Qatar Airways dumping passenger
 

Qatar Airways Manchester Kolkata(CCU) return a flight from HELL

I flew Qatar Airways Manchester Kolkata connection & faced a journey from hell. The onward journey was smooth upto Doha on 14th Sept & then the horror began. The ground transfer at Doha was horrible & I could somehow catch the Kolkata connection flight. The flight was delayed due to me probably the only last connecting passenger. My hand bag was taken as there was no place in the cabin for any further bag. The Kolkata flight was horribly overcrowded like a cattle flight & at Kolkata airport it took over one hour to locate my hand luggage. I felt like a stupid & humiliated victim.

The hell began on 15th Oct return journey from Kolkata airport. The Air India ground handling staffs informed there are some changes & issued me a boarding pass upto London Heathrow instead of Manchester. The ground staff said they have been instructed to dump me at some late Doha-Heathrow flight & no further information was available.

On arriving at Doha I faced severe difficulties understanding the situation as the expert staff was not clear about anything. They said I will ultimately reach Manchester but possibly very late night instead of usual midday. On asking what happens to my prebooked transport arrangement at Manchester airport they informed it is my responsibility to cancel my transport at Manchester airport & rebook for a late night pickup which was not possible for me. Also those bastards miss informed me that I will be flying upto Manchester as an international passenger & then have to do immigration there. To my surprise one staff at Doha informed that this happens regularly for passengers at Kolakta sector & Qatar Airways is fully aware of that.

I had a long 5 hour wait at Doha to fly to London instead of Manchester. Upon arriving at Heathrow I could not locate any Qatar staff to guide me & have to approach BA staff with some Qatar flight diversion voucher. BA staff informed I have to clear immigration first to catch late night Manchester flight.

On arriving at Manchester around 10pm I could realise my checked in luggage is missing & BA informed they have not received any luggage from Qatar. I only could record missing luggage with BA & reach home exhausted as if a journey was made from HELL. I had a sleepless night as my luggage had my laptop & other valuables on which Qatar Airways took no responsibility. The luggage arrived next day at home with the body lock damaged. There was nothing missing from inside but the bag is useless now as body lock has been damaged forever.

The experience was one from HELL & I request Qatar Airways to take full responsibility & provide FULL refund of my ticket & compensate for my damaged checked in bag which was mishandled due to bogus arrangement by Qatar Airways.

I am sharing this experience on various websites in UK & India & to my contacts at Kolkata so that people become aware of the incidents happening to Kolkata(CCU) sector passengers from UK.

Hi,

I'm a little lost as to the finer points about what happened here, but I can see some issues a little more clearly...

At the beginning of your letter you speak to things like the flight from DOH being "overcrowded like a cattle flight"... so long as there was a seat for each passenger then that's fine.. The fact that it was full only means that it was booked properly and sold as well as the airline hoped for and expected.. I see nothing wrong with this at all.

As to the notion that your bag was taken from you due to no space on-board.. That's an unfortunate situation, but something that not always avoidable by the airlines. In some cases passengers just bring too much stuff and/or don't full maximize the OHB and FBS areas for cabin baggage.. and this then can drive the need to gate check bags.. I would expect the airline to manage this as best as possible, but in the end it's not something they have total control over.

As to the notion that it took over an hour for your bag to arrive in the reclaim area.. In most cases the actual unloading of and handling of bags and the process is something that handled by a contracted party or the airports own in-house staff.. I'm not so sure that this is a matter that's entirely controllable by the airline themselves.. I'd need to know who handles the ground services for QR in CCU..

If it's a 3rd party that QR hires, then QR should be able to speak to it.. by contrast if it's not a party that QR has any control over, then this issue needs to be taken to the contracting party, and not QR.

As to the issue of the damage.. This is something that is, in most all cases, a matter that is rather well defined under airline contract of carriage.. In most cases, locks are not a covered item.. but again, we'd need to see EXACTLY what does the QR CoC say on the matter.

On thing BKK about your response. I agree with some it, but the tendancy of airline employees to blame "third party" contractors is infuriating. Airlines needcto specify their requirements hen contracting, including speed of handling etc. it is ridiculous to blame others...if you went into a store and foud the toilet filthy, would the store be able to shrug and say "we contract out our toilet cleaning". It's ludicrous...The airline is responsible for their contractors and employees in delivering their service. The passenger only pays the airline...

Jim, I'll agree that IF it WAS a third party that was under the indirect control (such as a hired 3rd party vendor) then there's a valid point to be made about the airlines ability to control that service..

Yes, they are not direct employees of the airline, but the airline- as the customer of the vendor- does have some ability to control how the service is delivered..

As example, we use an outsourced vendor to clean our aircraft in many of our smaller Asian stations.. If I find something that is not done to my expectations, i can't just discipline that employee for shoddy work-- they are not my employee and therefore I am not free to discipline them.. I need to bring it to the vendor manager.. and as their customer, I'd lodge a complaint about sub-standard service.. much like a retail-level customer would complain about a service from a shop..

By contrast, in those situations where the service is not done by a party of the carriers choice-- such as services that are provided by the airports own in-house employees, then THAT's another story altogether.. and one that I DO think the carrier can legitimately say 'we have no control over'..

Again, it's just a matter of exactly WHO is doing the work and WHAT that party is-- direct airline staff, airline-contracted vendor, or non-discretionary vendor.

As to the notion of a "tendency" of airline employees to blame "thirds parties" goes, I'd refer back to the immediately preceding paragraph...I think it really matters exactly WHO that party is and under what arrangement is that work being done.. In some cases it's NOT a case of "not our employee/control".. but other times it IS in fact a very legitimate claim and situation.