Hacker News Reader

Comment by ipython | Hacker News Reader

Not surprising. I took my family on a multi country trip between France, Egypt and Qatar in mid 2022. We splurged for q suites on Qatar airways and also a hotel stay via Discover Qatar.

Fast forward to our aborted attempt at entering the country. We are denied boarding on Qatar airways for our return flight via Doha with our booked stopover. Apparently there is some sort of electronic approval process we did not perform - mind you, we had already filed the forms including our negative Covid tests taken in country- but to no avail. Qatar airways refused to rebook us as they claimed we were a no show. After hours of calls with the airline we finally convinced them to rebook us at no cost, without the stopover. Discover Qatar continues to this day to refuse a refund for a hotel stay we could not use as we were denied entry.

First world problems, yes, but when you’re looking for tourism dollars, don’t piss off your customer base.

View on HN

Maybe I am misreading, but isn't it kinda your fault for not doing the research and filling in all the correct paperwork?

If I messed up travel forms, I wouldn't expect the airline to cover for me. The fact that you got a new flight for free is pretty amazing to be honest.

I filled out what was documented at the time I left, including preparing for and acquiring a COVID test while in Egypt 24-48 hours before boarding the flight to Doha.

The Qatar websites were not clear and when I called the Qatar health authorities ahead of the trip to clarify, they refused to give any guidance but assured me that my circumstances would allow me to travel and complete my stopover without an issue.

So I did the best I could and had a 1/2” binder with dozens of pages of documentation with me during the whole trip. At some point there is only so much research you can do and at the end of the day you’re just subject to an arbitrary interpretation of a vague and rapidly changing rules written in a language you don’t understand.

> At some point there is only so much research you can do and at the end of the day you’re just subject to an arbitrary interpretation of a vague and rapidly changing rules written in a language you don’t understand.

Isn't your gripe with the Qatari government then rather than the airline? They set the rules and guidelines. You called their health authorities rather than the airline. They told you it'd be fine.

I know travel was totally fucked back then, I remember spending many hours trying to figure out what I'd need to enter/leave a country and it always being nerve racking if they'd let me in or not. But at the end of the day, I knew if some place didn't let me in, it'd be ultimately my fault.

I still think the airline did you a massive favor by giving you a new flight for free. That was them trying to not piss off tourists.

Don't get me wrong, fuck Qatar and Qatar airways. I hate everything they stand for. But reading your story makes me think they have really good customer service. I wouldn't expect any airline to do that for me.

I left out that the airline tried to blame us by placing “pax no show” in our ticket record on the global reservation system. I had to call my travel agent to set the record straight in the system, after which I was able to get the airline to capitulate.

Placing “no show” in the record to try and blame us was definitely not good customer service.

Sure my gripe may be with the government, but what difference does it make? They are one and the same given that both entities will point fingers at each other. I tried calling Qatar airways first - they were the ones who suggested calling the health authorities.

As I’ve posted on this site in the past, I am very meticulous when preparing documentation for foreign trips. So I spent hours researching the policies and procedures and had dozens of pages of documentation on me as a contingency plan. I would expect that an airline would do the same if you were in a similar situation after the significant research you’ve done! I would not just give up and say it’s your fault. That’s not an acceptable outcome in my opinion, especially after you’ve taken pains to do the right thing.

I didn’t expect any compensation but I did expect them to make good on the contract of carriage to get us home by rebooking us on the same itinerary just without the day long stopover.

I've had a weird experience with Qatar customer service as well. Basically during covid you could get a full refund if you cancelled or rescheduled your flight. I wanted to reschedule my flight to another final destination, the support agent said they couldn't do that, but could issue me a voucher, and hold a reservation for my next flight. All I had to do was pay that flight with the issued voucher.

However they failed to even send me the voucher within 24 hours, so when I called back, I was told the flight would be an extra US$3,000.

I tried to explain the issue, that they never send me the voucher, and due to that I would be on the hook for extra costs? The support agent was totally uncooperative, and just kept asking "what would you like to do". Turned into a bit of a shouting match.

In the end I had my flight cancelled, and a voucher was issued straight away.

I still don't understand why they couldn't just look at their own logs, realize they actually didn't send the voucher, and just book me on the original flight. Or why the first support agent couldn't just use my voucher to pay for the flight.

This was also a business class flight, so I can't imagine how economy passengers are treated.

QA vouchers are a scam.

First of all they don’t give them to you immediately, so if you just want to cancel a flight and book another, tough luck. Wait or lose it.

Second they promise an additional percentage if you get the voucher instead of the refund (this was started in Covid so people would not request a monetary refund). Then you go use the voucher and lo and behold: the voucher was not for 100% of the fare, “some fees are unrefundable”, and that extra percentage just about restores the fare to the original price you spent.

So it’s nice that they offer the voucher, but why lie about any extras? This bit me in the ass when instead of requesting a “full refund within 24 hours” I just requested the voucher instead, locking me into Qatar unnecessarily.

> Isn't your gripe with the Qatari government then rather than the airline?

It’s an absolute dictatorship. The government and the airline are the same thing.

Thanks for sharing. Did your bit sharing this. Won't be going anytime myself.

This airline tried to kick me off a flight, because they were unaware of the visa free stay in China.

> Discover Qatar continues to this day to refuse a refund for a hotel stay we could not use as we were denied entry.

Did you not try charging back via your credit card company?

Ah see that’s the problem. Discover Qatar and Qatar airways are the same company. I run the risk of never being able to book on Qatar airways if I chargeback my discover Qatar booking.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com