level.
When I spoke to QA officials, they also had no solid answer to justify overbooking.
I am still looking for someone who was declined a boarding pass by any american or european airline on producing a confirmed ticket.
Not agreeing and getting personal are two diff things... words in ref. ... timidity and blindly...not acceptable to me if I am one among whom it is directed at.
happygolucky, your response did not show your POV. you simply assumed since QA was accreditated, all must be fine! Now if you simply believe all must be fine without a debate on ISO philosophies, I don't agree with you.
Moreover, my previous post was not especially directed to you and it was a question to all here.
Rip Cord, I agree with you QA is better compared to Air India but Air India don't proclaim themselves as a Five Star Airline! My question was for american or european airlines..
Actually I must agree with Supercool, compared to Air India and Philipine Airlines they are great.
I guess no need to get personal if you intended to do that. I dont have to agree to your POV and you dont have to agree to mine. If you cannot handle logical arguements you can always avoid responding to my POV's as mostly they would be logically driven based on facts at hand in such discussions. And also I don't believe that I am the best in all matters.
If one had to blindly believe, without analysing the situations and ISO philosophies, that what QA was doing in this regard, was correct ethically or in accordance with ISO 9000, just because they were accreditated, there was no need for a discussion on the first place.
This calls for a debate at a high level.
It would be interesting to know if American and European airlines did the same to ensure returns on all seats. Did anyone face such a situation with Lufthansa or Swiss Air?
Accepting something like this without a debate is indifference and timidity. I understand QA is trying to balance profits against customer interests. There cannot be any other interpretation to it.
KR...it is not about what I believe and what not. And how the ISO companies work also wouldn't stand ground if it comes to that as it is based on individuals perception. If Customer Focus is a reqt and going through their documents they have been given ISO guess they are alright. End of the day what the documents speak is what is legally binding and would be supported by either the ISO or the courts, if it stretches that far.
BTW as you would know there are charges for no shows and cancellation, based on the time of cancellation. The airlines for sure cannot discount for the no shows and take onboard people under assumption though they do drag it as close as they can.
Happygolucky, Let's keep it simple! The first principle of ISO 9000 is 'Customer Focus'. Tell me in all your honesty, can 'over-booking' be in anyway brought in line with 'customer focus' based on any cognizable argument?
Why don't they instead charge the passengers who don't show up or cancel booking at the eleventh hour? They can also issue an un-confirmed ticket and provide confirmation the same day based on the cancellations.
Harrasing genuine customers to pay out 'no shows' is not 'Customer Focus'. You and I know how ISO accreditation companies work these days.
KR,, No am not kidding, but i accepted for 2 reasons
1- I was in hurry.
2- The gave me a seat next to someone nice.
But, for real, i will never go with them again
I had all the choices and they told me they are the best
No Names :)
I guess the ISO certification would have been given taking cognizance of the said provision in their terms and conditions, if the terms and conditions have any relavence to it. And if the T & C's have no relevance than it is of no use to revisit for ISO and if it has then it should have or has already been taken care of.
Honestly...Most of the complaints about Qatar Airways I've been experiencing all my life with OTHER airlines except probably 5 to 10 times worse!!!!
I stick by QA...still my fav airline
Suli, Guess you are not joking! I would rather sit on a jump-seat in first class if I were not provided a regular seat.
happygolucky, I am an ISO lead auditor. I know the only clause you can avail exclusion is Clause 7.0 which deals with Product Realisation. The first principle of the mandatory eight principles is the 'Customer Focus' that is mandatory.
I know these philosophies are qualitative and organisations have all ways and means to circumvent the fucus of these philosophies and still justify their committment towards Customers' interests.
As I understand their are various portions in ISO certification for which a company can apply and get it, not necessarily the full suite. Not sure though...its been long long time since I handled that.
How about when you go inside the plane and to be told
"Sir, there is no seat number in your ticket"
Ohh really, So what should i do
"Sorry sir, am afraid you have to wait outside the plane till we finish all the passengers
ohh really!!!!!WTH is this
"Sorry, we can do nothing about this, it must be a mistake"
Then i took the last seat next to the noisy kitchen
add on 1 hour late in the airport :O)
Ramadan's Quiz
Guess who are these ?
happygolucky, yes legally it would be a lost battle. I have seen their over-booking clause in their terms and conditions.
This policy ensures them fare from every seat at the expense of customers' interests. It doesn't go in line with ISO 9000 philosophies so I would like accreditation authorities to re-visit their case and revoke their certificate.
I guess the terms and conditions of carriers provide for over booking and the repurcussions in case of special fares or the likes if I remember it right.
I guess this has been happening here since long especially for passengers to Asian countries as apparently, nobody wants to get into litigations if QA denies compensation justifying they had made alternative arrangements. People like us who need connecting domestic flights to reach their hometowns suffer the most.
In our group there was a young boy who was to sit for an entrance exam in India. He was given the next day's boarding pass! He was shouting at the top of his voice and abusing the QA supervisor!! I could imagine what he might have been going through.
Marco,, Yes they are :)
Suli: we were talking about it just last night.
Qatar Airways is the best!
Sorry to hear this
But the important thing welcome back :O)
I am sorry you had to go through all that and i also had a bitter experience once and since then i always make it a point i do a ON LINE check in at least 30 Hrs before the scheduled flight.
It is really Unafair practice and no matter what is their justification this practice of taking money and selling more tickets that you have is not FAIR PRACTICE.
The justification they have is they want thier all tickets sold, but that does not give them the right to deney a seat to a person who has booked in advance. I wish the concerned airlines look at this and not show the passinger a sheet behind the ticket that has writings thatcannot be read even with a MAGNIFYING glass.
You don't get those five stars for nothing.
Imagine if they bumped a Qatari off a flight to London because it was overbooked and then sent him to a different airport in Europe where he had to wait 12 hours and then told him he had to pay extra to get to London.
their ISO certification should be revoked, but no worries, ISO guyz will be given free tickets, perhaps that’s how it all work!!
am sure another thread needs to be opened [ after a month or so ] about your commnunication / response etc with QA !
Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear your plight!
Sorry to hear about your plight...did you give a written complaint to Qatar Airways. They will give you one or two free tickets… my friend went through a similar situation.
thing needs few more years to work effectively ...
Better still be face to face in travel / banking matters etc ..