Qatar Airways and Sneaky Offers

Lmrbean on 01/07/2017 - 07:15

Hi All,

I would like your advice on if I am in the wrong or if Qatar are trying to screw me over and how much this issue is my fault vs the airlines. I will try to make this quick but I have been dealing with this for the past 2 days.

Context:

  • I booked a ticket with Qatar from Dublin to Sydney return.
  • I brought it on Wed 29th June and flying out on the 3rd July.
  • I found out that certain airlines include a free stopover (incl accommodation) if you have a transit between 8 - 24 hours and no quicker flights are available on that day.
  • After doing a few checks around the website looking for T&Cs to confirm I was able to do this (which I couldnt see) I proceeded to book the flight.
  • Once I booked I tried to apply for the free transit visa which you need to organise the free stopover. I kept getting an error.
  • I called the local office thinking it was because of the EID holidays but it was because they have a T&C that says only free transit visa will be processed between 7 and 30 days before flight. I tried to explain to the employee that it was on a page a customer would not go to until after they booked their flight. He was having none of it and refused to help and said I can pay 25USD for the visa and thats my only option.
    So I call a bunch of other people who say exactly the same thing. No one even wants to remotely help and say its policy and its on the website.
  • I also got told because of the type Economy ticket I purchased which cost over $1600AUD I would have to pay half the cost of the hotel as well which is another 125USD. This is definitely not on their website.

So my main question is and my point I am trying to make. If such a big T&C about how many days before I need to apply and its not clearly visible, do you think I should be able to get it for free or get a free date flight change?*. And if you do, where can I go to get this fixed by a 3rd party, I assume the ACCC or TIO arent interested because they are a Qatari company.
*Reason I say this and here's the kicker, there was a flight on the Tuesday from Dublin with almost no transit time Doha and is actually the same flight to Sydney as the Monday one. It was slightly cheaper than Monday but I picked the Monday specifically thinking I would be able to see Doha for the day else I would have picked the Tuesday one.

Thanks

Travel

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Comments

  • kywst on 01/07/2017 - 10:35
    +1

    Given you don't really have time to deal with it you're probably going to have to dish out the USD$150. Follow it up though and see if you can get a refund or mention it at check in and see what they are willing to do for you.

  • OldCynic on 01/07/2017 - 10:40
    +3

    We're only hearing your side of the story and Qatar Airlines would have a different view.

    My take is:
    The Qatar Airlines offer is to arrange your Transit Visa (without which you can't get out of the airport), and put you up in a 4 star hotel for 1 or 2 nights.
    You can't expect that to come without restrictions, and there are restrictions
    - you book with them (not a code share airline)
    - you have to set it up well in advance.

    Be realistic. You cannot expect to set this up in a couple of days - booking on 29-06 to leave on 03-07. The Transit visa is a government document not a Qatar Airlines document and the government don't hand them out like sweeties. They will want to check you're not a suspected drug runner or terrorist.

    The Qatar Airways webpage for this offer says two things clearly:
    - Currently, due to EID (religious) holidays, no Visa applications are being processed until 06-07
    - Allow seven days minimum for a Transit visa application to be processed
    So unless you wanted your stopover on the return leg, this offer was never going to be any use to you.

    Your contention seems to be that no passenger would ever look at this offer page until AFTER he had booked his ticket.
    I disagree. If this offer was so important to you, you should have checked it out thoroughly BEFORE you made the purchase.

    Anyway, even if you didn't look until after the purchase, when you did read what was on the page you should have seen the error of your ways and then rang them up, eaten humble pie and said "I've booked for Monday, it should have been Tuesday, can you help me please?" If you had been polite they would probably have swapped you over at no extra cost.

    Sorry sir, I've no sympathy.

    • ChrisLevo on 01/07/2017 - 11:01
      +1

      Well put.

      A travel agent would have explained it the same way.

  • payless69 on 01/07/2017 - 12:43

    Most airlines got such offers and crappy websites making it impossible to get the promised stopover. Get used to it! Hammer your keyboard, ring them up, give them hell!
    Qatar Air is otherwise quite good, we had better luck than on Emirates who cancelled our flight and we got cut short big time.

    If you have not been there I can highly recommend it, good sights lots to see with more extremes between rich and poor than Dubai.

    Many hotels are owned by Chinese and food has not to be a reason to go there. Awesome old town and with an open mind it is possible to engage with locals to learn about their culture.

    Immigration officer was not interested to look at our passport, just asked to process credit card and then made a blindfold stamp. 25 bucks, stop crying!

    Take a camera and smoke a Shisha or whatever they call it, watch the mounted cops trying to show off in old town, shop till you drop. Need good footwear and tolerance to heat!

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