Qatar Airways : (Whinging pax post)
 

Passenger wants to share his experience

I and my wife bought two return first class tickets Delhi -Doha-Paris on Qatar Airways rather than travel on the excellent service of one of your competitors which we have used often.
We did this for 4 reasons. Your adverts, the travel agent recommendation, the flight timings and the price. The travel agent asked me for my comments but I do feel you need to read them too.

Check-in Delhi Airport.
Trainee on first class check in desk. No baggage handler to load luggage. Check in very slow. No card for I st Class lounge in Doha. An extremely rough baggage handler behind the counter literally threw luggage on the exchange conveyor belt.
No flight announcement at Gate. A small blue uniformed man just came through the glass door and shouted "Qatar" and caused a stampede for the door.

Delhi- Doha In flight ( QR 231. 25 Feb 06)
After take off , I was asked if I would like an aperitif. I ordered a whisky and soda. It arrived ready mixed - a vulgar amount of whisky and little soda. Before I could ask for another glass and some soda, food was served. The staff were running around busily serving people something- no menu- which someone had decided was good for us. Question - what is the point of offering an aperitif when no time is given to drink, let alone enjoy, it. Next question - do you think a no choice cafeteria style service which you get on economy is also appropriate for First Class? Does someone in Doha in middle management know what I want to eat?
Finally, I just happen not to eat fruit. Entirely my fault. I am sure your 100% fruit dessert choice is good for the rest of the world. But when I asked for some coffee and some chocolate, I was told there was no chocolate on board. (Wow, that man in Middle management really does know what people want and how to keep costs down.)

I was asked by the head cabin steward to to write to you because as she said her duty is to serve the dinner as fast as possible after take off since this was a short haul flight. The flight time was over 4 hours!!!. Plenty of time to have a civilised aperitif, a dinner of choice and sleep, read, or watch a movie. There is no excuse for this pre ordained, pre programmed eat- what- I give you- when I give you - service. If someone in Middle management is keeping statistics on how quickly the flight staff can close down the kitchen then |I hope they are happy. Personally I think you should fire them.

DOHA Airport.
An absolute ZOO. People sleeping on the ground everywhere , including in duty free. No free seating available, including in the Ist Class lounge which is TINY and packed. The size of the Ist Class lounge is a joke. So we went to the boarding gate early . Even a bigger joke. Seating for not more that 80-100 , yet a jumbo carries 3-4 times as many. It is a disgrace. When we tried to board the aircraft we were told to go back an wait. Economy passengers only. So one had to hang around in this hell hole of a departure area for what.? To be driven- 10 of us- in individual air condition cars for 3 mins to the aircraft. If somebody in middle management thinks this is plus for Qatar over the competition, they should try the competition. My message is simple. If the basics don't work, all this gimmickry is just wickedly bad taste.

Doha-Paris ( QR 21 26 Feb 06)
The best leg of the journey because one could sleep all the way. The flight staff were Ok - attentive and discreet. In term of style, the service manner is too simpering, servile and sweet. A little more confidence and humor would make the experience warmer and human. Miracle of miracles- breakfast had a menu and a choice! The menu looked as though it had been written by one of those snotty London restaurants who serve expensive and poor food. However the food was OK

Paris Luggage.
The luggage arrived quickly. No problem . Of the 3 bags checked in, two were damaged . One canvas bag torn and is irreparable. One suitcase had its retractable handle pulled out, bent and impossible to reinsert. Did I make a report or complain? No .
Frankly I had had enough.

Summary.
Your adverts and your opinion of your airline are one thing. Reality is different. The one thing Qatar airway doesn't not have is CLASS... and that is not something you can buy with serving Don Perignon, tarmac limousines and pretentiously written menus. At best you can cater to the nouveau riche wannabees but I doubt that also. I have been travelling since the days of the constellations and super constellations of the 1950.
I have lived through the jokes of 'Better on a Camel( (BOAC), Try walking across (TWA)
and Such-a-bad-experience-never again (SABENA). But Qatar 1 st class beats them .
all. I regret I have to make the return journey to Delhi but maybe I just throw the ticket away. I strongly suggest you buy your middle management and flight staff a 1st class ticket on Emirates or another leading airline to see how it is done.

You poor thing. How terrible for you.

I won´t be able to sleep tonight, after reading this story.

A few cabine crew terminated again
 

You are so right!!
I agree with you the problem lies with AAB and his hands on management not with the staff they are so scared to do, say anything, for the fear of being terminated.
The problem is that the cabin crew takes the brunt of all the criticism.
I hope you have sent this letter directly to AAB; you need to get a refund!
fortunatelly:{

Dear kama123in, just confirms one more time that we have brainless " Sir I am sorry you must it now as per book" monkeys running the the show in the cabin with few exceptions. One cant simple expect to have decent 1 class service with class if the airline picks up uneducated unprofessional young slaves with strange mentality from the filthy streets in the poor countries. Its not even not their fault, they simple follow the book brainless and they just never drove a RR. :{

Sadly I think yet another station manager and CS/CSD is likely to be given the boot by Al B!!!

Of course there is no class....IT's just a big show!And due to the simple stupid management that still think that by puting the pressure on the crew and pushing them to the limit, they will achieve the best of them...It 's just the opposite!!:\

Doha airport ..a ZOO...:) ..i wish i could only be the airport...!

I do not want to comment on any statements in this threat but like to add that DEL-DOH might really be a "short haul flight", thus they do not have a first class, so you might have sat in business class, that's why you got a business class service. Was it an A319 or a wide body?

Dani

I presume you are a Delhi native.

All your issues at Delhi airport are to do with the quality of local staff they hired. Maybe they need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Personally, I’ve found that approximately 100% of dealings with that nationality turn into an out-right cluster-f**k so I’m not surprised to see what happened to you. I do, however, find it faintly amusing that you have been rear-ended by your own people! :p

Brainlessness such as shown by the “rough baggage handler” is to be expected. Why didn’t you say something right then and there instead of silently fuming and mentally composing your complaint?

“Simpering, servile” style? I reckon some people go everywhere expecting to be disappointed and with ready-made complaints because they are miserable f***s from a miserable place. I guess there is just no pleasing some people because Indian passengers’ usual complaint is of a lack of respect from the cabin crew, no matter how hard the crew try:

:D : "I’m sorry sir, there is only a choice of chicken, beef, fish or vegetarian."

:uhoh: : "You are RACIST!!"

:hmm:: "Would you like another Walking Johnny, on the rocks, no ice, Sir?"

:uhoh:: "You did not smile enough, you are RACIST!!"

:yuk: : "Sir, would you please stop staring at the blonde crew-members and beating off under your blanket, it is unseemly."

:uhoh: : "I am BRITISH!! You are RACIST!!"

As for Doha being a zoo, this is the Middle East, what did you expect? Are you telling me Delhi airport wasn’t the same? It happens at Dubai airport too. People, usually Africans or Asians, laying about the place like it’s a refugee shelter. It’s the done thing. No one minds.

Qatar (and the others) do indeed cater to the nouveau-riche wannabes. That’s why they have so many flights operating to/from India.

Spend your cash with Emirates, until they upset you too. You won’t get much respect, though, because it’s an India flight and crew are becoming sick to death of the crap and bulls**t they put up with as a matter of course to those destinations. Delhi has the reputation of being the worst out of India. Personally I believe Cochin might be the best because the people are a little more working class and down to earth. The worst thing you have to worry about with the Cochinese is them smoking or jerkin’ their gherkin.


Edited to add: :yuk:

Baghdaddy,

I find your post offensive to africans and asians............Under no circumstances are you NOT to do it again
Keep it up old chap.

Sorry, I know it is a little off-topic but this thread reminded me of this cartoon: ;)
http://www.crazy-jokes.com/pictures/business-class.jpg

You keep your racist crap out of this forum.

This guy is/was a paying passenger and as such deserves the service we advertise. He did not get it and for the most part our passengers never get what's advertised.

This is NOT the fault of the Cabin Crew and you will note that our customer directs his comments to the middle managers of QR. Unfortunately, we know that the problem lies squarely on the shoulders of our "Esteemed Leader" as I'm sure he would like to be known.

Our service is amateurish compared to other First and Business Class products. We DO force food down peoples' throats too fast. We DON'T know how to chill champagne. We DO have a crappy, overcrowded airport terminal. We DON'T pay enough to employ better staff at outports compared with our competitors. And so on.....

This customer is just lucky he didn't end up on the Eastern apron for 2 hours waiting for a parking bay!

Kama, I'd be interested to see the reply you get from QR.

Um....I dont think this is Kama who wrote this letter, he simply found it on some website and reposted it here...Am I right kama???

BaghDaddy,

Well written, well composed and well,true!! It certainly made me laugh! :D

I understand if you pay for first class service you expect to get first class service, but some of the gripes mentioned here border on the ridiculous. Put this into perspective mate. If this is as bad as life gets, think yourself bloody lucky. Talk about pompous.